The Linkielist

I’ve known that WEP encryption still used to protect a lot of WiFi (wireless connections) was crackable in around 15 minutes, but these papers describe how to do it in under 60 seconds – the fastest attack I’ve found to date!

The Original paper by Tews, Weinmann and Pyshkin (pdf)

The tool (aircrack-ptw) to do it with.

And the tutorial to use the tools with (written for aircrack-ng, but with some changes from the above link it works for aircrack-ptw)

The lesson? Use WPA

AMD to hardcode DRM

Posted on April 12, 2007 by Robin

The AMD rep spelled it out in words that would have been undiplomatic coming from me: He said that the new chips will “block unauthorized access to the frame buffer.” In short, that means an unauthorized party can’t save the contents of the display to a file on disk unless the content owner approves it.

Statistical Analysis of Peak Oil

Posted on April 12, 2007 by Robin

These guys seem to be oil professionals, and they’re definitely not pulling statistics out of their arse. They’re painting a serious doom scenario – Peak Oil is upon us NOW. Look at the charts, analysis and comments and decide for yourself (nb. there’s also a lot of sociological / economic comments in there as well, of which I’m not sure whether oil professionals are qualified enough to be interesting about).

Hospital treatments often don’t work

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Robin

Apparently patients in hospitals are given treatments that just don’t work. Not only this, but the practitioning doctors know this and would probably be surprised by the amount that do! Part of the problem is the huge body of research out there, which doesn’t filter down to the doctors, who don’t change their way of working.

Space Sims

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Robin

It’s been a long while since I’ve last played X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Elite, Wing Commander, Privateer, Freespace et al. and I’ve missed the genre.
After a little hunting around I’ve found two space sims which look very worth exploring (Allthough, unfortunately, none is multiplayer as far as I can see…):

X3: Reunion is a huge, lovely looking, non-linear Elite replacement. Unfortunately it’s slow, trading is huge and complex and there isn’t much gameplay to keep you going if you want a storyline to follow. The pace is slow, but the detail and possibilities are breathtaking.

DarkStar One is more based on making your money through blowing things up whilst following missions. Trading is an option, but it’s fortunately simple. The graphics are slightly less beautiful but still at times awesome, but there’s apparantly a sameness to the galaxies and trading posts which marrs what would be a top space shoot-em-up.

Both look very worth playing though.

Wall Sized 3D Displays

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Robin

Tom’s Hardware is running a great tutorial how to get a DLP projector, stereoscopic glasses and go all VR by turning your wall into a huge 3D display. They tell you what hardware to get and how to install it, and have reviews of several different types of games you can play.

Hacker threatened to extradite

Posted on April 4, 2007 by Robin

Gary McKinnen, a Scot who’s exploits put Kevin Mitnick to shame, allegedly has hacked into 97 US military and NASA computers. He’s in England fighting extradition, probably because he quite sanely doesn’t want to be tried as a terrorist. The US is using threatening strong-arm tactics to get him to not fight the extradition to the US, such as leaning on the UK to revoke his rights should he eventually be extradited. A nasty picture of what both the US and the UK are all about nowadays.

Now the cameras talk too

Posted on April 4, 2007 by Robin

Because being able to watch your citizens in an Orwellian way isn’t enough, Britain’s latest addition to the surveillance society is to make it interactive. Unknown people with their voices modified to sound freakily like schoolchildren will be able to shout directives at you from the camera’s all over the country now.

Driving Licence points have one winner: Insurance companies

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Robin

Hardly surprising, but putting points on a person’s licence isn’t going to stop them speeding. Or at least, not the 3.7 million motorists in this study. It increased the insurance company’s profits by around $36 million, as they charge more insurance fees if you get points.
The way to stop drivers from repeat speeding offences, is to give them a court probation.

Cure for Cancer, Herpes

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Robin

NYU School of Medicine researchers report in a new study that they have isolated a new version of a herpesvirus that kills cancer cells but spares normal tissue.
…
In animal studies, the new version dramatically reduced the size of human prostate cancer tumors grown in mice. Moreover, it completely eradicated the tumor mass in some of the animals, and it appears not to harm normal tissue.

“We took a crippled virus and essentially made it into a more effective killer of cancer cells,” says Ian Mohr, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Microbiology at NYU School of Medicine, who led the research and is an author of the study. “But we’ve only demonstrated this in mice. Clearly the next step is to see whether this more potent anti-tumor virus works in other animal models.”

Anti Anti Smoking Activism continues

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Robin

This guy has built a 90 seat pub extension to his house, where his mates and family can come in, drink a pint and not worry about those anal retentive anti-smokers. Despite a ban on pub smoking in Wales, he gets away with it because it’s not really a pub. Everything in his place is free – he’s giving it away, and it’s not really a place for the general public. This is a direct stance against the anti-smoking nazi’s.