holy shit!

via boingboing, ironically.

more bouncy balls on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is the google news page that contains all the articles (well all the ones google can find) regarding Mike's blackhat talk and the ensuing conflagration.

You'll notice it hit the AP wire about 5:30 pm thursday, so expect to see it, you know, EVERYWHERE now.

Google Search: The Mike Lynn Saga

Although the situation between Lynn and Cisco now is an issue for the courts to decide, the matter has had one definite effect: a post-talk flurry of patches.

"The existence of this major vulnerability is now receiving lots of publicity," said Hypponen. "As a result, many administrators are busy patching."

[ Which was, afterall, much of the point, I gather. The fix has been available for weeks or months. Now maybe it'll get applied to the infrastructure, where it can do some good. -k]

Top Tech News - Tech Trends - Cisco Tries To Silence Security Researcher

Not to pimp my own site *too* much, but we've been trying to maintain a list of articles regarding mike, aka abaddon, over at the supernicety.

In truth, the google news link is the most complete, i think, but we'll keep posting as we get stuff.

the Supernicety » Blog Archive » Just like mike…

The code name, Space Beast, was one they came up with in the wee hours of the night.
Tyler Lyon, Daniel Winegar and Chad Thornley were overtired and giddy as they tackled a science fair project. Their idea: Eliminate the use of Freon in automobile air-conditioning systems by relying on the Peltier effect - of course.
"We aren't planning our lives around making air conditioners," Lyon explained. "We wanted to do something to help the environment and the economy."
But what began as a Riverton High School physics class assignment nearly two years ago has morphed into an award-winning, internationally recognized invention.

[ Call for research.

This article has some issues, like the fact that cars don't typically use freon anymore, but another refrigerant which, while a greenhouse gas, doesn't deplete ozone.

Mainly though, i want to know the details of this because the claim seems to be that taking the gasoline, converting it to electricity, and powering a stack of peltier devices is more efficient than directly driving a compressor for the ac. Presumably the same number of fans would need to be run electrically for either.

Is the alternator/electric cycle that much more efficient than the compressor/refrigerant cycle?

I imagine other problems, like there's extra heat there, which isn't strictly necessary in an engine bay, and may not have an alternate use. A reduction in movable parts and nasty greenhouse gasses seems a valid argument in it's favor, but i'm skeptical that the whole package is going to prove sensible.

Of course, if it pans out, i'm sure i won't be the only one regretting the assumptions they've made about peltier coolers and the relevant efficiencies. Has ANYONE who's seen a peltier not thought, at least briefly, about doing something like this? I coulda scored 50k and a trip to japan, dammit. -k]

Salt Lake Tribune - Utah

Enter Peerflix, which can be described on a basic level as eBay meets Netflix. Peerflix resembles many online DVD stores, but it neither rents nor sells DVDs. Rather, it depends on a community of users willing to trade DVDs they have for DVDs they want. There are no subscription fees. Peerflix charges a 99-cent transaction fee and senders are responsible for the postage charge of 37 cents for the mailers that the company distributes. Behold the $1.36 DVD.

[ Decent idea. -k]

Switched On: The Peerflix challenge: Rip. Flix. Churn. - Engadget - www.engadget.com

One thing the freeze doesn't do is prevent creditors from issuing pre-approved instant credit applications in the mail, which makes it easy for identity thieves who rummage through mail or garbage to find the applications and open credit accounts in a victim's name. The bill provides a special exception to the freeze to allow creditors to access credit reports to prescreen applicants.

A Senate source told Wired News that federal lawmakers adopted the exception for prescreening from a similar clause in the California legislation.

"That's a state statute that tried to balance the consumer-protection issues and the concerns of businesses to be able to market (to consumers)," the source said.

Fuck businesses, especially credit card companies with their pre-screened mail-in applications. It doesn't take a genius to realize that they are entirely profit-driven and, instead of protecting me, would prefer isntead to prey on the hapless consumer who catches the Debt psuedo-virus. What really ticks me off is that they could just as easily mail an information flyer without the added candy for dumpster divers.

-janelane, unimpressed

[ I second that. Caveat emptor and all, but this has always seemed shady. I have pretty good credit and I've gone through periods where I got an average of one of these per day. I *ALWAYS* tear them multiple times or shred them. I'm not too paranoid, but that doesn't mean I think it's ok. -k]

Wired News: Bill Strives to Protect Privacy

Frustrated by MemeStreams? Sick of our bad UI design? Tired of all these stupid people and their insipid political ideas and boring personal interests? Why start a flame war when you can take out your frustrations like a man... with firearms! Send an email to tom@memestreams.net with your mailing address and I'll mail you some MemeStreams sitckers! Stick them to your car. Stick them to your laptop. Stick them to your little sister. Or better yet, take them down to the range...

[ I already have one on *my* car! -k]

MemeStreams Stickers!

Dick Armey, circa Oct. 2003:

Now, there was no reason to tell the world about the ambassador's wife. It was just a short-sighted, self-centered, simple-minded cowardly act of revenge, and who's paying the cost? The Bush White House... If they ever find [the leakers], they ought to just -- they ought to just kick them out of the White House and prosecute them, because...the greater the pretension, the greater the hypocrisy. [CNN, 10/19/03]

Dick Armey now:

We've got Karl Rove, who is under this constant attack of political malarkey, who has probably the most documented case of his evidence of anyone in the the whole story. So quite frankly, I think the American people are seeing it for what it is right now. More than anything else it's a political farce not a matter of national security interests. [Fox News, 7/14/05]

[ I know it's from lib-left DKos, but still. Jebus. -k]

Daily Kos: Republican

Is it irony when my Powerbook goes into sleep mode due to low battery condition, 1 second before completing a shutdown command?

It was already at the point of having terminated all the processes, the finder was gone, just an empty Hokusai desktop... sleep. I swapped the battery and woke it up. I glanced at my Hokusai for ONE SECOND before the machine powered off.

I don't believe that there wasn't a single second's worth of juice left in that battery.