1. No rest for the righteous or the wicked.

    05 April 2008

    Work was work this week, and that's the fairest thing that can be said about it. It wasn't glamourous, it wasn't fun, and it wasn't an adventure, but it wasn't horrible, either. It's long, tiring, and a case study in how badly screwed up things can be without actually self-destructing. Consequently, I haven't been sleeping a whole lot, nor have I had the time nor energy to post here.

    I have a cat in my lap that knows that I don't own a cat, and is ensuring that my good clothes (trousers, shirt, and waistcoat) will be covered with cat …

    Read more...

  3. So, you're probably wondering where I've been this week...

    30 March 2008

    ...work, work, and more work have been taking up most of my time. By that, I mean that I'm logging anywhere from ten to sixteen hours every day, six days a week on this project. I haven't forgotten about anyone, and I haven't given up, I've just been running myself ragged.

    To those of you waiting on the Steampunk Traveler's Journal over at Brass Goggles, it hit the post yesterday, so keep an eye open.

    Many of you are probably asking "What's been happening lately that isn't related to work?"... the answer to that question is "Not a great deal …

    Read more...

  4. Their reaction time's pretty good, I have to admit.

    24 March 2008

    The borders of the United States are monitored carefully by US ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their stated primary task is to protect the country from crime and terrorism (in no particular order) by policing the borders, preventing anything shady from getting in, and generally trying to make everyone feel safe that they keep Them safely away from US citizens. Last week deputy chief of the local border patrol Joe Giuliano spoke to a group of 200 or so residents of San Juan Island, which is technically part of the state of Washington. It turns out that periodic citizenship checks …

    Read more...

  6. Is a cold net.war going on between the US and China?

    19 March 2008

    Every once in a while a news article about attempts to crack US military and government systems coming out of China or the Middle East hits the 'wires; rumors of groups of systems crackers belonging to the Air Force/United Nations/Department of Homeland Security/Microsoft/the Illuminati regularly make their rounds at hacker conventions. Military data nets are increasingly becoming targets of crackers from abroad, safe from prosecution and extradition because it's so difficult to start legal proceedings against someone you don't even know, let alone can grab by the scruff of the neck (police dramas and MLATs to …

    Read more...

  7. In the future, someone else might own your prosthetics.

    19 March 2008

    ..and I don't mean the finance company.

    I know this is late in coming, but real life has a better framerate sometimes. Anyway, a security research outfit called Secure Medicine, following in the footsteps of security researcher Gadi Evron raised some interesting questions about the current generation of biomedical cardiac implants in use these days, such as pacemakers and LVADs (left ventricular assist devices). Due to the fact that these devices are remotely controllable to a certain extent via wireless data link they are vulnerable to compromise by attackers and may be manipulated. This sounds asanine, but LVADs are implanted …

    Read more...

  8. Arthur C. Clarke, requisat en pace.

    18 March 2008

    Sir Arthur C. Clarke, famous for writing novels such as 2001: A Space Odyssesy and Rendezvous With Rama died today at his home in Sri Lanka. Clarke was 90. A prolific author during his lifetime, he penned over one hundred texts, science fiction and otherwise. Clarke had been confined to a wheelchair since the year 1995 due to the onset of post-polio syndrome, an affliction that plagued another famous author some time ago, one Robert Anton Wilson. Clarke is also widely credited for the invention of something we take for granted today, telecommunication satellites in geostationary orbit around the planet …

    Read more...

  9. Biological mechanism that controls regeneration in zebrafish isolated.

    17 March 2008

    At the Duke University Medical Center, biologists have been working with zebrafish, a common aquarium fish with unusual properties, namely, they can regenerate damaged limbs and organs, including fully functional eyes and hearts. They can re-grow an entire fin in approximately two weeks' time assuming that the fish is otherwise healthy. As it turns out, very small pieces of RNA (ribonucleic acid, which is involved in the synthesis of proteins, as well as controlling the state of certain genes) control whether or not the regeneration mechanism is active or not. If a particular micro-RNA strand, designated miR-133, has a low …

    Read more...

141 / 207