Saturday, October 12, 2024
Pair Program with 3Blue1Brown
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Mind Blowing AI Podcast Creation
Try It Yourself
Use Cases
Patriotism: Leadership & Politics
A patriot is a citizen who demonstrates love and respect for America by upholding the rule of law. It is fundamentally un-American to violate these principles and values as established by the Constitution (not religion).
You cannot be a patriot unless you respect the Constitution while following the law. Supporting someone who doesn’t follow these principles would be unpatriotic. Our Constitution is what makes America, America.
You can love America yet still not respect America by being a selfish scofflaw. Knowingly parking your car in a handicap spot and paying the fine shows a lack of respect for the law compared to simply parking legally. It’s not ok to commit break the law, even if you’re willing to pay the price.
A man can love his wife yet still not respect her.
A man can be a seemingly great parent, citizen, worker, etc. But if he constantly cheats on his wife, then there is neither respect nor commitment to the marriage. Infidelity violates the fundamental principles of marriage.
Let’s break down the difference between principles and values.
The Supreme Law Of The Land
The Constitution embodies America’s principles. It is the supreme law of the land.
Laws implement the Constitution’s principles as America’s values.
Think of principles as the lay of the land. They are virtually unmovable.
Think of values as implementing principles. Laws codify principles as values.
If you think of features on the surface of the Earth as principles, then a map represents values. There are different kinds of maps.
Some maps highlight roads and highways for automobile drivers; certain maps focus on terrain, with contour lines for hikers or mountain climbers; some show water depth and hazards for sailors and divers; while other maps point out towers, radio beacons, and buildings for pilots.
All of these maps depict the same geographic area (principles) but they highlight different features (values).
Having a map for the wrong area is not helpful no matter how much you want it to work in your favor. A map of New York City does you no good in Los Angeles. The values a drill instructor instills in recruits during boot camp differ from those a parent imparts to a toddler, yet both align with the principles of the Constitution.
If a law conflicts with the Constitution, then the law either needs to be struck down or else the Constitution needs to be amended. Maintaining a law that conflicts with the Constitution is toxic and dysfunctional.
Oliver North: A Personal Journey in Ethics
Shortly after I enlisted in the Marines, news of the Iran–Contra Affair broke in the fall of 1986. The following year, Congress held hearings to get to the bottom of the matter. It was concluded that Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North – a highly decorated Marine officer who attended the Naval Academy – illegally sold arms to Iran and funneled that money to support the Contras. The Contras were Nicaraguan rebels fighting against the Sandinistas who were the political group in control of Nicaragua. The Sandinistas had policies aligned with the Soviet Union and were considered a Cold War threat to the United States. Contras good. Sandinistas bad.
During the Iran-Contra Hearings in Congress, LtCol Oliver North, as the key witness, was hailed as a celebrity for standing up to Congress, looking them in the eye, and taking full responsibility for the affair.
This seemingly brave and bold sense of patriotism and accountability would have a big impact on me, personally, when I attended the Naval Academy a few years later.
In the 1980s, I, too, hailed Oliver North as a hero, until I learned the fundamental flaws in his unethical and illegal practices.
This doesn’t mean that North didn’t accomplish truly patriotic acts that contributed to the nation’s well-being before or after the Iran-Contra Affair. But it does mean that his actions that led to this affair were misguided – a vigilante patriotism devoid of checks and balances.
During the hearings, Oliver North was asked if he received any ethics training while at the Naval Academy. After answering in the negative, a mandatory semester course was required for all Naval Academy Midshipmen (students). This ethics course was the most impactful class I took at the Academy. Second only to the Naval Academy’s course, Law for the Junior Officer.
Taking this ethics course gave me a clear understanding of North’s legal and ethical violations. Not only did he break the law, but he also lied to Congress about it. It is important to keep in mind that North’s power and authority, as a military officer, was bestowed upon him by Congress – the very institution he intentionally deceived.
This is the equivalent of a child being given permission by their parents to go outside to play until a curfew time. But, while out and about, the child commits vandalism and returns home late. Then, when questioned by their parents, they lie about coming home after curfew while also denying the vandalism.
The People empower the government and the government empowers certain people with authority to act on behalf of the government. In my Naval Academy ethics course, I learned how to follow a clear line of power, authority, and justice. This line originates with the Constitution and flows through the three branches of government by way of laws, codes, policies, regulations, and ethics, ultimately defining the actions allowed or restricted for both citizens and the government.
At the Naval Academy, many things we learned could be effectively summarized in soundbites.
What’s the most important leadership trait? Set the example.
When asked in an engineering class at the Academy, "Why is something a certain way?"—like, "Why are there two turbines instead of one in a ship’s steam cycle?"—the answer was simple: Because it’s more efficient.
Unethical behavior can also be succinctly summarized as a sound bite: Committing or soliciting an illegal act or the intention to deceive or not let the whole truth be known (with a few, clearly defined exceptions).
Leadership and The People
In leadership, I learned that followers look to a leader to provide stability and make them feel as safe as possible, while setting an ethical example. This applies to all levels of leadership, regardless if it’s a parent showing up on time to safely drive their kid home from school, or a military officer leading troops into combat, or a political leader announcing new policies.
We look to our leaders for safety, but before someone can lead, they must first learn to follow. A great leader cannot be a poor follower.
Politicians are leaders. In politics, we can question a political leader’s policies. However, we should never question a political leader’s patriotism. They must respect the Constitution and the rule of law above all else.
Additionally, any organization that allows a leader, no matter how talented, to operate under rules that apply only to others will create a toxic environment where someone is considered “above the law.” Formally documenting any unwritten rules will go a long way to creating a healthier environment.
Finally, being a patriot doesn’t mean blindly agreeing with every government action; it can also involve critiquing the government or advocating for change when one believes the country is not living up to its ideals. But this advocacy for change still needs to follow the Constitution and law.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Anatomy of a Sabotage: Planting Explosives in Hezbollah’s Pagers
It seems that explosives were planted in the pagers and two-way radios – it wasn’t merely an exploding battery. This means that the attacker had to gain physical access to the pagers in order to plant both the explosives and the electronic circuitry that triggered it.
It’s astonishing that none of these explosives appear to have been detected by any measures, including airport screening equipment. Obviously, TSA will be looking at this vector.
How Would I Do It?
Rather than intercept the pagers along the supply chain, I would look for an easier way. Specifically, I’d find a consumer electronics manufacturer who’d be willing to license to me both their brand and rights to manufacture the pagers. From there, it would be much simpler to mass manufacture and distribute the exploding pagers.Friday, September 13, 2024
The Miracle Year for Personal Computers
L to R: TRS-80 Model 1, Commodore PET, Apple ][ |
These were the first three personal computers that were sold, fully assembled.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Hallucinations: How Many ‘R’s Are in the Word Strawberry?
Ask your favorite AI chatbot, "How many ‘R’s are in the word strawberry?"
Most will respond with, "The word 'strawberry' contains two ‘R’s." Obviously, that's wrong – the correct answer is three.
This is the difference between knowing and understanding.
AI models tokenize words. Tokenization is the process of breaking down a stream of text, such as sentences, into individual words and then assigning values to each word in multiple dimensions. An AI model doesn't break down a word into letters, so current models don't use introspection to know what letters make up a word. While an AI model could break down words into letters, the juice is not worth the squeeze when it comes to memory and storage requirements.
In the world of AI, this seemingly confidence, yet random guess, is called a hallucination.
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
You Don’t Accelerate When Free Falling
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Gravity is not a Force
Gravitons
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Agile is Not Scrum
Waterfall
In the early days of software engineering, when mainframes were the primary form of computing, Waterfall was the key form of software project management. It treated software product development like physical product development in long cycles where each step only flowed in one direction. At the time, this made sense.Scrum
Kanban
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Quantum Computing Realizations
My Three Daily Life Goals
My Three Daily Goals in Life
Monday, March 11, 2024
Hacking Software Developers
I recently heard about an interesting hack that was targeting software developers, especially those on Linux. It basically tricks developers into installing malware on their computer by way of a fake job interview and downloading code from a public code repository.
During an initial call, the fake company asks you to complete a software development exercise by downloading a project from GitHub. The project, which contains a ZIP file, has a seemingly benign non-executable file named something like “readme․pdf” except that the dot, in the filename, isn’t a simple dot/period but rather a symbol that looks like a period such as U+2024. In other words, the OS doesn’t see a file extension (PDF in this example).
When the developer double clicks on the file, it executes. Typically, on Linux, a user must manually chmod a downloaded file to set the executable flag (i.e. chmod +x readme․pdf). However, since this filed was embedded in a ZIP file, the executable meta data can be preserved. Also, a password is sometimes added to the ZIP file so even smart virus protection software can’t scan the ZIP file.
This is a Homograph Attack using Unicode Deception. Two things to be suspicious of this attack is the zipping of small-sized files and the password on a ZIP.
Friday, February 9, 2024
Vision Pro Demo
Vision Pro demo area with eyeglasses Rx reader |
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
iPhone Announcement Anniversary
January 10, 2007 |
The first iPhone was announced 17 years ago, today, approximately 41 minutes into Steve Jobs's MacWorld Keynote address. This is the reason that Apple ads display 9:41 AM in their marketing materials.
At the time, I was working as a software engineer at the Apple Online Store. Like everyone else, I was surprised and amazed at the product announcement.
The next day, I printed out a color image of the iPhone, glued it to corrugated cardboard, and sent photos of me holding it to friends joking that I had an actual iPhone and pointing out that the photo wasn't photoshopped. (The iPhone wouldn't ship until six months later.) My coworker and I even took photos of us holding the cardboard cutout in front of 1 Infinite Loop.
I wouldn't see an actual iPhone in the wild until sometime later when I was in a meeting and Tim Cook walked in, pulled it out of his pocket and flashed it at us while saying, "This is so cool." We were all champing at the bit to get our hands on one.