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Comment Track 0 rattle (Score 1) 204

by Stavr0 (#41165193) Attached to: The History of the Floppy Disk

I remember both Apple ][ and Commodore floppies would seek past the end of the rail to recalibrate track 0. The apple made a noise on power up but 1541s made a scary noise whenever formatting a new disk or trying to recover a read error.

After a while the rattle actually threw the head out of alignment as the pulley was slipping on the axle. I connected the read head to the microphone input of a tape recorder to listen to the signal strength as I adjusted the stepper motor alignment.

After a while the screw threads were worn and I had to tap&die them. Then I got tired of realigning the heads and drilled in a cotter pin to stop the pulley from slipping.

Good times.

Comment Favorite 'map' tools (Score 4, Informative) 34

by Stavr0 (#40709739) Attached to: Great Open Source Map Tools For Web Developers

The newest camera / smartphones have GPS chips to geotag pictures so they can be overlaid on maps. For GPS-less cameras:

EXIFtool

GPSbabel

Have a GPS device turned on and logging tracks, take pictures, use the tools to add geotags to pictures.

... or use EXIFtool to strip identifying and geographic information before posting a picture.
Hardware Hacking

FishPi: Raspberry Pi Powered Autonomous Boat To Cross the Ocean 136

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the dolphins-protest-sea-drone-program dept.
lukehopewell1 writes "The Raspberry Pi is a triumph in computing, and it's now set to become a triumph in robotics as one developer plans to build a model boat around it and sail it across the Atlantic Ocean, completely unmanned. It's codenamed FishPi and will see a model boat sail across the Atlantic all by itself save for a camera, GPS module, compass and solar panels." The creator is posting updates on the build progress using a forum on his website.

Comment Re:Had an idea like this for Phishers (Score 1) 142

by Stavr0 (#40372569) Attached to: Apple Patents Polluting Facebook, Google Profiles

I had an idea like this once for responding to phishing e-mails. A phishing URL would be submitted and a fake identity would be created using a database of first names, last names, street names, cities, states, zip codes, etc. A phoney (but real looking) SNN and date of birth would be created as well as any other information. The form would be submitted and the fake identity would be stored in the phisher's database. Repeat this a few thousand times and the database's value would drop. Get enough people using this program and submitting phishing URLs and phishing in general would get harder to do successfully.

Sadly, I never implemented this idea so it can't be claimed as prior art.

AA419 had similar programs (Muguito, Lad Vampire) to "flash mob" scam sites and DDOS them into exceeding their bandwidth quotas. There was also some tools to fake-fill web forms as you mentioned above.
Network

MariaDB and MySQL Authentication Bypass Exploit 73

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-ya-neck dept.
JohnBert writes "A security bug in MariaDB and MySQL has been revealed, allowing a known username and password to access the master user table of a MySQL server and dump it into a locally-stored file. By using a tool like John the Ripper, this file can be easily cracked to reveal text passwords that can provide further access. By committing a threaded brute-force module that abuses the authentication bypass flaw to automatically dump the password database, you can access the database using the cracked password hashes even if the authentication bypass vulnerability is fixed."
Network

Chinese Physicists Achieve Quantum Teleportation Over 60 Miles 216

Posted by Soulskill from the just-keep-the-shields-up-and-you're-fine dept.
MrSeb writes "Chinese physicists are reporting that they've successfully teleported photonic qubits (quantum bits) over a distance of 97 kilometers (60mi). This means that quantum data has been transmitted from one point to another, without passing through the intervening space. It's important to note that the Chinese researchers haven't actually made a photon disappear and reappear 97 kilometers away; rather, they've used quantum entanglement to recreate the same qubit in a new location, with the same subatomic properties as the original qubit. The previous record for transmitting entangled qubits was 16 kilometers, performed by another Chinese team back in 2010 — and perhaps most excitingly, the researchers seem confident that their system will scale up from 97km to distances capable of reaching orbital satellites, at which point we'll actually be able to build a global quantum network for all of our cryptographic needs."
Biotech

Treating Depression With Electrodes Inside the Brain 237

Posted by Soulskill from the still-waiting-on-a-tasp dept.
cowtamer writes "CNN has a writeup on a method of treating depression with implanted electrodes. If this works, we may be seeing a lot more of this type of technology in the future. '[The patients] were lightly sedated when the holes were drilled and the electrodes implanted, but they were awake to describe what they experienced. Several patients reported profound changes just minutes after the stimulator was turned on. One said the room suddenly seemed brighter and colors were more intense. Another described heightened feelings of connectedness and a disappearance of the void.' While I haven't looked into any of the academic literature on this, it seems that yet another Larry Niven Prediction has come true!"

Comment Re:Sneering = lose (Score 1, Interesting) 1128

by Stavr0 (#39509373) Attached to: Conservatives' Trust In Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s

Perfect example of where science becomes something to be feared:
- To those unbelieving of global warming (generally conservatives), the science indicates it may be real
- To those believing in global warming (generally liberals), the science cannot demonstrate it beyond a doubt
Science serves neither, so both sides will try to suppress it.
Portables (Games)

Sony Taking Down PSP Titles In Response To Vita Hackers 293

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the we-control-the-vertical dept.
Carlos Rodriguez writes "The hacker community has found a way to make the Vita run unsigned code by exploiting weaknesses in PSP games available for download in the PSN store. In response, Sony has made the affected games unavailable for download for all platforms — PSP and Vita both — even if you had already paid for it and hadn't had the chance to download it yet. In the case of 'Everybody's Tennis', the game was removed from the PSN worldwide after the modder community bragged about the game being exploitable but before any exploit was released for it. Is Sony being too overzealous in its fight against piracy?"
Power

Cheap Solar Panels Made With An Ion Cannon 395

Posted by Soulskill from the fresh-from-the-daystrom-institute dept.
MrSeb writes "Twin Creeks, a solar power startup that emerged from hiding today, has developed a way of creating photovoltaic cells that are half the price of today's cheapest cells, and thus within reach of challenging the fossil fuel hegemony. As it stands, almost every solar panel is made by slicing a 200-micrometer-thick (0.2mm) wafer from a block of crystalline silicon. You then add some electrodes, cover it in protective glass, and leave it in a sunny area to generate electricity through the photovoltaic effect. There are two problems with this approach: Much in the same way that sawdust is produced when you slice wood, almost half of the silicon block is wasted when it's cut into 200-micrometer slices; and second, the panels would still function just as well if they were thinner than 200 micrometers, but silicon is brittle and prone to cracking if it's too thin. Using a hydrogen ion particle accelerator, Twin Creeks has managed to create very thin (20-micrometer), flexible photovoltaic cells that can be produced for just 40 cents per watt; around half the cost of conventional solar cells, and a price point that encroaches on standard, mostly-hydrocarbon-derived grid power."

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