Capricious Me » 2007 » August

Davis is too hot. It makes me want to live with the penguins.

The highlight of this conference, or any conference by far, was my chance encounter last night. I was returning to my hotel room to drop off my backpack, and then I heard something familiar on the piano… sounded like Tom Lehrer but I was sure that I was wrong. I got closer and sure enough… a Tom Lehrer songbook being played by Peter Neumann (yes. THE Peter Neumann). Normally I would have scurried off and left the pianist in peace, but it was Tom Lehrer and my delight could not be contained. ^_^ Peter Neumann was incredibly kind and invited me to sing some of the favorites… from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park to Masochism Tango and that’s how I passed the next hour.

Amazing.

The day was filled with interesting stuff. I attended a panel on which my advisor was speaking about cellular security. I may be biased, but I thought of course that his portion was the most interesting. Isn’t it amazing that as security researchers, we are lauded and encouraged to be devious and think of malevolent schemes for the good of humanity? How do people pass that up for other areas??

I am attending USENIX Security ‘07 in Boston this year. I’m staying at the Sheraton, which is smack dab in the Prudential Center set of buildings. So much shopping… so close by!

For a hotel that’s supposed to be upscale and reputable, the rooms are disappointing and the usual amenities I’m used to in hotels are missing… no hair dryer, no fridge. Boo. Still, it’s a free stay, thanks to the student grants.

This conference has sooo many interesting talks and presentations. I hope they put the invited speakers’ talks online in mp3 format like they did last year. Markus Jacobsson gave a really good talk about the “Human Factor in Online Fraud” which, obviously, I thought was fascinating. The keynote was interesting, but had nothing to do with security. Hm… oh well. Fun anecdotes about ipod and other mp3 players did suffice nicely.

Yesterday was a day off, as I’d just arrived and hadn’t signed up for workshops. I hung out with Anita for pretty much the entire day until we met up with M&M for dinner at (where else?) Penang. Today I was supposed to meet with M&M to watch “Becoming Jane” but we were too late… oh Green Line… as unreliable as ever. Instead, we went to get pho. Yum.