Inside the Intel 45 nm fab; Inside the Lucasarts data center

Two very different stories:
http://scobleizer.com/2007/01/26/looking-into-intels-new-fab/

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/28/1321252&from=rss

FW: [IP] Real ID dealt a major blow in Maine.

More on Real ID from the ACLU  

-----Original Message-----
Begin forwarded message:

From: "Steinhardt, Barry" <Bsteinhardt@dcaclu.org>
Date: January 25, 2007 6:26:21 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Real ID dealt a major blow in Maine.

Dave,

The Real ID/national ID scheme has just been dealt a major blow in 
Maine. This morning the State  Legislature overwhelmingly-unanimously 
in the Senate and 137-4 in the House-- passed a joint resolution 
prohibiting Maine from participating in Real ID and calling on 
Congress to repeal the law. Similar actions are pending or about to 
be introduced across the country from New Hampshire, to Georgia, to 
New Mexicoto Washington State and Hawaii.

The Real ID Act federalizes the design, issuance and management of 
state driver's licenses, creating a uniform identity card and 
nationwide database tantamount to the first national ID card. Under 
the act, residents of states that fail or refuse to comply will be 
unable to use their driver's licenses for any activity that requires 
federally accepted identification, such as boarding airplanes, 
opening a bank account or any other activity designated by the 
Department of Homeland Security.

We believe these resolutions will sound the death knell for Real ID, 
which cannot work if the states will not accede to the plan to turn 
their drivers' licenses into the National ID card on steroids.

More detailed information can be found on our web site at 
http://www.realnightmare.org.

Barry Steinhardt
Director Technology and Liberty Project
ACLU
Bsteinhardt@aclu.org

FW: [IP] AACS Decryption Code Released

From Professor Farber's IP List.  Blu-ray and HD-DVD both cracked before they ever get a chance to grab market share?  Maybe, read on for the details on how the AACS forum can strike back.

Sam

-----Original Message-----
Begin forwarded message:

AACS Decryption Code Released
Monday January 8, 2007 by Ed Felten

Decryption software for AACS, the scheme used to encrypt content on
both next-gen DVD systems (HD-DVD and Blu-ray), was released recently
by an anonymous programmer called Muslix. His software, called
BackupHDDVD, is now available online. As shipped, it can decrypt
HD-DVDs (according to its author), but it could easily be adapted to
decrypt Blu-ray discs.

Commentary has been all over the map, with some calling this a
non-event and others seeing the death of AACS. Alex Halderman and I
have been thinking about this question, and we believe the right view
is that the software isn't a big deal by itself, but it is the first
step in the meltdown of AACS. We'll explain why in a series of blog
posts over the next several days.

Today I'll explain how the existing technology works: how AACS
encrypts the content on a disc, and what the BackupHDDVD software
does.

...

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1104

AACS: Extracting and Using Keys
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1106

AACS: Blacklisting, Oracles, and Traitor Tracing
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1107

AACS: Game Theory of Blacklisting
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1108

AACS: Title Keys Start Leaking
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1109

AACS: Sequence Keys and Tracing
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1110

AACS: Modeling the Battle
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1111

Archives at: 
Archives: http://archives.listbox.com/247/

Maine becomes first state to reject Real ID

From Declan McCullagh's Politech mail list...

IT students should be very aware of the real id legislation and have some opinions on why it's a good or bad idea.  Maine clearly says it's a terrible idea.

-----Original Message-----
From: politech-bounces@politechbot.com [mailto:politech-bounces@politechbot.com] On Behalf Of Declan McCullagh
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:55 PM
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: [Politech] Maine becomes first state to reject Real ID [priv]

News article:
http://news.com.com/Maine+rejects+Real+ID/2100-7348_3-6153532.html
Maine overwhelmingly rejected federal requirements for national
identification cards on Thursday, marking the first formal state
opposition to controversial legislation scheduled to go in effect for
Americans next year. [...]

Videos of Maine legislators:
http://www.mainesenate.org/realid/

Roll call info:
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280022779

Text of resolution:
http://www.mainesenate.org/mitchell/realid.htm

Real ID FAQ:
http://news.com.com/FAQ+How+Real+ID+will+affect+you/2100-1028_3-5697111.html

-Declan
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

How to be creative

One thing I truly dig about the 'net is how it allows everyone to have a voice and get their own message across if one simply takes the time to still it all down and get it out.  Sometimes the result is overblown hype or bluster, sometimes it's pure genius.  While this example is aimed at the artists out there, but a fantastic message for just about anyone.  A primer on finding out what makes YOU tick and following that dream without starving in the process.  (Tho flipping through others at the Changethis site I keep thinking about 'Jerry Maguire')...

http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative

MacLeod's blog can be found at:
http://gapingvoid.com/

Valleywag on all you need in tech

List looks familiar....
http://valleywag.com/tech/how-to/get-all-the-tech-news-you-need-in-20-minutes-a-day-230603.php

Monday morning links

What the hell is the 'Scroll lock' key for?
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mscrolllock.html

Google to shake things up with E-books?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2557728,00.html

Pogue on the new office:
http://news.com.com/Office+2007+From+bloated+to+sleek+-+page+2/2100-1012_3-6151153-2.html?tag=st.num

Fake Vista on Chinese Store shelves now:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/21/it-begins-black-market-vista-copies-already-on-chinese-shelves/

Vista signature edition (give me a break):
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/20/microsoft-windows-vista-ultimate-limited-numbered-signature-edit/

How Digg works:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/digg.htm

Ultimate Home Theaters (mine doesn't even compare by contrast, but I heartily recommend the Panasonic AE900u projector, it's an awesome value!):

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/the-ultimate-home-theater-rooms

Woot's CES Awards:
http://www.woot.com/Blog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryId=1952

What's it like to work at Nintendo?
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/1/21/6703

Homeless Hacker is free, won't give blood, more

Adrian Lamo is now free but he is sticking to his guns over not giving
up a blood sample.
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6151385.html

Try this with your CDs:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/19/tdks-durabis-2-coating-protects-200gb
-blu-ray-discs/

Understatement of the Century:  When asked what was on his Christmas
List, Bill Gates replied "I'm always hard to buy for".  Heh.
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/12/our_sixty_minut.html

Homeless Hacker is free, won't give blood, more

Adrian Lamo is now free but he is sticking to his guns over not giving up a blood sample.

http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6151385.html

Try this with your CDs:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/19/tdks-durabis-2-coating-protects-200gb-blu-ray-discs/

Understatement of the Century:  When asked what was on his Christmas List, Bill Gates replied "I'm always hard to buy for".  Heh.

http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/12/our_sixty_minut.html

Why do spammers bother?

Because it's enormously profitable.   Apparently Barnum wasn't even close, there's a LOT more than one a minute.

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/01/spamonomics_101.html

DRM is not about piracy, HD DVDs cracked and in the wild

Both from Ars:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8616.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8622.html

Where is digital photography headed?

Probably tough to say.  Someone who is never short of opinions tho is Thomas Hawk (a pseudonym).  His blog can be found here:

http://thomashawk.com/

Thomas recently did a pretty cool interview with Black Star Photo Agency, a 71 year old photography company that is finally coming into play in a big way in the digital world.  Check the interview out here:

http://rising.blackstar.com/myon-5.html

Both Thomas and I release our pictures under creative commons licenses.  You can read more about that here:
http://www.creative-commons.org

How do password crackers work?

From Bruce Schneier, one of the worlds most respected authorities on computer security.

 

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72458-0.html?tw=wn_index_19

 

“So the first attack PRTK performs is to test a dictionary of about 1,000 common passwords, things like "letmein," "password1," "123456" and so on. Then it tests them each with about 100 common suffix appendages: "1," "4u," "69," "abc," "!" and so on. Believe it or not, it recovers about 24 percent of all passwords with these 100,000 combinations.”

 

Fortunately, Bruce ALSO gives some good advice on how to create an un-guessable password.

“So if you want your password to be hard to guess, you should choose something not on any of the root or appendage lists. You should mix upper and lowercase in the middle of your root. You should add numbers and symbols in the middle of your root, not as common substitutions. Or drop your appendage in the middle of your root. Or use two roots with an appendage in the middle.”

 

 

Course Syllabi/Email introduction

All:
 
Happy New Year!  Welcome to the IT 102-50 course.
 
As we approach the new semester, I have placed the course syllabus on ecampus for your perusal.  If you have never had experience with ecampus, simply open the attachment to this email and I will demonstrate ecampus skills to you during our first class session on _Tuesday_ at _6:00_ pm.  At any time during the semester, you will be able to view the course syllabus from the content page in ecampus.

 
For those of you who simply need a quick refresher, just enter ecampus.monmouth.edu at the URL.  Enter your MU email account (s followed by your student number) and your email login on the login screen.  After entering ecampus, you may desire to move to the content page to locate the syllabus, or view the dropbox page, the place where you will go to upload all of your IT assignments this semester.

 
Since the course syllabus contains much information that I know is of importance to you, including the titles of the books we will use this semester and the grading criteria for the course, I ask that you review it carefully before our first class session on _Tuesday_.  For those of you interested in getting an early start over the weekend, you may desire to read some of the very interesting articles in the Current Topics book or select a chapter of great interest to you in the Discovering Computers 2007 book. 

Should you need to check on anything about our class, the two best resources besides Educator are my MU home page and the Infotechbuzz blog that I keep.  Check them both at LEAST weekly!

Class web page:
http://zorak.monmouth.edu/~posten

Infotech Buzz Weblog:
http://infotechbuzz.blogspot.com

Should you need to contact me, the best way is via email or pager

Sam Posten
samuel.posten@l-3com.com
9084617181@vtext.com (short text message pager)

Bill Reynolds will substitute occasionally as my work schedule requires:
William.S.Reynolds@monmouth.edu

Have a great semester; see you in class Tuesday night!
Prof. Posten

FW: Personal info online often not very private

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/01/01/self.editingonline.ap/index.html

 

It takes being beaten over the head sometimes for the obvious to become recognized.  The ‘net never forgets, even if you delete it, it’s still archived somewhere, more than likely =)

 

Sam