`A crime victim has criticised a police e-fit of a suspect saying although the thief had an unusual appearance he “didn’t look that odd”. [..]
“The man was a pretty odd-looking character and we didn’t get a good look at his face, but he didn’t look that odd,” Mrs Rule said.
“The man in the picture has half an ear – he didn’t have half an ear. And his moustache wasn’t like that.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who looks like that in Stalham or anywhere else in my life.”
She added: “Apparently the problem with the moustache was that the police only had long moustaches on their computer so they had to sort of chop it off at the ends.”‘
`Novel new data transfer system was launched recently in a unique experiment being held in KinnerNet 2005 camp (an Israeli internet camp , modeled after Tim Oreilly’s Foo camp). The experiment conceived and run by a group of Israeli Internet addicts, including Yossi Vardi (former ICQ chairman), Shimon Schocken (computer scientist) and Ami Ben Bassat (science writer).
The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol(, uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer. [..]
System architecture: the system is constructed of a back end – a carriage, Ben-Hur movie style, which is made of a yoke made of light Balsa, and outfitted with two huge wheels – 2 DVD wheels, 4.7 Giga each. The front end, to which the carriage is harnessed consist of a Giant snail (Achatina fulica), known also as Giant African Snail (Africans are known as the world fastest runners ). These giant snail are of the GastroPod family (G-pod. We will reserve this name for transfer of music, and the name: G-mail for transfer of emails by snails SMTP –snail mobile transfer protocol )
Packets transport: Data is transported in 2 packets in parallel, 4.7 Giga each packet.’
`Wi-Spy™ is the world’s smallest 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer*. Wi-Spy is perfect for troubleshooting interference from the following devices:
* Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
* Microwave Ovens
* Cordless Phones
* Baby Monitors
* Bluetooth’
Kinda cool little toy. Another thing I want for no real reason. :)
`Your company starts off with only a few members of staff; more staff will be hired as it grows. Your goal is to create the most streamlined and profitable company possible through technology leadership. You must manage the IT department, juggling equipment, human resources and your budget to create the most efficient work environment.’
`Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes.
In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage Difference Engine. [..]
Babbage’s design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.’
`Several months ago at the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda introduced a wind cheating, earth friendly, fuel cell-powered concept called the FCX. Several weeks ago in Detroit at the NAIAS, Honda quietly announced that they would build a production vehicle based on the FCX concept. With the advancements they’ve made for this latest generation of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, a production model will be ready within three to four years.’
`Developers can use Google and other search engines to find source code, but it’s not easy. A Silicon Valley startup claims to have come up with a better alternative — a search engine for source code and code-related information.
The tool, known as Krugle, is designed to deliver easy access to source code and other highly relevant technical information in a single, convenient, clean, easy-to-use interface, according to the company. Krugle works by crawling, parsing, and indexing code found in open source repositories and code that exists in archives, mailing lists, blogs, and Web pages.’
`Scientists at IBM Corp. have developed a chipset that they claim is capable of allowing wireless devices to operate more than 10 times faster than today’s advanced Wi-Fi networks.
The chipset, using silicon germanium, is designed to operate in the 60GHz band, an unlicensed portion of the radio spectrum that can be used to transport data-intensive formats such as HDTV (high definition television), IBM said Monday.’
`The recent revelations about illegal eavesdropping on American citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency have raised many questions about just what the agency is doing. Although the facts are just beginning to emerge, information that has come to light about the NSA’s activities and capabilities over the years, as well as the recent reporting by the New York Times and others, allows us to discern the outlines of what they are likely doing and how they are doing it.
The NSA is not only the world’s largest spy agency (far larger than the CIA, for example), but it possesses the most advanced technology for intercepting communications. [..]’
`Or, how to be the biggest network geek you can in only 1 square foot of space. Starting last year after reading Ward Mundy’s How-To Bonanza, I knew I needed to use the Mac Mini as the core hardware component for my home network. Mostly because it looks good and small form fits easily on my desk. Good as that might be, the Mac Minis do have drawbacks and, if you’re serious about your hosting choices, these do have to be overcome; this is what my post is all about.’
`Many students, and other young people, have little in the way of cooking skills but can usually get their hands on a couple of mobile phones. So, this week, we show you how to use two mobile phones to cook an egg which will make a change from phoning out for a pizza. Please note that this will not work with cordless phones.
To do this you will need two mobile phones -they do not have to be on the same network but you will need to know the number of one of them.’
`The vast bulk of international telephone and Internet traffic travels through underwater cables. This map shows the cables that were in use as of the end of 2004 and gives an indication of where traffic is heaviest.’
`The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets–corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers–would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.’
`A man running a counterfeit piracy operation, selling games, CDs and DVDs from his ice cream van has been convicted.
William Agnew from South Lanarkshire was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court after admitting to the offences. 4,000 DVDs, CDs and games (PlayStation, Xbox and PC) were seized during a raid on the man’s business premises. The goods, if sold new, are estimated to be worth in the region of £100,000.’
`Tissue engineers like Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina, and Thomas Boland of Clemson University, have been printing biomaterials with modified ink-jet printers.
The cartridges are washed out and refilled with suspensions of living cells; the software that controls the characteristics of the ink is reprogrammed and you’re good to go. Boland and Mironov use layers of “thermo-reversable” gel to build up three-dimensional structures like tubes—capillaries, to use the medical term. When the tiny droplets, or clumps, of cells came together closely, they fused; the gel can be easily removed, leaving a tube of tissue.’
`How Products Are Made explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery. The site provides step by step descriptions of the assembly and the manufacturing process (complemented with illustrations and diagrams) Each product also has related information such as the background, how the item works, who invented the product, raw materials that were used, product applications, by-products that are generated, possible future developments, quality control procedures, etc.’
`The security advisory — a mechanism Microsoft uses to both alert users of impending threats and give them advice or workarounds to apply — repeats recommendations that most security vendors have been offering since the worm debuted two weeks ago.
It also notes that infected PCs will be in danger on Friday, Feb. 3, when the worm will overwrite several popular file formats, including those of Microsoft Office, with useless data.
But according to the team in charge of Microsoft’s Windows Software Removal Tool, that program won’t be updated until after the Friday deadline passes.’
This guy seems to have wired up absolutely everything in his house and has a page reporting stats on all the stuff going on. Interesting, but somewhat insane. :)
`After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams.
On the company’s web site, if you click on “Telegrams” in the left-side navigation bar, you’re taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:
“Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.”‘
`Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, said the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.
“My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers,” he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.
“So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven’t paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer,” he added in comments broadcast on television.
“Then they will send me another notice telling me how bad they feel they that they sent me a notice that was a mistake,” he said’
`Dutch TV programme Nieuwslicht (Newslight) is claiming that the security of the Dutch biometric passport has already been cracked. As the programme reports here, the passport was read remotely and then the security cracked using flaws built into the system, whereupon all of the biometric data could be read.
The crack is attributed to Delft smartcard security specialist Riscure, which here explains that an attack can be executed from around 10 metres and the security broken, revealing date of birth, facial image and fingerprint, in around two hours. Riscure notes that that the speed of the crack is aided by the Dutch passport numbering scheme being sequential.’
`Nobody was ever arrested for leaking the secret source code for parts of the Windows operating system in 2004, but a hacker who sold a copy online afterward was sentenced to two years in federal prison Friday. [..]
Like many others, Genovese downloaded a copy. Unlike others, he posted a note to his website offering it for sale.
According to court records, an investigator hired by Microsoft took Genovese up on his offer and dropped two Hamiltons on the secret source code. The investigator then returned and arranged a second $20 transaction for an FBI agent, which led to Genovese’s indictment under the U.S. Economic Espionage Act, which makes it a felony to sell a company’s stolen trade secrets. After consulting with his public defender, Genovese pleaded guilty last August.’
`Users of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s (AMD’s) microprocessors may want to think twice before looking for technical support on the company’s Web site. Customer support discussion forums on the forums.amd.com site have been compromised and are being used in an attempt to infect visitors with malicious software, an AMD spokesman confirmed Monday. [..]
Attackers have figured out a way to use AMD’s forums to deliver maliciously encoded WMF images to visitors, which are then used to install unauthorized software on the unpatched systems, he said. [..]
How the attackers were able to compromise the AMD forums is unclear. [..]’
`Thinks the federal government is too intrusive? You ain’t seen nothing yet. An FCC mandate will require that all hardware and software have a wiretap backdoor that allows the government to tap into all your communications.
The mandate expands the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), and requires that every piece of hardware and software sold include the backdoor.’
`PC users have been urged to scan their computers before 3 February to avoid falling victim to a destructive virus.
On that date the Nyxem virus is set to delete Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Acrobat files on infected machines.
Nyxem is thought to have caught out many people by promising porn to those who open the attachments on e-mail messages carrying the virus.’
`A $37 million jet fighter belonging to the United States military has been lost at sea during a training exercise in Queensland. The jet was attempting a night landing on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Saturday.
The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by the ship’s helicopter, but the FA-18 Hornet strike fighter was unlikely to be retrieved from the ocean, US officials confirmed.
The accident happened when the aircraft carrier was 400 kilometres south-east of Brisbane, ABC television reported.’
`When Tammy Klein began investigating crime scenes eight years ago, it was virtually unheard of for a killer to use bleach to clean up a bloody mess.
Today, the use of bleach, which destroys DNA, is not unusual in a planned homicide, said the senior criminalist from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence.’
`The Homeland Security Department’s internal computer network generated 65 million security alerts during a three-month period and 6.5 million of those may be linked to employees accessing pornographic words or materials, according to a report today from DHS inspector general Richard Skinner.
Nearly three-quarters of the automated “security event messages” and “detect.misuse.porn” alerts originated from 16 devices on the department’s wide area network, according to the report. However, DHS could not identify the specific workstations that had generated the messages, the inspector general found. [..]
In addition, the DHS network did not have its security accreditations and certifications, the report added.’
That’s 406,250 porn hits per device. Presumably a “device” is a router or somesuch, because that’s a fucking lot of porn for a single person.
An interesting use of eBay.
Some poor cunts are no doubt shitting themselves at the moment, waiting for the police to arrive.
Update: The auction is no longer listed on eBay, but Google has a cached version.
`The Clock, as its designer Danny Hillis calls it, will stand over 60 feet tall and keep track of every second, minute, day, century, and millennium for at least 10,000 years. Over that time, it will function with near perfect accuracy by occasionally resetting itself automatically using the warming heat of the desert sun. Its pendulum will be powered by the Earth itself – by temperature and pressure changes during the desert night. But its many faces will require winding. Thus if forgotten it will enter a long silence but continue to mark the years as they pass.’
