I just finished reading The Code Book by Simon Singh. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of cryptography, as well as the specifics of some of the techniques. It includes historical information from Egypt to modern day. I found the sections describing the Enigma engine particularly interesting, as well as the discussion of the recent history of RSA encryption and PGP. It is an easy read; you don’t have to be a mathematician nor a computer scientist to understand it. It will also help you how your web browser does encryption, and the relationship of the certifying authorities to web based encryption.

One of Wil Wheaton’s readers suggested providing GMail invites to the troops in Iraq so they can get movies and pictures from home. (GMail is currently available by invitation only.) It sounds like a good idea to me.

My friend Steve pointed me at this website, Furl today. Pretty cool concept. I added a section on my webpage that lists the latest items I have marked.

Finally, some of the large ISPs have gotten together to attempt to put an end to some of the spam we get.

Check out this story on Yahoo.

Denis Burger and Erik Vignau have launched a new company “Bid Brothers”, to help people sell items on E-Bay. Check it out here.

This Wired article discusses some of the confusion related to the Can-Spam legislation that was previously passed.

This article talks about Microsoft and Elliot Spitzer filing lawsuits against some of the largest spammers. This is great news! I personally have been doing my part to fight spam for years. I have been complaining to ISPs that have open relays, or have accounts that generate spam. There have been a few “victories” for me in the past, with some accounts closed, but the flow of spam into my personal accounts continues.

The introduction of the do-not-call list has certainly toned down the number of marketing calls we get during dinner time. Maybe a do-not-email list will be setup as described in CAN-SPAM.

This article at C-Net summarizes some of the criticisms of the CAN-SPAM legislation. Personally, I’m skeptical that anything positive will come of the legislation in the first place, as the spammers don’t seem to care about the existing state laws.

The CAN-SPAM bill was signed by President Bush today. It was reintroduced by Senators Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). It is certainly a step forward. It requires Commercial email to contain opt-out instructions, as well as the sender’s physical address. There is also language in the bill about forged headers and inaccurate source addresses.