B3

The CCC has used brute force (using 200 PS3’s) to generate a intermediate CA certificate. This allows them to make (most) all browsers trust what ever site the CCC wants. This is ideal for phishing sites. A user would not be able to tell the difference between their electronic banking site and some criminal’s site. I’ll repeat that. No user would be able to detect in anyway they were not using the bank’s secure site. Let me say that again. Every time you do some transaction with your bank over the Internet, you might be handing your account over to criminals and there would be no way for you to detect that until after they took you money. And not just banks, it’s the same with e-bay, amazon, paypal, you name it.

The nasty part of it, is that given the tree like structure of trust, you only need to crack one secret, and the whole structure is worthless. This in fact is so dangerous, that the CCC chose to crack an old certificate that expired years ago.

(links (een paar van vele): NRC, /., Hack-a-Day, CCC, 25C3)

(srouce: Make: and 2uptech)

“Using semiconductor lasers, scientists from Takushoku University, Saitama University, and NTT Corporation achieved random number rates of up to 1.7 gigabits per second, which is about 10 times higher than the second-best rate, produced using a physical phenomenon. Future work may center on devising laser schemes that can achieving rates as high as 10 Gbps.“
(source: /.)

Note that the responses on /. are very funny (some even educational) to read, as usual. As a side note, this really is a big deal. Usually, fast generators (like Mersenne Twisters) are not secure and (pseudo) secure generators like (Blum Blum Shub) are not fast. Some people are so in need for a fast /dev/random that they even cote webcams with radioactive material to increase the entropy in their random pool. Pointlogic Galloper system, for example, slurps random bits like there is no tomorrow.

A new working model of the mysterious 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator, dubbed the Antikythera Device, has been unveiled [...] details and precision of the new model are based on the breakthrough research by The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, a joint effort by researchers from Greece and the United Kingdom. They were able to plumb the depths of the device, comprised of 81 separate pieces (including several fused together over time), and decipher many more of the inscriptions by using high-tech hardware and software from HP Laboratories and X-Tek Systems. See also decodingtheheavens.com.

(source: NetworkWorld)

Die Senz is echt heel bijzonder. De marketing van dit dure ding is wel eens waar erg hyperig, maar de techniek die er achter zit werkt echt.
Als je um uitpakt voel je aan alles dat het geen gewone paraplu is. Kijk maar eens naar dit filmpje. Wouw!

Kortom, een perfect ding, dat perfect gemarked (is dat Nederlands?) wordt. Echt iets dat past bij Pointlogic. Er zijn ook veel parallellen, hoog technologisch en veel plezier bij de product-tests. Ik bedoel als je deze jongen bezig ziet met het testen van zijn eigen product, dan is het toch net of je Robert ziet die naar zijn eigen code kijkt?

(via: Hack-a-Day)

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

Microsoft heeft Visual Studio 2010 aangekondigd, de volgende versie van zijn ide. Deze moet het onder meer gemakkelijker voor verschillende verantwoordelijken binnen het developmentproces maken om aan applicaties te werken.

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