The encryption algorithms for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD content have been cracked!
The processing key is one of the keys used in the process of generating the media key, the unique key that encrypts the contents of a particular DVD. Due to the encryption algorithm used in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technologies, they keys seem to work in a hierarchial manner: If you compromise a key lower in the hierarchy, you crack media. Compromise a key higher up in the hierarchy, and you crack all of the media encrypted underneath it.. meaning that all of the new generation DVDs may be freely …
Around 0000 EST/EDT today (just before going to bed) we lost power for a couple of minutes. The UPSes in the apartment took up the slack, but it's always worrisome when it's cold as all get out and the power dies. It came back on a few minutes later but not everyone was so lucky around here - over 120,000 homes are still without power due to the ice storm last night. MAT (Maryland Authority Transit) has shut down for the day due to the ice.
I can see out of my office window that at least one school …
DC is a winter wonderland - as the title implies, the US government is on a two hour delay following an all-night ice storm that's left everything buried underneath an inch of solid ice. The beltway, from my vantage point at home, is moving at a nice clip for a change, but that's because there are so few cars on it this morning; normally it's bumper to bumper now you can actually see measurable gaps between them. As you might have guessed I'm working from home today because I can't make it to the Metro station without risking life, limb, and …
The trick to getting my cellphone to charge successfully is to twist the charger a little after you plug it in on the flat axis. This aligns the prongs in the power outlet such that they make contact and allow current to flow.
A bill recently introduced to the California legislature would require all female children to be vaccinated for HPV (human papilloma virus, which causes some forms of cervical cancer and genital warts). Parents, however, are outraged by this bill because the vaccine would protect against a virus that is technically a sexually transmitted disease. Some are going so far as to say that it encourages teenage sex and promiscuity.
I hate to tell them (well, no, I don't, but allow me the figure of speech) but women are not exposed to HPV solely through sex; it is not uncommon for rape …
Let me see.. temperatures fell yesterday and it's been snowing pretty constantly all morning. This isn't, in itself, really a bad thing because it's been warmer than it has been lately (if the air's too cold it won't snow) but travelling is going to be a pain because DC drivers, as I've mentioned before, forget how to drive whenever something starts falling from the sky. The fairest thing one can say is that the ones who drive at a fraction of the speed limit are less likely to go out of control and cause a wreck.
And now, your weekly fan's writeup of The Dresden Files. Those who aren't fans, don't want spoilers, or plain just don't care can skip this entry.
Last night's episode was called Hair of the Dog... ..and it used a lot of plot elements of the novel Fool Moon. The episode starts off with Harry being called in to investigate a number of murders in which the canine teeth and parts of the scalps of a number of people were forcibly removed after death. The M.E. (one Waldo Butters - his t-shirt reads "I ♥ polka) reports nothing unusual about the bodies …
