Author Archives: Stephan Neuhaus

About Stephan Neuhaus

Stephan Neuhaus has been working in security since 1992, when he was a member of the PGP 2.0 development team. He has since been a successful entrepreneur before going back to University where he got his PhD in Software Engineering from Saarbrücken University in 2008. He is now a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, where he works on empirical software security in Prof. Plattner's Communication Systems Group.

Happy 2012!

A happy 2012 to all, from the Communication Systems Group!

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Read the Classics!

I have recently read a book about the history of statistics, and the author made me aware of several books by R. A Fisher, or, to give his full name, Sir Ronald A. Fisher, Sc.D., FRS, one of the giants … Continue reading

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The Value of Scientific Presentations

In conferences, I often come across science that is great. Results are amazing, people have done something that was thought not to be doable, or they have built a system that has incredible properties. However, that same science is often … Continue reading

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Johnny Still Can’t Encrypt

There once was a very good article about user interface issues in PGP 5.0, called “Why Johnny Can’t Encrypt“. In this year’s Usenix Security Symposium (Simply called “Security” by those in the know), there was an article called “Why (Special … Continue reading

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Stats Tip #4: Make Use of Unparametric Tests

In statistical hypothesis testing, you often have the choice between tests that assume a certain distribution of the underlying data and tests that don’t make these assumptions.  For example, when evaluating a drug trial, you can choose between, e.g., the … Continue reading

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Stats Tip #3: Bonferroni? No Thanks, I Don’t Like Pasta!

Ravioli, Spaghetti, Bonferroni, Canneloni, Lasagna. All delicious products made from semola di grano duro. Add tomato sauce, put some grana on top, serve with Chianti. (Or Teroldego if, like me, you’ve spent some time in the Trentino.) Mjam!

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Stats Tip #2: Don’t Bin (If You Don’t Have To)!

In a paper, published at a peer-reviewed conference, the authors wished to test the hypothesis that their univariate data was distributed according to an exponential distribution. They didn’t get it quite right.

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Stats Tip #1: Plot The Data!

I’ve recently seen a paper, published at a peer-reviewed conference, where the authors argue that some inter-arrival times were exponentially distributed and that the number of events per unit time were poisson distributed. They did some statistical tests and concluded … Continue reading

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Introduction to the Communication Systems Group Blog

Welcome to the blog of ETH Zurich’s Communication Systems Group. In this space, we will write about research that we’re doing, projects in which we participate, papers that have been published, and generally all the things that occupy us. If … Continue reading

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