A little while ago I posted a video of the robotic arm that has been created by Dean Kamen and his team. Ryan from hawaiigeek.tv forwarded a segment from a presentation Dean Kamen made in the last couple of days:
Well, after a bit of a struggle (damn them and their “secure by default” policies) I have been able to spin up an Amazon EC2 instance. So now I have essentially limitless computing priced by the hour … REALLY powerful! This means I can now foot it, software wise, on a global scale - from my office, muuuuuuuuuuuuuhaha! But seriously - Kiwi companies, pay attention! Global computing infrastructure for dollars …
I am using the very slick Right Scale tool. The guys there have done a great job in wrapping up the Amazon services in a very neat package. Nice work!
To make it go, you merely twist the throttle, no clutch or gears, and the damn thing is almost totally silent, the chain whirring on the sprocket the only real noise at full throttle. It is pretty unreal to go fast in total silence like that…
Ars Technica have a wonderfully mind-opening article about the real questions that Intel have started asking now that they have jammed 80 cores onto one chip:
The picture that Sawicki painted is of a server-room-on-a-chip—a single piece of silicon that uses many cores and virtualization to do the kind of work that it currently takes multiple networked servers to do. Sawicki gave the example of a hypothetical multicore chip that can run a high-volume e-commerce solution on a single piece of silicon. Instead of web server box that takes orders and then sends them over the network to another machine for processing, you could use two separate cores for these tasks, with each core running a virtual server.
Problems might arise, however, when an order comes in through the virtual web server, and then order data has to be moved to another virtual server for processing. Ideally, you want the transaction data to move from virtual server to virtual server—and from core to core—without leaving the chip, Sawicki explained. It would be a waste to send those packets off the chip to a router to reach a destination that’s a few cores away.
A set of seriously cool questions to ask and answer!
…the Dandella GPS device breaks down navigation to its most fundamental level: physical direction. Instead of voice prompting, the dandelion-shaped unit actually bends toward your chosen destination (programmed by docking vase), and light cues signal if you are getting hotter or…greener.
My new passport arrived today… with a nice little payload:
This puppy has got an RFID tag built into it (that’s what that logo means). In the case of this model of passport it is a thicker (1-2 mm) plastic page at the end of the document. Eeeps! I broadcast enough info as it is!
A phone call to DIA confirms (eventually) that it has shielding built into the cover. Some snooping around the web shows that the security mechanisms have been beefed up since the original spec. The data can only be accessed using a printed key on the inside of the cover that is read by an OCR device. Though I can’t find information about the spec used for NZ passports. Conversely that same line of research shows that the court is still out on whether or not these things are totally secure.
As far as I can tell the time of highest risk is when your passport is open (even partially - ?) so for the tin-foil hats amongst us here are a list of shielding providers (they will enclose your passport completely even when it is partially open):
To reduce the number of times that you need to open your passport Kevin Kelly has provided a neat, simple and legal Passport Proxy. This can be used in hotels and other less secure areas.
For a bit more info I recommend checking out Bruce Schneier’s articles on the topic (he’s no fan of the technology, but he does provide a lot detail about the issue):
What is the real risk? I don’t honestly know… but I do know, as a programmer, that these systems will not be bullet proof and that over the lifetime of my document some young punk will work out a way to cause a bit of havoc.
The other interesting thing that I found was that the RFID holds an image of the document’s owner. The reason that they are now so stringent about the photos that you submit is because it helps the facial recognition software used at borders.
I do wish that DIA provided some more information about the security measures.
Listening to: Shotz To Tha Double Glock - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
As something of a critic of the Segway it pains me a little to admit that the new versions are actually a hellva lot of fun to ride. Rod has one of the new units in the office. The new LeanSteer technology makes the device a lot more usable and as such your first is experience is far less a “holy-crap-i’m-going-to-die” moment.
