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How does a hacker know his rootkit isn't spying on him?

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/05/video_rejected _.html

Ahhh, so that's sick.

They've tried magnetic implants in other places for carrying of gadgets and small metal objects, but they didn't work because the pressure of carrying stuff around on the magnets kills the tissue between the magnet and the skin. But there has been some success in a spinoff technique of implanting magnets in fingertips so you can feel magnetic fields.

I'm sure none of the Microsoft engineers ever saw this when it was circulating the net a few years back either-

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003 /07/59837

Clearly some microsoft "innovation" at work...

Wired has some pictures of the kind of car rig that takes these street-level panoramas.

Ban on name changes by sex offenders.

Funny how politicians will throw anything into the political arena during crunch time (races...). Just how do they propose to keep track of "name changes" from a sex offender. For starters they can't even maintain their own equipment, can't secure the FBI infrastructure, a company for MySpace is already reporting false positives.... Should we wait for the FBI's new and improved Carnivore? ... Or maybe Hack our Kids' brains'... I got it... How about government sponsored Parenting Classes that teach parents how to get involved with their kids' lives...

Ban on name changes by sex offenders.

Funny how politicians will throw anything into the political arena during crunch time (races...). Just how do they propose to keep track of "name changes" from a sex offender. For starters they can't even maintain their own equipment, can't secure the FBI infrastructure, a company for MySpace is already reporting false positives.... Should we wait for the FBI's new and improved Carnivore? ... Or maybe Hack our Kids' brains'... I got it... How about government sponsored Parenting Classes that teach parents how to get involved with their kids' lives...

Try to image car insurance companies using this to their advantage.

In late February Alcatel-Lucent won a $1.52B patent infringement suit against Microsoft over 2 patents which cover something in MP3 (neither is included in the Frauenhofer license which Microsoft paid for). Microsoft may get this reduced or overturned. But don't let a Microsoft "victory" fool you: the structure of patent law doesn't allow for the safety you speak of; that structure is designed to create the ambiguity which places all software users and developers in jeopardy (be it the jeopardy of being sued, losing the exclusivity patents ostensibly create, or the jeopardy of losing a patent infringement lawsuit). I remain unconvinced that delivering the ability to use most popular free software codecs is any more risky than MP3.

In an interview with Wired magazine IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian claims Alcatel-Lucent should have dealings only with Frauenhofer but I think she mainly says this because she's speaking for the desires of businesses distributing MP3 players, not the realities of patents. That one-stop MP3 license shopping would make businesses comfortable dealing with software patents. But Apple, another major MP3 licensee, knows all too well the danger to their customers if a patent holder isn't properly paid off (or their patents avoided entirely). Richard Stallman tells the story of Paul Heckel's patents when Heckel's lawyer told him his patents may have covered something in Apple's Hypercard:

For instance, Paul Heckel--when Apple wasn't very scared of his threats--threatened to start suing Apple's customers. Apple found that very scary. They figured they couldn't afford to have their customers being sued like that, even if they would ultimately win. So the users can get sued too, either as a way of attacking a developer or just as a way to squeeze money out of them on their own or to cause mayhem. All software developers and users are vulnerable.

As more MP3-related patent holders come out of the shadows, more companies risk being similarly exposed as organizations that don't do all the research they need to do to resolve these issues (and such research is impossible to completely do). This places their users at risk. Any such patent holder could have Apple over a barrel just like Heckel did. While this could certainly happen for any kind of program we know that the known patent holders of ideas implemented in free codecs aren't charging anyone for any use, even commercial use.

So, according to a manager at Redmond, there are ~16,000 iPods at MS-HQ. From looking at that bin, they've managed to get about 0.1% of those people to "upgrade" to a zune...

I especially love the employee who gained brownie-points by putting something (anything!) in the ipod-bin, even if it was only an iPod *cover* [huge grin]. I wonder if Steve (that's Balmer, in case of confusion) was watching him walk on by, and he thought he had to put *something* in...

If MS can only get 0.1% of their *own* people to switch, they ain't gonna make it too big in the far more neutral marketplace...

Simon.

Tony Long, over at Wired, posted a similar article that address those very concerns. From that article: To say I went into the movie clueless, though, wouldn't be accurate. You can't have lived in this world for as long as I have without being exposed to some of the fallout from this pop-culture phenomenon. Just like you can't avoid being exposed to radiation from time to time. ANYWAY!

Well, it worked for BitTorrent (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/bittorre nt.html)!

1) knowing what extensions are
- Both the fact that that they exist in the first place AND what the different ones mean--"ooh, should I click on hotsex.jpg.doc.exe.scr.pif?"

2) looking at the URL in the status bar before clicking on a link
- Apple: I love you, but you SUCK for having the status bar off by default in Safari.

3) knowing where downloaded files go
- Every phone-based support call I've ever made:
a) Painfully (see #4) navigate to a URL.
b) Painfully (see #5) instruct user to download a file.
c) Spend 5 minutes telling them where that file is on their computer

4) the difference between \ and /
- these people saw a backslash ONCE in their lives while using DOS about twenty years ago, and now every time I tell them an address, it's "Is that forward slash or backslash?" (Despite the fact that I've told them a million times that they'll pretty much NEVER see a \ in a URL.) This is usually followed by the question "Which one is slash?" God damn you, Paul Allen.

5) the difference between click, right-click, and double-click
"OK, right click on My Computer... no, close that window. Now, see the mouse? Press the RIGHT BUTTON..."

6) the concept of paths, root directories, etc.
- I why do I have to explain fifty times a day how to get from example.com/foo to example.com?

Admins can get whatever skills they want--they picked the career, thy can accept the fact that things change. The backends are usually handled by people with some know-how. It's the end-users that cause all the problems. It'd be like driving in a world where people didn't know how to use turn signals, didn't check their blind spots, didn't know they shouldn't talk on the phone while making complicated maneuvers--oh, wait, bad example.

Wired is doing a Request for Analogies: using your neighbors wifi is like...
What will the /. community add?

Multi-touch interface has already regained some strength for making apps more intuitive to use, in part thanks to recent efforts of Jeff Han. He garnered much interest through a demonstration at TED 2006. See what he's up to today with his new company.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999 /09/21577

Apparently, some think HP made the first personal computer:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/mustread.h tml?pg=11

But a search on JSTOR's general science archive turned up what Shapiro says is the earliest documented use of personal computer, in the October 4, 1968, issue of Science. The issue contains a Hewlett-Packard ad for its new HP 9100A. "The new Hewlett-Packard 9100A personal computer," the ad proclaims, is "ready, willing, and able ... to relieve you of waiting to get on the big computer."

Apparently, some think HP made the first personal computer:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/mustread.h tml?pg=11

But could we save Kennedy? Just kidding, on a more technical note, there are tons of cool new toys for medics and trauma doctors. I have been amazed by how slowly emergency rooms are adopting chitosan bandages like HemCon despite their proven effectiveness in Iraq. Pretty soon we may be able to use hydrogen sulfide to put people into suspended animation for very long surgeries.

This reminds me of 2001 Chinese hackers said Tuesday they have begun to hit American computer networks with denial-of-service attacks, and also claim to have placed mass-attack tools into four large American computer networks. A new alert from the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) confirms that hackers have been particularly active over the past two days. The distributed-denial-of-service attacks on the Department of the Interior's National Business Center, the U.S. Geological Survey's site and Pacific Bell Internet Services are among the largest so far. (Is This World Cyber War I).

Economics will eventually take a big hit in the future with regards to cyberwarfare. A lot of times I'll read articles and comments with "so what better computers then people". Often those commenting don't think about the repercussions that come from a collapsed economy... That will lead to a shoddier quality of life, more crime and eventually more violence. Isn't this the case for the gaming community with so called "Gold Farmers" from China waging off-line attacks now... Meaning people actually escalating a scenario to non Internet mediums...

Wired posted this story last week ( http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/gonzales_ hides_.html ) after someone spotted this story: http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070510nj1 .htm.

The blogger had this to say: Put simply, this stinks. Earlier this months, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vermont) subpoenaed (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/leahy_su poenas_.html) all e-mails between the Justice Department and the White House over the attorney firings. Yet our nation's top lawman refuses to obey the law of the land. And continues to be our nation's top lawman.

The Bush administration continues to openly flaunt their complete contempt for the laws of this country. Bring respect back to the White House my ass.

Wired posted this story last week ( http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/gonzales_ hides_.html ) after someone spotted this story: http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070510nj1 .htm.

The blogger had this to say: Put simply, this stinks. Earlier this months, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vermont) subpoenaed (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/leahy_su poenas_.html) all e-mails between the Justice Department and the White House over the attorney firings. Yet our nation's top lawman refuses to obey the law of the land. And continues to be our nation's top lawman.

The Bush administration continues to openly flaunt their complete contempt for the laws of this country. Bring respect back to the White House my ass.

Wow, the evil Harry Fox and OLGA debacle. That brings a tear to my eye.

Well, if you had actually read yesterday's article, you would have seen that the mileage estimate on your regular civic has also dropped. The Prius combined estimate dropped 16%, while the non hybrid Civic dropped 12%. Even after the milage drop, the Prius still gets 58% better combined fuel economy than your Civic (46 mpg vs. 29 mpg combined).

Of course, these are just estimates, and your mileage may vary.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquesti ons.html?pg=4#hadron

I recently read an article about solar power in Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/solar.htm l

The article mentions a new design for a concentrator that only uses two motors. To quote the article -

"Then, in a weekend flash of inspiration, a young Caltech physics grad named Kevin Hickerson figured out how to reduce the number of motors needed to move 25 mirrors independently, a major cost factor. Instead of two motors for each mirror - the traditional approach - Hickerson's solution requires only two motors for any number of mirrors. The key is a mathematical curve known as the conchoid of Nicomedes (named for the ancient Greek mathematician, who discovered it). A grid of ball bearings arrayed to match the conchoid is attached to a frame inside the Sunflower. As the motors move the frame, the bearings control each mirror's position individually."

I have found this but it is not helping me much:

http://nvizx.typepad.com/nvizx_weblog/2005/08/conc hoid_of_nic.html

I have been unable to locate a more detailed explanation of the system and I'm not sure if this basic math is patentable. My advanced math skills are very rusty and I'm not quite sure where to start to understand this. I have an idea that this technique might be useful and I want to understand how to design such a frame. I did look at the concentrator page here: http://www.sandia.gov/pv/docs/PVFarraysConcentrato r_Collectors.htm but it was not much help.

These articles as well also have some implications for the benefits of a simple energy source:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/1 2/1621204&tid=126&tid=14

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816, 1101299,00.html

Also, this today triggered my interest again:

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/stor y?id=46765

I want to understand how to make a spreadsheet or something that would allow me to input number mirrors, focal length, size and it tell me shape, size a location of pivots. Can you explain it to someone who hasn't touched calculus in 18 years? I want to build a cheap one on my roof!

Incidentally, I mentioned those articles -- here's my collection. Let's get them out there to help build our industry.

They range in subject matters that assist me, with the majority being security related.

http://www.nbc4.com/money/11588165/detail.html
http://www.nbc4.com/money/11588165/detail.html
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71032-0.html
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pag ename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Artic le&cid=1135552209280&call_pageid=971358637177
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20050704.gtkirwanjul4/BNStory/specialScienceandHe alth/
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=176198
http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/060619 _hyperactive_bob.html
http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/factsheets/ fs_faq.html
http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/open-source/open-sourc e-legal
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/securi ty/privacy/story/0,10801,108101,00.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&article Id=9004274&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_feat
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=f6f 548f7-9dfd-49f4-9ff8-8ae8f4a2e2fd
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr 2006/tc20060417_996365.htm?campaign_id=bier_tca
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_37 /b4000401.htm?chan=tc&campaign_id=bier_tcst0
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1 781895,00.html
http://panko.cba.hawaii.edu/ssr/Mypapers/whatknow. htm

I think the final estimate of who was producing crap here, is best summed up with the headline.

Anyways, you really don't get to be editor in chief by running crap, anymore than you get to CEO by acting like a Dilbertesque pointy hair. Of course everyone has their moments.

Either way deciding if a story was crap or not is in the domain of "Editor in Chief" last I checked.

Actually, Navteq does send people out to drive the roads and key them . . .

...and why aren't people mentioning that Crawford is Steve Jobs's bitch? The original dispute was over an article about Apple. When Crawford worked at MacWorld, Jobs would call him up any time he had a problem with a story the magazine was running about Apple.

The FISA itself already makes NSA wiretapping illegal in ways Bush personally ordered for years, as he's admitted. Last year a federal judge found that the NSA had violated the law (and the Constitution), and thereby that Bush had violated the law, in Bush's admitted offenses. The FISA makes it illegal for Bush to ignore the FISA court when wiretapping, and Bush has insisted he will continue to do just that.

Although Bush did lie about stopping his crimes when this issue first blew up in the news, last week he said he'd continue.

FISA was created after Congress (and America) learned about some of the extent to which Nixon had abused his power to spy on Americans without cause or Constitutional process. It has been amended over a dozen times since, to keep pace with changing technology and suspects. But Bush will ignore it all, because he's used to the Republican Congress Nixon lacked to perpetuate his tyrannies.

Bush is a committed criminal. Congress must impeach him immediately. While we still can.

Did anyone else read the Wired Article about how the CIA got some Americans out of Iran using a fake cover story about producing a Sci-Fi movie in Iran? After the Iranians took our embassy during their revolution, they hired a bunch of rug weavers to reassemble our shredded documents according to article. Wonder how successful they were...

I've been studying FX since the announcement yesterday, and I think that Sun is overhyping it to the extreme.

No, really? Sun overhyping Java technology? Whatever next?

Anyone remember Jini, the incredible Java technology that was going to enable every device to talk to every other device? Or JXTA, the Java technology that's going to revolutionize P2P?

I've been studying FX since the announcement yesterday, and I think that Sun is overhyping it to the extreme.

No, really? Sun overhyping Java technology? Whatever next?

Anyone remember Jini, the incredible Java technology that was going to enable every device to talk to every other device? Or JXTA, the Java technology that's going to revolutionize P2P?

If the government intends to use RFID in these cards I for one must pass. I tried to look up the article that I thought was from wired mag but could not find it. Self edit I did find it http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html Its just to easy to steal the rfid, and until they can get something safer I for one won't have it if I can stop it. The only rfid card I have lets me into my condo and that gate is broken so often one only needs to wait before the gates are pinned open if you want to steal something.

"These countries are treading on a slippery slope. At what point is it OK now to not pay for the hard work of other people, or to begin to directly steal from them?"

Maybe they could ask other countries who steal patent licenses from inventors, using the excuse that they're the government.

Such as for example, the United States of America

Specifically, I refuse to throw money at Yahoo! because of their actions in China. You know, the whole dissident who was jailed because of information provided by Yahoo!. I realize that Google is guilty of similar things both in China, and in countries like Brazil. But, thankfully, the Picassa interface is so bad, I wouldn't really consider using it anyhow. And, of course, I think that most countries (save for the United States) have better records on human rights than China does.

As far as every communications company cooperating, that's true to some extent. However, the level to which the company complies varies quite a bit. For instance, AT&T having a secret room is far different than Verizon attempting to not cooperate with the NSA. Maybe Verizon's got a secret room or two. But, for now, I'll find Verizon to be the lesser of two evils.

> I would hope they need more than that to tie the "murder" to him

But he also owned a book on true murder stories!!

Your criminal justice system in USA == INSANE.

(ps: not joking, http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007 /03/72931 search for Masterpieces of Murder)

This story recalled for me William Gibson's description (in a Wired article a few years ago) of Indonesia (I think it was) as "Disneyland with the Death Penalty". To which this story brings new meaning. China is Microsoft with Tanks.... -- nice slogan.

Gibson's Disneyland with the Death Penalty was about Singapore, not Indonesia.

Indonesia has the death penalty, but it is much larger than Disneyland and not at all as clean.

Disclaimer: this post is seriously off-topic, but at least it aims to be informative. :)

The Wired story included a direct quote from Negroponte based on an email exchange after the original story,