Nazi codebreaker shortened WWII by 2 years

March 30, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Technology 

Ever since I read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson I’ve been fascinated with WWII era computing technology and crypto. Here’s a cool article on both.

The Wider View: Nazi codebreaker which shortened the Second World War by two years | Mail Online.

And here’s a link to that book if your interested. One of my very favorite books of all time:

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson @ Amazon.com

Matt Taibbi responds to whiney AIG exec

March 30, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: news 

I agree with pretty much everything Matt Taibbi has to say.  It’s likely how a lot of us feel about these idiots.

AIG Exec Whines About Public Anger, and Now Were Supposed to Pity Him? Yeah, Right | The Smirking Chimp.

And a related pic for Teo:

atlasbailoutsmall

Hacker Spaces

March 30, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Technology 

“It’s like fight club for geeks”.

Well, it’s cool and interesting anyway. I could see having a lot of fun hanging out at one of these.

DIY Freaks Flock to Hacker Spaces Worldwide | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

Why Toddlers Dont Do What They’re Told

March 29, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Science 

Awesome.

Munakata’s team used a computer game and a setup that measures the diameter of the pupil of the eye to determine mental effort to study the cognitive abilities of 3-and-a-half-year-olds and 8-year-olds. The research concluded that while everything you tell toddlers seems to go in one ear and out the other, the study found that toddlers listen, but then store the information for later use. ‘For example, let’s say it’s cold outside and you tell your 3-year-old to go get his jacket out of his bedroom and get ready to go outside,’ says doctoral student Christopher Chatham. ‘You might expect the child to plan for the future, think “OK it’s cold outside so the jacket will keep me warm.” But what we suggest is that this isn’t what goes on in a 3-year-old’s brain. Rather, they run outside, discover that it is cold, and then retrieve the memory of where their jacket is, and then they go get it.’”

Live Science article

Melissa Virus turns 10, was named after stripper

March 27, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Technology 

Ah…the memories.  I actually remember this virus infecting hundreds of systems at the company I was with at the time. This was back when you could write a few simple lines of vbscript, infect a system with it and then have it forward itself to all the contacts in the Outlook Address Book.  If you can believe it, Microsoft was actually much worse with security back in those days.  I fought that little bastard of a virus for 10 days with my geek brethren.  I didn’t know until today that it was named after a stripper.  How interesting.

Melissa virus turning 10| NetworkWorld.com Community.

Here’s the coders wikipedia page

NASA mounts camera on booster

March 27, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Science 

Pretty cool video. I wonder if this is what the world looked like to space bat when he met his demise.

LiveLeak.com – STS-119 Solid Rocket Booster Separation – March 15, 2009..

The History of Greed

March 27, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: news 

“Those Wall Street bonus-baggers may have been innovative enough to develop credit default swaps, but they didn’t invent greed. No, that’s been around as long as there have been people, and stuff to lust after.”

Economy: The Human History of Greed | Newsweek Business

Where plutonium comes from

March 27, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Science 

Turns out, all of our nuclear materials for bombs and energy comes from a hole in the ground in Africa.  This is a pretty interesting story…

A Radioactive Cut in the Earth That Will Not Stay Closed: Scientific American.

Prolific Euro criminal is a cotton swab

March 26, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Science 

Police had a very prolific criminal on their hands in Europe.  This lady was detected at over 20 various crime scenes, including murders, spread out over a very large area.  Turns out, some cotton swab company had been selling contaminated forensic swabs to the cops. Sort of funny…in a geeky way…

The Heilbronn DNA Mixup | Science and Stuff.

Behind Pwn2Own: Exclusive Interview With Charlie Miller

March 26, 2009 by crow · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Technology 

Charlie Miller is the dude who took down a Mac in 2 minutes at Pwn2Own which is a contest setting hackers against the various OS’s (Linux, Windows, OSX).  The dude is former NSA and apparently somewhat of a badass.

Behind Pwn2Own: Exclusive Interview With Charlie Miller : Introduction – Review Tom’s Hardware.