James Clerk Maxwell: The Man Who Changed Everything

Mahon, Basil (2004). The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. Chichester: John Wiley

This is an excellent biography of an important person.

Maxwell took the first color photograph. Maxwell determined the nature of Saturn's rings. Maxwell identified the relationship between light, electricity and magnetism.

Among other things, Maxwell's work led to the discovery of radio waves. If you are reading this blog using a wireless connection, take a moment to thank him.

Maxwell was a profound influence on Einstein, and therefore on the times we live in.

Review (c) 2013 by Michael Patrick Jost

2600 has been reviewed here before, as there's almost always something of interest in it.

That's true for the Spring 2013 edition as well.

One article that may be of use (though not necessarily for the purpose used by the author) is "The Usage of the Assumption Technique in Social Engineering" found on page 51.

Many businesses these days use "phone trees" to minimize the number of people they have to hire. The truth of the matter is that with the possible exception of choosing English or Spanish, what comes next is futility. The system just does not have the answer you're looking for, and, in many cases, these systems are designed to make it difficult to get ahold of a human being.

The course laid out by the author is to determine what assumptions the person you will ultimately get on the phone is making, and take advantage of them.

In the article, the author uses this technique to get about $30.00 of free security hardware. It is easy enough to assume, though, that many people would have reached a certain level of frustration merely trying to ascertain what the right hardware even was, and be quite happy to pay for it-which is the information the author received initially.

A moral, if there is one, is that "hacking" is not always a bad thing. The "hacking spirit" is to figure out how things work, and this is sometimes the only option available to a frustrated consumer.

2600: The Hacker Quarterly

Given the increasing prevalence of cybercrime and related threats, this is a publication well worth being aware of.

It has been around for a long time, and hopefully it will continue to be published. It can be hard to find, but subscriptions are available.

It contains articles submitted by readers. Almost every issue has something quite interesting. In this issue (Autumn 2012) there are interesting articles about computers in prison (yes, prisoners DO have access to them), a cyberattack against a small bank, and some perils of using hotel wifi networks.

Even though the articles vary widely from issue to issue, one more or less constant factor is photographs of pay phones from around the world as well as a listing of hacker meetings!

Basic Electricity (Dover Publications)

This is Dover Publications reprint of Basic Electricity from the Bureau of Naval Personnel. It was originally published in 1970.

1970, you ask? How could it possibly still be relevant? Hasn't a lot changed since then?

Well, yes, a lot has changed, but a lot has also stayed the same. What has stayed the same are the fundamentals of electricity. Voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, inductance, magnetism and so on still work the same way today as they did in 1970 (and they worked the same way before 1970 as well).

This is a very thorough book, taking you from basic circuits to transformers and motors. Some may say that the technology in the book is a bit obsolete. In some respects, this may be true, but much of what you see pictured can still be found in industrial settings. After going through this book, take a trip to the electrical department of your local home improvement store-you'll be surprised at how much sense things will make!

Vladimir Rojansky: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves

Vladimir Rojansky served in the White Army during the Russian Civil War. His regiment retreated across Siberia. Rojansky continued his journey across the Pacific to America.

He was one of the first students of quantum mechanics; his thesis advisor was Nobel Prize winner, John van Vleck.

Rojansky taught for many years, and then worked on communications satellites and other projects at TRW.

This book, from Dover Publications assumes only a basic background in physics and calculus, but leads all the way up to the Maxwell equations. It is an excellent text, reflecting Rojansky's academic background and practical industry experience.

Apple OS X Lion

I finally made the transition to OS X Lion. Once the download was complete, it took about an hour.

I did not like the "new" look of Mail, so I'm very happy you can still use the "classic" look.

Many of the "changes" appear to be user interface issues, but others, such as enhanced security, go well beyond that and are worth further examination.

All of my key applications run without any problems, though not all of them support certain Lion features, such as the "full screen" view (this will probably come in time for most of the applications, and even if it does not, it is no big deal).

I do like the enhancements to Preview, which is underrated-it is much more than an "image viewing" application.

Apple OS X *is* the world's most advanced operating system, and this upgrade is well worth the price!

Review and commentary (c) 2011 by Patrick Jost

Mouse Tales

It is no secret that I love Apple products.

Their mouse (on the right) may be an exception. I have gone through two of them in as many years. What goes wrong? The little trackball stops working. The trackball is a wonderful idea, and if you fiddle with it (rub it on a piece of paper, etc.) sometimes it will work-for a while.

So, when the second one died, I looked for a replacement (sorry, Apple). I selected the Macally IceMini (on the left).

Nice little mouse, and it is little. Right and left buttons and a robust scrollwheel. You can only scroll up and down, not back and forth, but that is not a huge problem.

Review and commentary (c) 2011 by Patrick Jost