Sniff traffic by listening to keyboard clicks

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What makes the technique feasible is that each keystroke makes a relatively distinct sound, however subtle, when hit. Typical users type about 300 characters per minute, leaving enough time for a computer to isolate the sounds of individual keystrokes and categorize the letters based upon the statistical characteristics of English text. For example, the letters “th” will occur together more frequently than “tj,” and the word “yet” is far more common than “yrg.”

This sounds a lot like Solar Designers technique for analysing SSH traffic, as presented at Hackers At Large in 2001…

Britain to replace nuclear capability?

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In an interview with the Guardian, Reid, the UK Defence Secretary, indicates that it is time to replace Trident in order to be able to present a credible nuclear capability against the evolving new and potentially rogue nuclear powers (India, Pakistan, N. Korea among others). Which goes to show, allthough jointness and mobility is the new rage in armed forces, the all out war scenario is not being ignored.

Laser fusion reactors

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The basic principles are relatively simple to lay out: a high energy laser is used to heat and compress a small amount of deuterium, a stable isotope of hydrogen. When the deuterium gets sufficiently hot, the outer layers detonate, sending a shockwave towards the centre of the sample.

From The Register

Morphing wings

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Wingwarping to the extreme – current wings use leading and trailing edge slats to change their shape in order to create more lift at different angles of attack (angles of aircraft and thus wing pitch into the airflow). This usually creates 3 seperate surfaces for control, but if you look at the way birds reshape their wings, it’s a much more fluid and precise process.

So these guys are building morphing wings on aircraft with wing spans less than 2 feet (probably due to structural integrity issues). It’s a cool beginning to this technology, and the site has videos etc.

Sliding Doors

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Well, you could have the whole door open left and right… or you could do this:

The door is segmented into multiple strips and opens minimally according to the shape of the individual, animal or object that has to pass through

Good stuff!

Never see a red light again

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The MIRT, or Mobile InfraRed Transmitter for Emergency Vehicles (Which is MIRToEV really, but oh well) is a traffic signal pre-emption transmitter. These have today been outlawed in the UK, making me wonder, will it work in the rest of mainland Europe? If so, I want one, and if so, what frequency does it broadcast on, as you must be able to make one for less than $ 399,.99!

Or maybe there’s just other manufacturers I can’t find right now…

Ah… From The Tech FAQ:

The transmitter is an infrared light which is flashed at the receiver. The transmitter inside the vehicle may transmit a low-priority signal (10 Hz) or a high-priority signal (14 Hz).

Climate warning as Siberia melts

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THE world’s largest frozen peat bog is melting. An area stretching for a million square kilometres across the permafrost of western Siberia is turning into a mass of shallow lakes as the ground melts, according to Russian researchers just back from the region.

The sudden melting of a bog the size of France and Germany combined could unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

[…]

What was until recently a featureless expanse of frozen peat is turning into a watery landscape of lakes, some more than a kilometre across. Kirpotin suspects that some unknown critical threshold has been crossed, triggering the melting.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725124.500