I have a hunch that a lot of government contractors work near Crystal City. But of course it might just be my imagination.

I've recently started working as a subcontractor on a new (incredibly boring) project, and it's requiring that I spend a fair number of days in a cube farm at the prime's office in Crystal City. Worse, the people here actually have some technical savvy, forcing me to worry about my internet traffic (and vigorous daily blog regimen) being observed by folks for whom I'd prefer to maintain the illusion that I'm an industrious and conscientious worker 100% of the time.

As a result, I've set things up so that all of my personal internet traffic goes through an encrypted tunnel, back to our apartment, and then out to the internet over our DSL connection. Office snoops will see traffic going out, but have no idea what it is. And from Verizon's perspective I might as well be sitting on our couch right now.

All of this has gotten me thinking and reading up on encryption and security, as you might have noticed from the post I put up over at BTD this morning. But since it's been a while since I did something really techy over here, I figured I might as well write a bit more about it. And since it's a pretty meaty subject, I figured I might as well split it up across a number of posts.

So first things first: let's talk about how modern encryption systems work. And let's do it in few enough words that it isn't confusing, or too terribly boring. Movie and Xbox references behind the cut, I promise.

I have to say, last night's WWE payperview was surprisingly disappointing. The interesting matches were too short, and I was too out of the house picking up takeout during them. Nuts.

On the upside, the fact that both Ed Gillespie and Ken Mehlman were in last night's MCI Center audience is making me feel pretty good about the newly launched McMahon for President initiative.

the new pornographers' twin cinema gets a 9.0 from pitchfork today, an assessment that i agree much more with now than i would have when i first listened to it. as i said, it's definitely a grower, but i still think mass romantic and electric version are better. but i can't decide if that's because they're poppier and more accessible, and i'm just a slut for poppy, accessible music.

anyway, you can catch them at the 9:30 club on october 15. i'll be seeing them at the metro october 20.