I'm a computer professional who specializes in GNU/Linux and Free Software. My oldest and closest friend is a longtime employee of Microsoft. But wait, aren't we supposed to be mortal enemies? Many people seem to think that. Sometimes they are shocked to learn that I don't hate Microsoft. Other Free Software professionals don't hate them either.

Yesterday a friend pointed me to some videos of interesting talks that Google put online. One that I thought was really good was entitled 7 Ways to Ruin a Technological Revolution.

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Recently I have observed some interesting events around the topics of media, DRM, and computer software that bear closer examination They illustrate some important points about about software and media markets and the way that people and technology are changing them.

Computer security expert Bruce Schneier has written an excellent essay about the difficulties in securing your computer and your information against software that may endanger both. The kicker is that the threat comes, in part, from "legitimate" software and media vendors.

If you purchased a Sony BMG CD recently and played it on a computer running Microsoft Windows, your computer may have been damaged by malicious software included on the CD. You may be entitled to compensation under a recent settlement. If so, be sure to make a claim. The compensation you receive is pretty small compared to the damage that was done to your computer, but it is important to hold Sony accountable for their behavior.

In the previous article, we saw that the Caesar Cipher was especially weak because there were only 25 possible keys, since the cipher simply shifts each letter n places down the alphabet. We can create a stronger cipher by using a permutation of the alphabet rather than a shift. How much stronger is our improved cipher?

Perhaps the oldest and simplest cipher is the Caesar Cipher. It is attributed, not surprisingly, to Julius Caesar.