A better Password security method

I mentioned before my method for choosing extremely random, hard to remember passwords. I also have made a quick guide to Truecrypt hard drive encryption. Now that you may be familiar with the use of both and aren't losing data to forgotten passwords, heh heh heh. Let's take a look at an application that will allow us to secure tough passwords that the computer generates with but one phrase and keyfile.

http://keepassx.sourceforge.net/
http://keepass.info

keepass is a great open-source password locker. What are the advantages of a password locker?

1. It generates strong 20 character/160bit passwords similar to our dice technique using the computers Rand() functions. While at the same time it has a autotype feature that means you never have to type these long complex passwords.
2. It stores these passwords in a database encrypted with AES or Twofish. It encrypts all content including it's many information fields, which include, username, notes and Titles.
3. You can lock the use of a particular database to a particular set of computers using a keyfile.
4. The two programs fit on your usb drive so you can access your passwords while browsing linux and windows computers (Provided you have the keyfile)

Disadvantages
1. You have to carry the database.
2. If you lose the database, password or keyfile, you will have to manually reset all of your website passwords, ouch.
3. If you tie your database to a local key file then you can't access websites and other utilities on a foreign computer.

Procedure to maximize benefits:

We want to be able to access our websites while keeping our really important websites, like banking, tied to our personal computer. The way we do this is by creating two password databases. I'll call the first database a propagating database, because technically you can just copy the database and access it with the right password.

To setup the Propagating database you just need a USB drive and the two programs.
1. Install the two programs on your USB drive, you can also keep the two programs installed on any local computers you have, for instance Ubuntu comes with it pre-installed.
2. Setup the database by creating a long pass phrase like the ones we created in my other tutorial.
3. Put your personal mail, forums, and any other insecure websites that you routinely surf on that campus or library computer. Keep this database on your USB drive. For paranoia's sake you will want to keep this list small and selective. A good rule might be that any website or external computer that has more security then your personal computer should stay off the Propagating Database on the basis that bringing them over to a computer that could possibly have a keylogger is a bad thing. Mail, forums, and other non-money based websites are insecure, whereas banks (I pray) and online stores (I hope) are more secure then your home computer. It's also above mentioning that you should maintain your security applications to keep a keylogger from getting on your home system. You should also consider changing the passphrase on your database often.

The other database I will call the Fixed database. Remember however that the fixed Database is as vulnerable to being snatched as your propagating one. They are both to be put on the USB drive. The fixed database is fixed because it has the added security of a key file. A random cracker who doesn't have some sort of access to the key file probably won't be able to access the data. Therefore, the database is fixed to your home computer even while a copy of the database might be held captive on some seedy server in Russia!
1. Do all of the steps for a propagating Database.
2. Generate a keyfile using truecrypt
manuel# truecrypt --keyfile-create /home//newkey.file
3. You can creatively label your keyfile '12 Weird Al - Polka Party.mp3' or some other obscurity and hide it in a folder.
4. Instead of just creating a strong pass phrase, check the 'use password and keyfile'.
Now tie all of your fixed passwords to the database. If you work away from home and there is another secure computer you wish to use this fixed database on, you can copy your keyfile to that computer as well.

Securing Ubuntu Out of Box

Ubuntu, and linux in general comes 'Script Kiddie' secure out of the box. Just not Uber paranoid secure. By which I mean you will never ever ever be completely secure! Decentrailize your data, and encrypt it. Anyway though, here are some 3 important things you can do to make things harder on an attacker.

1. Reconfigure Shared Memory
Add this line to /etc/fstab

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,ro 0 0

2. Disable SSH root login

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config change:

PermitRootLogin yes

to

PermitRootLogin no

3. Limit the use of su (Super User, yeah that's that thing you want to protect.)

sudo chown root:admin /bin/su
sudo chmod 04750 /bin/su

Things you can do that might annoy you.

A. Enable Automatic Updates

System -> Administration -> Software Sources

Then under updates tab -> Check, check for updates
Then under updates tab -> Install security updates without confirmation

Secure your home folder and your personal file hard drives. (If you don't already have them encrypted.)

Type: chmod 0700 /home/

The Power of Yoga

Mixing strength and flexibility equally is a life long goal of any Wog. Hatha yoga is probably the most well known of the yogas in western culture for this purpose. Other yoga includes: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Raja Yoga.

One first has to understand that a Yoga practice is a spiritual path often times practiced within the Hindu religion, but it isn't a religion by itself. For instance, Bhakti yoga is the practice of practicing loving devotion to god. However, to receive the benefit of the practice it doesn't have to be the Hindu god, or a god at all. One could easily substitute Server, or the better part of humanity or the animal kingdom. Like these other religious yogas, Hatha yoga started as a small sect of yogi's who came up with concepts of dualism, much like Taoism's yin and yang. The body it is explained is made up of equal parts feminine and masculine. Hot and cold, happy vs. sad, Xenu vs. Hubbard, ha (sun) and tha (moon), etc. Disease is caused, of course, by an imbalance of these forces, mainly the imbalance of mind and body, which if separated enough can lead to major disability. Sound like bullshit? It probably is, but they created some kick ass stretching exercises, which in fact are the basis for many western stretches used in sports medicine today. The stretches have been proven scientifically to work, that is studies have proven that the stretches are effective and they lead to numerous other benefits. Injury in a well designed yoga routine is unheard of, but of course we are going to follow the rules of moderation and begin with a very basic practice.

The benefits of Hatha yoga is first of all a flexible spinal column. The rest of the body is made pliable as well, (head to knees pliable), with daily practice. The second benefit is balance, some of the postures are hard to maintain with out a good deal of thought put toward focusing on the internal sensations that teach our minds better balance. Finally, each position requires a certain amount of isometric strength to maintain the posture for 60 to 120 seconds. There are styles of yoga that use these isometric postures to build great strength. Further research is encouraged, one you master this routine.

Before I discuss the basic practice that should become apart of your daily routine, I want to discuss some myths about flexibility and yoga.

First, there is an idea that taking time to become flexible will get in the way of strength training and vice versa. In fact the only thing that will get in the way of strength or flexibility is fat, but doing both stretching and strength training combined with a weekly program of cardiovascular fitness will take care of that.

Second, Yoga is for men and women. In our western culture, men have all but abandoned a healthy balance of strength, cardio, and flexibility training. I, like many other men today was used to only focus on weight lifting, thinking that somehow the other things like cardiovascular and flexibility would come naturally once I could bench 200. I reached that goal and beyond, but I still couldn't touch my toes, and many injuries that I sustained would have been prevented by this simple routine. Women have the opposite problem, wanting to avoid the dreaded body image of a muscular form. They especially tend to avoid all upper body exercises, afraid that the next time that they wear a tank top or other sleeveless garment their arms will look 'fat'. The strong man versus flexible woman dynamic needs to go. I am here to show you that you can be strong and flexible while having the best body structure.

Third, the myth that stretching beyond 10-15 seconds is useless. This simply is not true. It is true that stretching, when the body hasn't been warmed up, can invite injury if the muscles and tendons are pulled for longer then 10 seconds. It is also a grim fact that the body will not make gains in flexibility unless the myosin is gently pulled for more then 30-45 seconds. Yoga practices that are put together by professionals, start with a few exercises that warm the body allowing the full benefits of the hour that you will be spending. Each pose is held for 6 breaths, or 60 seconds and can be held for up to 9 breaths with still more benefit. At the same time the muscles are being used isometrically which means that practicing yoga before other exercises like running or strength training is a good preparation.

For the beginner I recommend the DVD "Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies", by Sara Ivanhoe. This video consists of 12 postures that prepare the body for the Sun Salutation. However, if you can't acquire this media, this article will also serve to explain the Sun Salutation and the dozen postures you'll need to prepare for it.

Sara's DVD is an excellent way to receive on the fly prompts while actually doing the postures however yoga is an ancient practice and the poses are definitely in the public commons. The following is a guide to the postures.

What you'll need:
A towel*
A yoga mat
A strap or belt*
A chair*
A quiet place as long as your mat and slightly wider then your mat

The Breath:
Everything in yoga is timed by the breath. The breath is steady and deep. Even when you are compacted in a compression posture or straining in an isometric posture the focus is on the rythmic, deep, and slow inhale and exhale of the breath.

1. Sit comfortably on your yoga mat with your legs under you and your back straight. If you aren't comfortable, go ahead and sit indian style. If you cannot sit indian style then sit comfortably in a chair.

2. Take 6 deep slow breaths. Each breath should pass through the back of the throat which is relaxed and creates a quiet snoring sound. This is the pace of your breath for each posture.

The daily dozen:

Cat pose
Cat pose is a warm up pose for your spine, it's very important that the upper spine is loosened before the other poses.

1. Sit comfortably coming out of the breathing practice, slowly moving your legs at first to the side, and then on your hands and knees. Your knees are below your hips, and your hands immediately below your shoulders.
2. Bring your belly up until your spine is flat. Your shoulders do not sag.
3. On the inhale, bring your shoulders back, followed by your head and neck into a gentle bend upward. Maintain a straight lower spine.
4. On the exhale, come back to neutral spine and then allow your head to fall down and inward. You should look at your belly button. Maintain a straight lower spine.

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogapractice/cat.asp

Mountain Pose
Mountain Pose is essentially standing, but since standing is so important in day to day life it's important to know how to do it right.

1. Stand with your big toes together and heels slightly apart. Your feet should be under your feet.
2. Pull your tailbone down and gently squeeze your butt into your pelvis. This should have the effect of making your waist flat with the ground.
3. On the inhale the upper body elongates upward toward the ceiling, reach both arms upward and press your palms together at the top. Press your shoulder blades towards each other as you press your straightened arms into each other.
4. On the exhale the arms come down but your torso and legs remain fixed, like a mountain.
5. Repeat this an additional 5 times each time feel the strength of mountain pose and the effect of having legs, spine and arms pushing your mass upwards.

Standing Forward bend

The standing forward bend is a hamstring stretch as well as a head inversion. Anytime the head is below the heart, this is called an inversion and it has benefits of expanding the blood vessels in the brain.

1. Standing in mountain pose place your hands on the hips.
2. Bend your knees, then bend at your waist as far as you can go. Reach down with your fingers until they are beside your feet on the yoga mat. Some of you may not make it all the way down, and you can place your hands just below your knees while we do the stretch. You should be gently stretching your butt up into the air.
3. On the inhale, bring your shoulders back and make your spine neutral just like the beginning of cat pose. It's okay if your fingers lift off the mat. You should feel the stretch lower on the hamstrings which are the back of the thighs as you lift your butt in the air.
4. On the exhale bend forward at the waist and use your breath to 'push' your knees back, while your head and neck relax and float to the floor. You should feel a slightly high stretch.
5. This pose continues are warm up of the spine. Again repeat for 5 more breaths.
6. Come out of the posture, by placeing your hands on the thighs, come up to a neutral spine, and then slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae bring your back straight and tall. Your chin should be parallel with the floor.

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/info/standing-forward-bend.asp

The lunge (Warrior pose 1)

You have seen many athletes stretching their Quadriceps in this pose. For this pose it helps to have a folded towel or pillow to place under the knees.

1. In mountain pose at the top of your mat, bend your knees and reach down into a forward bend.
2. Kick the left foot back, see if you can reach the other end of the mat. Once you can't go any further lay your knee down on the towel, keeping the toes dug in the ground behind the knee.
3. Your other leg should now be bent like your sitting in a chair, your hips should be sinking to the ground. Place your hands just behind your right knee. Keep your toes pushing into the ground like your trying to kick the ground away from you. In fact, you will eventually.
4. On the inhale, pull your shoulders back, and push your hips forward.
5. On the exhale, bring your stomach back away from your leg, and kick your left leg away from the ground.
6. Do this for five more breaths. You should feel your Quads stretch.
7. On the last exhale bring your right leg back along side the left. From here you should be in cat pose. In cat pose step your left foot in line with your hands. If you need to pull your foot into position with one of your hands.
8. Repeat 1-6 now on this other side.

Tree Pose
The first balancing posture we will be doing is tree pose. This pose builds off mountain pose. It's important to have a good humor and patients with this pose, especially in the beginning.

1. Standing in mountain pose place your right hand on a chair.
2. Pull your left foot up to either, the inner shin, on the inside above the knee, or all the way into the crotch. You may need to grab your ankle and pull the foot into position.
3. Choose an unmoving point in your practice space, and focus your mind and your breath.
4. Let go of the chair and balance for 6 breaths. Inhale and grow tall like a tree feel your right leg 'sink roots' into the ground, exhale and press the left foot into the right leg adding strength to the pose. For an extra challenge bring both arms above the head and press the palms into each other.
5. Do 1-4 with the left side.
6. Come back into Mountain pose.

Standing Side Stretch Pose
The standing side stretch is an isometric exercise, a hip stretch, and a backward bend.
Each pose thus far has been growing in intensity. It's important to not get discouraged and remember that what isn't accomplished today may be accomplished tomorrow.

1. Stand in mountain pose facing to the left or right of the yoga mat, widen your stance so that your legs form a triangle.
2. Spread your arms out, continue to spread your legs until your hands are directly above your feet.
3. Turn your right foot to the front of the mat.
4. Bend at your right knee, trying to bring the knee directly above the right foot. DO NOT LET THE KNEE GO BEYOND YOUR TOES.
5. Put your right fore arm perpendicular and on your right thigh. Make sure that your knee and foot point in the same direction.
6. Bring your left arm above your head, with your palm facing up toward the ceiling. If you should fall, just get right back up and try again.
7. Inhale while pushing your hips down and pushing the knee back with your right arm.
8. Exhale while you push your left palm upward and forward, and making your left leg strong.
9. Do this for 5 more breaths.
10. Repeat 1-9 this time with the left leg bent.

Downward facing dog
This posture contains an inversion, a hamstring stretch, and an isometric strength building in both the legs and arms.

1. From mountain pose, put your hands on your hips, bend your knees and then reach down to the floor with your fingers.
2. Placing the hands on the floor, kick back with your right leg, followed by your right leg until your body is straight, arms out in front, like your about to do a pushup.
3. Bring your knees down on the floor and come into cat pose. Take a breath, Inhale, Exhale.
4. Your ankles should be bent and the balls of the feet and toes on the floor. Push with your legs to bring your butt in the air as high as possible. Your back should be a straight as possible.
5. If your heels do not press down to the ground, that's okay. You can increase the flexibility of your calf muscles by pressing each leg, left, right, left, right.
6. On the inhale push with your arms until your back is straight, let your neck and shoulders relax.
7. On the exhale straighten the legs, pushing the behind in the air.
8. Do this for 5 more breaths. On the exhale of the last breath bend your knees and come back into cat pose.

Cobra
1. From cat pose lay down on your belly.
2. Place your hands just under your shoulders so that the tips of the fingers of your hands are just under the tops of your shoulders. Your arms should be swept back like chicken wings, elbows against your body.
3. On the inhale, lift your head and your shoulders back allowing your chest to peel from the yoga mat. Make sure that you are not using your arms to lift your body.
4. On the exhale, lower your shoulders and head down to the mat. If you feel pressure in your lower back, again make sure your not using your arms to push.
5. Repeat 3-4 five times
6. Again, lift your head and shoulders back, keep this position for 6 breaths.

Child's pose

1. From cobra pose, raise up to cat pose. Spread your knees slightly more then your hips width, and let your body collapse onto your thighs and legs. Keep your arms outstreached aligned with your ears, and push against them.
2. Breath 6 times in this pose. You should feel your hip bones streach in the hip socket.
3. Raise up to cat and then sit with your legs crossed.

Twist

1. Sit with your legs crossed. Your back and neck should be straight; pretend that a string is pulling your head and back up.
2. Place your left hand on your right knee, and your right hand on the floor behind your butt.
3. Breath in, and let the string pull your body up
4. Breath out, and twist a few degrees to your right
5. Repeat 3 and 4 for 6 breaths
6. Repeat 1-5 this time everything reversed left to right. Also, interchange your folded legs as well.

Seated Forward bend

1. Sitting Indian style, push your left leg out in front of you.
2. Glue the bottom of your right foot to your thigh.
3. Breath in, and let your back and neck raise as high as you can.
4. Breath out, and bend forward at your waist, reaching your arms forward.
5. Repeat 3 and 4 six times.
6. Repeat 1-5 this time everything reversed left to right.

Corpse Pose

Often said to be the most important pose, the corpse pose is simply bodily relaxation.

1. Sit with your legs out in front of you, knees bent up.
2. Roll back first with your lower back, then your upper back, then your neck down on the mat.
3. While rolling your back down onto the mat let your hands flop to your side palms up.
4. Let your legs slide down and 'flop' apart naturally.
5. Focus on your breathing in and out for no less then six breaths, letting thoughts come to you. Acknowledge any thoughts or feelings, but don't focus on them. Let them fall away, continue to focus on the breath.

Why I don't care about the seventh generation.

Version 2.04

Okay, maybe I do care about 'the seventh generation'. The environment is very important to sustaining our technological progress. Not abusing resources and cutting consumption can go a long way to prolonging our specie's life on this planet. Recently these ideas have started to take on a very extreme ideology. Government intrusion and extreme measures are being proposed as a solution. A near socialist state is being proposed simply so that we might see "The seventh generation". However, others have proposed a different solution, and I have expanded on it by doing a little math.

It goes like this.

The first thing that one might see when comparing so called first world countries and third world countries is that all first world countries have low birth rates. The Total Fertility Rate is the number of births per family unit. First worlders tend to have only 1 or 2 children. In the United States, the only reason we have 2.1 children per couple is because of immigrant families that have more. So let's do some math and figure out how much the average population is shrinking each year in these technologically advanced countries.

'first world' countries TFR

Australia.....................1.8
Canada........................1.6
France........................1.7
Germany.......................1.4
Ireland.......................1.9
Italy.........................1.2
Japan.........................1.4
UK............................1.7
USA...........................2.1

Weighted average by population

In this table I created a weight for each country based on their population compared to the largest population, The United States.

Australia..........19,546,792....0.069670012
Canada.............31,902,268....0.113708244
France.............59,765,983....0.213022002
Germany............83,251,851....0.296731938
Ireland............3,883,159.....0.013840621
Italy..............57,715,625....0.205713976
Japan..............126,974,628...0.452571648
UK.................59,778,002....0.213064841
USA................280,562,489...1.0
Total..............723,380,797...2.578323282


1.8*0.069670012+1.6*0.113708244+1.7*0.213022002+
1.4*0.296731938+1.9*0.013840621+1.2*0.205713976+
1.4*0.452571648+1.7*0.213064841+2.1*1.0 = 4.453865817

4.453865817 / 2.578323282 = 1.727427219

The average couple is having 1.727 children. So the average couple is having between one and two children, more often two, in first world countries.

1.727427219 / 2 = 0.8635

It takes two to make a child, so we divide our TFR by 2 to figure out the average population growth.


By this measure the population is shrinking pretty fast. Each generation has 14% less population. The cool thing about this is that if magically all of the world's populations were to have the infrastructure, but more importantly the contraceptives and the will to use them available to them, then the world's population would be cut in half within 5 generations. Having 3 billion less people on the planet means less pollution, the people within these societies are more environmentally conscious. The world population shrinks to just above a billion people within 12 generations. That's about half a square kilometer of earth per person, which is more then enough land to absorb our environmental footprint. Plus our technology will become more efficient and more environmentally responsible in the 280 years that have passed. In short by promoting women's rights, women's education, the use of contraceptives, the investment in retirement funds, and other first world luxuries that help to curb population growth, then we will naturally reduce our impact. Countries that experience this growth in pro-liberty/pro-technology ideals immediately start to see population drops. For instance Iran which may not be known here for being pro-liberty, has some very intellectual movements. For instance women's groups are operating and challenging traditional values. It's also been shown that as the population of women in a country become more educated they are less likely to have many children. Availability of contraceptives increases the chances of births in these nations being planned and wanted in advance. We don't need to have draconian policy that will stop economic and technological growth in the hopes of carving out some sort of indigenous Luddite life, as many extremists have proposed.

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/000882.html
http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/world_statistics_by_pop.htm

Random password generation and memorization

Version 1.5

Until biometrics become cheaper and more accessible to the consumer market, Wogs will have to depend on the security of passwords. Unfortunately, as computers get faster, the capabilities of time/memory trade off techniques (Rainbow Tables) and dictionary based password crackers are becoming amazing.

Keeping your password secure is important on a system because if someone compromises an account through an exploit they could get a hold of the hashes that the system compares your password to, to allow access. In order to stop this from happening the other passwords not compromised must also stay uncompromised. This requires all passwords to be complex, secure, and memorable.

The solution is to use this system of random password generation:
You will need
One 100 sided die
or
Two 10 sided dice
For all current hashing algorithms the following characters are available for
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnop
qrstuvwxyz0123456789!@#$%^&*()-_+=~`[]{}|\:;"'<>,.?/
52 letters, 10 numbers and 32 special characters, for a total of 94 characters. We need to use one of each category of letters, numbers and special characters. In fact though we need to maintain an even distribution of letters, numbers, and special characters so we are going to load the last 6 slots with some numbers, you can use any random assortment of six letters or characters.

You may use this table here:


Rainbow tables can crack any hash if a programmer wants to, and script kiddie tools already exist for cracking LM, LMNT, MD5, and SHA1 hashes. With large amounts of computing power it could take as little as six months, maybe less to create tables for 99.99% of the hashes for the character set we use assuming a 14 character password. Project Shmoo is already offering rainbowtables for the LM and LMNT hashes over bittorrent. What this means is that passwords on computer accounts are crackable unless they are 15 characters long. This means that in addition to making sure our passwords use every type of character, we need to have a password that is longer then 15 characters.

Every account needs to have these tough passwords. This is because if an attacker has an exploit that allows the bypass of account permissions, any account that the attacker has access to could potentially allow them to climb the ladder and own your box. To accomplish this without writing passwords down we will infuse an easy to remember word, with randomly generated characters. So the procedure is simple, in order to get to the recommended 15 think up a normal password and put the randomly generated characters in somehow, and don't tell anyone about it.

Remembering your password

The first memory trick is muscle memory. Memory is really just a response to certain stimuli. This gives the illusion that outward influences have a memory of their own. For instance as I type this post, my subconscious is remembering what signals to send my hands. The stimulus of being seated at the keyboard is a key component in remembering how to type, otherwise we would go insane, constantly remembering useless information at times that more then a bit inappropriate. Your first task in remembering a new password is to execute ten commands using #sudo making sure you have to type in your password each time. Use muscle memory to learn the salt (random characters) of your password.

The second trick is Priming
If there is only one manipulative trick you learn, make sure it is priming. It is the basis, for cold reading, convincing argument, and most of all false memory. Priming has other uses though. When your memorizing something, you can surround it with other similar concepts that help to enhance the memory. However, make sure that the concepts you choose also naturally lead you to the password. This is how it works:

1. Think of your salted password.
2. Write an associative list based off your password 15 words should be enough.
3. Pick 3 of the words that represent three aspects of your password.
4. Write 3 more associative lists from these three words, and pick 3 words that represent aspects of your password, from each.
5. Think of your password and the 9 aspects.

After this you should be able to remember your salted password. Using muscle memory it should solidify soon.

The third trick is Emotion

When you want to remember anything, stimulating an emotion around it will create a subconscious link between that concept and the emotion. For passwords, I like to link the emotions of happiness. Now the actual application is hard to explain, so I'll leave you the two tricks above and simply say that linking the typing of your password to a memory that has a strong emotion, which all old memories do, will make it easy to remember.

Strength training fads

Version 1.30

It's important to look for good information. You can depend on false advertising laws and comment sections to keep you from getting dangerous information, most of the time. However, one can still charge $50 for a crappy book, and those that buy these books immediately run out and post 5-star ratings on websites such as amazon.com. The people that write those 5-star ratings can be deluded by the 'buy in value' discussed later or just plain ignorant. Some of the most recent fads that I have seen are the 'Russian warrior' and the Kettle bell fads. It's important to realize that without steroids, strength training is a slow and moderate exercise. If you want to get 'buff' your probably better off dropping to 8% body fat then you are lifting things. Now, if you want to be able to lift your body off the ground, run, jump, and swim like an athlete, then the techniques have already been developed. It's just a matter of finding them. Here are some rules on how to avoid scummy books.

-Read the '1-star' reviews first
The 4 and 5 star reviews are going to be sparkle eyed newbies who have just discovered weight training. They are so excited with their new commitment to fitness that it makes them feel good by recommending, (bragging), to others. However about 50% will drop out in the next month, but their post will still be there, shining the path to a new generation of one month fitness gurus.

Reading the lower levels gives you some idea about what the book or video lacks. It's also smart for a more logical reason: There is no such thing as a 5-star book. Okay, well maybe there is, but if it exists, the statistical probability that it was written in the last 2 years is very unlikely. The one star level of review can almost be pessimistic, but your comparing the tier one levels of a bunch of books, looking objectively at the dissatisfaction. You should not taking a straight number of dissenters, since the publishing dates and thus the number of reviews can vary.

-Avoid Russian, warrior, and 'old world'. While there may be many incredible Russian body builders out there, everything that they know probably comes from exercises shared by the world. There isn't anything incredibly genetically diverse about Russians so the same exercises that work over there, work over here. Plus, someone may have explained how to do those exercises better in English, over here. Russian bodybuilding seems to be the most current fad, and fads are bad!

There is one exception to the warrior rule, Bruce Lee, Bruce Lees books are an excellent addition to your normal martial arts class. His books mainly teach the philosophy of self improvement. He dictates that you should note your body type before beginning any training. Bruce Lee was a short and stringy God of martial arts. If your a tall and chunky naive of the internet, you might take his training exercises with a grain of salt, which is exactly what Bruce Lee recommends. He isn't a God of Martial Arts and fitness for nothing!

Leonardo Davinchi was an awesome man. If you want to be like him adopt his scientific curiosity, not his exercise routine. There's no reason to do an old world style of body building. You can study Davinchi's methods for creating such a system, and make your own, with the benefit of modern day knowledge of nutrition and another ~600 years of improvement on techniques.

-Don't buy in
You know those commercials on the TV and internet. Buy my new procedure and/or exercise machine and you'll have great results! Well there is some psychology to those commercials the first of which is impulse buying. When you buy on impulse, very rarely do you get the best. On top of that you tend to pay more. However, you would feel really bad if you admitted that to yourself, so humans will say the craziest things just because they got suckered out of $150. The best way to not buy in is to find someone that has and use their stuff. Make sure they aren't around to tell you how great their $200 ball of iron duct taped to a stick is, it will influence your analysis. Then you just ask yourself, "What does it do, how well does it do it."

True Crypt, A powerful Hard drive encryption tool

Version 1.22

Encrypt, Encrypt, Encrypt.

The freedom to keep personal data out of the hands of those that wish us harm is not a right, and that is why you need to choose secure data storage and good keys for that storage.

Truecrypt is by far the best open source tool that I have seen for encrypting individual files and entire hard drives. It works well on Windows and Linux OS and has manageable transfer rates. There are some strict rules however about intrusion to consider. The first thing to remember is that if someone can gain access to your box remotely they can access your encrypted hard drive. The encryption only works if for you when the drive is unmounted. If you think someone may gain remote access to your computer while your working you need more security, not better encryption. Even if you don't mount your hard drive regularly, the danger of remote attacks still means that keyboard hooks built into the kernel might betray your every keystroke. Once an intruder has that level of access it's easy enough to download your files, including your encrypted hard drive file and your keyfile.

Thus beyond keeping your computer secure from the internet there are three objects you must secure in order for your encryption scheme to work properly.

The first is your key file.
Your password is much too small to reliably encrypt gigabytes of data. Thus a keyfile is used to safely store, encrypt, the master key which can be megabytes in size. The password and the keyfile form the master key that unlocks the data. However, it's important to remember that the keyfile and password come together to produce the master key so it's vulnerable to this attack. If Eve gains access to Bob's system while the encrypted file system is not loaded, She can still get a hold of his keyfile. When someone has your keyfile, your master key is still safe, that is until they get your password. They've only stolen a locked box. Eve's advantage in downloading the keyfile is that if Bob changes his keyfile his master key remains the same. There is now a duplicate key in Eve's box! Thus, if Eve gets a hold of an old keyfile and the old password, she could compromise the system because she retrieved the master key. Simply changing your password and keyfile does not change the master encryption key. So remember, the priority is to keep the masterkey out of the hands of the intruder. If you give Eve a copy of the locked box, she is one step closer to having the master key. If you think you've been severely compromised, you have to create a new hard drive and copy all of the files over to this new hard drive. The simplest way to keep your keyfiles secure is to keep your keyfiles on a USB drive or cd only used at the mounting of the hard drive. You can even get creative and have a script that mounts the hard drive using the keyfile when you plug in the device. Like a key to your house or car, except with a 14 character password to boot. You can simply mount it then stick that 5$ 128mb USB drive on a shelf.

The second thing you need to secure is your encrypted drive. The advantage of the encrypted hard drive is that it is one singular file that unless complete is useless. This means that if we make our Hard Drive file large, it will be more difficult to steal remotely. One will have to have physical access to the machine.

The third and arguably most important is to keep your password secure. Also, it is important to mention that your TrueCrypt password needs to be very large. 20 or more characters. While it's possible to use a very strong 16 or 20 characters it is difficult to memorize 20 random characters. A common way around this problem is to find a good technical manual and a line that has capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters like:

int *p = numbers + 2; // An iterator that starts at numbers[2]

Then roll a 20 sided dice (12) and chop off either the end or the beginning.

int *p = numbers + 2; // An iterator that starts a

Now you can put this book on the shelf and remember the pg number (300). After a while you will memorize the password. If your extra paranoid you should change it by then.

Required Further Reading:
http://www.truecrypt.org/
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/security-precautions.php

Your Guide Wog is born

Version 1.02

I hope to post many interesting articles on fun Wog things. Let me briefly write about what a Wog is.

A Wog is traditionally a slur used against non-scientologists or a racial term originating in the colonial period of the British Empire.

Well I mean the term Wog in relation to Scientology, but it's oh so much more. A Wog is a bit like a mix between a free thinker and a boy scout. Loves knowledge, hates being in the dark. Definately does not want to be a victim of 'Cult' like thinking. Groupthink is definitely out of the question, with out some solid evidence that it's the way to go. We like to work together on projects mainly centered at the point where the natural world comes together with the cyber or technological world. Taming a Wog as a resource is often difficult, like herding cats. We tend to prefer individualized rugged solutions to problems.

And now for some fun:
Sean Kennedy is a horror writer and talk show host on www.RantRadio.com . He produced two seasons of the show Patrolling, a program full of knowledge for simple living.