Social Engineering 101: Mitnick and other hackers show how it’s done
Month: July 2008
The Morrison Batman Notes
Part 1 – This Is Your Brain On Drugs
Part 2 – The (Aunt) Agatha Christie Period
Part 3 – From Here We Go Sublime
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The rising tide of Apple Mac Malware
A big selling point for Apple Macs has been the much reduced risk from viruses compared with Windows, however this may not be true for very much longer.
Set aside for now that since Apple switched to Intel processors that increasing numbers of users are using Windows operating systems and are thus as vulnerable as their PC Windows brethren.
Apple’s advertising campaign has worked and their market share is rising globally and has increased to 8.5% in the US which is nearing the 10% point that ArsTechnica believes will be tipping point and will see the malware authors begin to target MacOS X in earnest.
The malware authors may in fact start before the magic 10% barrier is passed as in some sectors two-thirds of retail sales of computers in the $1000 dollars and above bracket are now Macs.
As malware authors are increasingly more motivated by money than the fame that script-kiddies in the past sought the MacOs is now a lucrative market that is currently underexploited. Also given the blasé attitude that many Mac users have towards the threat of viruses and malware due to Apple’s marketing – this spoof of their famous advert may become the norm.
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Doctor Manhattan’s Intellect
Interestingly Doctor Manhattan says of Adrian Veidt towards the end of Watchmen
… and the world’s smartest man means no more to me than does its smartest termite.
Though he is unbelievable powerful Doctor Manhattan doesn’t show much sign of having a massively increased intellect following his transformation.
Neal Stephenson’s new novel, ANATHEM, germinated in 01999 when Danny Hillis asked him and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what the Millennium Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him, and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it. ANATHEM is the result, and will be released on September 9th, 02008.
I’m a huge fan of Neal Stephenson and just cannot wait for Anathem.
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Adrian Veidt’s Gordian Knot
Continuing in my reading of my well-thumbed copy of the graphic novel (trade paperback collection of the 12 issue comic book miniseries) of Watchmen.
There exists in the Watchmen universe a company of locksmiths called the Gordian Knot Lock Co. which may or may not be owned by Adrian Veidt, Ozymandias. Veidt owns pretty much all the companies depicted in the book so it is a safe assumption yet given Veidt’s fascination for Alexander the Great its name would seem like an ironic joke.
The basic plot of Watchmen is Adrian Veidt’s solution to his Gordian Knot, the intractable problem of the world’s slide into nuclear warfare. The horrifying result of the world’s smartest man thinking laterally, conceiving of an unconventional solution and making the bold stroke to prevent war.
In contrast to Alexander, whose cutting of the knot was widely proclaimed so as to give legitimacy to his conquest and reign, Veidt’s actions must remain hidden and unknown by the world at large.
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Fearful Symmetry
The trailer for Watchmen inspired me to reread my well-thumbed copy of the graphic novel or to be more precise to assuage the fanboys in the audience the trade paperback collection of the 12 issue comic book miniseries.
I have read it many times though it has been years since I last did, but it still manages to surprise me and I spot details that I hadn’t before. One example is the sheer amount of symmetry in Chapter 5 Fearful Symmetry. There are obvious examples of symmetry such as all the panels whose content is pretty symmetrical (windows or faces centered in the panel) or the panels which feature reflections. But Fearful Symmetry also contains far more subtle examples such as numbers and letters used for background elements deliberately chosen to be symmetrical or panels which are similar to earlier panels the protagonist of The Black Freighter comic gnawing on a gull and Dan in the Gunga Diner eating a chicken leg.
This latter example of symmetry then led me to notice a symmetrical element that had escaped me all these years. The entire chapter Fearful Symmetry is symmetrical (or as near as it can be) page 15 mirrors 14, 16 mirrors 13, 17 mirrors 12 and so on.
Also of course the entire book of Watchmen outside of chapter 5 features symmetry both in the visual elements and metaphorically.
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Why Batman Could Exist
With The Dark Knight opening at cinemas in the US tomorrow and here in the UK exactly a week from now there has been a glut of Batman related stuff on the internet but Scientific American’s analysis of the feasibility of really becoming someone like Batman is probably the best. This and this come pretty close though. [via]
See also E. Paul Zehr’s book Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero, upon which the Scientific American’s piece was based.
And this review of the IMAX version of The Dark Knight makes me sad that we no longer have an IMAX cinema in the region.
Do we really need yet another drama about the Iraq War? Even if it is from David Simon and Ed Burns the creators of arguably the greatest show on TV. Having now watched the first episode of the HBO miniseries Generation Kill I’m still not sure I can answer the question.
It is a dramatization based on the book of the same name which was a real life account of the journalist Evan Wright who was embedded with the First Recon Battalion of the USMC and so it is as close to the truth as it can be without being a documentary. Yet as you might expect it has gained harsh criticism from many sides with people decrying it as being anti-American and others attacking it for the homophobic comments made by marines in the show.
Based on this first episode I think Generation Kill is going to be a fantastically well made miniseries and will offer a different perspective on the Iraq War to the one we’ve been having for the last five years as it will depict only the 40 days that constituted the actual invasion.