Living at KAUST comes with certain privileges not extended to Saudi at large. For example, women do not have to wear abayas on campus, or even scarves to cover their hair. Men and women are allowed to talk openly, although there are restrictions on fraternization. Also, women can drive.
Thus, it occurred to me recently – if you’re a woman driver in Saudi, you get arrested and then who knows what else. If you’re a woman driver in the US, you get a discount on your car insurance.
It’s been said many times many ways, but the weakest point of a security system is the user.
Feynman had a great story about the commanding officer at Los Alamos demanding the most advanced safe available for all his secret documents. This was problematic when the CO passed on before revealing the combination. An amateur lock-picker, Feynman was extremely interested in how the “pros” solved it. It turned out to not be that hard, as it was still on the default combination.
There is a door on campus that is extremely convenient to use as an entrance, but for “security reasons,” it was designated as an exit-only door, and cannot be opened from the outside. Enter ingenuity. We put a doorstop in it, propping it open, nullifying all the security value it would have otherwise had.
Tyler, a friend of mine, pointed this fact out – that by making the “real” solution difficult, they’ve shot themselves in the foot.
Another appropriate example is one of our computer labs. On the entrance, there’s a device that requires a password and a fingerprint scan, but anyone who’s seen “Spaceballs” could guess the combination, and the scanner at this point doesn’t recognize any fingerprints – it just requires that there’s a finger placed on it. An alternate method to gain entry is to slip in a credit card into the door. As a result of the scanner being difficult to set up, any purpose it might have had is gone.
Of course, it’s difficult to get onto campus in the first place, so this aren’t huge issues in my mind, but they seem overtly serious about security when clearly they are not. I get hassled regularly by security guards demanding to see my ID, and yet I’ve had a backpack, a camera and a Nintendo DS stolen. In separate incidents. The camera was even taken from a drawer which is locked more than 95% of the time. In my office. In the building with the highest security priority.
When getting a soda from the vending machine, it occurred to me that diet soda is not unlike a condom – it represents enjoyment without consequences.
At the supermarket, middle-aged folks with nothing planned for the evening will take a glance at the $9.99 rack of movies just to see if anything pops out at them. Middle-aged folks.
More and more the movies that are on those racks are some of my favorites: Trainspotting, Amélie, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown… So, when did I become the target market? In some ways it’s nice that products I want are being marketed towards me, or rather that there’s more of a market for things that I want, but I still find it quietly discouraging.
If you need more evidence, check out BestBuy’s $9.99 DVD page.