|
Papers |
EssaysFull Disclosure and why Vendors Hate itIn a capitalist society, it is the consumer's responsibility to hold a corporation accountable. This is not possible if the corporation is controlling the flow of information. The problem with too many secrets is that they frequently rub against the notion of privacy. Secrets can be a hindrance to privacy because it leaves the consumer exposed. It sure does benefit the vendor though. http://zdziarski.com/papers/fulldisclosure.html The Ethics of Hacking The curiosity and quest for knowledge is engrained in all of us as humans, and it is a noble task to want to explore and build on the ingenuity of others. Hackers are the great equalizer of a capitalistic society, and when conducted ethically, a hacker can be of great benefit to both the consumer and the manufacturer. They have the power to balance out corporate greed and further improve on otherwise great products. http://zdziarski.com/papers/ethics.html Hijacking God: Restoring the Original Church What kind of authority structure did the original apostles set up for the church? Is preaching prosperity Biblical, or is it a doctrine of men with corrupt minds? What are the marks of a true apostle? In this essay, the original church is examined, and brings to light just how severely hijacked she has become by those who would presume their own authority. We'll take a look at how God's plan never intended for there to be lay people within the church, but rather each church charged to raise everyone up to a level of knowledge and faith in Christ that would provide an environment where five-fold ministry gifts and miracles could run through the entire body - regardless of their leadership status. This essay provides a glimpse at a church without as strong a separation between body and clergy, in spite of how many presume to govern their churches today. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/hijacking.htm Restoring the Beauty of the Didache I've spent many late evenings over the past month translating and researching an intriguing early Christian manuscript called the Didache. Greek for teaching, this first century Greek manuscript reveals the life and heart of the early Church. It has been the center of much academic interest and controversy since its rediscovery in 1883. Prior to this, it was once thought lost to history, although many early church fathers cited the book as God-inspired scripture. I present a clean, flowing translation in modern English for all to enjoy, complete with study notes and cross-references. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/didache.html Embracing Senility Growing old was never intended to be an easy process, but what we weren't aware of is that it's also an initiation. A twenty-year hazing period to condition us into our expectant old age, and usually with unreasonable force, like a cattleprod applied to a hamster. Should we crack under pressure, our future will know us as miniature Nebuchadnezzars barking about condiments for the remainder of our degenerative lives. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/embracing.html What it Means to Believe I've often been asked why an intellectual type guy such as myself would believe in Jesus - a figure most Americans equate to a good bedtime story, or a religious symbol for people who need that sort of thing. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/believe.html What You Can't Teach What you can't teach today are any truths derived from "religious", or specifically Biblical, sources which may conflict with the secular point of view. The problem, however, is that secularism (a sense of neutrality in values) is really an illusion. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/teach.html Being Real People are rarely who they profess to be any more, and more so perplexed by any concept of sobriety in one's self. This raises the question of "why" as rather urgent for anyone whose goal is to be a true Christian and not some newly baptized confidant of lavish nepotism. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/real.html God is not in Control God certainly has the ability to be in control, but He doesn't seem to take that liberty all the time. If God's will were always done, then we'd have no reason to pray for it to be done, which we do daily as part of "on Earth as it is in Heaven"; it'd just be done all the time otherwise and we'd have nothing to pray about or hope for... God's in control of the things that matter. Free will requires the world run itself in many respects. Prayer is one of the few ways to invoke God to act on our behalf, though we don't take that liberty very often anymore. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/control.html Bribing God: The Truth About Wealth and the Bible Sermon after sermon gets preached these days to give, and God will let you have the car you want, the house you want, and the life you want. It seems strange the thought that a people who profess to follow Christ are so anxious to try and conform God to their will, rather than the other way around. Shouldn't we be concerned about getting into God's will rather than trying tobribe him to perform in our lives? What if God wants you to live in poverty so you can reach someone specific? Most people rebuke that thought, or call it false humility, but that's what many of the men closest to Jesus did. We've conveniently torn those pages out. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/malachi.html Respecting Open Source There's a way to respect open source that can lead to the cultivation of a project. There are also very similar approaches that can lead to certain flame war. I've convinced myself to believe those who frustrate open source projects do so unknowingly, and actually believe they're benefiting the project. Of course, I could be wrong, but believing this is one of the ways I've prevented myself from black-holing half the Internet. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/respecting.html Security-RelatedThe following papers have been published and released on various sites and translated into various languages. They have become a wealth of information to several private sector and government agencies including NASA, Sun Microsystems (Rock On), Mayo Clinic, and many others. You are welcome to freely link to any of these papers, but please contact me for permission prior to any reproduction.Chrooting daemons and system processes HOW-TO An intuitive guide to hardening your operating system by forcing system daemons to run inside a protected 'jail' making them significantly harder to exploit. Several examples and step-by-step explanation provide useful direction for any systems administrator. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/chroot.html Creating Root-Kit Proof Saferooms Protect yourself against root-kits by implementing saferooms on your systems to maintain continuity of your mission critical tools. Saferooms create a set of "Shadow Tools" used by your systems administrators making it significantly harder for a hacker to go undetected on a system. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/saferoom.html Data Center Threats and Vulnerabilities Could terrorists use Data Centers to target critical American infrastructure? Here, we examine the vulnerablities in today's data center facilities that would allow a large-scale, distributed terrorist attack on American soil. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/colo.html Spam, Fraud, and Machine-LearningReasoning-Based Adaptive Language ParsingLanguage classification typically employs a parser using a static set of parsing rules. This presents a problem for learning machines needing to parse different languages, many with different structural rules. Hand-written rules can also provide less-than-optimal parsing even for languages they were designed for, as subcomponents of words can sometimes be more useful. This paper introduces a technique to adaptievely reprogram a language parser to generate the most useful possible data, without any prior knowledge of a language or lexicon. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/parsing.pdf Approaches to Phishing Identification Using Match and Probabilistic Digital Fingerprinting Technique This paper establishes some requirements for phishing identification and explains various approaches to detection by looking for copying of web site layout and structure through source code (and optionally image) fingerprinting. This enables us to perform a number of exact-match comparisons to genuine websites or to other known attacks. Lastly, we also explore techniques to correlate different attacks to a single likely source. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/phishing.pdf Justifying Open Source Filtering If you're a large business or ISP, you may be asking yourself why you would want to use an open-source spam solution over a commercial spam solution. Please have a look at this article and why open source filtering may be better for your business. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/justifying.html Bayesian Noise Reduction: Progressive Noise Logic for Statistical Language Analysis "Detecting Statistical Anomalies in Lexical Reasoning Machines" An algorithm to eliminate "noise" from a text sample in the setting of statistical filtering. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/bnr.html Controlling Filter Complexity: Statistical-Algorithmic Hybrid Classification Present-day language classifiers bear the responsibility of maintaining accuracy in the midst of ever-increasing sample complexity. In the setting of spam filtering, many developers today are left with conflicted feelings between increasing the complexity of their filter and wise teachings from CS class reminding them that computer science is about controlling complexity, not creating it. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/complexity.html Advanced Language Classification using Chained Tokens A case study for the implementation of adjacent token partners in the setting of statistical filtering. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/chained.html A MIME Encoding for Message Inoculation An Internet-Draft I've co-authored with Bill Yerazunis (CRM114) to create a standard message format for message inoculations. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/draft-spamfilt-inoculation-03.txt Building Neural Pathways in Real-Time: Neural Regioning Technique An approach to training neural networks with minimal peripheral data, using based sterotypes of interconnective filtering. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/regioning.html EditorialsChild Safety Locks and NICS ChecksWhy the Brady Bill needs to be shot down (pun intended). http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/nics.html On Christian Music http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/music.html The File Sharing Report In July 2004, I conducted a file sharing experiment. This report outlines the results and some conclusions about demand for a new business model in the entertainment industry. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/sharing.html Verizon's New Crippled Phone Introducing the Motorola v710, Verizon's new crippled phone. Are Verizon customers being quietly screwed? http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/v710.html A Look at Verisign's Anti-Competitive History Verisign's many attempts to hinder competition and maintain their monopoly are starting to add up http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/verisign.html Analysis of Symantec's Stance on Censorship A response to Symantec COO John Schwarz's support for censorship of security-related tools and information http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/symantec.html Plain Old Geek-RelatedCellphone Hacking PagesCellphone Hacks: [ XV6700 / PPC-6700 | v710 | e815 ] The Linux/IBM Thinkpad T30 Page A useful guide for Thinkpad users wanting to implement Linux on their laptop. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/t30.html Adding S3TC Support to DRI A HOWTO for adding S3TC (texture compression) to the Linux DRI+Mesa drivers. http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/s3tc.html The Home Office HOWTO I sit on my duff 10-12 hours a day, so I decided to renovate and wrote up a little HOWTO on renovating your home office under a budget. http://www.zdziarski.com/office.html |
|
All Website Content © Jonathan A. Zdziarski. All Rights Reserved. |
| Reproduction prohibited without permission |