I was reading one of my news feeds the other day and came across this gem about a woman who beat a dog breeder with a dead chihuahua. Apparently, the dog breeder sold the puppy when it was too young. The purchaser took the puppy to a vet who told her it needed to be returned to its mother, but the puppy died while in transit. The puppy’s purchaser then proceeded to assault the dog breeder using the dead chihuahua as a weapon.
I generally am very happy with my work. My job includes a mix of techno-geeky tasks, all related to the delivery of “rich media” (streaming, podcasting) content. The group I’m in has less than 20 people, and within that group my immediate team consists of four or five folks who design and build applications. But the group I belong to is part of a very, very large company…the best of both worlds, I guess. Some days I am writing server or application monitoring programs to keep track of the state of our streaming infrastructure, other days I’m working on a data model for the next generation of our webcast delivery interface. I never feel like I’m stuck in a rut, the work challenges me mentally, and I am surrounded by people who give a damn- that’s saying a lot.
I was over on Ensellitis’ blog today catching up on what he’s said during the past few weeks. He posted a collection “Stupid Links” a week or so ago, and I hate to say it but one of the links wasn’t so stupid 🙂
Microsoft is giving clearer and clearer signs that they really “get” the frustration and pain their complex and sometimes buggy software causes. Their error reporting features within Windows XP have allowed Microsoft to reduce system problems significantly. But what’s next?
I was browsing through my blog feeds today and came across a reference to Mary Carey, a well known porn star, who has decided she’d like to earn more for screwing people. Yes, that’s right, she’s decided to become a politician. She’s gathering signatures so that she can be listed on the next election for governor of California. I must say I like her campaign photo…
I enjoy…perhaps that’s the wrong word, but I’ll use it for now…catching vendors in obvious disconnects between words and action. Here is one I just found:
I’ve been playing computer games for…<shudder> decades. The first computer game I played was probably a text adventure game I hand-typed into my Apple II from a magazine. I saved it to cassette tape…I think the game had something to do with exploring an abandoned mine, but I’m not sure. That would have been about 1979/1980 or thereabouts: my memory is a bit hazy.
Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal penned an article the other day about how the Personal Computer era may be ending, to be replaced by … I’m not really sure, I guess he’s saying purpose built devices for particular purposes. Actually, the way I read his article, I think he’s saying that the “component build” model appears to be a poor one to use for things like iPods, but the technology media seems to have picked up on this being someone yet again predicting the end of the personal computer.
I’m pretty sure that Mr. Mossberg didn’t actually intend to predict the end of the personal computer. That’s been done so many times before its almost laughable. Network Computers were hyped and died in the mid ’90s. We’ve had several generations of game consoles that were supposed to kill the personal computer. And now ubiquitous devices like iPods and web browser/camera/music player/pda/cell phones are going will be the death nell that removes that machine from under your desk.
If you buy an upscale new car today or in the near future, say a BMW, Mercedes, or Cadillac, there’s a good chance that you won’t have a key. Instead, you’ll have a little fob- sort of like the keyless entry control you are likely used to. To start the car, you’ll just push a button- the car will have confirmed that you have the right fob and will allow you to start the engine (or not). No key to pull out of your pocket or fuss with. This all sounds very high-tech and convenient. Unfortunately, the
methods used by the car and the keyfob to validate each other are pretty porous….easily crackable. Even easier than the keyless entry system. And unlike the keyless entry system, they let you start the car and drive away as if you own it. The article I link to above lays things out pretty clearly, but here’s the gist of it. Remote keyless entry fobs are “active”: they have have a battery and broadcast a signal only when you press the button on the fob. The new keyless ignition systems work the opposite way: the fobs are passive, and the car continously sends out a signal looking for the authorization response. Someone with some basic computer equipment can pick up that signal, identify its nature, and try a simple brute force attack until the car responds. The encryption code (key) used by the cars is a relatively weak 40 bit cryptographic length- for comparison, your web browser supports a 128 bit key. A 40 bit key can be broken by a laptop in a matter of hours: possibly much faster if the thief has some clues such as those given by the car sending out its query signal. Since getting a response means the thief can actually start and drive away in the car without a hitch, and since most cars with this system today are in the $60,000 + range, hacking the code is worth the effort. David Beckham of soccer fame has had his BMW sport utility vehicle stolen this way not once, but twice. Apparently, the manufacturers of the cars using these systems don’t think their vulnerability to hacking is worth worrying about. For myself, I’ll probably think twice if I happen to one day be looking at cars with this keyless ignition feature…
Technology, computer games, MMOGs, science…and other nerdy stuff
