HN user
If you're looking for an overview of cryptography in an easy-to-digest format, take a look at:
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
It is light on the math but Simon Singh does a great job reviewing cryptography over the last 4000 years. It was a fun summer read.
This is a good article; I think his suggestions are mostly spot on.
Part of my current position is to sit on interview committees. I think I can sum up points 6-11 by simply saying: be interesting and engage the other people at the table.
Interview work is mostly boring drudge work with little payoff for the interviewer. I only remember the interviews where the person being interviewed had something interesting to say. It won't always mean you get the job but you've got a better chance than if we can't remember you five minutes after you leave the room.
Also, don't tell us about your cats on your resume. Seriously, just don't.
A thought experiment:
Let's say I, a Canadian Citizen, asked someone in Canada to enter a passphrase to encrypt the data on my computer but not tell me what the passphrase is until I safely get to my destination.
I cross the border into the US where my laptop is seized.
The case goes to court where a judge orders me to decrypt the contents of the hard drive... but I can't because I don't have the passphrase.
I'm assuming the court would not have the power to order the only person with the passphrase to enter it because they are not in a jurisdiction under the courts control.
What could they compel me to do? What sanctions could they bring to bear against me for not providing information I don't have?
VyperVPN (purchased as part of a package through Giganews). It gives me an endpoint in the US, UK, France, EU (unspecified) and Hong Kong. It's possible there are others but I haven't bothered checking in a while.
TL;DR: KeePass with Subversion.
In my previous position as a systems administrator, I shared responsibility for approximately 120 Unix and Windows servers. We used KeePass to house a master password list which was then stored in a Subversion repository.
We used KeePass because it would run on all three desktop environments used in our shop (Windows, Mac, Linux). The single password database was protected with a very long passphrase known by us five systems administrators and our manager.
We used Subversion to manage updates, distribution and backups of the password database.
The only caveat I can think of is that you have to have some sort of update policy for what versions of the password file is authoritative or the database(s) can get out of sync.
Our solution was to simply say the last commit into Subversion was authoritative and it was your responsibility to make sure the copy on your local machine was up-to-date before you started modifying it with new information. This effectively eliminated having personalized copies on your desktop because no one wanted to have to retype all the passwords if their version wasn’t authoritative.
I live in a house with two adults (42,31) and five kids (20,17,16,6,4). I think we cover several different demographics but are pretty typical otherwise.
Everyone in the house streams their media (Netflix, iTunes, downloaded TV series). I also pay for a VPN account that gives me unrestricted access to US and UK media not otherwise available in Canada.
We do still pay for cable but, honestly, it is only used three or four hours a month for when we're looking for something to act as background noise (and, even then, we're just as likely to put on Pandora or Spotify).
The one reason that I've been hesitant to cancel cable is because I DO download TV. It assuages my guilt, somewhat, at what is effectively piracy because I _could_ get the downloaded content through my cable subscription.