This is a blog for all things technical. Programming, Hardware, Hacking, Blogger, sever configuration, and such.

Real Programmers wrote in machine code. Not Fortran. Not RATFOR. Not, even, assembly language. Machine Code.Raw, unadorned, inscrutable hexadecimal numbers. Directly.

Schneier on Security

Thank You, Thank You, Bruce Schneier.
For about three years I've wanted to write this article, under this very same title.

Read this and show it to all your non-technical friends. This is stuff people need to understand.

Who Owns Your Computer?

"When technology serves its owners, it is liberating. When it is designed to serve others, over the owner's objection, it is oppressive. There's a battle raging on your computer right now -- one that pits you against worms and viruses, Trojans, spyware, automatic update features and digital rights management technologies. It's the battle to determine who owns your computer."

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	indrax			5/04/2006	0

Bad reporting on copyright.

The Register incorrectly assumes that Microsoft is illegally distributing a Midi of 'Happy Birthday'. The truth is that the Hill sisters only wrote the words to Happy Birthday, they did not write the tune. The tune is much older, Mozart-old at least, and there have been many variations from different composers.
This is really a sad story when you think about it: The Hill sisters rip off the public domain and contribute their own 'lyrics' using the words "Happy", "Birthday", "to", "you", and "dear". Is this the kind of creativity copyright encourages? They and the later copyright holders milk obscene royalties due to the song's popularity. Then Microsoft also rips off the public domain, while railing against 'theft' of IP.

Who loses from copyright? The consumer.

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	indrax			5/03/2006	0

Safe - Compile and execute code in restricted compartments

Safe is a perl module that will let you run perl code that is restricted by operator masks. It seems possible to prohibit just about anything. I envision using this to run untrusted code from users.

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	indrax			4/20/2006	0

Making and Breaking HDCP Handshakes

Freedom to Tinker � Blog Archive � Making and Breaking HDCP Handshakes:"

	secret vector	addition rule
Alice	(26, 19, 12, 7)	[1]+[2]
Bob	(13, 13, 22, 5)	[2]+[4]
Charlie	(22, 16, 5, 19)	[1]+[3]
Diane	(9, 10, 15, 17)	[3]+[4]

"Suppose Alice and Bob want to do a handshake. Here’s how it works. First, Alice and Bob send each other their addition rules. Then, Alice applies Bob’s addition rule to her vector. Bob’s addition rule is “[2]+[4]”, which means that Alice should take the second and fourth elements of her secret vector and add them together. Alice adds 19+7, and gets 26. In the same way, Bob applies Alice’s addition rule to his secret vector — he adds 13+13, and gets 26. (In real life, the numbers are much bigger — about 17 digits.)

There are two things to notice about this process. First, in order to do it, you need to know either Alice’s or Bob’s secret vector. This means that Alice and Bob are the only ones who will know the result. Second, Alice and Bob both got the same answer: 26. This wasn’t a coincidence. There’s a special mathematical recipe that the central authority uses in generating the secret vectors to ensure that the two parties to any legitimate handshake will always get the same answer."

I want to figure out how those numbers are generated. Don't tell me, I'll get it...

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	indrax			4/15/2006	0

Literacy

Jeremy Bowers makes a good point that programming is the new literacy:
"The question 'Why can't using a computer without understanding it be as easy as using a car without understanding it?' may sound reasonable, but it's predicated on a fundamentally false assumption: That computers are like cars, simple and one-dimensional in capability. A more proper question would be this: 'Why can't using a computer without understanding it be as simple as using writing without understanding it?'"
Which reminds me of the saying (paraphrased) 'Literacy is constant, more people are learning to read.'
To me, this highlights the need for what would now be considered a high level of computer education. If you were running a medieval country, you would do well to teach as many people to read as quickly as possible. For any 21st country, you would do well to teach everyone to program. (as far as I know, every modern country has

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	indrax			4/06/2006	0

EFF: Endangered Gizmos!

EFF: Endangered Gizmos!:
What do VCRs, universal garage door openers, and refurbished printer cartridges have in common? There sale has been challenged under copyright laws, and they have survived. Other Software and hardware has not been so lucky, and many more are still threatened.
We could live to see a future without freedom to use information.

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	indrax			2/09/2006	0

Ripple tank simulation.

Ripple Tank Simulation: "This java applet is a simulation of a ripple tank. It demonstrates waves in two dimensions, including such wave phenomena as interference, diffraction (single slit, double slit, etc.), refraction, resonance, phased arrays, and the Doppler effect."
This would be great for educators, or people who just want to play around. It surprises me how fast computers are now that this level and speed of simulation is even possible.
There are other very impressive applets on hat site, most notably a powerful analog circuit simulator.

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	indrax			2/01/2006	0

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