Comment I told you - I was one of those (Score 1) 200
True story - I wrote the SSL/SSH code for an Embedded router a few years ago. I *didn't* specify a hard-coded key -- instead the router would freeze for a few seconds to generate the key when you first activated SSL or SSH (only the management CPU froze - traffic still went through). The router's CPU was pretty crappy - it took quite a while to generate a 2048-bit key pair.
You can't imagine the amount of griping this slowdown caused from the product/marketing teams. They really really wanted it hard-coded. Fortunately "security guys" are taken seriously in Israel so as far as I know it's still generated on the fly.
Comment Of course, why bother to link to the forum? (Score 5, Informative) 457
Submission + - Papermaster leaves after antennagate (nytimes.com)
line-bundle writes: "Mark Papermaster, the Apple executive in charge of hardware for the company’s flagship iPhone, has departed the company in the wake of widely reported problems with the antenna of the recently introduced iPhone 4.
It is not clear if Papermaster was kicked out or left on his own."
Previously, at the Apple press conference on the antenna issue, Mr Papermaster was not present. This was very unusual considering that he was in charge of the iPhone. Papermaster was featured before on slashdot here.
It is not clear if Papermaster was kicked out or left on his own."
Previously, at the Apple press conference on the antenna issue, Mr Papermaster was not present. This was very unusual considering that he was in charge of the iPhone. Papermaster was featured before on slashdot here.
Comment Worth reposting this classic... (Score 1) 220
It's friday, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The phone rings. Shit!
I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "SOLAR FLARES" stares out at me. I'd better read up on that. Two minutes later I'm ready to answer the phone.
"Hello?" I say.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOU ALL MORNING?!"
I hate it when they shout at me early in the morning. It always puts me in a bad mood. You know what I mean.
"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some solar activity this morning, it always disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.
"Huh? But I could get through to my friends?!"
"Yes, that's entirely possible, solar activity is very unpredictable in it's effects. Why last week, we had some files just dissappear from a guys account while he was working on it!"
Comment Sounds like a job for the Mafia (Score 1) 174
I'm absolutely not joking, BTW. The Gambino mafia made hundreds of millions of dollars off similar "last mile" scams. The idea is to buy some rural phone company in East Padinkus, then get Fed money for all of the "broadband" it's been putting out.
Potato-Powered Batteries Debut 284
MojoKid writes "Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has just introduced what it's calling 'solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes.' In short, it's a potato-powered battery, and it's as real as you're hoping it is. The simple, sustainable, robust device can potentially provide an immediate inexpensive solution to electricity needs in parts of the world lacking electrical infrastructure. Researchers at the Hebrew University discovered that the enhanced salt bridge capability of treated potato tubers can generate electricity through means readily available in developing nations."
Comment Who's the guy in charge of acronyms in MS? (Score 5, Funny) 179
MEH OS is exactly how I feel about this new offering and its chances of impressing anybody in this age and time. At least they didn't get it as bad as the CrAPI one.
Comment Re:Silly (Score 1) 369
Water is not the limiting factor in geothermal development.
It is too, especially when you're talking "new" geothermal, which works on lower-temperature deposits. - please turn to this very interesting IEEE Spectrum article for more details.
Comment Re:A very similar thing happened to me (Score 1) 699
BFS stands for Bread-first search. It means I searched for bread, then sang a few songs about it, then went on driving.
Comment A very similar thing happened to me (Score 1) 699
Google gave me walking (actually bicycling but never mind) directions which all but crossed a 6-lane highway. Since said highway was surrounded by a tall fence, a trench and a shrubbery, I didn't apply for a Darwin award, but instead BFS'ed for a few minutes until I found a proper crossing.
As a coder, I know it's terribly difficult to write a proper pathing algorithm! I guess since I know that I'm more forgiving (just as I'm less likely to rage at buggy games).
Software Recognizes Sarcastic Tweets 168
An anonymous reader writes "Even humans sometimes fail to recognize sarcasm and irony; can machines do better? An algorithm that identifies sarcastic tweets (PDF) on Twitter and sarcastic sentences in product reviews on Amazon will be presented next week in the International Conference for Weblogs and Social Media in Washington, DC, and in the Computational Natural Language Learning in Sweden in July. A team from the Hebrew University, Israel, has developed an algorithm that identifies sarcastic sentences by using a machine learning technique in which a small number of sarcastic sentences act as seeds for the software to learn and generalize upon. The algorithm can then identify sarcastic sentences that are nothing like the examples. The variety of recognized sarcastic sentences is impressive, though the results are not perfect. But again, we don't do it so well ourselves, do we?"
Comment Inaccurate and out-of-date (Score 2, Informative) 204
I don't really understand how this infomercial qualifies as Slashdot material, but still it needs some corrections:
1. The iPads were not confiscated - they were only prevented from entering Israel. They are still the property of whoever bought them, and he's welcome to take them back to the US and return/sell them on.
2. This regulation only applies to people trying to *sell* iPads in Israel - one piece for personal use is perfectly OK. I know many people who imported various wireless devices (walkie talkies, wifi routers, even Nexus Ones) to Israel, and as long as it's for personal use nobody challenged them at customs. Most electronics (except for musical instruments) is customs-exempt in Israel anyway.
The iPad scene in Israel: even though the thing doesn't have Hebrew text entry yet, there's still a very clear interest in it. There are companies who offer to buy it in the US and send it to you. Typical price including shipping is 2500NIS ($660):
http://www.mustop.co.il/special-deals-israel/ipad
Comment This is simply a Cybernet ZPC-GX31 system (Score 3, Informative) 330
Circa March 2008:
http://www.cybernetman.com/en/products/zero-footprint-pc/zpc-gx31.cfm
They even reused the stock footage.
Should cost at least $700, according to Gizmodo Australia:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/03/cybernet_zpcgx31_a_pc_in_a_keyboardsized_case-2/
Comment Re:Shamir and his techniques (Score 1) 57
More to the point, this is unlikely to be a practical issue right now because it's a related key attack. You have to encrypt something with multiple keys that are closely related (similar in many respects) before the attack applies. This usually doesn't happen unless the implementers are idiots.
Related key attacks are very feasible if a block cipher is used as a building block for a hash function. FYI XBOX was broken with a related key attack.
(credit goes to Orr Dunkelman for finding this out)
