Instructions to tap into an OnStar unit and take control of the GPS subsystem. Now you can disable the GPS and/or use it with your laptop (and mapping software) instead of (or in addition to) using it for OnStar.

Tap into OnStar

] Matt Adams has a different idea. He's the co-founder of Blast
] Theory, a digital-arts group based in the United Kingdom
] that creates mobile multiplayer games that fuse wireless
] virtual space with real space.

Worth a look if you're interested in how people might use location based services.

Wired News: On Your Mark, Get Set, Unwire!

It's the FBIs, NSAs, and Equifaxes of the world versus a swelling movement of Cypherpunks, civil libertarians, and millionaire hackers. At stake: Whether privacy will exist in the 21st century.

Cypherpunks write code.

In the Los Angeles of the not too distant future, perhaps the hipster's first question will not be about your car; rather, it will be about your code.

"V unir n qernz ..."

Crypto Rebels

I installed 2.6.0-test11 on a machine not too long ago, with zero problems. If anyone is thinking of trying out 2.6 now that its final, go for it. If my experience is any guide, it should go pretty smoothly.

Congratulations to everyone who had a part in working on 2.5/2.6!!

Linux 2.6 Released

Decius wrote:
] Having said that, I'm recommending this article because these
] are fairly reasonable ideas. Yes your RSS aggregator should be
] signing up to receive a message anytime something new pops up,
] instead of going around to 1000 machines and asking every few
] minutes. As for using bit-torrent as an RSS feed distribution
] mechanism, yes, but no. Bit-torrent shouldn't know anything
] about RSS or vice-versa. My take is that bit-torrent should be
] pushed down below the applications, and it ought to cache any
] web page you hit if the owner marks it as cachable. Any url
] you try to pull should get pulled from bit-torrent first, if
] available.

I agree with Decius..

Better ways of tracking when content has changed are in order. Thats the key problem. Not the clients fetching the data, its the client's checking the data.. There are multiple systems out there already in a position to solve that problem, and they are likely going to be the ones to do it. Technorati, Newsisfree, Syndic8, etc.. A new pure distributed model isn't really necessary when the natural market place creates multiple sites that can play the role of content checker and knowledge cache. Its already distributed.. The solution to the problem lies in someone knowing what content you care about, and telling you when its changed.. That's could happen via some new great piece of distributed vaporware that's just gonna work and get widely adopted overnight, but its not likely. Its probably going to happen by subverting another key persistent connection the user has already had for many years that preforms a very, very, very, similar function: Instant Messaging.. [ think the presence mechanism.. not geting IMs.. -ed ]

Bittorrent like distribution models only makes sense for rich content. Something much larger then the average 10k - 30k size of most text only RSS documents. There is a certain overhead that would be created by such a network, and I don't see that as necessary unless the data being distributed warranted it. And wiring that into the syndication format is a bad idea.. The syndication format, as far as any given author/weblogger is concerned, is just their authoritative source what's available/new/changed.. It points to content associated with entries and the various methods of retrieving them, and the client can make a descision about how/if to get it based on that.. That is the point where bittorrent like models fit in, once there is content that is sizable enough to warrant the overhead of a p2p swarm/cloud kind of thing.

Even the current semantics in play enforce this way of looking at it. Its called a syndication format, not distribution format.

Don't read this as me totally dismissing the idea of distributed feeds.. Things like Konspire/kast highly interest me. I think they will be critical at some point when it comes to distributing content.. Howev... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: Yahoo! News - BitTorrent and RSS Create Disruptive Revolution

] Welcome to the Abusable Technologies Awareness Center
] (ATAC). Our mission is to provide current and accurate
] information about technology that oversteps its bounds.
] Whether the concerns relate to unexpected privacy
] violations or inappropriate security, ATAC serves as a
] clearinghouse for informed discussions. Our panelists,
] allrespected Computer Scientists introduce topics as new
] disclosures are made, and the forum is open to the public
] for discussion. This site is hosted at the Information
] Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Found via BoingBoing.. As they did, note the list of contributors:

] Steve Bellovin, AT&T Labs-Research
] Matt Bishop, UC Davis
] Matt Blaze, University of Pennsylvania
] Dan Boneh, Stanford University
] Simon Byers, AT&T Labs-Research
] Bill Cheswick, Lumeta
] Lorrie Cranor, AT&T Labs-Research
] Ed Felten, Princeton University
] Dan Geer, Independent Consultant
] Tadayoshi Kohno, UC San Diego
] Carl Landwehr, University of Maryland
] Patrick McDaniel, AT&T Labs-Research
] Gary McGraw, Cigital
] Mike Reiter, Carnegie Mellon University
] Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins University
] Bruce Schneier, Counterpane Internet Security
] Richard M. Smith, Internet Consultant
] Adam Stubblefield, Johns Hopkins University
] Dan Wallach, Rice University

ATAC: Abusable Technologies Awareness Center

] Asked about the SiteFinder address redirect trick
] Verisign rolled out. A group of "200 technical zealots"
] were against it, and they got all the headlines. Did they
] misinterpret it? Of course. We're not going to let this
] go. It is going to be the point where we answer the
] debate.

Just one flash mob can forever settle that.

] He then goes on to say that we need to move the
] complexity back into the center of the Net! He says
] the edge can't be so complex.

Back? Center? What?!

This is all a ploy to control the net. There is nothing else it can be. There is no way you can understand the Internet and make a statement like that otherwise. Substitute "power" for "complexity" in the paraphrased statement, and you have their motive.

Its not like that's new news, but its still infuriating!

Bring on the alternative naming systems!!

Stratton Sclavos at Red Herring Conference

] It's called the Segway Human Transporter, but
] the Pentagon is drafting the two-wheeled scooter
] as part of a plan to develop battlefield robots
] that think on their own and communicate with troops.

Just in case you were wondering; Yes, Virginia, they are making Terminators in a lab somewhere...

The Pentagon starts building Terminators

Nature 412 had an amazing article on very novel development, "Parasitic Computing". Simply put, some guys at Noterdame found a way to utilize/exploit the TCP error-checking algorithm to make users that you are communication with do useful computaitonal work for you. This is technique can be done effectively, we're talking about some very impressive computational resources at one's disposal.

Also of note.. Albert-László Barabási and Hawoong Jeong, two of the people behind this parasitic computing project, are also two of the leading authorities on self forming networks. Barabási authored a book called Linked: The New Science of Networks which is considered one of the "must reads" on the subject. Infact, its the book I was reading when I started work on the mapping the social network on MemeStreams..

New Technique: Parasitic Computing

Ball's Deep wrote:
] A little video exposing the battery life and replacement
] policy of Apple's iPod.

Here is a link to an entry on Dan Gillmor's weblog that contains links and info on how to replace the iPod's batteries. It costs about $50..

Dan Gillmor - Hope My iPod isn't Like His...