Bruce Schneier reports that SHA-1 has been “broken” by a Chinese research team. I'm assuming this is a birthday attack resulting in collisions rather than a general purpose ability to find a collision for a given hash (which would be much more serious). Nevertheless, it is a major result against…
Libraries are fun
Got around to going to my local library today. And of course they were having a book sale. I picked up several nice geek books at a dollar apiece.
Bees
It is an interesting thought that (I conjecture) a very high percentage of the edible items available for purchase in a supermarket were, at some stage in their lifetime, helped along by a bee (most likely pollinating a plant). Thus the humble bee* is clearly very important to man. *The…
iPod Shuffle
The existence of the iPod shuffle merely serves to draw my attention to the fact that my iPod (3rd gen, the one with the dock) cannot do shuffle play. Apple wants people to pay $99 for the privilege of being able to do something that's been de rigeur since the…
Superbowl XXXIX
Adverts this year = teh l4m3. That one with the cat just raised a chuckle. The highlight was the beatmania tune (“Jaques Your Body”) they used in that one advert for the… well I can't remember what it was for. Something like an iPod shuffle, but not – it featured…
Universal Studios
Had a couple of friends staying on Saturday, so we went to Universal Studios. It's pretty good – an actual Theme Park rather than a collection of rides. In fact the rides are fairly tame as these things go, but that's not bad. The view over the valley is amazing,…
eVest!
I just took delivery of my new fleece. It rocks. I gave one to my dad for Xmas and he loves it, so it was only a matter of time before I crumbled. I took advantage of the 40% discount afforded by the recent sale they had.
A plea to wordsmiths…
Come on, people. If your job involves using English professionally, take some time to learn it. In particular: – “Begging the question” does not mean “implying/requiring that the question be asked” – “Schizophrenia” is not having multiple personalities – “Enormity” does not mean “great size” When you use words wrongly,…
World of Warcraft
For a while there I was sorely tempted. Then, luckily for me, there was a spate of server problems, and Blizzard have stopped selling it for the time being. I read this morning that there is a last shipment in EB today, but the moment has passed. I can congratulate…
Fun. DMV Employees, General asshatsCircle I Limbo Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated moviesCircle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind RepublicansCircle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow PETA MembersCircle IV Rolling Weights George Bush, SUV DriversCircle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled River Styx ScientologistsCircle VI Buried…