From the What's That Smell Dept.

From The Register...

"Researchers from Radboud University in Nijmegen revealed two weeks
ago they had cracked and cloned London's Oyster travelcard and the
Dutch public transportation travelcard, which is based on the same
RFID chip. Attackers can scan a card reading unit, collect the
cryptographic key that protects security and upload it to a laptop.
Details are then transferred to a blank card, which can be used for
free travel.

Around one billion of these cards have been sold worldwide. The card
is also widely used to gain access to government departments, schools
and hospitals around Britain."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/18/university_can_publish_oyster_research/

OSCON and Portland

Here's just one reason why OSCON is in Portland each July...

http://www.wunderground.com/US/OR/Portland.html

You're Welcome and You're Not

You're welcome to your ideas. Your welcome to express them in writing, orally, and via many means at your disposal.

But you're not welcome to shout them at the top of your lungs in an otherwise peacefully quiet town square. That's disturbing the peace. You've disturbed mine twice recently.

It's not like I haven't encountered the same message hundreds of times a year, nearly each year of my life. I wonder what's at stake for you to feel compelled to choose this means?

I appreciate you are passionate about your ideas. Maybe you would respect a similar passion for my ideas. I cannot presume it is my place to express that passion so intrusively, no matter what my ideas, no matter how passionate I may be.

And believe me: I am a Smug Lisp Weenie. I can be passionate.

Report cards are due

From The Register...

"Unless just about every technology company going has an "iPod
moment," then we're looking at a grim scenario where layoff reports
will become rather common. That's especially painful news for people
already being worked over by rising gas prices and painful mortgages.

We'll know just how bad these are for the technology sector, starting
today when Intel reports second quarter financial figures. Intel's
report will kick off three weeks of earnings reports - a journey
that's starting to look like a dive into the heart of darkness...

Worst of all, people are starting to try and understand Google's
business. Just wait and see what happens when Google really misses a
quarter, and everyone figures out that they have no idea how Google's
money machine works. That'll go over well."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/tech_economy_woe/

There Goes The Neighborhood

"Nintendo this morning announced plans for a version of the
blockbuster "Grand Theft Auto" game franchise for the Nintendo DS
handheld game system. The hard-core game is atypical for a system that
has been built on more casual titles as "Nintendogs" and "Brain Age."
Dubbed "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars," the game will be available
this winter, the company says."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/143556.asp?source=rss

PB & J

I hope the choice is not "protocol buffers" or "xml".

Most people probably do not need anachronistic protocols or even
binary data formats over the wire.

On the other hand, few of us need XML either.

Nintendo's early E3 surprise: Wii MotionPlus

Not sure what an "expected" surprise means, but cool...

"Nintendo this morning gave a sneak preview of one the announcements
it's expected to make at its briefing here Tuesday: The company says
the new accessory, called the Wii MotionPlus, attaches to the Wiimote,
"more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space."
Here's the news release. No word on pricing or availability. The
company is promising more details at its briefing."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/143393.asp?source=rss

The game industry focused on graphics the way Intel focused on
instruction speed. Nintendo snuck up on the industry with controllers
as the significant innovation the way AMD snuck up on Intel with lower
power and multiple cores a few years ago.