Militant Avampirists Are So Irritating

Tuesday's post Skeptics Sellout to Christians provoked "M" to comment:

As an agnostic I have read your posts on religion with amusement. Has it occurred to you that a strident atheist is no less dogmatic and irritating than a strident Christian or a strident [your religion goes here]? Who has time for this?

Before I could respond, Peter Harrington commented:

M -- I am also an agnostic, but I think you err deeply in comparing an Atheist to a strident religious person. The worst that a "militant Atheist" will ever do is scoff at religion -- they are far too busy enjoying their one and only life.
In contrast, the worst a militant believer will do is kill you and your family, for the crime of having chosen a different myth (or no myth at all, in the case of agnostics/atheists). Furthermore, I know many Atheists who call themselves that as shorthand for "insofar as I can be sure of anything, I am sure that there is no God" -- this conclusion is not dogma (which implies argumentation by authority), but one based in logic and self-skeptical analysis. I myself prefer the term Tooth-Fairy agnostic as short hand for the same position. Be that as it may, give me a world filled with Atheists any day over Religulous people -- true morality can be achieved only by the non-religious.

Thank you, Peter, for saving me the keystrokes. As for you, M, I love your use of my catch phrase at the end of your comment, but c'mon, am I really no less irritating than dogmatic Christians like Sarah Palin? I would never prevent the use of stem cell therapy to cure disease, or fight wars to spread Christian ideals, or deny loving couples the same rights as their heterosexual neighbors, or legally compel rape victims to bear the children of their violent tormenters. These assaults on people's lives don't irritate you even a tad more than my strident blog (which you can always choose not to read)?

It's simply unfair to characterize atheists as arrogant, militant know-it-alls simply because we believe that deities are as mythical as easter bunnies and vampires. M, don't you ever think someone somewhere is wrong about something, or are you agnostic about everything?

I offer up the following words to describe people based on their beliefs. M, I would be most curious which of these labels describe you...

Paschalepist -- one who believes that on the Sunday following the full moon closest in time to the vernal equinox, a fluffy white mountain hare (of the species lepus timidus) hides chocolate eggs.

Apaschalepist -- a person who does not believe that the Easter Bunny is real.

Vampirist -- one who believes that pale, fanged immortals stalk the night, sometimes in the form of bats.

Avampirist -- a person who thinks that un-dead, bloodthirsty demons are mythical.

Pastafarian -- one who believes that the universe has been created and tended by the great Flying Spaghetti Monster, blessed be His name.

Antipasta -- a person who doesn't believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists.

So are you indeed an apaschalepist, avampirist, or antipasta? If so, how can you be so sure of yourself? How can you be so dogmatic? Wouldn't it be more polite to just profess agnosticism about the Easter Bunny?

Now how would you feel if people derided you for being one of those arrogant militant avampirists? You'd probably think, "Huh? I don't think I'm arrogant. I know I'm not militant. And I'm certainly not trying to distinguish myself as an avampirist. I just don't buy supernatural fairy tales, and frankly I'm surprised that avampirist is even a word."

M, welcome to my world.

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Skeptics Sellout to Christians

I spent the weekend at CalTech to attend a Skeptics Society conference. This particular event was titled “Origins: the Big Questions," addressing whether science renders divine faith obsolete. The speakers who drew me there were quantum physicist Leonard Susskind, entertainer Keith Dalton (creator and star of the hilarious and irreverent online series Mr. Deity), and of course Michael Shermer, who founded the society and edits the great Skeptic Magazine.

The Good Part

The conference began with a real bang – the Big one of course, and a lesson on what preceded that singularity as best understood today by physicists. Susskind condensed his Stanford undergraduate cosmology course into a beautiful one-hour primer on the universal constants (Planck’s, gravitational constant, speed of light…) that support life. It turns out that life can only evolve and survive in a narrow window of values for these constants, a fact that Christians have recently embraced as proof of an intelligent designer. But Susskind explained how quantum mechanics support the existence of a multiverse that regularly spawns new universes with different sets of constants, making it inevitable that our comfy universe should appear. (I asked him whether a future day Dr. Strangelove could create the conditions that spawn a new universe in our own – he said no, but without a compelling explanation.)

The other highlight of the day was Dr. Donald Prothero, who summarized his undergraduate Caltech course on evolution. Prothero first debunked the Christian claims that there are evidentiary gaps in the theories of early evolution on Earth. He walked us through the Fox-Miller-Urey experiments conducted in the 1970’s in which amino acids formed in a simulation of the primordial soup, and identified exactly which elements on earth would have catalyzed the binding of those molecules into proteins and nucleic acids (most likely RNA). He showed us photographs of three billion year old fossils in which these nucleic acids are evident. He then shared Amherst professor Lynn Margulis’ widely accepted theory of how single celled organisms evolved into our cellular organelles like mitochondria, which have their own unique DNA and reproductive processes.

Then he debunked the Christian claim that most modern species appeared “all at once” during the period known as the Cambrian explosion half a billion years ago (hmm, I thought the Lord had dispatched Noah only four thousand years ago). The Cambrian explosion is a dramatic misnomer, referring to a period of above average mutations that actually lasted over 20 million years.

Caltech physicist Sean Carroll delivered a great talk on time’s arrow – how time fits into the universe and how it cannot exist without fluctuations in entropy. He explained how the physical constants give our universe just the right amount of clumpiness so that time can flow, and he presented an alternative theory – consistent with quantum mechanics – on how universes can bear “babies” with differing constants.

We heard from Caltech biologist Christoff Koch on the mystery of consciousness. Although he’s not a Christian, he is arguably a dualist who believes that consciousness may in fact entail a new force not yet discovered by physicist, consistent with the claims of my friend and AI researcher Steven Ericsson-Zenith.

The Bad Part

Had the lunch break in fact marked the end of the event, it would have been perfect. The afternoon sessions were dominated by Christians whose presentations ranged from nefariously clever to stupidly juvenile.

Why did Michael Shermer waste the time of 400 people who traveled to Pasadena on pilgrimage for real science? The only reason I can fathom is that the Skeptic Society could not produce the event without the financial backing of the event’s sponsor, the John Templeton Foundation. This foundation funds programs and prizes that promote the application of science to spirituality. In other words, it’s a Christian I.D. think tank. They obviously insisted on featuring Christian speakers like Paul Davies, to whom they had awarded the Templeton Prize.

For example, Hugh Ross presented the science behind reasons.org, a web site alleging to prove that Jesus is our savior. Hugh’s presentation was colorful and fun, but the logic was about on par with Johnny Cochrane’s “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit!” Among other “proofs” Ross claimed that Genesis’ 6-day Creation tale jives with evidence of a 14 billion year old universe, since the Hebrew word for day (“yom”) also means a very long time. Except that it doesn’t. (Good thing I attended yeshiva.)

The lowlight of the day was surely the talk by theologian Dr. Nancey Murphy, and the debate that followed between her and Michael Shermer. Apparently she got her current position because she sat in her “prayer chair” and specifically told her god what kind of position she wanted. It’s very important, she counsels, to be specific with Jesus (after all he’s pretty busy).

During the debate Michael asked her why God hates amputees, since He refuses to answer anyone’s prayer to heal them. Her answer was that she doesn’t know anyone who has prayed on behalf of amputees. Amputation isn’t fatal and doesn’t seem prone to cure, and so limb growth just isn’t something that people pray for. A heckler clarified, “Oh, so it’s Christians who hate amputees!"

In response to a question from the audience, Shermer expressed disappointment that so many scientists fail to think critically. While he said this, Murphy nodded in agreement, completely unaware that Shermer was talking about her.

The conference picked up at the end, when the cast of Mr. Deity -- directed by former Mormon Keith Dalton -- performed live episodes of the brilliant online series that really nails the Big Questions (with no input from the Templeton Foundation). If you haven’t watched it, start with Episode 1…

Update: Gary Rosen from the Templeton Foundation emailed me to correct my impressions of Templeton. He, and the commenters below, did persuade me that Templeton is not an "ID think tank", and Davies is a Deist but not necessarily Christian. Rather, Templeton tries to reconcile faith with science. Clever, but still nonsense. Faith is belief without evidence, and so pushing it into a skeptics agenda leads to absurdity.

Update 2: One of the commenters on this post finds me irritating and strident because I'm a "militant atheist". I responded in this post (one of my better ones): Military Avampirists Are So Irritating!

Update 3: PZ Myers at Pharyngula evokes a rich discussion on the evils of the Templeton Foundation. (i.e. they funded the Prop 8 anti-gay amendment in California)

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Rocket Man

Last weekend I took my boys to Hiller Aviation Museum, which hosted a demonstration of an actual jetpack at work. I had thought this was the stuff of science fiction, but this dude actually lifted off , flew down the runway a bit, hovered, returned, and landed. Cool!

Before taking off, he did have to get clearance for his flight plan. As you can see from the vantage of my photo to the left, we stood right near the liftoff point--I was surprised that there was no smoky plume from the rocket fuel, but the noise at ignition was painfully impressive. The operator has to be quite strong to carry the device on his back, and even so he's limited to 30 seconds of rocket fuel.

They wouldn't let me fly the thing, but the museum did bring in a jetpack simulator for the day. Balancing the side-by-side rockets is trickier than I thought, and so my virtual flights all ended in explosive, head-first crashes.

Neverthleless, as the central theme of her energy plan Sarah Palin is now pushing the jetpack as a replacement for automobiles, which "burn all that smelly gasoline." Fortunately, the jetpack I saw burns hydrogen peroxide, which she seems to have in good supply.

Meanwhile, the trip to Hiller inspired my 6 year old to become a pilot himself.

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McCain: Creationist Chameleon

Why did McCain select a VP candidate from the state with the fewest electoral votes? Because Sarah Palin is just the religious fanatic he needs to mobilize the Republican vote. Palin, potentially one step away from the Presidency, rejects science at every turn. She would teach creationism in schools, appoint judges who federally outlaw abortion ("even if my own daughter was raped" [sic]), and reject policies that "assume" pollution causes global warming. McCain found the one governor even more Christian than George Bush! Oh, and she won a beauty pageant.

Palin reminds us that despite some hostile court rulings, the intelligent design movement continues to thrive and (ironically) evolve. Louisiana and Texas are currently debating legislation to join the states that teach ID in public schools. If this trend worries you, mark your calendar for Sept 20 from 11am to noon. Cal State science professor Larry Lerner will lecture on "The Creationist Chameleon: Past, Present, and Maybe a Bit of the Future" at the Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto.

I believe there is some kind of supervised children's activity during the lecture, but you can direct questions to Paul Gilbert at 650-906-6704. This event is co-sponsored by the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley and Americans United for the Separation of Church & State.

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Internet: Threat Level Red

Yesterday a Bessemer company rescued 42% of the internet...

As you probably read about in news coverage of the recent Black Hat conference, Dan Kaminsky brilliantly discovered a catstrophic vulnerability in the internet's Domain Name System (DNS). The vulnerability permits a hacker to "poison the cache" of DNS servers with incorrect IP addresses -- a phisher's dream come true. Even better for hackers, the vulnerability allows them to intercept email traffic so that they can collect our passwords simply by asking the bank's login screen to email forgotten passwords. They can fool Certificate Authorities into issuing them valid SSL certificates so they can spoof your bank with compelling authority. And lots of other nasties, too.

The Domain Name System is a distributed network of directories residing in programs like BIND and Nominum that respond to queries from network clients (browsers, email, VOIP...). By far the most common query is "What is the IP address of the domain name AAA.BBB ?" Thanks to DNS you can remember names (amazon.com) instead of an address (66.98.140.0). If your DNS server doesn't have the answer, it asks another DNS server, and then remembers the answer in its cache for some specified period of time before that record expires.

The "Kaminsky Attack" starts with a request for a DNS lookup and follows up with a message to your ISP's DNS server posing to be from an authoritative server. The fake message poisons the server's cache with an incorrect IP address, such as that of the hacker's fake Citibank web site. While cache posioning had been theorized before, it had always been an impractical attack, since the hacker never knew exactly when the DNS server would need to refresh an expired record. Kaminsky observed, however, that if a client asks a DNS server for the address of foobar.citibank.com (a non-existent sub-domain of citibank that the DNS server doesn't have in its cache), the server will ask its authoritative server for the address, and get tricked into using that fake IP address for all variants of citibank.com. To spoof the authoritative server, the hacker's fake DNS message has to have the right transmission ID, but there are only 65,536 possibilities. Each time the hacker tries, she can probably send 200 different guesses before the real server can respond for real, so if you attack once every four seconds as Kaminsky tried doing, it takes an average of ten minutes to steal a domain.

Prior to announcing at Black Hat, Kaminsky worked responsibly, diligently and quietly with several vendors to prepare for the announcement. I'm familiar with the effort because one of my portfolio companies, Nominum, is among the teams who prepared for the announcement. Nominum's chief scientist Paul Mockapetris had in fact invented the Domain Name System, and the NY Times has recently reported that his company's industrial strength DNS software now serves 120 million broadband internet subscribers through nearly 100 ISPs. In his presentation to Black Hat, Kaminsky graciously called out Nominum for moving quickly to protect 42% of all broadband internet subscribers from exposure to the Kaminsky Attack.
The other 58% of the internet is not so fortunate. The vast majority of those DNS servers run the antiquated freeware called BIND. The International Software Consortium moved fast to patch BIND, but the patch is not very effective, mostly undeployed, and reportedly unstable. (On July 28 BIND's lead architect Paul Vixie issued an email bulletin warning of performance issues with the patch.)

The BIND security patch randomizes the port used to ask other servers for help, so the attacker has to guess the port as well as the transmission ID. But hackers do have, you know, computers that can make lots of fast guesses. So the patch simply extends the attack from minutes to hours - still pretty easy for the bad guys. Sure enough, John Markoff reported in the NY Times last week ("Leaks in Patch for Web Security Hole") that Russian physicist Evgeniy Polyakov broke the patched security in 10 hours. (You can run Polyakov's exploit yourself.)

In addition, most DNS servers live behind routers, firewalls and load balancers that run Network Address Translation, which converts the randomized into an orderly sequence. You don't have to be a Russian physicist to break that scheme.

Unfortunately, there's about an even chance that you're reading this from an ISP running BIND. Patched or not, you're exposed to pharming, and many carriers and enterprises lack the awareness or motivation to act. Indeed, I heard one CIO of a major brand name financial institution declare immunity from Kaminsky attacks because he has "three layers of firewalls," as if his firewalls block the DNS ports.

The good news is that yesterday Nominum announced a new release of their DNS server that layers on several new defenses on top of port randomization. For example, Nominum's server treats the flood of wrong guesses as an attack, so instead of waiting for a the right transmission ID and accepting the spoofer's poisonous payload, Nominum logs the IP address of the sender.

Here's how Dan Kaminsky reportedly responded to Nominum's announcement:

"Layered defenses in the DNS system are an effective way to address serious attack scenarios that aren't covered by UDP Source Port Randomization alone. As new DNS vulnerabilities are discovered, a layered approach such as Nominum's will help in ensuring ongoing Internet security."

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Wet Shaving: Sinfully Joyful

27 כז לֹא תַקִּפוּ, פְּאַת רֹאשְׁכֶם; וְלֹא תַשְׁחִית, אֵת פְּאַת זְקָנֶךָ

Ye shall not round the corners of your heads,
neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.

-- Leviticus

Thus was I commanded as a boy never to touch a razor to my face, lest I provoke The Lord's wrath for so offending His creation. (Reportedly, He's okey-dokey with electric razors.) So please forgive the ignorance of my 2006 blog post "Read This Only If You Shave" hailing the Schick Quattro razor, confidently published as though I knew even the first thing about shaving.

Fortunately, the blogosphere worked, as helpful comments on my post humbled me with links and advice. One reader in particular, Jay Batson, set me on a new, resolute mission that I've traveled every day (except weekends and holidays) to recapture the facial smoothness of my infancy.

I remember Jay Batson from my days as a director of ON Technology (acquired by Symantec), where Jay ran engineering sometime around 1996 when we went public. (ON, at the time, was the leading seller of Novell Netware based apps, which turned out to be unfortunate...) I hadn't kept in touch with Jay, but i'm grateful that he somehow stumbled upon my blog and introduced me to the art of wet shaving:

Jay Batson said...

IMHO, the razor is a second-order factor. You'll see an order of magnitude difference if you focus on the prep instead.

Go buy yourself a silver-tip badger hair shaving brush. Buy the most expensive bristles you can find, in a handle that matches your taste. Then, be *sure* to buy a glycerin-based shaving soap. Pop for a nice nickel soap dish, too, David -- you can afford it. Go here: Emsplace isn't the most sophisticated ecommerce site on the net, but ignore the amateur look of the site; they have the goods, and they're great help if you need to call them.

Then, before you shave, run the hottest water you can get into the cup (warming the soap), and wet the brush with it, too. Lightly shake the water out of the brush (leaving just a touch in), dump out the water, and lather up the brush.

Then lather your face. Two things:
1) You'll fall in love with the way the brush feels. It's almost as good as sex. And you can do it before you go to work and not be late for work.
2) You won't get a 1/2" thick lather like you do with shaving foam/gel. Don't sweat it; just make sure you've rubbed the brush bristles into your facial bristles for 15-30 seconds.

Then shave. Pick your razor -- it almost doesn't matter. The shave will be the most comfortable, luxurious shave you've ever had, and your shave will be as close and smooth as anything you've tried - ever.

I'm not kidding.

He's not kidding. I tried out Jay's advice and it was all goodness. I bought a beautiful silver-tipped badger hair brush, a stand, a nickel bowl, and glycerin soap. I get a much closer shave now, and the rate of bloody injury has dropped from once a month to once a year. It feels great (not quite "as good as sex" -- maybe I'm still doing one of them wrong). And once you get the hang of whipping up a lather, it doesn't take any longer than shaving with canned foam.

It now seems laughable to pump foamy cream from a can. The manufacturers tout the thickness of their shaving cream, and thick foam is great if it comes from brushing up a lather, but most of the canned foam never even touches your skin.

Compared to canned foam, the cost of wet shaving is "a wash". There is a capital expenditure for the brush, but the glycerin soap consumables last longer than canned foam. Em's is indeed the place to stock up.

Selecting the Right Razor

Although Jay dismissed the importance of selecting the right razor, straight blades have a very big following, so I recently tried switching from my vibrating 5-blade Gillette Fusion to Merkur's highly acclaimed, platinum-coated, double-edged safety razor (image right). To properly assess the new equipment, I conducted a study comparing straight blades to the mass market
disposables.

This iPhone shot (right) portrays the beard I shaved off as part of this investigation--one side with a fresh stainless steel Merkur blade and the other with Gilette's state of the art Fusion. I also collected data on other days with a cleaner face, switching the left and right sides. (Unfortunately I couldn't conduct a double blind study without risking serious blood loss.)

The costs are comparable. The Merkur razor handle is more expensive but the blades are cheaper. Neither razor nicked my skin more frequently or worse than the other. How close a shave did I get? The two razors performed equally well, but the Gillette "shaved off" a few seconds of work each time, perhaps because one needn't be so cautious with it around the corners. In addition, the Merkur blade takes at least an extra minute during the tri-weekly process of installing a new blade. So at the end of the day I'm back to the Fusion. Jay was right again.

Recommended Accessories

As Jay had pointed out, the warmer the water the better. I went so far as to equip my bathrooms with a $14 Proctor and Silex fast-acting water heater for hotter, faster and more energy efficient water.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Never apply boiling water to your skin. Submerge the brush, shake it out, swirl it along the soap surface, and test the temperature gently before rubbing it on your cheek. Better yet, forget the water heater and never put anything but ice water on your litigious face.

I also recommend a travel size shaving brush with cover. Soap bowls can get messy so I travel with a TSA-compliant 2 ounce cream pump (lots of choices here) that works only with brushes.

Other ideas that have been suggested to me over the years include:

• Nick-relief styptic powder, available for $3 (hat tip to Rob Chandra). Sure beats the toilet paper method.

• My Philips Norelco Ear/Nose Hair trimmer was a gift from Brad. He also gave me a Philips Norelco BodyGroomer. I'm not sure why. The instructions specifically warn against facial use, but when I had my beard I used the thingy as a trimmer with great results.

• The lip wipe. Woody Allen taught me this move in one of his early films (Bananas, I think). Once your face is lathered up with soap, wet a finger and outline your lips with it to prevent accidental ingestion.

Once you get the hang of wet shaving, both you and your wife will enjoy the change. Just don't tell your rabbi.

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My Internet Law

The time and money required to produce (design, develop, secure, test, launch, scale) a typical data-oriented form application on the web drops in half every 2 years.

This seems to have held true since the public emergence of the web in 1994. Do you agree? I don't have much hard data, but McCain proposes new internet laws with far less.

For example, I recall the large systems integration firms charging as much as $20 mlllion to completely outsource development of a web application. (I forget the name but I recall a DFJ-backed pay-me-to-advertise-to-me startup that spent as much in 1996 with someone like Perot Systems and the app still never worked.) Is there any doubt that most apps today can be launched with as much scalability for $300,000? The implied factor of improved efficiency is 0.5 to the sixth power over a 12 year period.

Cheaper hardware (Moore's Law) accounts for only a small fraction of this effect. The real gains seem to come from decoupling and automating specific steps of the process. Major disruptions that come to mind: Microsoft FrontPage, SSL, Exodus hosting, Apache, Java, ActiveX, Javascript, Shockwave, Flash, load balancers, PHP,  XML, Ruby on Rails, web service APIs, AJAX, Amazon S3, DIY communities (Ning).

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So Proud of My Sister Jill

and her husband David...

Needham Times
CANCER FAILS TO 'CLICK OUT' LOCAL PMC TEAM
by Will Bradford

    Jillian Segal won't be riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge for the first time in four years.
    Segal, 44, beat ovarian cancer in 1982 as an 18-year-old. After keeping the disease at bay for more than 20 years, she was diagnosed again in 2003. When Segal received treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer institute and the cancer went into remission, she decided she would take part in the Pan-Mass Challenge, the fundraising bike-a-thon that has raised more than $200 million for cancer research since 1980.
    "I've had cancer for a long time, and I've had people I know riding," she said about her initial decision to participate. "Everyone would ask if they could list me as someone they were riding for, so when I finished my chemo in 2004, I told my husband I was going to do it for myself."
    Segal's husband David, 45, also committed to ride and Team "Click Out. CLICK OUT!" was born. Consisting of, among others, the Segals, David's brother , sister and father, and one of Jillian's best friends, the team gets its name from what they yell to one another when braking, reminding each other to detach their shoes from the bike pedals.
    "The first time we rode, everyone was kind of teary every time we thought about it," said Jillian Segal. "I think out of the 5,000 riders there are 150 survivors who ride, so it's always kind of special because at the beginning of the race, they say if you're a survivor, raise your hand, and everyone gets choked up."



    As riders in this year's PMC made their way down Charles River Street in Needham Saturday, however, Jillian Segal was a spectator for the first time in four years. This past spring, her cancer came back, forcing her to withdraw from this year's event. So the team had no choice but to ride on without Jillian, although it was admittedly not the same.
    "I was worried about that," said David Segal. "All the other years she has been my pace car. I have the tendency to go out too quickly. But we didn't do that. I think we were all in tun, making sure went out at a good pace. We had her in our thoughts the whole way."
    According to Jillian Segal, the team has raised around $100,000 for finding a cure for ovarian cancer in four years.
    "Breakthroughs are being made every day," she said. "As my doctor says, it's not weeks away, but it's not generations away either."
    The Segals currently see no end for their careers as PMC cyclists. Since the doctors found the newest cancer in an early stage, Jillian has already turned her focus on next year's PMC.
    "It's disappointing," she said of not being able to ride this year. "But I've got next year to look forward to. it's a good goal for me."


--
The Pan-Mass Challenge funnels 100% of the funds raised to cancer research. Contributions can be made here in support of team "Click Out. CLICK OUT!"

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Taking Down Airborne

More bad news for Airborne in the form of federal penalties. And all this started because of the blog post I wrote.  (Seriously, Scientific American reported and validated my blog post, constituting authoritative scientific evidence that sparked and won the consumer class action lawsuit for deceptive advertising.)

Plus, yesterday I bowled a 231. Hoo-wah!

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Firefox 3 is Almost Here

But early adopters can experience the new Mozilla code base now by trying out Flock 2.0, released in Beta1 today to great reviews. Flock needs a new trophy shelf, having recently added a Webby and the #6 slot on PC World's top 100 Products for 2008. (Also would have won a WhoHas if not disqualified by my vested interest!)

And now Flock runs even faster, with major enhancements to the news reader and media bar. Alana at Mashable wrote, "If people start getting used to using Flock to keep up with their different social networking profiles and to share and discover media easier, I don’t see how they could ever go back to Internet Explorer or regular Firefox."

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How Culture Evolves

I had the perfect holiday today, nestled in New England with lots of family, including my father. My 9-year-old kicked our butts at Risk, heeding his uncle's advice to always occupy Australia from the start.

But an unfortunate slip of the tongue may have forever changed our annual celebration. As my 5-year-old brought me breakfast in bed, he blurted out with excitement, "Happy Farter's Day!!"

The third Sunday in June will never be the same.

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More WhoHas Awards!

The WhoHas Award for Best Consumer Electronics

The Panasonic PtAE2000U Projector blasts out 1500 lumens of 1080P magic, with a contrast ratio of 15,000:1. Not only is it 40%+ brighter than any other 1080P projector on the market, but with most new HDMI projectors priced at or above $10,000, the Panasonic's $2,500 price tag is frankly suspicious. (Did these beauties "fall off a truck" on the way from the SONY plant?) Since I replaced my old Runco with this projector, my neighbors have been camping out in my basement.


The WhoHas Award for Best Security Product

I've experimented with just about every home automation gizmo available. Most of the time they languish unused due to complexity, bugs, or low utility. For example, I'm not sure I'll ever really get around to controlling my irrigation system through my browser. (Who has time for this?)

But my latest pet project has worked out just great. I've replaced the key locks on my doors with numeric keypads. Access is now faster, and no longer dependent upon carrying a key around. Keypad codes, unlike physical key locks, can be changed immediately. You can provision multiple key codes, and each with access at different times of day. A log is kept of which keys are used when.

I've got my keypads working off a server that connects to digital locks on the doors, which has the added feature of locking and unlocking doors around the house on demand or on schedule. But the core value can be had without the central server--just retrofit your old fashioned door with a locally controlled mechanism. They range in price from $100-400, depending upon quality and programmability.


The WhoHas Award for Best Pen

Why pay $500 for a shiny Montblanc when the same price will buy you a LiveScribe Pulse? The Pulse's internal memory stores every word you've written, and it even stores an audio recording of the conversation that took place in the room right at the time you wrote those words. It's so simple--you just take notes as usual in their spiral paper notebooks. Later on you click on a word and the pen's internal speaker starts playing the conversation!

The Pulse has an LED display, speaker, headset port, camera, and connector for transferring all its visual and audio contents to a PC or shared web space. It comes with some other very cool but not really practical apps, like the ability to play music (with accompanying repercussion!) on a hand-drawn piano keyboard, and real time language translation of what you're writing (both written and aural).



The WhoHas Award for Best Culinary Product

For our anniversary last year, Nathalie surprised me with a Citrus Press grapefruit juice squeezer from Williams Sonoma. It quickly captures every drop, enabling my juice addiction. This beautiful steel machine evokes the power of a '73 Buick--you'll want to park it on open counter right there between the Sub-Zero and the Thermador.


The WhoHas Award for Best Car

I own three cars: an electric GEM and two Odyssey minivans. Odyssey is the perfect family vehicle. It drives like a car, the third row seats and second row center seat can disappear into the floor, and it has all the bells and whistles you need with kids--like a rear-view cam and dual power sliding doors. It's affordable, fuel efficient, Honda-reliable, and damned sporty-lookin.


The WhoHas Award for Best Fashion Product

Even if you don't have frail Ashkenazi skin like mine, you need to ward off the skin cancer. So when you swim outdoors, consider wearing a sun shirt to partially obviate the sunscreen regimen. (Who has time for this?)

Coolibar has a great line. My favorite is the one on the right that zips off easily when wet and, more importantly, qualifies for Star Fleet as a Star Trek TNG uniform.


The WhoHas Award for Best Pharmaceutical

Sonata (or the generic zaleplon) sleeping pills are shorter acting than Ambien or Lunesta, so you don't wake up tired.

Legal disclaimer: Ignore my advice--I know nothing. I'm a blogger, not a doctor. Medicine has risks. For example, the manufacturer of Sonata advises:

"...discontinuation of Sonata should be strongly considered for patients who report a 'sleep-driving' episode."

Now that's good advice!

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Diving in Hawaii

With our streets blocked by the triathlon yesterday, there was only one way off the island...




Son snorkeling





Nathalie's the best swimmer in the family.




I'm feeling at one with the Spaghetti Monster.



Thank you Robert for taking us on this dive!

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The 2008 WhoHas Awards

The day has come--Just in time for the Father's Day shopping season--to announce the winners of this year's coveted WhoHas Awards for the best products of 2008, an annual tradition since earlier today.

(Click on the WhoHas trophy to the right to get your own Flying Spaghetti Monster medallion--a must-have spiritual connection to our Noodly Creator.)

The winning products of the WhoHas Awards have been carefully selected and tested at home by an esteemed, hand-picked panel of expert judges. And when I say "judges" I mean "judge", and when I say "judge" I mean me.

To maintain the high standards that the world has come to expect in a WhoHas Award, I've refrained from considering any Bessemer portfolio products. That's okay--Flock and Yelp will just have to settle for winning the PC World Best Products of 2008, also announced today (no doubt timed by PC World to get some PR lift by coinciding with the WhoHas Awards).


The WhoHas Award for Most Useful Product

After years of searching for a replacement to my trusted purse, I finally found a worthy successor. The Tumi  T-Tech Jane Flow Small Flap Bag has everything I've been looking for in a purse: quick access flap (with magnetic connector--easier than velcro); zipped compartments; waterproof and durable; and the perfect size (just big enough for a Kindle).





The WhoHas Award for Best Value

"You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there." -- George Burns

The shoehorn is an oldie but a goodie--a classic, yet timeless invention. This particular unit comes in attractive natural grain wood so you can leave it in plain sight. It's extra long so there's no unnecessary bending or delay as you rush out the door. Save your shoes, save your thumbs, and save your money with this value gift...




The WhoHas Award for Most Fun Product

This is the most fun toy my family has acquired for years. Gobble is a bank that eats coins and paper money. Gobble talks a lot (and belches, too, from too much money). I can't explain--you've just got to be there. For ages 3 to 42.




The WhoHas Award for Best Picture

Really, I'm not a foreign film snob, but this film was the best I've seen in a long time. Great story line, great acting.


Congratulations to the first group of this year's WhoHas Award winners!

Subscribe to this blog feed for more WhoHas Awards in the coming week...

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Open Letter to Ron Lieber

Dear Ron,

A month ago Experian sued Lifelock, and soon after some enterprising class action attorneys filed their own lawsuits. The lawsuits certainly make some disparaging claims about Lifelock. Since we at Lifelock know the claims to be false, we satisfied ourselves to gracefully wait for our day in court to present the compelling evidence, even though we expected the plaintiffs to sling mud at us in the meantime.

And sure enough, eager for a juicy story, a parade of journalists (and I use the term generously) lapped up the mud, seizing the opportunity to disparage a successful business (always an attention grabber). But what surprised me today is that you--a New York Times columnist--joined the lynch mob, and did so in a particularly naive way. Such fluky foolishness hurled from the bastion of good journalism demands a response.

In today's column on Your Money, you follow the herd in reporting Experian's claims as though they were true. You imply that Lifelock's service doesn't work because our CEO is one of the several dozen Lifelock customers (out of a million!) who once had to resort to our service guarantee for protection when a lender screwed up. (You do acknowledge that the CEO's single $500 exposure came after a year of publicizing his social security number on radio and TV.)

But then you add some original analysis, distinguishing yourself as a trustful friend of Experian:

"And if the alert repeatedly fires off false alarms, forcing creditors to constantly double-check the identities of LifeLock customers who have never been victims of fraud, it is possible that those credit issuers will pay less attention to them. Experian is so worried about this, along with other issues, that it has filed suit against LifeLock."

That is so sweet! Those kind-hearted execs at Experian were so concerned for consumer privacy that they launched a legal campaign to shut down Lifelock. That's just the sort of philanthropy we have come to expect from a fine credit bureau like Experian (who just reported $4 Billion in revenue last year primarily from selling consumer data). Someone should give those darlings a medal!

Unless... neah, there couldn't have been another motive to sue, could there?

Experian's juiciest market is the community of spammy direct marketers who push pre-approved credit cards on our debt-junkie nation. These loan sharks are so busy, er, serving the public that they can't bother themselves to verify the identities of the people to whom they're sending all those credit cards. (Who has time for this?) So naturally, they won't buy credit reports "crippled" with fraud alerts. Perhaps then, as a New York Times reporter, you might suspect that Experian is just a wee concerned about their $4 billion share of the industry.

And if that isn't motive enough, consider that Congress had to pass a law forcing the credit bureaus to issue fraud alerts. Obviously Experian doesn't want the expense and hassle of accommodating these consumer requests. (Again, who has time for this?) But now, thanks mostly to Lifelock, fraud alerts are common, and Experian is forced to actually incur the expense that Congress mandated. Shouldn't that motive also intrigue the Times?

Not only was your inference naive, but your basic point about the false alarms is also wrong. A fraud alert is not an alarm--it is a process check. And not even a double-check, as you call it, but the only one in the process. Don't we want lenders to verify the identities of ALL their applicants, even those not already reported as victims?

You conclude that Lifelock's service isn't worth $10 a month because you can simply protect yourself by following these 10 easy steps:

1. Mail all three credit bureaus a letter and pay each one a fee to issue a credit freeze on your account. (Oh, and you forgot to mention that the letters have to be certified.)
   
2. Anytime you get a new job, or credit card, or a cell phone, or a mortgage, etc, first call the credit bureaus three days in advance, give them your password, and pay a fee to lift the credit freeze. (You'll also need to do this on your way to the hospital if you ever need to be admitted.)
3. In some states, call the bureaus again and pay a fee each time to restore the credit freeze.
4. Replace your mailbox with a secure mailbox (on sale now for only $445).
5. Contact all your service providers and ask them for online accounts instead of paper bills (because no one can ever get to your online data).
6. Buy a shredder (they range in price from $100 to $800).
7. Every day shred all your mail. (Who has time for this?)
8. Lock up your social security card.
9. Stop carrying a checkbook. (Er, isn't that a bit inconvenient?)
10. Keep an eye on any relatives having financial difficulties. (Really, it's what you wrote.)

Thank you, Ron, for demonstrating just how valuable Lifelock's service really is!

But please tell me: do you still think that Experian is sincerely acting openly in the consumer's interest, or furtively in its own? Who's the real villain in this story? If I have given you cause to re-consider, I hope you'll follow through in print.

Yours truly (and you can call the number on my fraud alert to check),
David Cowan

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Wyse to Ignore Vista?

While VMware was virtualizing the server, Wyse was on the cusp of virtualizing the client. And so I had filled my home with those hot little Blazer terminals, severing the chains of PC maintenance. As I'd wander through the house, my Windows desktop followed me like a labrador, popping up with the push of a button faster than you could say Operating System. No fan noise, no power drain, no wires, no expensive upgrades, no added backup, no updates...

But now that my office PCs run Vista (for better or worse, the new standard), my Wyse terminals no longer work. It's not just that the Vista-compatible RDP software is late. No, it's not coming ever, according to the one Wyse rep who actually bothered to call me back as promised.

Is this what happens when financial buyout firms acquire a great technology company?

UPDATE: On the second business day following this post, Steve from Wyse returned my call from two months ago. He gave me access to new firmware for the S10 Blazer clients that include Vista-compatible drivers, so my home is one again Wysed up. Apparently, the problem I encountered was not in Wyse's technology, but in the customer support process. Having said that, if you do need any help from Wyse, Steve knows his stuff.

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"Clear the way for those rabbis!"

The Union Station Master shouted these words on October 6, 1943, when 200 rabbis marched on Washington, DC in the only rally ever held there in support of the victims of the Holocaust. FDR refused to meet the 200 protesters, but Congress later held hearings on the plight of European Jews and formed the War Refugee Board in 1944.



I was proud to learn today that my grandfather, Dr. Moshe Blech, was one of the 200.

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Albert Einstein

From my son's school presentation...


Another Proud Dad Moment... During the Q&A, the Oak Knoll School principal asked the little scientist his biggest regret in life. Answer: "The letter I wrote to the President telling him to build the bomb."

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Bessemer Pulls a Hat Trick!

Congratulations and thanks to the teams at Sirtris, PA Semi and Gracenote, three Bessemer portfolio companies who all signed and announced their acquisitions in the last 12 hours.

Sirtris, the startup that cheats death, fetched $720 million from GlaxoSmithKline. This company, whose sirtuin activators have been touted as the fountain of youth (at least for overweight laboratory mice), was the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Christoph Westphal, a Harvard trained doctor and geneticist. Chris Gabrieli (pictured right) and Steve Kraus led the investment for Bessemer (huge hat tip to Jonathan for the intro--we owe you one!).


Meanwhile, Gracenote--that music database in the sky that tells us all what song, artist and album we're listening to on our PCs, in our iPods, in our CD players, and increasingly in our cars--has fetched a $260 million price from Sony. Special congrats to founder Ty Roberts (pictured right), CEO Craig Palmer, my partner Jeremy Levine and our co-investor Sequoia Capital.


And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.

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Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table

It wasn't the usual crowd that filled the seats in Kepler's Bookstore on February 25, 2008. The evening's audience consisted mainly of families from all over the Bay Area for whom this was their first Author's Talk. Such standing-room-only would have been expected for a Secretary of State, an NFL quarterback, or a Nobel Laureate--not for a local teenage boy.

But Blake Taylor's recently published memoirs of growing up with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has already touched the lives of thousands of families, with the promise of reaching several million more in the US alone who strive to cope with the realities and myths of this widely misunderstood condition.  So this audience came keenly interested in meeting a family role model (now a freshman and molecular biology major at Berkeley), with written questions and no deficit of attention to his advice.

An out-of-the-box thinker, Taylor has authored a book, ADHD & Me: What I Learned From Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table, that defies typical categorizations.  Really, it's three books in one:

*       a heartening coming-of-age story whose hero's unique perspective shines through an authentic stream of consciousness similar to Mark Haddon's A Curious Incident in the Night-Time;

*       a field journal of the first-hand scientific observations that normally elude pediatric psychiatrists who must normally speculate about the intentions and feelings locked up inside relatively un-communicative kids (e.g. "what was he thinking when he lashed out at his sibling?"); and

*       a self-help book for kids and their parents who strive to understand and cope with ADHD.

But unlike the recent swarm of What-You-Need-To-Know-About-ADHD publications, this is not a science or medical book, and Blake makes no pretense otherwise. Readers are clearly advised to direct medical questions to their doctors, as Blake reinforced during the Q&A session at Kepler's. A clear-thinking, humble scientist at heart, Blake understands that it's okay to lack answers.

This honest self-awareness is critical to Blake's success at overcoming his disability. Among his many tips, Blake encourages open communication about ADHD among families, friends and teachers. His personal anecdotes demonstrate how such disclosures have prevented misunderstandings around his behavior, his medicines, and his tics. As he grew comfortable telling people that he has ADHD, they warmed up to him faster, and helped him solve his problems. It even tempered the bullies who prey on odd kids.

Obviously, the book itself exposes highly personal information, and in this way Blake sets an example for his reader. But by the very existence of ADHD & Me, Blake sets an even more profound example. Here's a kid whom several teachers were ready to write off as incapable of meeting normal academic expectations--with illegible penmanship and an inability to complete simple everyday tasks without the aid of psychotropic meds. And yet he authored a highly celebrated book while still in high school. This fact conveys hope, even before the reader has cracked open the cover.

The book itself is a quick and easy read. Each of the 15 chapters corresponds to one aspect of growing up with ADHD: being distracted (his "mind is surfing channels, but someone else has the remote"); being impulsive (e.g. setting the table on fire); being disorganized; being hyperactive; having tics;  being unpopular; being bullied; being isolated; being misunderstood; being blamed; being rigid; being disobedient; being discriminated against; taking control; and last but far from least, being gifted. Each chapter includes a memory, lessons learned, and tips on making the most of life with ADHD. For example, Blake explains how he overcame his poor social skills by approaching friendship like a science-through observation, experimentation and planning, he learned to develop scripts and techniques that helped him socially.

For any family coping with this disability, Blake's stories strengthen the bond between reader and author by sharing all the quirks that often characterize ADHD kids, such as an obsession with Legos and Knex toys, the inability to sit through a meal, hypersensitivity to noises, bright lights and crowds, an impaired sense of the body's boundaries, the tics, poor penmanship, the perception of disrespect from "trying to defend yourself," and the mysteriously cancelled playdates.  Many readers will recognize their own stories unfolding in the pages.

The stories follow Blake's inner dialogue as he struggles to behave normally and as he slowly improves with treatment and therapy. And so they stand as direct evidence refuting the widespread and harmful myth that ADHD is a figment of our imaginations. Egged on by sensationalist media hounds like Rush Limbaugh (who calls ADHD "a hoax"), most Americans believe that the true epidemic is not a mental health condition, but the aggressive medication of kids with unnecessary psychotropics merely because they act like "rowdy boys." They believe that parents and teachers, too lazy or liberal to exact some good old fashioned discipline, resort to doping up the children on "kiddie cocaine."

As evident in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM of Mental Health Disorders, the scientific community was long ago compelled by the preponderance of evidence from behavioral studies, brain scans, clinical trials, etc. But unfortunately for Blake and others, a gap between real science and popular science always persists, and ADHD is no exception. That's why Blake's first grade teacher, rejecting Blake's diagnosis, tried to "fix him" through repeated detention and humiliating punishments (e.g. cleaning the toilets).



Blake clearly goes after other myths as well: that the mother is to blame for bad behavior; that kids shouldn't seek assistance from adults (or "snitch") when harassed by other kids; and that disadvantaged kids should be left alone to build character, rather than be "coddled" with aids and special accommodations. He refutes the common misperception that he didn't care about the other kids. Recalling his first day of pre-school, Blake describes how the noises, fluorescent lights and crowds overwhelmed his senses-how he sought refuge in the quiet corner, which the teachers misinterpreted as lack of interest in making friends. Sometimes adults condemned Blake as violent when he tried to defend himself from bullying.

Nonetheless, ADHD & Me is ultimately upbeat. Blake's concluding message is that ADHD is a difference, not a disability. ADHD minds clearly present disadvantages that kids must learn to mitigate. But usually they also present gifts like intelligence, hyper-focus, passion, energy, creativity, an adventurous spirit, and love of nature. ADHD & Me reflects many of those gifts.

Blake's book is a good read for all. For kids with ADHD, it's a source of self-esteem and inspiration. For their families--including the lucky ones who met Blake at Kepler's--it's chock full of great advice. And for those who still dismiss ADHD kids as simply non-thinking derelicts, how can they refute Blake's testimony of his inner dialogue?

To them, Blake Taylor's story says: I write, therefore I think.

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Congratulations Bladelogic!

BMC announced today that it is acquiring Bladelogic for $28 per share, which values the company between $800 and $900 million.

Bladelogic was founded in 2001 by Dev Ittycheria, an EIR in our Massachusetts office. Prior, Dev had co-founded early SaaS pioneer Applica, which he sold handsomely to Breakaway Solutions.

Congratulations as well to my partner Bob Goodman, who continues to defy the bear market.

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RedHerring Interview: Security and VC Blogging