Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Offline

Published
by
jeck
on April 18, 2008
in People are broken, Ramblings and Technology
. 2 Comments

Kabelmodem - Die Kabelverbindungsleuchte blinkt nicht. (C) Jeck Pixelbrei / nureinhobby.org

Ich bin demnächst nur noch über Handy zu erreichen, falls ich nicht auf Arbeit online bin.[1]

Schuld daran ist Kabel Deutschland / Telecombus.[2] Gestern gab es eine Berlin-weite Störung, die scheint wieder behoben, aber bei uns funktioniert immer noch nichts.[3] Aber der Service ist natürlich - wie nicht anders zu erwarten - allererste Sahne:

Bis der Techniker sich meldet, kann es vierzehn Tage dauern.

Das Problem ist: Wir sitzen hier am Rande der Glasfaserwüste wo es kaum echte Bandbreite gibt, die den Namen auch verdient. Ich werde mich die Tage mal dennoch mit Alternativen beschäftigen.

…und den Leuten von KD / TC innerlich noch ein paar Tiernamen geben. Hilft auch nix, aber erleichtert.

  1. Schon vergessen? Nächste Woche hab ich frei… [↩]
  2. Nur für’s Protokoll: Seit Donnerstag Abend offline. [↩]
  3. Wieso schreibt der Typ dann trotzdem in sein Blog? SonyEricsson + USB Kabel = GPRS-Modem. Ist aber kein Spaß. [↩]

Prophezeiung

Published
by
jeck
on January 10, 2008
in TV, Technology and Verrücktes Backofenzeug
. 1 Comment

Neulich habe ich noch Scherze über die immer neuen HD-Formate gemacht.

Für 2008 ist noch nichts angekündigt, aber irgendwie warten wir schon auf das nächste Label. Wie wär’s denn mit MegaHD? Oder SuperTV?

Und was lese ich heute bei heise über den CES-Stand von Samsung?

Daneben gibt es einen LCD-Fernseher zu sehen, der die “Ultra HD”-Auflösung von 3840 × 2160 Pixeln besitzt.

Tja. So kann’s gehen. Ich glaube ich muss mal eine neue Kategorie einführen.

I’m still alive, thank you.

Published
by
jeck
on January 30, 2007
in Coding / Web and Technology
. 0 Comments

Jamie asks “Who Killed the Webmaster?” and tries to give some reasons. There is also a really cool explanation of what I could have become:

The Webmaster was a techno-shaman versed the black arts needed to make words and images appear on this new-fangled Information Superhighway.

I always said that technically minded people will become the new priest-caste, so that definition hit home with me. After all this time Jamie also gives us an explanation we all where waiting for:

As far as I can tell, Web 2.0 is mostly about rounded corners, low-contrast pastel colors, and domain names with missing vowels.

(via /.)

Call me at the 23c3!

Published
by
admin
on December 28, 2006
in City Life, Technology and g-blog
. 3 Comments

My number here is:

+49-69-17-30-905-jeck (jeck as in 5325)

Telefon

Published
by
admin
on October 31, 2006
in Personal, Ramblings, Technology and g-blog
. 0 Comments

Wir sind jetzt wieder unter den ganz normalen Rufnummer zu erreichen.

Ihr freundlicher Kundenservice

pS: Das Webinterface von Kabel Deutschland ist total großartig. Man kann dort die Rufnummernzuweisung je Nummer und Kanal einstellen. Der Server operiert aber nicht irgendwie mit der Telefontechnik. Weit gefehlt.

Hat man die Einstellungen vorgenommen, wird eine Nachricht verschickt. Nach drei bis fünf Werktagen hat vielleicht ein Mensch die Nachricht gelesen und nimmt die Einstellungen vor.

Normalerweise ist die Rufnummernverteilung per Hotline kostenpflichtig, in einem solchen Fall aber gratis. Ich kann nur jedem empfehlen, einfach anzurufen und zu behaupten, dass Webinterface hätte nicht funktioniert, denn das scheint die Regel zu sein. Statt fünf Tage zu warten und dann vielleicht immer noch auf der alten Verteilung zu telefonieren, hat man dann seine Einstellungen in einer halben Stunde.

Nächstes Mal bin ich also schlauer.

Na großartig…

Published
by
admin
on February 16, 2005
in Computers, Security, Technology and g-blog
. 1 Comment

“SHA-1 has been broken. Not a reduced-round version. Not a simplified version. The real thing. [...] It pretty much puts a bullet into SHA-1 as a hash function for digital signatures (although it doesn’t affect applications such as HMAC where collisions aren’t important).”

[Schneier on Security via /. ]

Does anyone now if RIpEMD160 is secure?
Edit: I asked that question cause my GnupG has three hash-functions and this is the only one not compromised. Of course wikipedia knows it all:

“It is an improved version of RIpEMD, which in turn was based upon the design principles used in MD4, and is similar in both strength and performance to the more popular SHA-1.”

However: “RIpEMD-160 was designed in the open academic community, in contrast to the NSA-designed algorithm, SHA-1. On the other hand, RIpEMD-160 is a less popular and correspondingly less well-studied design.”

Edit2: Hmm. I’m not really sure how to use RIpEMD-160 with Enigmail end if other OSes are capable to work with that. I’ll keep you posted.

[source]

I think there should be a [security] category.
Edit2: Changed category [coding] to [security] cause Gossip heeded my request. Thx!

Edit3: For all Enigmail-users:
“GnupG hash algorithm (currently only 1 supported!)
user_pref(”extensions.enigmail.mimeHashAlgorithm”,1) ;

UI: Enigmail > preferences > pGp/MIME; Hash algorithm
Default set to SHA1.
MD5 and RIpEMD160 are available for selection but will not work currently“

[Source]

Also heise.de says, that this is not practicable usable. Also the results one would get are far from resembling a systematic manipulation.

Edit4: All is well, at least for know. Arccording to another article at heise.de even a cluster of specialized overclocked machines would compute for “some” years before finding a collision (two texts which would have the same hash). A counterfeit of a real signature would require a ‘preimage’-attack which would take even longer.

I’ll close this post with Bruce Schneiers conclusion: “For the average Internet user, this news is not a cause for panic. No one is going to be breaking digital signatures or reading encrypted messages anytime soon. The electronic world is no less secure after these announcements than it was before. [...] Jon Callas, pGp’s CTO, put it best: “It’s time to walk, but not run, to the fire exits. You don’t see smoke, but the fire alarms have gone off.” [...] The Chinese cryptographers deserve a lot of credit for their work, and we need to get to work replacing SHA.”

Edited on Feb 21st 2005, 13:12 by jeck

Anti-copying measures on photoshop and Hp printers

Published
by
admin
on January 19, 2004
in Computers, Our Rights Online, Technology and g-blog
. 0 Comments

I it was reported a while ago that photoshop has the built-in ability to detect that an image is of American currency. Now a Richard M. Smith at bugtraq posted that many Hp printers can do the same. If trying to print currency they’ll do just an inch of the picture and then abort the print job. The drivers contain the URL http://www.rulesforuse.org. After describing the odd behaviour, he poses some interesting questions:

[Quote]
1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
technology being embedded in?

2. Are companies being required to include currency
anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
what incentives are being offered to companies to
include the technology on a voluntary basis?

3. Will future versions of this technology, “phone home”
to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
be very easy to include an email address, name of the
image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
detected.
[Quote]

Complete Mail, contains exact description and points to several news articles about photoshop:
[Spoilers] Hp printers and currency anti-copying measures
By “Richard M. Smith”

Hi,

Last week, the Associated press reported that Adobe has incorporated
anti-copying technology in their photoshop CS software which prevents users
from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here’s the article:

Adobe admits to currency blocker
[Link]

(http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1 882929,00.html)

I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that Hp has also
been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer drives since
at least the summer of 2002. I have an Hp 130 photo printer and found the
string “http://www.rulesforuse.org” embedded in the driver.

According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
types of bills. An Hp printer with this anti-copying technology only prints
out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.

Here is a list of Hp printers which appear to have this anti-copy technology
embedded in their Windows printer drivers:

Hp 130
Hp 230
Hp 7150
Hp 7345
Hp 7350
Hp 7550

I suspect the list of affected Hp printers is much longer.

I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my Windows
and program Files directories for the string “rulesforuse”. If other folks
run this same experiment, please let me know of other programs which appear
to contain currency anti-copy technology.

There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S. and
European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting “cops”:

1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
technology being embedded in?

2. Are companies being required to include currency
anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
what incentives are being offered to companies to
include the technology on a voluntary basis?

3. Will future versions of this technology, “phone home”
to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
be very easy to include an email address, name of the
image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
detected.

Richard M. Smith
[Link]
 [/Spoilers]

Reply by oppermann {at} pipeline {dot} ch
[Spoilers]
More disturbing is that simply blocking the printing of currencies is
not the right thing. There are in fact only limits on how close a
currency is allowed to be reproduced. There is no law or regulation
(at least for the Euro) that prohibits reproducing the bank notes in
general.

For example you are explicitly allowed to reproduce Euro notes if:

1. it is only reproduced electronically (ie. Website) when the
resolution is not higher than 72dpi

2. it is only printed one-sided and it is at most 75% or at least
125% the size of the original

3. it is printed double-sided and it is at most 50% or at least
200% the size of the original

4. is is printed on something that clearly is not paper and does
not look and feel like real bank note paper (here it can be a
100% size reproduction)

5. some more possibilities…

Thus a wholesale blocking of the printing or editing of currency
images is neither required nor correct and denies legal and fair
use.

Reproducing at least the Euro currency IS LEGAL provided the rules
are followed.
 [/Spoilers]

Edited on Jan 19th 2004, 22:13 by jeck

Thank you Sony…

Published
by
admin
on November 26, 2003
in Computers, Technology and g-blog
. 0 Comments

…for you made me spend money again. After giving up on Bluetooth for synchronizing my T610 I decided to get a USB-cable straight from the source. I assumed it would be at least 10 bucks more expensive than at any online-shop, but I was pleasantly surprised: They where 3 Bucks cheaper than the cheapest offer I’ve seen so far. And now it syncs as if there’s no tomorrow…

Talk to the Hand

Published
by
admin
on November 6, 2003
in Technology and g-blog
. 0 Comments

A prototype mobile phone developed by NTTDocomo doesn’t have a speaker. Instead the wristband-phone converts the signal into vibrations which are send - via your bonestructure - right to your fingertip. In order to hear something you have to put your finger into your ear and then the eardrum translates the vibration back into sound. According to heise.de the “FingerWhisper” could be on the market around 2005. There is no number pad, the phone works with voice recognition and to end a call you just press your forefinger to your thumb.

“No that wasn’t rude! I just hung up! Really!”

English sources here, here (scroll down to “Mobile / Wireless”) and here (scroll down to “The wrist-worn terminal”)

Edited for additional link.

Edited on Nov 6th 2003, 04:53 by jeck

Ouch!

Published
by
admin
on October 10, 2003
in On The Net, Technology and g-blog
. 1 Comment

[Taken from /.]

[Quote] Nokia Investigating Reported Cell phone Explosions

Iphtashu Fitz writes “C|Net’s news.com is reporting that a man in the Netherlands suffered burns to his leg when the Nokia phone in his pants pocket exploded. This is the second reported incident of Nokia phones exploding, the first one being back in August when a Dutch woman’s phone exploded in her hand. Nokia blamed the first incident on a third party battery that the woman was using and warned customers to only use Nokia parts and accessories with their phones. However this most recent explosion involved a new Nokia phone with a Nokia battery installed.” [Quote]

Spontaneous combustion in the 21st century. Glad my new phone is an SE… :-)

It’s past noon, but it’s still before breakfast . . .

Published
by
admin
on September 23, 2003
in Books, Sports, Technology and g-blog
. 1 Comment

Discworld:
“Lu-Tze had long considered that everything happens for a reason, except possibly football.” - from Terry pratchetts “Thief of Time”

I just finished that book and liked it very well. The idea of time slicing seems very reasonable too and explains why I’m clumsy at times: My slicing technique is so bad that I need the two moments instead of one to get things done. :-)
I’d to see the Thief of Time Movie by the Wachowski Brothers and ILM. Surely would make for some spectacular sfx…

Mobile:
I’m using an old Sagem cause my Sony passed for good this time and I found out a ‘cheat’: If you start writing an sms and begin with “hey da” the mobile shuts down. Very peculiar… I wonder what the use of this function is…

Karate:
Today I had the chance to achieve the first belt in Karate. Unluckily the girl which agreed to take my shift fell ill yesterday and I didn’t manage to look for another substitute. Well, I didn’t feel ready anyways. I’d rather take the test when the teacher thinks I’m good enough and not because six months passed and now is examination time again…

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