Ready, Aye, Ready

Link: http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72458-0.html?tw=wn_columns_securitymatters_1

Another excellent column from Bruce Schneier on security, this time on passwords and the cracking mechanisms used to break them. I read through it feeling a little smug as none of the choice flaws he mentioned are ones I do.

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Link: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/selfcleaning-underwear-a-bloggers-dream-come-true-228165.php

How can I not link to this one...?

First link is to a demonstration of a tub of sulfur hexafluoride (transparent heavier than air gas) causing a silverfoil boat to float in mid-air.

Second link is to unexpected behaviour of liquids under various conditions.

(Via BoingBoing)

Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/11/canadas_about_to_hav.html

Looks like boneheaded copyright laws are back on the agenda here in Canada.

(Via BoingBoing)

I'm not sure what to make of this one. Checking my logs, there are three posts being repeatedly hit in sequence by different IPs.

• Referrer searches
• All true wisdom begins with Cecil
• "Ready, Aye, Ready"

I've looked at them and can't find anything that's terribly special. My guess is that it's some generic spambot which not-so-randomly grabs text from posts to try to fool Bayesian filters but I really have no idea. The post on referrer searches seems to also be a popular one for fake domains as it turns up commonly in the "referers" log. It's not doing me any harm other than running up Ritchie's bandwidth and artificially inflating the pageviews on those pages but it is a bit of a mystery and I don't like those.

Any ideas?

Link: http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/

Unless you've been living under a rock or intensely ignoring the internet and all other media over the last few days, you know about Apple's new iPhone. Time Magazine has a good write up on its genesis. David Pogue of the New York Times also has some commentary. CNN's Fortune has an interesting article on how Apple tried to keep the whole thing under wraps for the MacWorld unveiling despite large numbers of contributors.

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Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/04/royal_mail_delivers_.html

BoingBoing has a post about a letter sent in the UK that arrived. In and of itself, that conclusion is perhaps not all that special, but it's the way that the letter was addressed which is rather more interesting...

Link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm

This links to a pictorial representation of what 200 calories looks like when it's still food.

(Via BoingBoing)

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJzU3NjDikY

Nifty bit of real-life stop motion animation.

(Via BoingBoing)

Link: http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(2057)-SDMX4-8192-Sansa_e280_MP3_Player_8GB.aspx

Summary: SanDisk's iPod Nano killer.

I decided to buy a standalone MP3 player after a recent 9 hour plane trip to the UK. While I normally use my Tungsten T3 with Aeroplayer I came to the conclusion that while it's great for short hops and bus trips, the four hour battery life wasn't great for this. Besides, since it contains all my contact information and travel details, it's not a device I want discharged while on the road. It was time for a standalone unit that I don't mind draining completely...

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I'm off to torment some relatives for the next week or so; as there's very little where I'm going that resembles an internet connection, I'm not going to be able to post on the blog. But, never fear, I will be bringing my MacBook so during the periods of rainy, grey-sky induced boredom, I will no doubt be tapping away...

So, dear reader(s), have yourself(ves) a very Merry Christmas*, and if you don't celebrate that, have a very nice bit of time off from work instead. And, if you don't have even that, I'm sure the overtime pay must be good. And if it isn't, er, well, those New Year's resolutions might possibly include finding somewhere better.

Tata!

(* Yes, I do mean this in a non-denominational, secular, civil holiday sort of way, Ritchie, and no arguing about Kwanzaa, Cephalapodmas or anything else that fits in the same calendar period!)

Link: http://www.regrettheerror.com/2006/12/crunks_06_the_y.html

As you may imagine, since pretty much everything is available on the internet somewhere, there is a site the specializes in tracking media retractions and corrections. Most of the time, these are pretty dull, but sometimes the retraction itself is inherently funny, either due to what's being retracted or because the retractee just isn't that sorry. Not all of the entries in the linked to story are of this nature though but I'm not going to dwell on the more serious ones.

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Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_WJ23Zg1Rg&eurl=

Cuteness is irrelevant; you will be assimilated.

Warning: do *not* play the first part of this in front of a small child.

(Via Gizmodo)

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo

The link is to a music video of a person playing quite a nice bit of music on the drums and piano. The nifty part is that although he can't play either, through the magic if clever video editing it sure looks as if he can. The wild part of it is that it's not dubbed; all the music is as played, except with a bit of re-arranging.

The Wall Street Journal has more information on this bit of YouTubism.

(Via Kottke)

Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/11/airplanetreadmill_pr.html

BoingBoing has a hysterical discussion on the old conundrum of whether an aircraft on a treadmill could take flight. Being neither a physicist, engineer nor a mathematician some of the erudite discussion escapes me, but as far as I can tell there are two answers.

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