Friday October 31, 2008

One more reason to be paranoid... As if I wasn't paranoid enough, researchers at University of California in San Diego have given me one more reason: they've developed software that can duplicate physical keys from photographs. Taken at a distance. Or with a cell phone camera. From any angle. This is really scary stuff. I mean, those 80s made for television movies scared me enough - whenever I leave one of my cars for service, or send it through a car wash, I always remove my house keys. Now doing that may not be enough.  Yes, it seems unlikely that everyone will be at risk for this type of attack, but certainly if you are targeted it will be worth someone's effort to observe you and your keys. (2008-10-31 14:34:37.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Bridge School Benefit fantastic again!

My hubby and I walked to the Shoreline Amphitheater on Saturday afternoon to check out this year's Bridge School Benefit concert. Other than being irked by being required to pay for parking, even though we walked, we had a great time.  The lawn was packed when we arrived, and just got more so after the opening acts started. An odd character in front of me kept insisting on spreading out her blanket over my feet. This was strange, because we were there long before she was and she was actually looking at my feet as she did this (repeatedly, as I pushed it off each time).  After about 20 minutes of this, she seemed to realize that I was not going to move further back (which was actually not possible) and we could then enjoy the show.

Neil Young actually kicked the concert off with a couple of his classic tunes, which was a pleasant start of the evening. The opening bands were pretty good, though I did find Wilco a bit... boring. Death Cab for Cutie really got things going, bringing back sweet memories of watching The O.C. I could not possibly say enough good things about Sarah McLachlan's set, switching back and forth between the guitar and the piano, testing out some new material and playing all of my favorites as well. Nora Jones surprised me with her three woman band and the distinct country tone of her set, which ended up being quite enjoyable! She actually did a Hank Williams song that he wrote the lyrics to, but had never written music for - so she had composed a delightful melody to back it up. It's really amazing how those old lyrics still hold up.

We missed the last two sets, as the smoke from the cigarettes, cigars, pipes and ... pipes was getting to me, so we walked home. Still, had a great time and will be sure to make it again next year!

[I wrote most of this on Sunday but forgot to post! oops!]