via Bruce Schneier:

More on Port Security

From Defective Yeti:

Sark Defends Port Deal

Sark today sought to quell the growing controversy over his decision
to grant the MCP control of several major ports throughout the region.

"I believe that this arrangement with the Master Control Program
should go forward," Sark told reporters aboard Solar Sailer One. He
emphasized that security would continued to be handled by Tank and
Recognizer programs, with the MCP only be in charge of port operations.

But Dumont, guardian of the I/O towers, voiced skepticism. "I could
understand ceding authority over ports 21 and 80," said Dumont. "But
port 443? That’s supposed to be secure!"

The public’s reaction to the plan has also been overwhelmingly
negative. "No no no," said a bit upon hearing the news. "No no no no."
Others were more blunt. "Sark should be de-rezzed for even proposing
this," said Ram, a financial program.

Sark, who has repeatedly denied having ties to the MCP, has insisted
that the hand-over go through, and says that he will vigorously resist
any effort to block it. But programs such as Yori are equally adamant
that the deal be scuttled. "My User," she said, "have we already
forgotten the lessons of 1000222846?"

Anne and I ran in the Race for the Cure at the Rose Bowl yesterday. It was a perfect day for a run: mostly cloudy, not too humid, and around 65 when we started. I haven’t run very much the last year, thanks to this stupid chronic pain in my right hip (the Miracle Balls are helping a lot. I’ll write about that another time) but I’ve been jogging and walking almost every day for the last couple of weeks, so I was able to run the entire first mile, about half of the second mile, and about 2/3 of the last mile for a time of 35:21. It’s not my best 5K time, but considering how little training I’ve done, I’ll take it. Anne jogged the entire way, and she finished right around 38:00. Go Anne!

I don’t know for sure, but I think I heard that there were about 17000 people walking and jogging in celebration of and in memory of their loved ones who have fought breast cancer. I remember this from the Avon 3 Day, the Rock N Roll Marathon, and the Race for the Cure last year: there are people of all ages, at all levels of fitness, who are walking, running, and jogging with the names and pictures of people they love pinned to their clothes, and it is impossible to be unaffected by them.

A few WWdN:iX readers sent some small contributions to me, which I’ve collected and will pass on to the Susan G. Komen foundation later this week. If anyone else wants to be added, you can send whatever you’d like to my paypal address (it’s my first name at wilwheaton.net). I’ll add it to the total I send on Friday, and I’ll post the names of everyone who contributes in a special post at the end of the week.

Did you know that 1 in 7 women in America will be diagnosed with breast
cancer sometime in her life? I had no idea it was so common, and I am proud to support the people who help women and their
families, as well as the people who are seeking a cure.

I finished 23rd (or 21st, depending on who you ask) out of 317 players in the WPT Invitational last night, and I was the last "celebrity" player left standing, so I won $10,000 for the City of Hope in Duarte. It was really weird when I did my exit interviews, and they kept trying to get me to say I was the best celebrity poker player. I told them that I was probably the only player in the entire field who hosts two poker tournaments a week at PokerStars, and I owed a lot of my success and confidence to honing my skills online, and discussing the game with the WPBT.

I’m working on a write-up of the event, but this has been a rather hectic morning and I doubt I’ll get a chance to post anything in-depth until later on. Until then, I absolutely have to thank Ryan Kallberg, aka Absinthe, who sent me a Dannenman-esqe strategy sheet that seriously helped me out. In fact, I’m confident that I wouldn’t have made it past the first level of the day without Ryan’s advice and support. There’s a reason he cashed five times in the LA Poker Classic, including a first place finish in event number one. Thanks, Ryan. I owe you several beers.

If you missed it yesterday, and you’d like to retroactively view the action, you can head over to Pauly’s blog, and read the live-updates from last night.

(Photo Credit: Dr. Pauly)

Well, I survived the first day of the World Poker Tour Invitational, and I’ve written up a recap of the day’s action over at CardSquad:

If Maxim did a poker issue, it would be this tournament:
the room is filled with big celebrities, beautiful models, and virtually every poker pro you could imagine. The
atmosphere is more like a party than any other tourney I’ve ever played, and everyone is having a good time.

At the end of day one, there are 98 players left. I am in 68th, with T17500, which is just about half of the average
stack of T32000. BJ has a
complete list of the players and their stacks over at PokerPages, and of course Pauly has the best live blog on the Internets, which includes a ton of
pictures.

I didn’t get many cards to play all day, but when I did, I got paid off nicely. I took a couple of pots from Jason Alexander, and I even busted John Juanda when he ran his KQ into my pocket Aces.

Some of you may have read that I
busted John. This is true, but it’s not as exciting or masterful as you may think. John was crippled when Jason flopped
Broadway for the nuts, and John made aces up on the turn. A few hands later, Daniel Negreanu came running over to our
table with some guy I didn’t recognize, and said to John, "Can you eat ten Saltines in sixty seconds?"

"What?" John said, and everyone else at the table thought.

"Saltine crackers. Can you
eat ten of them in sixty seconds?"

John thought for a second while he looked at his cards.

"Yeah, I think I can," he said.

"Okay!" Daniel said, with a little hop. "Juanda
is my horse! You get half my action, John."

"Let’s do it!" John said, and shoved his last
1000 or so into the pot. It was folded to me, and I figured that the BB and I were calling based strictly on odds and
probably checkint it down. That is, until I woke up with pocket aces.

"I have to raise," I said.
While I thought about what amount would get the BB to maybe call with something that I could survive, he folded J2o
face up.

"Go ahead and play it out," he said. "I’m not playing this."

I
flipped up my aces, and John flipped up KQ. I flopped an ace, busted John Juanda, and ended up with about 16K after the
whole thing was said and done. John and I shook hands, and the WPT cameras captured the whole thing. Daniel was putting
on quite a show for them, calling for cards and stuff, and it was pretty funny, so it stands a good chance of making
the broadcast, especially if I make it deep today.

I have a tough table today, with Scott Fischman immediately to my left, but I also know that I essentially have one steal, and after that it’s push-or-fold time. If you’re interested in tracking my action, Pauly will be live blogging me and the rest of the field at Tao of Poker.

I was up way too late last night, because I played in a 180 player Sit-n-go tournament at PokerStars, to warm myself up for the World Poker Tour Invitational, which I play in later today at the Commerce Casino.

I finished tenth, one off the final table, when I made a great call with A9 against QT when I flopped a pair of nines and he pushed. Sadly, he paired his queen on the turn and I didn’t catch up on the river. I made $43 bucks for my trouble, though, a bunch of my WPBT friends sweated me through the whole thing, and I confirmed that my large-ish field tournament strategy is solid. I’ll take my iRiver with me to the tourney, and put together an audio diary for RFB #5.

Anyway, the tourney went super late, and I was wound up when it was done and didn’t settle down until well after midnight, so I ended up sleeping much later today than I normally do. I’m in a bit of a panic about hitting my various deadlines since I have two less hours to work with, but I wanted to point you all to this week’s Games of our Lives: Shark! Shark!

In the great console wars of the ’80s, Mattel’s Intellivision was
severely handicapped by its weird controllers and faux wood-grain
finish. The Atari 2600, though technologically inferior, had a lower
price, plus companies like Activision and Imagic cranking out tons of
future classics for the system. But in 1982, Intellivision released Shark! Shark!, a game that was so successful, it even caught Mattel’s marketing department off guard.

I loved playing Shark! Shark! and I’m going to do lots of Intellivision games for future columns. I wish I’d been able to get over its weird controllers and faux wood-grain finish — oh, and had the $299 to purchase one — back in the 1980s, because those Intellivision games rule.