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Friday, January 4, 2013

Open Core Security and More Security Analysis, Routing Problems, and More Bugs

I once recall a conversation with a engineer from one particular security firm/vendor. They said that they were prohibited/dissuaded (by their country) from using solutions (even though one solution was considered world class) from another particular country because of philosophical/national security concerns. This is ridiculous. In a large number of cases, firms are having to open up their source code for analysis by national intelligence agencies and third party auditors. If the solution being provided is minimalistic, there is a common open source framework and Application Programming Interface (API) that the solution can plug into (and that can fit into popular devices) I don't see any reason (apart from commercial/political/philosophical) why we shouldn't be able to use the best possible solution/s even they may come from possibly questionable sources (I'll expand on this concept in 'Cloud and Internet Security' report. Currently, 820+ pages/214K+ words).

Tom Clancy's book, 'Threat Vector' actually provides a decent (though fictitious) example of how to carry out an integrated cyberwarfare/conventional warfare attack.

Richard J. Aldrich's, 'GCHQ' actually provides a good explanation of some of the activities of modern intelligence agencies. Certain decisions make sense but seem incredibly cynical.

In the past I've tried using open proxies and fiddling with MTU and other setting to get around certain networking problems. Sucess has been limited. The most elegant/useable solution that I've come across/found has been 'Tor'.

Interesting to see what the rest of the world is downloading via BitTorrent.
http://www.customer.scaneye.net/data

I remember developing and running small programs/games for the TI-83 platform. Amazing how far some graphic calculators have come...
http://hackaday.com/2012/11/12/linux-on-a-nspire-cas-cx-calculator/

Cool robot called 'iCub'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICub
http://www.icub.org/

Timestamping audio using power hum.
http://gizmodo.com/5968396/police-can-timestamp-any-audio-recording-from-background-interference-alone 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671

After my recent wireless experiments with EM/RF permeation of various materials (and the surprise at how even the thinnest/least dense materials have impacted significantly upon reflection/absorption) I'm curious to see how the NetGear AC6200 (USB wireless 802.11ac dongle) performs with a shell integrated adjustable antenna. Reviews so far have been mixed (though most problems feel like they are related to the frequency band in question as well as driver support under Windows 8)...

Bugs of the Week

Google Images
Not really a bug but a problem nonetheless. Certain websites can't be previewed in Google Images since they can not be opened in a frame and must be opened in a seperate window.

Microsoft's Windows Media Player 12
After ripping a few CD's recently at max bit rate of 320KB using MP3 format I've noticed a bug. When you go into the 'Library' you'll notice that the size is incorrectly listed as 'O KB'. Solution is to remove and re-add files to music library. Not sure if this is limited to my particular setup though. Bug doesn't seem to appear at other bit rates.

Sega's/Sports Interactive's Football Manager Series (most of these apply to 2009 but some apply to only earlier versions)
- clubs still silly enough to bid on a player even though he is approaching end of contract
- even if you give a company in a lower division a significant cash boost it doesn't seem to provide them with that much of a performance boost. The burn rate for clubs in lower divisions when given cash boost doesn't seem to make any sense as well. If a club can make it on a net worth of only a few million dollars how can it burn through millions of dollars over the space of a year and not make any significant performance jump?
- accept all offers option for players not honoured sometimes even when you have taken over another team
- transfers in next window option often doesn't work even though transfer fee to break clause has been met (unless there is something about my understanding of this is incorrect)

General Observation of eBook Readers
Often sub-par performance (performance and usability such as having a decent font size/zoom level) using PDF files on inexpensive eBook readers. Try to use native formats (MOBI, ePUB, etc...) where possible. Makes a big difference...

http://calibre-ebook.com/
http://www.lightreading.com/

- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
http://sites.google.com/site/dtbnguyen/
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/

TPE SD2000i Inverter Petrol Power Generator Repair, Random Stuff, and More

- I recently got a TPE SD2000i Inverter Petrol Power Generator for a cheap price ~$50 at a local market. Apparently, it was purchased and us...