Guess What Come In The Mail?

I receive lots of textbooks from various publishers to review for the courses I teach and so when I opened a package today, I thought it was another one for consideration. To my surprise, it was the textbook I wrote a chapter on titled "Trusted Computing: Evolution and Direction" - it is gratifying to see the fruit of my labor from last summer in print and for that I am grateful.


The following is an abstract of my chapter "To effectively combat cyber threats, our network defenses must be equipped to thwart dangerous attacks. However, our software-dominated defenses are woefully inadequate. The Trusted Computing Group has embarked on a mission to use an open standards-based interoperability framework utilizing both hardware and software implementations to defend against computer attacks. Specifically, this group uses trusted hardware called the trusted platform module (TPM) in conjunction with TPM-enhanced software to provide better protection against such attacks. This chapter will detail a brief history of trusted computing, the goals of the Trusted Computing Group and the workings of trusted platforms".

Here We Come - Xiamen, Fujian Province - China!

We were originally scheduled for Manila but God sees fit that we spend this summer in Xiamen. Through a series of events - recommendation of Dr. Su Guaning, President of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, generosity of Dr. Zhu Chongshi of Xiamen University, and sponsorship and approval of Rotary International and others, doors were opened expediently to allow us this wonderful opportunity.

Map of China - Fujian Province shown here in red

While I will be teaching in English in the School of Information Science and Technology at Xiamen Univeristy, my proficiencies in Mandarin (I need to brush that up a bit), Hokkien, and Teochew will serve me well as I perform local service community projects in Xiamen. Xiamen is location in Fujian Province. As you can see from the map, Taiwan is located east of Xiamen.

Historically, Xiamen is consider the Birthplace of Chinese Protestanism where Taiwanese missionaries began their work from 1626-1662. Now Xiamen is a modern coastal city, where during its recent modernization, was designated a Special Economic Zone. Xiamen, with its five million plus inhabitants, is considered to be the second most livable city in China.


My mom grew up in the neighboring province of Guangdong in the city of Shantou 汕头, or Swatow in Min Chinese, a city of 784,000 in coastal eastern, China. As such, we look forward to the opportunity to meet up with ancestral relatives - how cool is that!