] Magnetic Stripe Snooping at Home
]
] Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 01, @09:59AM
] from the because-you-can dept.
]
] pbrinich writes "Have you ever wondered what information
] is actually stored on all those cards you have in your
] wallet? Well, it turns out you can find out yourself! An
] excellent project, Stripe Snoop started by Billy Hoffman,
] a Georgia Tech computer science student, contains
] schematics, source code and a wide variety of information
] about the standards used to store all sorts of
] information on your magnetic cards."

[ Billy makes the front page of /. Go billy! -k]

StripeSnoop on /.

"... the high point of the year ..."

Roger Penrose has a new book.

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe

] The death of professional hockey in AMERICA is a nasty
] omen for people with heavy investments in NHL teams. But
] to me, it meant little or nothing -- and that's why I
] called Bill Murray with an idea that would change both
] our lives forever.
]
] It was 3:30 on a dark Tuesday morning when I heard the
] phone ring on his personal line in New Jersey. "Good
] thinking," I said to myself as I fired up a thin Cohiba.
] "He's bound to be wide awake and crackling at this time
] of day, or at least I can leave a very excited message."

Hunter's last article for espn.com

ESPN.com: Page 2 : Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray

July 18, 1939 -- February 20, 2005. He will be weirdly missed.

Hunter Thompson commits suicide

Microsoft at their most transparently self serving:

] Their use could be an indicator that your teenager is
] involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly
] licensed software.

:-o

[ Jesus christ it's like the 1950's all over again. Rock and Roll is a gateway to using alcohol and drugs, not to mention loose sexuality! Any behavior distinct from what you, as parents, think is "normal" is an indicator of dangerously deviant thinking on the part of your children. They're all thieves, and fornicators, and they're bad, bad, bad. -k]

Microsoft guide to l33t speak.

Figure out how much money you might lose w/ privitization of Social Security.

Social (In) Security

The Post's Howard Kurtz on (no pun) Jeff Gannon

Online Nude Photos Are Latest Chapter In Jeff Gannon Saga (washingtonpost.com)

] Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, made headlines
] last week when he resigned from Talon after days of
] intensive scrutiny from bloggers. Online critics first
] raised questions about Guckert's questionable
] journalistic methods and his lack of experience (he often
] cut and pasted White House press releases into his "news"
] stories), as well as Talon's lack of independence from
] Eberle's purely partisan GOPUSA Web site. Then questions
] arose about why the Talon reporter was given access to
] the White House press room after being turned down for
] Capitol Hill press credentials. The final straw for
] Guckert came when bloggers revealed associations that
] Guckert and his Delaware-based company had with a handful
] of gay-themed male escort services.
] Click here
]
] Guckert insisted his only involvement with the sex sites
] was as a software consultant and, he added: "Those sites
] were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on
] them," as he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Feb. 10. In an
] interview posted Feb. 11 with Editor & Publisher
] magazine, Guckert made the same claim: "They were done
] through a private company [Bedrock Corp.] I was involved
] with doing Web site development about five years ago. The
] sites were never hosted, and nothing was ever posted to
] the sites." On Monday, John Aravosis posted on his
] liberal site AmericaBlog.org detailed evidence indicating
] that not only was Guckert personally involved with the
] Web sites, but he was also offering his escort services
] for $200 an hour, or $1,200 a weekend.

So I guess the Bush administration does support some gay rights.

Salon.com News | 'Jeff Gannon's' secret life

] Feb. 10, 2005 | When President Bush bypassed dozens of
] eager reporters from nationally and internationally
] recognized news outlets and selected Jeff Gannon to pose
] a question at his Jan. 26 news conference, Bush's
] recognition bestowed instant credibility on the
] apparently novice reporter, as well as the little-known
] conservative organization he worked for at the time,
] called Talon News. That attention only intensified when
] Gannon used his nationally televised press conference
] time to ask Bush a loaded, partisan question -- featuring
] a manufactured quote that mocked Democrats for being
] "divorced from reality."

Salon.com News | Fake news, fake reporter

] Just some of the themes you'll find reflected in this
] year's ETech program are: The grand vision of web
] services is morphing into the more useful--and
] profitable--goals of providing alternate interfaces to
] data and services. Social networking services are groping
] for more dimensions of value. Wireless meshes made of
] small devices continue to accelerate decentralization.
] Mobile devices of many forms and functions now inhabit
] desktops, pockets, and cars. Hackers have discovered the
] joys of cracking open devices to prod and mod, using
] cheap, off-the-shelf technology.

Conference Schedule for E-Tech 2005. I am really loooking forward to several talks, and reconnecting with people that I met at FOO Camp. I will be presenting during the Maker's Faire Wednesday Night.

However I am more and more confused about this conference the more I think about it. I've talked with Decius and we both agree: This conference seems to have an identity crisis. Who is their target audience? I'm not sure I know. With an extremely heavy price tag ($1250 for early-bird special), it is out of reach to all except people sent by their companies. My feel is the conference is aimed at getting corporate support/adoption of new waves in technology. Certainly putting together a showcase of possible "the next thing"s and presenting them is one way. But you alienate all your small/Hobbyist OSS programmers/researchers who *are* developing the next thing. If you are running a conference on "Emerging technology," who do you want as your audience? Hackers or Suits (or hackers with a picture of a suit printed on a black T-shirt)?

Take Blogging for example. It is largely a grassroots effort. IBM didn't embrace social networking and help drive it into the mainstream. While corporate support can certainly drive technological adoption of practices or standards, it is not required. In fact the road to hell is paved with corporate pushed bullshit "technologies." So I guess the question isn't who is the conference aimed at, but rather what do the organizers hope to accomplish?

If the point is to make money, this will certainly do it. However, having met and talked with several O'Reilly folks, my impression is profit doesn't drive all their actions (which is probably why I like them so much and want to do more with them in the future). They are recognized leaders in the publishing/media space, and I doubt this conference provides a massive amount of revenue for them (At least in my understanding, which is limited).

So what is the point? Major adoption of a technology by a corporation isn't necessary, and in fact can have the opposit effect. In my experience (and I have never really worked for a large company), large companies (certainly the ones that will drop $1200+ to send an employee somewhere) don't jump on the bandwagon of a technology, especially a OSS technology they didn't develope, over... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2005