Actually, after I clicked submit, I had an ohshit moment -- I forgot to tie a RFID-equipped key to people not being able to use their remotes to unlock their doors. The common thread is that both use RF technologies which could be affected by interference from military radio-based systems.
I'm somewhat familiar with the problem -- at every base I was stationed at in the Air Force, any AM/FM radio I would try and listen to would get a "whenk" sound every few seconds as the local radar antenna would rotate & emit over my location. In the 80's, however, remotes for your car were a luxury, and so this particular problem never arose.
Having owned a couple of cars now with RFID chips in the keys (Mercedes ML-320, MINI Cooper S), I can probably live without the technology (replacement keys are ~$140, ouch!), but it's nice knowing that some scumbag will have a tough time starting my car. With regard to the keyless entry systems, my favorite quote from "Cryptonomicon" is when Avi & Randy were walking to Avi's car, and he triggers the remote. The car turns out to have one of those embarassing talking alarm systems, which as Avi says "were the only cryptographically secure ones". The keyless remotes available today are far from secure -- the best ones are somewhat resistant to a replay attack, but the number of permutations are nowhere near what the manufacturers claim (from what I understand, the algorithm rotates through a sequence of 255 or so numbers -- the manufacturers err on the side of allowing their customers entry into their cars, despite however many times the buttons on the remote got pressed in their pockets).
The military is being pretty good about this, really. I had a roommate in college who was a radar operator in the Navy, and they always turned down the power of the SPY-1 radar when they came into port, because otherwise it's 4+ megawatt power output could take out the town's electrical grid (as well as toast a few of the unfortunate local citizens).
None of these cars have the new RFID chips in the keys to prevent theft. So, you can either drive a car likely to be on the "most stolen" list, or put up with some occasional interference that prevents you from using the remote to unlock the car.
What happens when OpenSSL makes a code fix? Does it all have to be re-validated? Do they supply a signed MD5 hash that says: "These sources are authorized for compiling a FIPS-140 compliant binary"?
There was a comment here on slashdot in the past few months (can't find it now) about if you want to create trustworthy code, you first need to trust every layer below it, and every tool used to create it. Did this team use a validated build of gcc to create their OpenSSL binaries?
Presumably, the adhesive RFID tag has the originating and destination airport printed on it as well (article didn't mention this). Otherwise, Todd the baggage handler needs a battery-powered scanner to know if the bag should be on the plane or not.
I was doing some contract work for First Tennessee a few years ago when someone robbed one of their rural branches. Redneck thief walks in, announces he has a bomb, demands money. They give him money, he lights the fuse on the bomb and tosses it over the counter. Luckily, all it did was burn a hole in the carpet, but the tellers were pretty shook up.
When the crook gets back to his house (probably a trailer, never heard one way or the other), the sheriff's department is already there and waiting for him. It seems he had been growing marijuana in the back yard, and they were there to burn his pot patch and arrest him on dope charges. The bank robbery was just a nice bonus for them.
A few years ago I heard about a guy who robbed a bank in Florida. He forgot to bring a backpack or anything, so to avoid suspicion he put the sack with the money in it down the front of his pants. (Did you recently rob a bank, or are you just happy to see me?).
He got about 2 blocks before the dyepack exploded, covering his ummm naughty bits with stinging purple ink (they put an irritant in it). When the police heard the report of a man standing in a public fountain washing his blue balls they knew they had their man.
A good test of a filesystem is how well it performs when updating millions of small files. We have this problem at work (application issue), and anyone who's run a news server is familiar with it (most news servers store messages in directories & separate files).
I want the data to be free (as a taxpayer, I've already paid for it). But at the same time, I want to make sure the NWS isn't innundated with tech-support calls from newbies: "What's xml and why are people using it?", "i cant read it file -- can u help me?", and so forth.
I'd like to see them concentrate on weather forecasting & reporting, and not hand-holding entry-level programmers. Perhaps a service like NTP is needed for weather data, where there are different strata, and you need agreements to use the higher-level servers.
I think I'm showing my age, but aren't the actors on the young side, to be playing the parts of Kirk, Spock, etc? McCoy especially.
I mean, I grew up watching the series (and the local NBC station butchering the re-runs by showing them out of sequence), and I always had the impression that Kirk was in his late-thirties (went along with his fast rise to the captaincy). The cast of 5yearmission.com seem to be college age, if that.
Chip H.
This is probably not a good idea for running the PC itself, but could be an *excellent* idea for replacing all the wall-warts that seem to come with the accessories.
You could have standardized connector shapes for different voltage/current combinations (12v 3a is a square, 5v 1a is a triangle, etc). If your external device needs more current than a single plug can provide, you bridge two of them (two 12v 3a square connectors gives you a single 12v 6a wire to run a large LCD monitor).
For $600 MSRP you get an Adaptec 2410SA 4-channel SATA RAID controller (does RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD), a 4-drive enclosure with hot-swap sleds, cables, and your choice of beige or black. The only thing you don't get are the drives themselves. The 4-drive enclosure takes up 3 full-height drive bays. Note: make sure you have enough 12v current from your power supply -- I'm not sure if the enclosure staggers the spinup.
Spent the weekend at Mom & Dad's house trying to get Linspire (nee Lindows) to print a test page on his Epson inkjet (connected via LPR/LPD on a DLink print server). Started: 4pm; Finished: 9am the next morning. Next I loaded RedHat 9 -- same thing.
Stuff like this is why OSS software will have a tough time displacing software from Redmond.
God, I hated wearing my chem suit. Even in a cold environment (guarding a fence line in winter) they were hot. Only good thing about them was that the charcoal would absorb your body odor from going a couple of days without showering.
These results show that, for the test conditions described here and on an equal-weight basis, if carbon nanotubes reach the lungs, they are much more toxic than carbon black and can be more toxic than quartz, which is considered a serious occupational health hazard in chronic inhalation exposures.
Uh-Oh.
I guess this is to be expected -- the ends of nanotubes are probably pretty sharp (relatively speaking), and would dig into lung tissue fairly easily. The people who work with them in their native state (in the chip fabs) would need filter masks, safety glasses & gloves. Of course, by the time a consumer sees them (like the aforementioned 5gb memory card) they'll be safe to handle with your bare hands.
That's the difference between high income and high net-worth individuals. I'm working towards becoming the latter (it's a long slow process). A book I found useful is: The Millionaire Mind by Dr. Thomas Stanley (same guy who wrote the bestselling "The Millionaire Next Door").
Most technical people fall into the category he calls "big brains, no bucks". This includes professionals like doctors & dentists, who are very knowledgable in their field, but don't know how to manage their money..
Slashdot Mirror
Burt -
No offense, but could you hurry up some? I need to get away from our gene pool because someone is about to piss in it.
I figure living on the moon is my best protection, so the sooner we get cheap spaceflight, the better.
Thanks.
Chip H.
Actually, after I clicked submit, I had an ohshit moment -- I forgot to tie a RFID-equipped key to people not being able to use their remotes to unlock their doors. The common thread is that both use RF technologies which could be affected by interference from military radio-based systems.
I'm somewhat familiar with the problem -- at every base I was stationed at in the Air Force, any AM/FM radio I would try and listen to would get a "whenk" sound every few seconds as the local radar antenna would rotate & emit over my location. In the 80's, however, remotes for your car were a luxury, and so this particular problem never arose.
Having owned a couple of cars now with RFID chips in the keys (Mercedes ML-320, MINI Cooper S), I can probably live without the technology (replacement keys are ~$140, ouch!), but it's nice knowing that some scumbag will have a tough time starting my car. With regard to the keyless entry systems, my favorite quote from "Cryptonomicon" is when Avi & Randy were walking to Avi's car, and he triggers the remote. The car turns out to have one of those embarassing talking alarm systems, which as Avi says "were the only cryptographically secure ones". The keyless remotes available today are far from secure -- the best ones are somewhat resistant to a replay attack, but the number of permutations are nowhere near what the manufacturers claim (from what I understand, the algorithm rotates through a sequence of 255 or so numbers -- the manufacturers err on the side of allowing their customers entry into their cars, despite however many times the buttons on the remote got pressed in their pockets).
The military is being pretty good about this, really. I had a roommate in college who was a radar operator in the Navy, and they always turned down the power of the SPY-1 radar when they came into port, because otherwise it's 4+ megawatt power output could take out the town's electrical grid (as well as toast a few of the unfortunate local citizens).
Anyway, enough rambling.
Chip H.
Top 10 most stolen cars for 2004, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, are:
1. 1989 Toyota Camry
2. 1994 Honda Accord
3. 2000 Honda Civic
4. 1992 Chevy full-size pickup
5. 1997 Ford full-size pickup
6. 1993 Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
7. 1986 Olds Cutlass/Supreme/Cierra
8. 1994 Dodge Caravan
9. 1996 Ford Taurus
10. 2001 Toyota Corolla
None of these cars have the new RFID chips in the keys to prevent theft. So, you can either drive a car likely to be on the "most stolen" list, or put up with some occasional interference that prevents you from using the remote to unlock the car.
Chip H.
Looks like someone in marketing at Sun got their IT department's "Strong Password Naming" document confused with the "Product Roadmap" document.
Chip H.
What happens when OpenSSL makes a code fix? Does it all have to be re-validated? Do they supply a signed MD5 hash that says: "These sources are authorized for compiling a FIPS-140 compliant binary"?
There was a comment here on slashdot in the past few months (can't find it now) about if you want to create trustworthy code, you first need to trust every layer below it, and every tool used to create it. Did this team use a validated build of gcc to create their OpenSSL binaries?
Chip H.
Presumably, the adhesive RFID tag has the originating and destination airport printed on it as well (article didn't mention this). Otherwise, Todd the baggage handler needs a battery-powered scanner to know if the bag should be on the plane or not.
.....
Ever watch the grocery clerk scan your groceries?
{swipe} Darn, didn't read.
{swipe} Darn, didn't read.
{swipe} Darn
Now imagine the same thing as bags fall off the belt onto the tarmac while Todd is changing batteries, or trying to get a damaged tag to read.
Chip H.
Makes it harder to repossess, anyway.
One more...
I was doing some contract work for First Tennessee a few years ago when someone robbed one of their rural branches. Redneck thief walks in, announces he has a bomb, demands money. They give him money, he lights the fuse on the bomb and tosses it over the counter. Luckily, all it did was burn a hole in the carpet, but the tellers were pretty shook up.
When the crook gets back to his house (probably a trailer, never heard one way or the other), the sheriff's department is already there and waiting for him. It seems he had been growing marijuana in the back yard, and they were there to burn his pot patch and arrest him on dope charges. The bank robbery was just a nice bonus for them.
Chip H.
A few years ago I heard about a guy who robbed a bank in Florida. He forgot to bring a backpack or anything, so to avoid suspicion he put the sack with the money in it down the front of his pants. (Did you recently rob a bank, or are you just happy to see me?).
He got about 2 blocks before the dyepack exploded, covering his ummm naughty bits with stinging purple ink (they put an irritant in it). When the police heard the report of a man standing in a public fountain washing his blue balls they knew they had their man.
Chip H.
A good test of a filesystem is how well it performs when updating millions of small files. We have this problem at work (application issue), and anyone who's run a news server is familiar with it (most news servers store messages in directories & separate files).
Chip H.
I want the data to be free (as a taxpayer, I've already paid for it). But at the same time, I want to make sure the NWS isn't innundated with tech-support calls from newbies: "What's xml and why are people using it?", "i cant read it file -- can u help me?", and so forth.
I'd like to see them concentrate on weather forecasting & reporting, and not hand-holding entry-level programmers. Perhaps a service like NTP is needed for weather data, where there are different strata, and you need agreements to use the higher-level servers.
Chip H.
What's the use of winning $10m if you have to spend 20% of it on paperwork for NASA and the people needed to shuffle it around?
Chip H.
Like the subject line says.
If you were asked to speak with a reporter on camera, which one would you trust to present the issue fairly?
And the answer "None of them", while probably correct, doesn't count.
Chip H.
I think I'm showing my age, but aren't the actors on the young side, to be playing the parts of Kirk, Spock, etc? McCoy especially. I mean, I grew up watching the series (and the local NBC station butchering the re-runs by showing them out of sequence), and I always had the impression that Kirk was in his late-thirties (went along with his fast rise to the captaincy). The cast of 5yearmission.com seem to be college age, if that. Chip H.
Hate Hate
Hate Hate Hate
Hate Hate Hate
Hate Hate
Hate Hate
So there.
Chip H.
This is probably not a good idea for running the PC itself, but could be an *excellent* idea for replacing all the wall-warts that seem to come with the accessories.
You could have standardized connector shapes for different voltage/current combinations (12v 3a is a square, 5v 1a is a triangle, etc). If your external device needs more current than a single plug can provide, you bridge two of them (two 12v 3a square connectors gives you a single 12v 6a wire to run a large LCD monitor).
Chip H.
I've been looking at one of these for when I build my next server:
Adaptec 2410SA + Enclosure Kit
For $600 MSRP you get an Adaptec 2410SA 4-channel SATA RAID controller (does RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD), a 4-drive enclosure with hot-swap sleds, cables, and your choice of beige or black. The only thing you don't get are the drives themselves. The 4-drive enclosure takes up 3 full-height drive bays. Note: make sure you have enough 12v current from your power supply -- I'm not sure if the enclosure staggers the spinup.
Chip H.
You call a company like EMC that specializes in storage area networks. Chip H.
Spent the weekend at Mom & Dad's house trying to get Linspire (nee Lindows) to print a test page on his Epson inkjet (connected via LPR/LPD on a DLink print server). Started: 4pm; Finished: 9am the next morning. Next I loaded RedHat 9 -- same thing.
Stuff like this is why OSS software will have a tough time displacing software from Redmond.
Chip H.
Black plastic trashbags will solve your Gatso problems. The trick is getting the bag over the camera head without being caught.
Chip H.
Running around in chem suits under a desert sun.
God, I hated wearing my chem suit. Even in a cold environment (guarding a fence line in winter) they were hot. Only good thing about them was that the charcoal would absorb your body odor from going a couple of days without showering.
Chip H.
From MenTaLguY's linked article:
These results show that, for the test conditions described here and on an equal-weight basis, if carbon nanotubes reach the lungs, they are much more toxic than carbon black and can be more toxic than quartz, which is considered a serious occupational health hazard in chronic inhalation exposures.
Uh-Oh.
I guess this is to be expected -- the ends of nanotubes are probably pretty sharp (relatively speaking), and would dig into lung tissue fairly easily. The people who work with them in their native state (in the chip fabs) would need filter masks, safety glasses & gloves. Of course, by the time a consumer sees them (like the aforementioned 5gb memory card) they'll be safe to handle with your bare hands.
Chip H.
As any cat owner will tell you, you need to clean the sandbox out periodically. In the case of a Wiki, overnight would probably be a good idea.
Chip H.
If my math is right, to download this 18 minute clip over my 256 m/bit/sec cablemodem is around 40 hours.
So, start download when leaving the house for work on Monday...
Chip H.
That's the difference between high income and high net-worth individuals. I'm working towards becoming the latter (it's a long slow process). A book I found useful is: The Millionaire Mind by Dr. Thomas Stanley (same guy who wrote the bestselling "The Millionaire Next Door").
Most technical people fall into the category he calls "big brains, no bucks". This includes professionals like doctors & dentists, who are very knowledgable in their field, but don't know how to manage their money..
Chip H.