ibneko, posts by tag: tech - LiveJournal

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

For website design: picking color schemes.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.c…

Are we really surprised about this? o.O We've always known that SSNs are allocated by states:
http://genealogy.about.com/od/soci…
http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/geo… - hell, the government tells us what the next two numbers are likely to be.

And if you know the order that the last four digits are assigned, then knowledge of their birthday and birth time, along with the knowledge of the number of surrounding birth times could give you a good guess as to what someone's SSN might be. :P

So I wandered over to Goodwill yesterday, because they have a 50% off all non-barcode items and picked up a Nokia LD-1W. That's a bluetooth GPS unit. Checking Amazon, prices are at $60-something. I got it for $2. Probably because no one knew how to test it.. or even what it was.

Took me a while to adapt a car Nokia charger to a 12V AC-DC unit to charge the poor thing, but it charged overnight and I got it working this morning.

Got it to sync with my macbook pro:
1) Ran the bluetooth setup assistant
2) added it as "Any Device"
3) Passkey was 0000. The normal.
4) Then I configured it's serial ports, with "RS-232" as the Protocol and "SPP-GPS" (the only choice) as the Service.

Ran Kismac. It recognized it immediately and showed pretty graphs of what satelites the GPS unit had found.

Then I downloaded, compiled, and installed GPSd. And grabbed Google Earth and gps2geX (a gps to google earth tool). Started up GPSd: sudo /usr/local/sbin/gpsd -b -n -N -D 1 /dev/tty.NokiaLD-1W-SPP-GPS-1

and started gps2geX. Opened Google Earth and hit the "open in google earth" button in gps2geX and saw my location. Yay!

Only problem: I don't really have a use for this, unless I go wardriving or geocache hunting... :\

Safari 4 takes up a lot of Real Memory. Like, twice as much as I remember it used to eating up - around 500 MB?

This is unhappy. Although it might also be Saft. Hard to say.

http://pics.livejournal.com/ibneko…

So I decided to see how big of an image I could throw. There's the result.

It's about 8 feet wide. That means it's the equivalent of a good 110+ inch TV. There is a Canada Dry can set against the wall, on the lower-left corner of the image. When I took this picture, my computer wasn't set up correctly at the time, so actual coverage area is probably wider by a foot.

The problem with this setup? If I really want to use it, I'll need to either arrange a more comfortable chair next to the microwave... or.... I dunno. Also, my DVI to HDMI cable is short. And the positioning of the projector (and lack of nearby table space) makes picking a permanent laptop placement position difficult.

I'm going to pick up Halo 3 tomorrow and see how/if image quality changes when I plug in the XBox (using Component Video, I guess? I don't think it comes with the HDMI plug... I might have to invest in the adaptor/cable?).

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zerod…

HAH! Take that, you stupid... ::mutters off::

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Also, this is interesting:
http://blog.plover.com/misc/licens…

Essentially, if you use a combination of 1 (one), I (upper case i), l (lower case L), you could theoretically make it kinda hard to positively identify your car by license plate. Similarily, 0 (zero) and O (upper case o) would do the same. It's a little harder, but 2 and Z may also do the same.

Unix Express: Split into three operating companies.

Linux Cooperative:
All passengers bring a piece of the aeroplane and a box of tools with them to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing constantly about what kind of plane they want to build and how to put it together. Eventually, the passengers split into groups and build several different aircraft, but give them all the same name. Some passengers actually reach their destinations. All passengers believe they got there.
Apple Airlines:
The terminal is neat and clean, the attendants are attractive, the pilots very capable, the planes are beautiful, and you always reach the correct destination... unfortunately they have a fairly small fleet, most planes have no baggage compartment or overhead storage, and the seats aren't adjustable. Frequent Apple fliers are known to attack anyone who suggests that these are important features.

Legacy Express:
The terminal is neat and clean, albeit in an "industrial" style. You have to choose your plane ahead of time, because different planes only fly to different cities, and if your luggage doesn't match your plane you need to hire a baggage consultant to adjust it to fit. But the planes are fast, efficient, and always arrive on time or even ahead of schedule.

Windows Airlines:
The terminal is very neat and clean, with security barriers every few meters. The attendants are attractive, even if it's kind of creepy how much they want to "help" (especially in the restrooms). The pilots are allegedly very capable, though nobody ever sees them and there's an armed guard by the cockpit door. The fleet of jets it operates are immense. Your jet takes off without a hitch, pushing above the clouds, and at 20,000 feet a message pops up on the seat back in front of you asking "Should this plane explode now?".

Some idiot always answers "Yes"

-http://scarydevil.com/~peter/io/ai…

Awesomeness!

I've just discovered that at some point, Apple added A2DP bluetooth support.

That means I can use my Logitech bluetooth headset (comes with a 3.5" jack -> bluetooth "wireless").

Mmmm, there's some audio pops and crackles... :\ Still, much coolness.

Now if only I could sync my iPhone with bluetooth.

http://www.eff.org/action/borderse…

There's links that'll help you send a generic e-mail to your local congressperson, and/or help you locate their phone number.

So go, e-mail. Help keep our deep dark secrets private.

...and encrypting+hiding data too large to store online.

Now that US customs agents have unfettered access to laptops and other electronic devices at borders, a coalition of travel groups, civil liberties advocates and technologists is calling on Congress to rein in the Department of Homeland Security's search and seizure practices. They're also providing practical advice on how to prevent trade secrets and other sensitive data from being breached.
In a letter dated Thursday, the group, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union and the Business Travel Coalition, called on the House Committee on Homeland Security to ensure searches aren't arbitrary or overly invasive. They also urged the passage of legislation outlawing abusive searches.

The letter comes 10 days after a US appeals court ruled Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have the right to rummage through electronic devices even if they have no reason to suspect the hardware holds illegal contents. Not only are they free to view the files during passage; they are also permitted to copy the entire contents of a device. There are no stated policies about what can and can't be done with the data.

-http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/…

I need to get TrueCrypt working. But I've heard some questionable, "things will crash and data will get lost" things about the initial mac release.

TrueCrypt, from what I've read, is supposed to let you encrypt things as well as hide them in harmless looking files. Pain in the ass though... At least I don't think I'm crossing the border anytime soon...