Genral Web Comments
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
The Off By One Web Browser
The Off By One Web Browser: "The Off By One Web Browser may be the world's smallest and fastest web browser with full HTML 3.2 support. It is a completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.1MB application with no dependencies on any other browser or browser component. For Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP."
Monday, August 23, 2004
Answer
Answer: "Whether or not a given system can support 48-bit addressing (drives over 137GB) is dependent upon several factors. The operating system must support the higher capacities. Windows 98 and higher will support the drives with the proper BIOS, EIDE controller, and driver support. However, since motherboards and BIOSs vary widely, the answer is not as simple as making sure your operating system will support the drive."
The A. L. I. C. E. Artificial Intelligence Foundation - chatbot - chat bot - chatterbots - verbots - natural language - chatterbot - bot - chat robot
The A. L. I. C. E. Artificial Intelligence Foundation - chatbot - chat bot - chatterbots - verbots - natural language - chatterbot - bot - chat robot - chat bots - AIML: "ALICE is one of the Final Four contestants in the annual Loebner Contest. for 'most human computer' to be held on September 19, 2004 in New York City. Each year, the contest awards a bronze medal and $2000 cash prize for the computer program ranked best at simulating human conversation. ALICE won the Loebner Bronze medal in 2000 and 2001. The Loebner Prize of $25,000 and a Silver Medal for passing the Turing Test in a teletype format has never been awarded, nor has the Grand Prize of $100,000 and Gold Medal for passing the Turing Test in an audio-visual format."
AliceTalker Help
AliceTalker Help: "AliceTalker is a Swing-based Java client application which enables the user to interact via spoken words and synthesized speech with an AliceBot or AnnaBot (or any similar bot with a HTTP interface) server running on the same or a remote machine. It uses Cloudgarden's implementation of Sun's Java Speech API."
Sunday, August 22, 2004
HP-GCC - a C compiler for HP calculators
HP-GCC - a C compiler for HP calculators: "HP-GCC is a suite of programs that allow you to program ARM-based HP calculators in C. Being released under the GPL, it is free to use and modify. HP-GCC is a project aiming to make advanced programming in C easy."
Charleston.Net: Opinion: Public Editor Story on lost hydrogen bomb presents no threat to national security 02/15/04
Charleston.Net: Opinion: Public Editor Story on lost hydrogen bomb presents no threat to national security 02/15/04: "Story on lost hydrogen bomb presents no threat to national security"
Explosives
Explosives: "Shock-sensitivity refers to the sensitivity of the chemical to decompose rapidly or explode when struck, vibrated, or otherwise agitated. Chemicals become increasingly shock-sensitive with age; therefore, the date received and date opened shall be clearly marked on all containers. Some shock sensitive chemicals are listed in the table below."
BBC NEWS %7C UK %7C England %7C Kent %7C Wrecked warship is a %27timebomb%27
BBC NEWS %7C UK %7C England %7C Kent %7C Wrecked warship is a %27timebomb%27: "A World War II wreck in the Thames Estuary packed with explosives is a timebomb waiting to go off%2C a report has claimed. "
Article%3A Doomsday wreck in Thames could blow%A0%7C New Scientist
Article%3A Doomsday wreck in Thames could blow%A0%7C New Scientist: "Unstable fuses could cause unsalvaged World War II bombs aboard an abandoned shipwreck in the river Thames%2C UK%2C to blow%2C reveal investigations by New Scientist."
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Scramjets integrate air and space - The Industrial Physicist
Scramjets integrate air and space - The Industrial Physicist: "As the 21st century unfolds%2C a revolutionary engine technology is aiming to fly craft at high Mach speeds and seamlessly integrate air-to-space operations. The supersonic combustion ramjet%2C or scramjet%2C uses no rotating parts%2C will power vehicles hundreds of miles in minutes%2C and will make rapid global travel and affordable access to space a reality. "
Friday, August 20, 2004
Economist.com | Gravitational anomalies
Economist.com | Gravitational anomalies“ASSUME nothing” is a good motto in science. Even the humble pendulum may spring a surprise on you. In 1954 Maurice Allais, a French economist who would go on to win, in 1988, the Nobel prize in his subject, decided to observe and record the movements of a pendulum over a period of 30 days. Coincidentally, one of his observations took place during a solar eclipse. When the moon passed in front of the sun, the pendulum unexpectedly started moving a bit faster than it should have done.
Paper Refrenced by Article
InfoWorld: IT Myth 1: Server upgrades matter: August 13, 2004: By Alan Zeichick : HARDWARE : PLATFORMS
InfoWorld: IT Myth 1: Server upgrades matter: August 13, 2004: By Alan Zeichick : HARDWARE : PLATFORMS
Freenet SSK Keypair Applications
Freenet SSK Keypair Applications: "All Freenet users will be familiar with the use of SSK keypairs for inserting and retrieving freesites or individual files. Given a keypair blahpublicblah and blahprivateblah, one inserts documents under the URI SSK@blahprivateblah/somepath, after which others can retrieve these documents via the URI SSK@blahpublicblahPAgM/somepath."
You, Too, Could Be A Suspected Terrorist (washingtonpost.com)
You, Too, Could Be A Suspected Terrorist (washingtonpost.com): "Antonio Romero is what my mother calls me. Antonio Romero is also how I am known to many of my friends and family members. Unfortunately, the name Antonio Romero also appears on a U.S. Treasury Department list titled 'Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.' The government provides only this name, some known aliases and a date of birth for Antonio Romero. No further attempt is made at delineating one Antonio Romero from the next. A quick Internet search found no fewer than 10 of them in New York, not to mention four Anthony Romeros."
The New York Times > National > Senator? Terrorist? A Watch List Stops Kennedy at Airport
The New York Times > National > Senator? Terrorist? A Watch List Stops Kennedy at Airport: "WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 - The meeting had all the hallmarks of an ordinary Congressional hearing. There was Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, discussing the problems faced by ordinary citizens mistakenly placed on terrorist watch lists. Then, to the astonishment of the crowd attending a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr. Kennedy offered himself up as Exhibit A."
InfoWorld Special Report: Six great myths of IT
InfoWorld Special Report: Six great myths of IT: "Urban legends from the tech trenches ... and the realities behind them"
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Version Control with Subversion
Version Control with Subversion: "This is the online home of Version Control with Subversion, a free book about Subversion, a new version control system designed to supplant CVS. As you may have guessed from the layout of this page. this book is published by O'Reilly Media."
Top 75 Network Security Tools
Top 75 Network Security Tools: "In May of 2003, I conducted a survey of Nmap users from the nmap-hackers mailing list to determine their favorite security tools. Each respondent could list up to 8. This was a followup to the highly successful June 2000 Top 50 list. An astounding 1854 people responded in '03, and their recommendations were so impressive that I have expanded the list to 75 tools! Anyone in the security field would be well advised to go over the list and investigate tools they are unfamiliar with. I discovered several powerful new tools this way. I also plan to point newbies to this page whenever they write me saying 'I do not know where to start'."Xpjob_20040819194533_xp_pdf_spooldir_tmp_Xprintjobs_title_Top_75_Network_Security_Tools.pdf
Kismet
Kismet: "Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic. "
Warm-up Activity - Is That A Fact? - Voltaire wrote, ....
Warm-up Activity - Is That A Fact? - Voltaire wrote, ....: "The phrase 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it' is widely attributed to Voltaire, but cannot be found in his writings. With good reason. The phrase was invented by a later author as an epitome of his attitude. It appeared in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall under the pseudonym S[tephen] G. Tallentyre. ..."
Wired News: This Headline Is Not for Sale
Wired News: This Headline Is Not for Sale: "When it comes to walling off a publication's news content from the influence of advertisers, I am a strict federalist. By that, I mean that I believe that the editorial and marketing departments should be completely walled off from each other and operate as independent entities, with separate staffs, missions and budgets. At stake is nothing less than a publication's integrity."
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Microsoft pays dear for insults through ignorance
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Microsoft pays dear for insults through ignorance: "Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography have cost the giant Microsoft company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business and led hapless company employees to be arrested by offended governments."(PDF)
Utah-GLX: A hardware accelerated implementation of OpenGL & the GLX protocol
Utah-GLX: A hardware accelerated implementation of OpenGL & the GLX protocol
� � � � � � � � � � . c o m
� � � � � � � � � � . c o m: "First off, if you've somehow managed to find yourself on a website called Discordian.com, you probably already know what Discordianism is. While each person's perception of Discordianism differs, if you've gotten here at all, you probably have a vague idea of what it means to you. However, for those of you who don't know what Discordianism is, the Jargon File defines Discordianism as:
Discordianism /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ n.
The veneration of Eris, a.k.a. Discordia; widely popular among hackers. Discordianism was popularized by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's novel 'Illuminatus!' as a sort of self-subverting Dada-Zen for Westerners -- it should on no account be taken seriously but is far more serious than most jokes. Consider, for example, the Fifth Commandment of the Pentabarf, from 'Principia Discordia': 'A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he Reads.' Discordianism is usually connected with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving millennia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist partisans of Eris and a malevolent, authoritarian secret society called the Illuminati."
Business 2.0 - Web Article - Printable Version - Saving TiVo
Business 2.0 - Web Article - Printable Version - Saving TiVo: "They're poignant, these eulogies. There's the part about how feisty little TiVo created a beloved and revolutionary product -- the digital video recorder -- on a shoestring. The word TiVo, like Google and Xerox (XRX) and only a handful of other product names, went on to be used to describe what the gadget does -- in this case, learning what you like to watch, recording similar stuff for later viewing, and allowing you to pause or otherwise time-shift live action. TiVo promised to transform television, advertising -- hell, the culture itself, not least by sparing humanity from having to sit through commercials. Alas, it burned through $567 million between 1999 and mid-2004, and was run down by huge and ruthless competitors that mimicked its technology. But take heart, the eulogists conclude: TiVo will always be with us -- as a verb, if not a company."
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work: "The RPOW system provides for proof of work (POW) tokens to be reused. A POW token is something that takes a relatively long time to compute but which can be checked quickly. RPOW uses hashcash, which are values whose SHA-1 hashes have many high bits of zeros."
The Apple Product Cycle
The Apple Product Cycle: "An obscure component manufacturer somewhere in the Pacific Rim announces a major order for some bleeding-edge piece of technology that could conceivably become part of an expensive, digital-lifestyle-enhancing nerd toy."
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Epson Corporate: Newsroom
Epson Corporate: Newsroom
Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson") today announced that it has successfully developed a lighter and more advanced successor to the
FR, the world's smallest and lightest micro-flying robot. Turning once again to its micromechatronics technology, Epson has redefined the state of the art with its
FR-II micro-flying robot—the world's new lightest and most advanced microrobot, which also features Bluetooth wireless control and independent flight*2. The
FR-II will be on display at the Emerging Technology Fair, part of the Future Creation Fair that runs from August 27 to 30 at the Tokyo International Forum.
Hashcash.org
Hashcash.org: "Hashcash is a denial-of-service counter measure tool. Its main current use is to help hashcash users avoid losing email due to content based and blacklist based anti-spam systems."
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work: "This system receives hashcash as a Proof of Work (POW) token, and in exchange creates RSA-signed tokens which I call Reusable Proof of Work (RPOW) tokens. RPOWs can then be transferred from person to person and exchanged for new RPOWs at each step. Each RPOW or POW token can only be used once but since it gives birth to a new one, it is as though the same token can be handed from person to person."
Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Features :: Saving TiVo
Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Features :: Saving TiVo: "Obituaries for the nearly departed TiVo Inc. (TIVO) have been written up for months now, all ready to go when the sad day comes."
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship(PDF)
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship: "Q: You're clearly the leader of the Linux movement, but what does that mean? How do you lead? Are you a benevolent dictator, as some have called you?
A: To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together. I have no legal or explicit power. I only have the power of having people's trust -- but that's a lot of power.
I am a dictator, but it's the right kind of dictatorship. I can't really do anything that screws people over. The benevolence is built in. I can't be nasty. If my baser instincts took hold, they wouldn't trust me, and they wouldn't work with me anymore. I'm not so much a leader, I'm more of a shepherd. Now all the kernel developers will read that and say, 'He's comparing us to sheep.' It's more like herding cats. "
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship: "Q: What makes you believe Linux will continue to gain momentum?
A: I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things. I compare it to science vs. witchcraft. In science, the whole system builds on people looking at other people's results and building on top of them. In witchcraft, somebody had a small secret and guarded it -- but never allowed others to really understand it and build on it.
Traditional software is like witchcraft. In history, witchcraft just died out. The same will happen in software. When problems get serious enough, you can't have one person or one company guarding their secrets. You have to have everybody share in knowledge."
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship
BW Online | August 18, 2004 | Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship: "Linus Torvalds created the first iteration of the Linux operating system 13 years ago. Since then, he has been the technical shepherd coordinating the volunteer work of more than 1,000 people who actively contribute code and ideas to the Linux kernel -- the core program. He's also the symbolic leader of a movement made up hundreds of companies that are involved in Linux development, in addition to the thousands of volunteers. That has helped Linux become the No. 2 operating system worldwide for server computers."
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
In the past two years, I have played in about a dozen Scrabble tournaments and have built my rating—as calculated by the National Scrabble Association—up to 1,606. (Novices are rated between 500 and 1,000; top experts around 2,000.) This means that I was eligible to play in any of the top three divisions in the national championship. (The tournament has seven divisions in all.) Playing in Division 2 or 3 would have meant greater success, but the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world was too good to pass up.
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
In the past two years, I have played in about a dozen Scrabble tournaments and have built my rating—as calculated by the National Scrabble Association—up to 1,606. (Novices are rated between 500 and 1,000; top experts around 2,000.) This means that I was eligible to play in any of the top three divisions in the national championship. (The tournament has seven divisions in all.) Playing in Division 2 or 3 would have meant greater success, but the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world was too good to pass up.
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
In the past two years, I have played in about a dozen Scrabble tournaments and have built my rating—as calculated by the National Scrabble Association—up to 1,606. (Novices are rated between 500 and 1,000; top experts around 2,000.) This means that I was eligible to play in any of the top three divisions in the national championship. (The tournament has seven divisions in all.) Playing in Division 2 or 3 would have meant greater success, but the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world was too good to pass up.
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
Word Up - Notes from the National Scrabble Championship. By Dan Wachtell
In the past two years, I have played in about a dozen Scrabble tournaments and have built my rating—as calculated by the National Scrabble Association—up to 1,606. (Novices are rated between 500 and 1,000; top experts around 2,000.) This means that I was eligible to play in any of the top three divisions in the national championship. (The tournament has seven divisions in all.) Playing in Division 2 or 3 would have meant greater success, but the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world was too good to pass up.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
The Atlantic Online | October 2003 | The Dark Art of Interrogation | Mark Bowden
The Atlantic Online | October 2003 | The Dark Art of Interrogation | Mark Bowden: "O n what may or may not have been a Saturday, on what may have been March 1, in a house in this city that may have been this squat two-story white one belonging to Ahmad Abdul Qadoos, with big gray-headed crows barking in the front yard, the notorious terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was roughly awakened by a raiding party of Pakistani and American commandos. Anticipating a gunfight, they entered loud and fast. Instead they found him asleep. He was pulled from his bed, hooded, bound, hustled from the house, placed in a vehicle, and driven quickly away."
Freedom to Tinker: SHA-1 Break Rumored
Freedom to Tinker: SHA-1 Break Rumored: "There's a rumor circulating at the Crypto conference, which is being held this week in Santa Barbara, that somebody is about to announce a partial break of the SHA-1 cryptographic hashfunction. If true, this will have a big impact, as I'll describe below. And if it's not true, it will have helped me trick you into learning a little bit about cryptography. So read on...."
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Space travel goes sailing
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Space travel goes sailing: "US and Russian scientists are planning the ultimate in fuel-economy travel: they hope to launch a space sailing ship driven only by the pressure of sunlight later this year."
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Space travel goes sailing
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Space travel goes sailing: "US and Russian scientists are planning the ultimate in fuel-economy travel: they hope to launch a space sailing ship driven only by the pressure of sunlight later this year."
Wired News: Is AM Radio Harmful?
Wired News: Is AM Radio Harmful?: "Korean scientists have found that regions near AM radio-broadcasting towers had 70 percent more leukemia deaths than those without.
The study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, also found that cancer deaths were 29 percent higher near such transmitters."
Free Can Mean Big Money: The Open Source Economy - OSNews.com
Free Can Mean Big Money: The Open Source Economy - OSNews.com: "I read something in one of the comments for an OSNews posting a couple weeks ago that sent me thinking. It wasn't an original or profound thought. In fact, it's a rather commonly-held opinion that happens to be quite misguided. It's an opinion summed up by the 'open source = communist' meme that gets thrown around in thousands of flamewars all over the internet. In this essay, I will explore why this idea is wrong and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of economics."
A collision in MD5'
A collision in MD5': "I've now successfully reproduced the MD5 collision result. Basically there are some endianness problems."(PDF)
A collision in MD5'
A collision in MD5': "I've now successfully reproduced the MD5 collision result. Basically there are some endianness problems."(PDF)
Joux found a collision for SHA-0 !
Joux found a collision for SHA-0 !: "This has appeared on a french mailing-list related to crypto. The results of Joux improve on those of Chen and Biham which will be presented next week at CRYPTO'04."(PDF)
Cryptology ePrint Archive
Cryptology ePrint Archive: "Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2004/199"199 - crypto archive.pdf
PCWorld.com - Does That Web Site Look Phishy?
PCWorld.com - Does That Web Site Look Phishy?: "The new product, called Web Caller-ID, can detect Web pages dressed up to look like legitimate e-commerce sites. WholeSecurity is marketing the technology to banks, credit card companies, and online retailers as a way to prevent unwitting customers from accessing false sites, to reduce fraud, and increase confidence in online commerce, the company says."
SANS - Internet Storm Center - Cooperative Cyber Threat Monitor And Alert System - Current Infosec News and Analysis
SANS - Internet Storm Center - Cooperative Cyber Threat Monitor And Alert System - Current Infosec News and Analysis: "The survivaltime is calculated as the average time between reports for an average target IP address. If you are assuming that most of these reports are generated by worms that attempt to propagate, an unpatched system would be infected by such a probe."
Medal Model - Economists predict who will get the gold in Athens. By Daniel Gross
Medal Model - Economists predict who will get the gold in Athens. By Daniel Gross: "So far, most of the economic discussion surrounding the Olympics has centered on how much of a jolt the games will deliver to Greece's economy and the size of swimmer Michael Phelps' endorsement contracts."
FT.com / Industries / IT - Intel scraps big-screen technology launch
FT.com / Industries / IT - Intel scraps big-screen technology launch: "Intel has scrapped the launch of an ambitious technology it once claimed would halve the cost of large-screen televisions before the end of this year."
FT.com / Industries / IT - Intel scraps big-screen technology launch
FT.com / Industries / IT - Intel scraps big-screen technology launch: "Intel has scrapped the launch of an ambitious technology it once claimed would halve the cost of large-screen televisions before the end of this year."
Monday, August 16, 2004
PHP WORLD - Free PHP Help , Resources and Scripts Consulting - MYSQL, Oracle database PHP Support
PHP WORLD - Free PHP Help , Resources and Scripts Consulting - MYSQL, Oracle database PHP Support
Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!
Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Fedwire Funds Transfer System
Fedwire Funds Transfer System: "Over the past several years, the international financial community has pursued a number of initiatives to strengthen the world's financial infrastructure. As one of these initiatives, the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) of the central banks of the Group of Ten countries developed the Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems (Core Principles).1 The CPSS intends the Core Principles to be universal guidelines for the design and operation of safe and efficient systemically important payment systems worldwide."
AnandTech
AnandTech
Our preliminary look at Intel's 64-bit Xeon 3.6GHz Nocona (which happens to be identical to the Intel 3.6F Pentium 4) stirred up a bit of controversy. The largest two concerns were:(PDF)
AnandTech
AnandTech
Our preliminary look at Intel's 64-bit Xeon 3.6GHz Nocona (which happens to be identical to the Intel 3.6F Pentium 4) stirred up a bit of controversy. The largest two concerns were:
Wired News: Let the Web Games Begin
Wired News: Let the Web Games Begin: "Among the unplanned international sporting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics could be the dodging of regional Internet broadcast restrictions and the unsanctioned relay of live online Olympic broadcasts to Americans."(PDF)
PhysOrg: Breakthrough Nanotechnology Will Bring 100 Terabyte 3.5-inch Digital Data Storage Disks
PhysOrg: Breakthrough Nanotechnology Will Bring 100 Terabyte 3.5-inch Digital Data Storage Disks: "Michael invented and patented the world's first and only concept for non-contact UV photon induced electric field poling of ferroelectric non-linear photonic bandgap crystals, which offers the possibility of controlling and manipulating light within a UV/Deep Blue frequency of 1 nm to 400 nm. "
Saturday, August 14, 2004
css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design
css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design: "The css Zen Garden invites you to relax and meditate on the important lessons of the masters. Begin to see with clarity. Learn to use the (yet to be) time-honored techniques in new and invigorating fashion. Become one with the web."
A Moment in Tyme
A Moment in Tyme: "Welcome to A Moment in Tyme. We're a Roleplay MUD based on the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan. The mud is set in a parallel timeline from the books, at a point just after the fall of Malkier."
The Janus Project
The Janus Project: "Bienvenue...
So if you are reading this, then you found the lair of my new hide out, or rather the latest installment of the Janus Project. So far I'm relatively happy with it, other than a few little programming problems that I have come across over the past couple of days. For those not in the know, the Janus Project is basically my stomping ground for ideas and such where I host and play with them on the net. For the most part it is my place to tinker with php, but at the moment the main focus is on cascading style sheets."
Friday, August 13, 2004
Bitmunk - Everything Digital
Bitmunk - Everything Digital: "This paper introduces a Secure File Distribution Network (SFDN) for the sale of digital media on the Internet by any participant of the network. The core architecture and techniques described in this paper have been implemented for Bitmunk - a legal, copyright-aware P2P marketplace for music, television and movies. The long-term goal of the SFDN is to catalog every human creation in existence that can be expressed by a digital medium."
Economist.com | Spectrum policy
Economist.com | Spectrum policy
MOST people do not worry much about physics or politics when, for example, they look at the colours of a rainbow. Nor do they pause much when they use a remote control for their TV set, talk on a mobile phone, listen to the radio, cook food in their microwave oven, open their car door from a distance, or surf the internet without wires. Yet these are all phenomena of electromagnetic radiation. How humans harness electromagnetic waves—and specifically those in the radio-frequency part of the spectrum—has become so important that old and new ways of thinking are now lining up for a tense confrontation that will affect numerous businesses and billions of consumers.
SecurityFocus HOME News: U.S. tackles Emergency Alert System insecurity
SecurityFocus HOME News: U.S. tackles Emergency Alert System insecurity: "The U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS) that lets officials instantly interrupt radio and T.V. broadcasts to provide emergency information in a crisis suffers from security holes that leave it vulnerable to denial of service attacks, and could even permit hackers to issue their own false regional alerts, federal regulators acknowledged Thursday. "
Microsoft Windows: A Lower Total Cost of 0wnership
bahamutirc writes "Dave Aitel of Immunity, Inc. has written an excellent report detailing the lower Total Cost of 0wnership Microsoft Windows has over Linux. Dave takes a unique approach in comparing the two operating systems, and the results are not surprising. The paper was submitted to Bugtraq today and is available in PDF and Open Office."
Can You Connect
Can You Connect: "Join Can You Connect today and connect with your friends, family, coworkers, community, and thousands of like-minded people throughout the world. We offer fun, powerful, and easy to use tools to create, manage, and use your networks. "
Thursday, August 12, 2004
GROKLAW
GROKLAW: "I should probably preface my remarks by explaining that by 'blow by blow' I don't mean anything physical, and this is not a threat against Rob Enderle. He seems a bit on edge lately, and I surely don't wish to send him over the top, while he's brooding about Groklaw. Because he went on and on about carrying guns in his keynote speech at SCOForum last week, I expect keeping him calm is the prudent course. At least, that is what my friends are telling me. The word blow can mean many things. The wind can blow, for example, or think blow as in blowhard. Here I use blow by blow to mean step by step."
The Roots of Lisp
The Roots of Lisp: "(I wrote this article to help myself understand exactly what McCarthy discovered. You don't need to know this stuff to program in Lisp, but it should be helpful to anyone who wants to understand the essence of Lisp-- both in the sense of its origins and its semantic core. The fact that it has such a core is one of Lisp's distinguishing features, and the reason why, unlike other languages, Lisp has dialects.)"
Revenge of the Nerds
Revenge of the Nerds: "If you look at these languages in order, Java, Perl, Python, you notice an interesting pattern. At least, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker. Each one is progressively more like Lisp. Python copies even features that many Lisp hackers consider to be mistakes. You could translate simple Lisp programs into Python line for line. It's 2002, and programming languages have almost caught up with 1958."(PDF)
Revenge of the Nerds
Revenge of the Nerds: "In the software business there is an ongoing struggle between the pointy-headed academics, and another equally formidable force, the pointy-haired bosses. Everyone knows who the pointy-haired boss is, right? I think most people in the technology world not only recognize this cartoon character, but know the actual person in their company that he is modelled upon."
USNews.com: Tech firms want more female computer whizzes (8/16/04)
USNews.com: Tech firms want more female computer whizzes (8/16/04): "In her junior year studying computer science and electrical engineering, Brenda Liu was convinced she was a misfit--an incompetent misfit, at that. One of only a handful of women in her classes at the University of California-Berkeley in 1998, she was overwhelmed by her workload and regarded any test scores that were less than stellar as proof she didn't belong in a department that seemed to be a de facto boys' club. 'I felt, 'This is way over my head. I'm just not good at it, and I shouldn't be here,'' Liu recalls. 'I couldn't imagine I'd ever make it into the workforce.'"
news@nature.com�-�Gene therapy cures monkeys of laziness
news@nature.com�-�Gene therapy cures monkeys of laziness: "Procrastinating primates can be turned into workaholics, thanks to gene therapy. The discovery, which sheds light on the workings of the brain's reward centre, may further our understanding of mood disorders, such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. "
CNN.com - Gene�blocking turns monkeys into workaholics - Aug 11, 2004
CNN.com - Gene�blocking turns monkeys into workaholics - Aug 11, 2004: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday."
Technology Review: An Alternative to Windows
Technology Review: An Alternative to Windows: "With its low cost, growing catalogue of desktop software, and backing from business, Linux could finally pry the PC market from Microsoft's grasp."(PDF)
The Metasploit Project
The Metasploit Project: "The Metasploit Framework is an advanced open-source platform for developing, testing, and using exploit code. This project initially started off as a portable network game and has evolved into a powerful tool for penetration testing, exploit development, and vulnerability research."
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 2: Network Protection Technologies
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 2: Network Protection Technologies
News: Wi-Fi Gets Speed Boost with Pre-802.11n Products
News: Wi-Fi Gets Speed Boost with Pre-802.11n Products: "Belkin said on Monday that they'll be releasing a wireless network card and router that uses pre-802.11n multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology created by Airgo Networks. Belkin said the new pre-n products will provide four times faster speed and coverage area than 802.11b and g products. The new products will also be compatible with older products and in fact will increase performance on those older products. "
The Python Paradox
The Python Paradox: "n a recent talk I said something that upset a lot of people: that you could get smarter programmers to work on a Python project than you could to work on a Java project."
Hydan: Information Hiding in Program Binaries
Hydan: Information Hiding in Program Binaries: " Hydan steganographically conceals a message into an
application. It exploits redundancy in the i386 instruction
set by defining sets of functionally equivalent instructions.
It then encodes information in machine code by using the
appropriate instructions from each set."hydan-0.13.tar.gz
Hydan: Information Hiding in Program Binaries
Hydan: Information Hiding in Program Binaries: " Hydan steganographically conceals a message into an
application. It exploits redundancy in the i386 instruction
set by defining sets of functionally equivalent instructions.
It then encodes information in machine code by using the
appropriate instructions from each set."
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
GROKLAW
GROKLAW: "Here is Novell's Motion to Dismiss, the Memorandum in Support of the Motion to Dismiss, the Declaration of Bruce Lowry and the Declaration of David E. Melaugh, plus their Motion for Leave to File an Overlength Memorandum and the Order granting them leave. Lots to read, but the first two may take a few more minutes to show up on the server."
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Video projectors will play a major role in future home entertainment and edutainment applications – ranging from movies and television, over computer games, to multimedia presentations.
With video projectors images can be displayed that are larger than the devices themselves. However, we have to give up living space and ambience to set up artificial canvases that have to be as large as the desired image. Smart projectors are able to display correct images onto arbitrary existing screen surfaces, like wallpapered walls or window curtains. Thus it can function without an artificial canvas and consequently leaves a bit more freedom to us in the decision on how to arrange our living space.
Our smart projectors combine camera feedback with structured light projection to gain information about the screen surface and the environment. The calibration of such a device is fast, fully automatic and robust, and the correction of video signals can be achieved in real-time. Neither geometry information nor projector or camera parameters need to be known. Instead, the entire calibration and correction (geometry and color) is done on a per-pixel level – supported by modern pixel shader hardware.
Such devices might make it possible to convert your bookshelf into a TV screen, or your kid’s closet into an interactive virtual playground.
CSA - Dextre
CSA - Dextre: "Dextre is a sophisticated dual armed robot, which is part of Canada's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS). Along with Canadarm2, whose technical name is the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, and a moveable work platform called the Mobile Base System, these three elements form a robotic system called the Mobile Servicing System (MSS). The three components have been designed to work together or independently."
Shifty tiles bring walking to VR TRN 081104
Shifty tiles bring walking to VR TRN 081104: "Researchers from the University of Tsukuba and ATR Media Information Research Labs in Japan have constructed a moving floor that allows the user to stay in place while walking in a virtual environment. "(PDF)
Slashdot | Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot
Slashdot | Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot: "Last Saturday a comment was posted here by an anonymous reader that contained text that was copyrighted by the Church of Scientology. They have since followed the DMCA and demanded that we remove the comment. While Slashdot is an open forum and we encourage free discussion and sharing of ideas, our lawyers have advised us that, considering all the details of this case, the comment should come down. Read on to understand what this means."
Wired 12.08: VIEW
Wired 12.08: VIEW: "The US president owns neither his words nor his image - at least not when he speaks in public on important matters. Anyone is free to use what he says, and the way he says it, to criticize or to praise. The president, in this sense, is 'free.' But what happens when the commander in chief uses private venues to deliver public messages, holding fewer press conferences and making more talk-show appearances? Who controls his words and images then?"
Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry: "John Kerry's friend, George Butler, a New Hampshire filmmaker who has known Kerry for more than three decades is threatening legal action against Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry.Com. Butler is claiming ownership of two photographs pertaining to Kerry's radical pro-Hanoi days."
CNN.com - Olympics' digital security unprecedented - Aug 10, 2004
CNN.com - Olympics' digital security unprecedented - Aug 10, 2004: "ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- If you're going to the Olympics, you'd better be careful what you say and do in public."
The Fishman Declaration
The Fishman Declaration: "The case file for Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz contains over 700 documents. This web page presents a declaration filed by Steven Fishman on April 9, 1993 in which he included the OT (Operating Thetan) materials as exhibits. Links to a few other interesting affidavits are given at the end of the page. The order form for these materials will not be honored now, since the judge sealed the files on August 15, 1995."
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Port description for emulators/linux_base-8
Port description for emulators/linux_base-8: "This port contains packages from a near-minimal installation of Red Hat Linux 8.0. These packages, in conjunction with the linux module, form the basis of the Linux compatibility environment."
Monday, August 09, 2004
Seagate: Ex-employee can't work for a rival
Seagate: Ex-employee can't work for a rival: "Hard drive maker Seagate Technology LLC is seeking a court injunction to prevent a former employee, Pete Goglia, from going to work for Western Digital Corp., saying Goglia knows too much about Seagate's hard-drive reading and writing technology to work for a competitor."
Sunday, August 08, 2004
MS-DOS help and commands
MS-DOS help and commands: "A complete brief overview of each of the MS-DOS commands."
PocketPCTools.com - "Copyright Fight" with Ziff Davis
PocketPCTools.com - "Copyright Fight" with Ziff Davis: "We are currently being threatend with legal action by a large organization that produces news stories (I am trying to find out if I am 'allowed' to post the emails they have sent me). A while back (about a month and 70 posts ago), one of our admins posted a story that introduced you to one of their stories. Needless to say, there was a small editorial about the said story, a short quote from the story, a link to, and full credit given to them for the story."
Tweakers.net - RAID 0: Hype or blessing? (1/9)
Tweakers.net - RAID 0: Hype or blessing? (1/9): "'Stop the RAID 0 insanity!' 'There is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer.' With these words Storage Review and AnandTech banished RAID 0, or striping, from their desktops. For several years, RAID 0 had been considered the Holy Grail for power users wanting to maximize performance from their hard drives. But according to these two websites the general opinion of pc-enthusiasts was misguided. In their eyes, RAID 0 was useless, a hype, and didn't improve performance on desktop machines at all. The world needed enlightment. No more striping or bragging about transfer rates."
V I P E R L A I R .com -Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU, Page 1/2
V I P E R L A I R .com -Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU, Page 1/2: "Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU: Enthusiasts behold! We take a look at a PSU that is not only 500W, but it is also fully modular."
A BSD For Your PHB :: osViews | osOpinion :: Tech Opinions for the People, by the People
A BSD For Your PHB :: osViews | osOpinion :: Tech Opinions for the People, by the People: "The reaction one gets when attempting to get a manager in a corporate environment to consider an alternate operating system can sometimes be likened to a typical dilbert comic strip. Joseph Mallett contributed the following editorial to osOpinion/osViews which suggests that if you present the case properly, your pointy haired boss will make the right decision when choosing a Unix operating system to run the business."
Software groups warn of FTA dangers - Breaking - smh.com.au
Software groups warn of FTA dangers - Breaking - smh.com.au: "The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement poses a grave threat to the entire Australian software development industry due to the legal framework on intellectual property which is required upon adoption of the pact, the Open Source Industry Association and Linux Australia have warned."
Wired News: Open Supercomputing Hits Big 1-0
Wired News: Open Supercomputing Hits Big 1-0: "No one now, but 10 years ago the scientific community greeted the first Beowulf supercomputer cluster with fear and loathing. 'The initial reaction of the supercomputer-oriented scientific community to the Beowulf project was very negative,' says Donald Becker, co-founder of the original Beowulf project."
PearPC - About
PearPC - About: "PearPC is an architecture-independent PowerPC platform emulator capable of running most PowerPC operating systems."
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Linux computer squishes into CompactFlash card
Linux computer squishes into CompactFlash card: "C Data Solutions has shoehorned a complete Linux-based computer system into a Type II CompactFlash (CF) card. The 'Compact Flash Computer' (CFC) can be mixed and matched with third-party CF-card peripherals to instantly create miniscule Linux systems based entirely on CompactFlash cards, without requiring hardware or software design or debug."
Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Sun: "VANCOUVER - After six long years, a group of engineering students from the University of B.C. may finally see their dreams take flight."(PDF)
Friday, August 06, 2004
'Stealing songs is wrong' lessons head for UK schools | The Register
'Stealing songs is wrong' lessons head for UK schools | The Register: "At the beginning of last month the British Government launched a 'Music Manifesto' to promote music in schools. But already this typically Blairite bundle of good intentions is being hijacked (with not a little cooperation from the minders in Whitehall) in order to inflict copyright lessons on schoolchildren, from pre-school onwards."
IHT: Ford will use Toyota's hybrid technology
IHT: Ford will use Toyota's hybrid technology: "TOKYO Ford Motor will license key hybrid technology from Toyota Motor in a deal that could help establish Toyota's system as a standard for the industry, the two companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
."
Wired News: Security Cavities Ail Bluetooth
Wired News: Security Cavities Ail Bluetooth: "Serious flaws discovered in Bluetooth technology used in mobile phones can let an attacker remotely download contact information from victims' address books, read their calendar appointments or peruse text messages on their phones to conduct corporate espionage. "
Thursday, August 05, 2004
NewsForge | Linux desktop viability myths exploded
NewsForge | Linux desktop viability myths exploded: "If you look on the Web you can find many examples of experts claiming that Linux is not ready for the desktop. Headlines like Why Windows still beats Linux and Why Linux isn't ready for the Desktop are all too common. In some cases, the commentators have valid points, but often they perpetuate myths that simply are no longer true -- namely, that Windows is easier, and that Linux application software is lacking. The problem is, the pundits are comparing apples and aardvarks. "
Writing the rules to govern the cosmos | csmonitor.com
Writing the rules to govern the cosmos | csmonitor.com: "Where mankind may go, lawyers are quick to follow - and futuristic as it may seem, some are busily writing the laws they hope will ultimately govern the universe."
EFF: IAAL: What Peer-to-Peer Developers Need to Know about Copyright Law
EFF: IAAL: What Peer-to-Peer Developers Need to Know about Copyright Law: "The future of peer-to-peer file-sharing is entwined, for better or worse, with copyright law. Copyright owners have already targeted not only the makers of file-sharing clients like Napster, Scour, Audiogalaxy, Aimster and Kazaa, and Morpheus, but also companies that provide products that rely on or add value to public P2P networks, such as MP3Board.com, which provided a web-based search interface for the gnutella network."
Yahoo! News - TiVo Wins Nod for Users to Share Digital Shows
Yahoo! News - TiVo Wins Nod for Users to Share Digital Shows: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - TiVo (news - web sites) Inc., maker of popular digital television recording devices, on Wednesday received approval for technology that would permit users to send copies of digital broadcast shows over the Internet to a limited number of friends."
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server 4.1
SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server 4.1: "SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server 4.1 is the trend-setting groupware and communication solution that helps your company to progress - with sup