Cool
A powerful method for extracting information from supposedly secure systems is side-channel attacks: cryptanalytic techniques that rely on information unintentionally leaked by computing devices. Most side-channel attack research has focused on electromagnetic emanations (TEMPEST), power consumption and, recently, diffuse visible light from CRT displays. The oldest eavesdropping channel, namely acoustic emanations, has received little attention. Our preliminary analysis of acoustic emanations from personal computers shows them to be a surprisingly rich source of information on CPU activity…
On Breaking RSA-1024
This is from the same author. It looks like RSA-1024 is safe for now, but not for too much longer!
…Using this hypothetical device (and ignoring the initial R&D costs), it appears possible to break a 1024-bit RSA key in one year using a device whose cost is about $10M (previous predictions were in the trillions of dollars)…
Grrr.. My front brakes need replacing. $227.
Grr*3.9 My air conditioner died, the compressor isn’t compressing. $895. Jeez, for that much I should just buy a lot of dry ice and leave it in the trunk.
Grr*.44 It’ll cost about $100 to fix my tape player… I’ll hold off on that expense ’til next month.
And the worst part is, I bought a 50,000 mile extended warrantee on the car. Things didn’t start going wrong until 52,000 miles.
at 52k, there was an overheating problem
at 59k (now) the front brake pads and rotors need replacing (the rotors not from wear but rust), the a/c needs serious repair, and the tape player is sick.
Moderately good news: The people at Johnson Chrysler rotated my tires going front to back. But the manual says to cross-rotate the tires. I raised my eyebrows at this discrepancy. I’ve asked around and gotten mixed answers. The guys at the oil change place though it was wrong. Mike at On The Move Auto said that front-to-back rotation was fine and that 1 in 1,000 tires fail when cross-rotated. So I guess I’m not so unhappy about Johnson Chrysler not cross-rotating.
The Pets.com sock puppet, out of work for so long, found a new job doing commercials for 1-800-bar-none.
This is a photo of Julia B. Boolia on the Merry Go Round at the Hackettstown Spring Festival. Nice photo, eh?
The email support I got from Cablevision on an issue 2 weeks ago was somewhat lacking… or rather less than worthless b/c they kept me waiting for a non-answer. So I wrote ’em a letter.
A lady called me a few minutes ago to apologize and credit my account $20.
Cool.
It struck me a little bit that she was part of a call center; I could hear people in the background talking on the phone and I could tell in her tone of voice that her job was to “apologize, give him a refund and move on to the next person.” Not that I’m complaining here. It’s just interesting that Cablevision has a whole complaint answering department. When I think about it, it’s not so strange. I mean, they have hundreds of thousands of customers…
Don’t tip a computer that has a CD spinning in the drive. The resulting gyroscopic perturbations will do bad things to the CD in the drive.
I was re-installing XP on a newish Dell 2400. The XP product activation code is written on the side of the PC. So when I needed the code, (the computer was sitting on the floor and I was in a chair) I tilted the case. The resulting noise sounded like a circular saw that was trying to cut through a piece of wood that was just too thick. Once the CD came to it’s (literally) grinding halt, I took it out and found a long circular gash in the disc.
So I’ve spent an hour with a Skip Doctor, trying to read the disc. No luck yet but I think I’ll get it eventually. Feh!
My ad STILL hasn’t made it into the paper. The kid who sold me the ad is a bit green. He promised a bunch of things he couldn’t promise (like the delivery date). I hope my gentle coaxing pushes him toward being a reputable salesman and he doesn’t continue his slip into being slimy.
Me: “Hey Ben. Is my ad in the paper yet?”
Him: “[insert hamming and hawing here, and then…] “I’m not sure.”
Me: “Well, you said it was going to go in at either Easter or the weekend after. It’s now 1 week after that time. So…. What’s up? Is it in? Is it going in soon? You went to church yesterday, didn’t you?”
Him: “[insert hamming, hawing, mentions that he wasn’t such a good catholic and promises that he would drive to the church right that moment to find out and bring a copy right to my door]”
Me: “No, I don’t need that. I just want to know if my ad is in the paper. I paid $xxx for this ad and I just want to know when it’s going in.”
Him: “[An explanation of how flawed the listing process is and how the company had originally told him one thing and then another about how long it takes to put a listing in.]”
Me: “Why don’t you give me your boss’ phone number and I’ll tell him how I’m unhappy that you had initially been mislead.” [Of course, I suspected he was telling a little white lie about his original knowledge and his current knowledge… this phone call would either help get my ad in on-time, or get him in trouble]
Him: [He gave me the number and then an explanation of how Churches preprint their newsletters sometimes up to 3 weeks in advance. He promised that my ad would be in next week’s newsletter.]
Me: “Don’t promise things you aren’t sure about. Why don’t you make some phone calls and find out when the ad is going in. Give me a call back later today or tomorrow.”
Blah blah… [insert blogging minutia here]
He called me back and said it was going in “soon” or some crap. I don’t even remember exactly what he said.
Pixyglam Yahoo Group is the place to find out all the poop.
Ha ha
TGIF Humor is the list to be on for that
Forwarded from PPG:
April 12, 2004
Pop-Up Ad Company Plans an Initial Stock Offering
By BOB TEDESCHI
http://nytimes.com/2004/04/12/technology/12claria.html?pagewanted=print&position=
The Claria Corporation, the company best known – and reviled by privacy advocates – for its online pop-up ads and tracking applications, has filed to offer shares to the public.
Claria, formerly known as Gator, hopes to raise as much as $150 million in its initial offering, which will be underwritten by the investment firms Deutsche Bank Securities, Piper Jaffray, SG Cowen and Thomas Weisel, according to Claria’s filing with the Securities Exchange Commission on Thursday.
…
A majority of my business is defending against these people. Who wins in an arms race, no matter what? Arms dealers.
(Not to worry intrepid reader, this IPO makes me just as queasy as you.)