A Way to Store a Library Catalog Online

Well, I might have expected it. Since you can keep your diary online (blogs), you can now catalog your personal library online as well. Library Thing allows you to look up information on your books and store records of them in its database. You get 200 free, then you have to pay for an account. Plus, you can see who else has the same books you have. It's something that I have been wanting to do for a while, so I am starting my own online catalog. As you might guess, it will take me a while to get them all entered. It should be a joyous, and at times poignant, reunion and review.

Learning Attic Greek

A friend at work and I have committed to meet regularly and keep each other accountable to study Attic Greek. We are using Introduction to Attic Greek by Donald J. Mastronarde. I have been procrastinating starting the exercises until I found a reasonable way to type Greek on a computer. I type much better, and with less pain, than I write. I looked for Greek text editors and word processors. As I expected, they cost money. So I was glad to find a free Greek font and template combination that allows me to type my Greek exercises in Microsoft Word. I'm no big fan of Microsoft. But I have Word and have already paid for it, so this will be the simplest way to do my writing. I'll get to a bit of it now.

Learning Computer Security

On Thursday and Friday, I took a web security course at work. We were required to go, and I suspected that, as with many required classes, it would be boring. It was not. The class was taught by Jerry Hoff of Aspect Security. He is quite a good teacher and made the class interesting. I learned quite a bit about how hackers attack web applications. There are a surprising number of potential weaknesses that can be exploited if developers code carelessly.

One organization that we learned about is called OWASP. It is a consortium of companies and people concerned about security. I'll have to check it out and see if they have a group here.

There is always a danger of forgetting what you learned in a class like this. I'm going to review the material and check out the tools that Jerry recommended we get. Unfortunately, I'm already displaying forgetful senility. I took in my personal ergonomic keyboard to protect my arms while typing the assignments. We did not do that much typing, and when I left, I walked out without my keyboard. I hope that it is still there when I get back. So now I am typing on the regular laptop keyboard, doing my best to preserve my arms and avoid tendonitis.