(no subject)

Applying the rules of power saw safety to internet security

here are some of the key safety features that are built into the DeWalt Mitre Saw. Notice in all three of these examples you do not have to do anything special, just use the device. This is how we need to think from a security perspective.

Safety Cover: There is a plastic safety cover that protects the entire rotating blade. The only time the blade is actually exposed is when you lower the saw to actually cut into the wood. The moment you start to raise the blade after cutting, the plastic cover protects everything again. This means to hurt yourself you have to manually lower the blade with one hand then insert your hand into the cutting blade zone.

Power Switch: Actually, there is no power switch. Instead, after the saw is plugged in, to activate the saw you have to depress a lever. Let the lever go and saw stops. This means if you fall, slip, blackout, have a heart attack or any other type of accident and let go of the lever, the saw automatically stops. In other words, the saw always fails to the off (safe) position.

Shadow: The saw has a light that projects a shadow of the cutting blade precisely on the wood where the blade will cut. No guessing where the blade is going to cut.

Safety is like security, you cannot eliminate risk. But I feel this is a great example of how security can learn from others on how to take people into account.

- From Securing The Human

A kickstarter I can get behind.

"Most people think of the space race as an elaborate way to kill dogs using explosives. In Flaustria, it is conducted with class. A model astronaut must show sparkling wit, a winning smile, and perhaps a working knowledge of what the spaceship buttons do. In Astronaut: The Best, your duty is to train a procedurally-generated team of deviant screwups into brilliant space heroes, or give the impression of having done so. Anything less, and you will be killed and left in a ditch."

A wacky game of managing the space program, described alternately as "It’s like a Mel Brooks version of Papers, Please" and "It’s like Princess Maker or Long Live The Queen, if you were raising a whole bunch of princesses, any one of which might turn out to be a hideous reptile at any time, but even if that were the case, there could totally be a silver lining to that cloud" and "It’s like a wonky physics game, like Goat Simulator, but the physics is human interaction"

Only 48 hours left on the Kickstarter and 10K to go, but I'd never heard of it before. I've backed it, and you should too, and share it with all the people you think deserve this sort of game.