electricinca.com

This is pretty cool. Fine example of a WW II Enigma cipher machine in a very good condition and a great history; full functional on eBay. 100% Original!!!

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Labels: Digg, Security

A half hour Google Video of Will Wright talking about 'Spore', which looks to be an outstandingly wonderfully deep videogame. Could this be one of the greatest video game ever?



The description of greatest videogame has been used for almost all of the many Legend of Zelda games that have been produced over the years. Fans of the series have decided that it is time for it to cross over into the realm of the movie.

Labels: Games

Not only a common misquote of the line from the Revenge of the Sith

So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause

it's a genuine sentiment expressed by critics, such as Henry Porter of The Observer, of the Government's Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

The 'reform' in the title allows ministers to make laws without the scrutiny of parliament and, in some cases, to delegate that power to unelected officials. In every word, dot and comma, it bears the imprint of New Labour's authoritarian paternity.

Rather than the thunderous applause that accompanies the death of liberty in the Star Wars Empire the death of democracy seems to be with a thunderous silence as the bill has slipped under the radar of the British public.

If ever there were a piece of legislation to ensure the United Kingdom's traversal through the event horizon of the Panopticon Singularity it is the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

I'm probably far too paranoid and could possibly even be wrong given the almost impenetrable legalese used in parliamentary bills about the implications of the bill. However it would seem to me that this bill sets the ideal stage from which to modify not only existing legislation but legislation yet to be passed due to various obstacles being placed in the government's way such as the current situation with the Identity Card bill. The government can make any necessary concessions to ensure the bill gets passed and then modify any legislation introduced by such a bill back to a form they would have liked in the first place but that parliament didn't approve of.

According to Murky.org the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill was discussed on Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. From Murky's transcript of the programme comes the following quote from Cambridge Professor of Law, John Spencer QC plus a comment from Murky.

It is unbelievably dangerous. It means potentially marginalising parliament. It moves us a big step toward the elected dictatorship every five years, it's a step toward a system under which the only break that we have on our ministers is the fact that there's a general election every five years. (He seems to overlook the fact that even this may not be guaranteed, as, if I recall correctly, the five years is set by the parliament act, which is itself changable by the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act - Murk)

As if I don't already have enough paranoid nightmares at the moment.

Labels: Star Wars

ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests that CRAP or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection, is a catchier phrase than DRM - Digital Rights Management. Why does he think this technology is crap? See the video of his explanation.

BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow wrote an angry letter to American Airlines following a security check that he believed exceeded sense and decency.

This has now been hilariously remixed with the premise of the forthcoming Samuel L. Jackson movie Snakes on a Plane in the following Metafilter thread.

Labels: Security

UMN News: Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study

American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.

From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.

Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

My first thought bizarrely to this was I wonder how atheists would rank against other American bogeymen such as the French, communists or even terrorists. Why is it that atheists are seen as a threat to the American way of life?

Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism.

This is probably the answer to my question and I believe that the study’s respondents have been misled or misinformed. Lack of belief in deities does not mean that one is lacking in morals. I believe that you don't need religious doctrine to tell you how to lead a moral life.

An experiment in antigravity and this here is an experiment in embedding Google Video content in this site.

BoingBoing reveals that Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word "super-hero" from the public domain. They pick up on a suggestion made by Warren Ellis.

Let's never use the term "super-hero" to describe a Marvel character. Let's call them "underwear perverts".

This really pisses me off as the only reason why they should be trying to trademark a term which is so generic is to stifle competition. It is blatant anti-competitive practice. Also bizarre given that DC Comics amongst others existed and were using the term superhero long before Marvel Comics published their first 'underwear pervert' comic book.

In fact DC is also in on the trademark claim.

Labels: comics

How does someone in Moscow step up to a cash machine and withdraw money from an account holder half a world away? Even when the debit card is still in the victim's wallet? To show me how easy it was, two executives from MagTek Inc., one of the largest makers of credit card stripe readers, visited MSNBC.com and gave a demonstration.

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Labels: Computer security, Digg, Security

The 4GB flash drive encrypts all data with 128-bit AES, and then adds an extra layer of security: a self destruct feature. If anyone tries to use a brute-force attack to guess your password, the drive will automatically erase itself after 25 wrong guesses.

Now that's what I call secure, or at least it would seem to be. The 128-bit AES encryption should be enough to prevent a brute-force attack in any case but the 25 guess limit adds a good second tier of security.

A question does come to mind though what is to prevent the copying of the encrypted data off the drive to stage a brute-force attack on the data using a different machine?

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Labels: Computer security, Digg, Security

Ho wow, very amazing, i never seen something like that built with Lego. Include all the staff !! (With screenshots)

This is friggin awesome. Fucking unbelievably detailed, I want one.
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Labels: Digg, LEGO

The BBC wildlife documentary Planet Earth is just simply stunning and worth a fair chunk of the licence fee all by itself. The footage of the snow leopard and her cub was quite magnificent and to discover that it took so much effort by the cameramen really puts it in perspective.

To basically sit on a mountain for weeks including over Christmas and New Year just waiting for that rare sighting to enable them to set up the cameras to catch the shots shows amazing fortitude. I'm in awe of their work.

The story of the giant panda and her new-born cub was heartbreaking simply because of the ludicrousness of their knife-edge existence. To have evolved to live on such a select diet of bamboo that exists only in a certain elevation of the highlands of China and that is so nutritionally poor is astonishing and bewildering. Panda cubs do not generally survive very long as the milk of their mothers is as nutritionally poor as their mother's diet of bamboo.

Amazingly crisp and clear shots of the mother panda in her den tending to her new-born and again showed the skill of the BBC cameramen who was able to get these shots.

The Guardian has started a campaign to get the UK Government to stop charging for tax payer funded data; in the USA, it's free - allowing the creation of great tools like Google Maps. Get behind it!
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Labels: Digg

I think the sexual predators have more to fear of the MySpace generation of kids than vice versa these days.

Boys’ MySpace prank results in sex crime arrest
Man allegedly tried to meet fictitious 15-year-old girl for sex

Labels: Sex

The BBC showed tonight a Panorama documentary presented by Peter Taylor about the events of July 22nd 2005 that saw the killing of the Brazilian electrician Jean Charles De Menezes by firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police force.

No new evidence was revealed but it was good to have all the little bits of information that have leaked slowly out about the operation presented together as a whole here.

I think the most striking thing was that in contrast to the Israeli policy concerning suicide bombers where the bomb or suicide belt must be seen before the order to shoot to kill is given there is no such need contained within the Operation Kratos guidelines.

Officers operating under the Kratos guidelines must be sure that such a device is present but need not actually see it.

Also the Designated Senior Officer must give the order to fire but the firearms officers radios could noy communicate with the command center as they were underground. Therefore the order was not given by the DSO immediately prior to the shooting, it was either given at a time before the officers had entered the underground station or was not given at all.

There was also in the programme the slightly bizarre denial that there was a shoot-to-kill policy to deal with suicide bombers but admission that the policy was to shoot at the head in order to cause immediate incapacity of the bomber. Now I'm sure there is a very slim chance that a person could survive being shot in the head to the extent that they have become incapacitated. So whilst strictly speaking the purpose isn't to kill it will in all but the very rarest of circumstances actually result in the killing of the bomber.

The Guardian: Surveillance on drivers may be increased

The case for cameras to be focused on people using mobiles as they drive is made by the independent adviser to the transport select committee, Robert Gifford, of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts).

He argues that automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology should be applied in new ways to help defray costs of cameras and to catch offenders. "One of the good things about ANPR is that people are often multiple offenders so it would provide useful intelligence," he said. "Those responsible for 7/7 got to Luton station by car."

My god why is it necessary to mention terrorists or terrorism every time there is mention of new applications of surveillance technologies. Mr Gifford seems to mention it as an aside but the implication is that perhaps 7/7 could have been prevented if the system was in operation at the time. It's like he feels the need to justify the use of surveillance by using our greatest fears. But why should that surprise me it is what has become almost a standard line by government spokesmen so why not independent advisors also.

Mr Gifford said expanding the use of technology for tracking the movements of cars could lead police to people who had committed other offences in the same way that Al Capone was eventually caught through his income tax evasion. He claimed that for greater safety and "the greater good of society", most people would be prepared to accept "a slight reduction of our liberty".

Interesting that the public don't actually get to say whether they wish to give up some liberty in order for the greater good of society.

In any case as Marcel Berlins writes it's not a civil liberties issue.

Currently being floated in parliament is a proposal for more road surveillance cameras, partly to catch out motorists who use mobile phones while driving. I have seen several accidents caused by chatting drivers; someone I knew quite well was killed because she was talking and driving at the same time. I would have expected the proposal, aimed at deterring dangerous conduct and thereby reducing accidents and saving lives, to be greeted with enthusiasm. But no.

The whingers have emerged. It would cost too much; the technology isn't good enough; it won't prevent accidents; it's a cynical scheme to make money by fining the poor put-upon British motorist; Britain has become the most watched country in the world. To the last of those ill-founded objections I say, "So what?" I don't care how many cameras we have on the roads, provided they are used for the public good, which, to my mind, includes catching dangerous drivers and lowering fatalities. This is not a civil liberties issue.

If this technology leads to prosecutions of people like Donna Marie Maddock who was caught on camera driving whilst using both hands to apply makeup then it surely is a good thing.

But I think Mr. Berlins is mistaken in believing that the issue of whether the technology will work is irrelevant.

It's pointless to expand the system to catch people talking on mobile phones or applying makeup if the technology isn't good enough to distinguish between those behaviours and innocent actions such as scratching one's ear or sneezing or something equally innocuous. I don't know what the true case is but you wouldn't use speed cameras if the technology was unable to tell if a car was travelling at a legal speed of 56 MPH and an illegal 72 MPH so it clearly is an issue that needs to be at least considered before implementation.

Also it would seem to me that if every single motor vehicle is scanned by the ANPR then there may be a civil liberties issue here as well depending on what is done with the data. I wrote briefly last year in a much longer post about the use of ANPR in Bath following this article in The Bath Chronicle: Cameras scan for criminals.

It's fine if my number plate is scanned checked, against the database of offenders and then discarded but if my travel into Bath is logged then eventually the police will have built up a log of my movements into and out of the city along with every other drivers'.

Labels: Surveillance, Terrorism

Government plans to make all passport applicants also have an ID card have been defeated in the Lords reports the BBC.

Splash Back game

Simple but tricky game. I managed to get to level 13 on my first go and have yet to beat that.

edit: Have finally beaten that first score of mine and got a decent hadle on the dynamics of game and have maged to get to level 18.

Labels: Games

Washington Post: Bike Band Sticker Causes Bomb Scare

ATHENS, Ohio -- A sticker on a bicycle that said "this bike is a pipe bomb" caused a scare Thursday at Ohio University that shut down four buildings before authorities learned the message was the name of a punk rock band, a university spokesman said.

How moronic is this? What stupid fucker would label their bike as containing a pipe-bomb if it really did contain one?

The bomb experts hit the bike with a high-pressure spray of water, then pried it apart with a hydraulic device normally used to rescue accident victims trapped in cars, acting Athens Fire Chief Ken Gilbraith said. Once they had it open, they saw there was no bomb.

Poor bastard learns his lesson the hard way don't stick stickers on your bike that contains statements that could be misconstrued by moronic figures in authority or else you'll have your bike dismantled by heavy machinery.

Dean of Students Terry Hogan urged students to be more careful when showing support for the band from Pensacola, Fla.

More careful.

I saw Syriana today and I'd have to agree with every single point that my friend Abhi made about it. He wrote:

Syriana is a brilliant film. Deeply flawed in some ways (packs in too much material and some characterization suffers as a result, as does the film's lucidity) but the strengths render these quite irrelevant IMHO. There are some brilliant performances (Clooney is sublime, even with limited screen time) and the screenplay is ambitious as all hell. Its about time a movie like this came along. Its scathing and realistic and unabashedly political and pulls no punches. Also features one of the more stomach churning torture scenes I have seen.

The issues of corruption and US foreign policy influencing domestic policies in Middle Eastern states is a complex one and too much to fit into a movie of this length but I think it managed very well to cover all it's bases even if that meant that the pacing was off at times and characterisations were broad strokes for many characters.

I think the message is more than just that oil companies act reprehensibly. Of course they do they are large multinational companies they'll do whatever turns a profit and to do that as an oil company means corrupting or influencing governments. The message also is that our governments let them behave this way because it is believed it is in the best interests of our nations (both the US and the UK) for them to do so. This is kind of paralleled with the movie The Constant Gardener but in that it is pharmaceutical companies.

I'll be in my bunk.
Jayne Cobb

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
Rene Descartes

Not really news as the truth did come out following the event but Fox News now has video footage that shows President Bush was warned of the potential impact of Hurricane Katrina.

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The possibility that the levees might be 'topped' was a grave concern at the meeting and yet the President was to state categorically after the hurricane had hit New Orleans that no one could have predicted that the levees would be breached.

Labels: Security

and other wonderful Choose your own Adventure books that were never published.

Spy Blog has an excellent analysis of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill or as it otherwise has been described as The Abolition of Parliament Bill.

Cabinet Office Minister Jim Murphy has published the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill 2006 looks to be another sneaky attempt by the Executive branch of Government to further weaken the role of Parliament.

Why does the NuLabour Government hate the idea of full public consultation and of detailed scrutiny by Parliament so much ?

This Bill adds to the already strong case for a law which imposes criminal penalties on any Government Ministers, civil servants and lawyers, who dare to use words like "any" or "all" or "every" in a Bill or Order or Regulation, without qualification, caveat or restriction of unlimited powers.

Similarly, by law, no Act of Parliament should ever be worded so that it could be interpreted to give the power to amend itself (not the same thing as normal Secondary Legislation), without new Primary Legislation and full, detailed scrutiny by Parliament.

This Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill fails these simple constitutional safeguards.

Murky.org also makes some great points in his summing up of The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill