The CPRG’s poker programs, named “Hyperborean” in the ACPC, are constructed quite differently compared to programs for “perfect information games” such as chess.
OpenBSD’s de Raadt slams Red Hat, Canonical over ‘secure’ boot
Responding to a query from iTWire about what OpenBSD, widely recognised as the most security-conscious UNIX, would be doing to cope with “secure” boot, De Raadt said: “We have no plans. I don’t know what we’ll do. We’ll watch the disaster and hope that someone with enough power sees sense.”
via OpenBSD’s de Raadt slams Red Hat, Canonical over ‘secure’ boot.
Red Hat’s method of ensuring that PCs certified for Windows 8 can boot GNU/Linux, announced by its community distribution Fedora, is to sign up to the Microsoft developer program and obtain a key which will be used to sign a “shim” bootloader.
using DD to image a disk over SSH
What I like to do is log into the remote server and run “watch -n 1 iptables –list -v -n” to watch the byte count to give you an idea of how much data has been passed already. of course you’ll have to start iptables first if it isnt running.
via using DD to image a disk over SSH | daverdave.com.
This is pretty useful too. I couldn’t do this using sshfs so googled and found that regular ssh works. I do not like to image disks with disks running other than the one being imaged. I find it too dangerous that a single mistype could wipe out a functioning disk. Doing this over a nework seems much safer. Here’s the command I used from the linked to article:
ssh desthost.domain.com “dd if=/dev/sda” | dd of=/dev/sda bs=1024k conv=notrunc,noerror
The destination host feeds the image. The host that runs this command is a Knoppix live boot with the only HD running being the one being written to. I suppose if I were to do this a lot then a dedicated image machine might prove useful with an HD to store the images and some OS and a burn HD in a hot swap slot. The HD with OS and images would be expendible in that an accidental overwrite would be a mere inconvenience instead of actual loss of data.
Reverse-Engineered Irises Look So Real, They Fool Eye-Scanners
The academics have found a way to recreate iris images that match digital iris codes that are stored in databases and used by iris-recognition systems to identify people. The replica images, they say, can trick commercial iris-recognition systems into believing they’re real images and could help someone thwart identification at border crossings or gain entry to secure facilities protected by biometric systems.
via Reverse-Engineered Irises Look So Real, They Fool Eye-Scanners | Threat Level | Wired.com.
Microsoft inks patent deal with service provider using Linux servers
For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been on a tear of signing up Android and Chome OS device makers to license publicly unspecified Microsoft patents that Microsoft claims are infringed upon by Google’s operating systems.
via Microsoft inks patent deal with service provider using Linux servers | ZDNet.
In 2010, Amazon.com signed a patent-licensing deal with Microsoft involving Linux (upon which the Kindle e-reader is based). Novell, TomTom, Fuji Xerox and Samsung also have signed Linux-focused patent deals with Microsoft. But Amdocs isn’t selling Linux-based hardware; it is just running Linux on servers in its own datacenters (best I can tell).
MiFi
MiFi is a line of compact wireless routers produced by Novatel Wireless that act as mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. MiFi stands for ‘My Wi-Fi’. The MiFi can be connected to a mobile phone (cellular) carrier and provide internet access for up to 5 devices. The MiFi works at a distance up to 10 m (30 ft) and will provide internet or network access to any WiFi enabled peripheral device.
Windows 8 graphics: Microsoft has hardware accelerated all the things
Moving into specific changes made to DirectX 11.1, Microsoft has made it much better at redrawing portions of the screen, such as on YouTube, where only the video segment should be constantly re-rendered. By reducing redundant redrawing of text and other static elements, there is less memory and processor cycle wastage.
via Windows 8 graphics: Microsoft has hardware accelerated all the things | ExtremeTech.
In all cases, faster and more efficient rendering will result in less hardware resources being used, and thus lower power consumption. In the entire cycle of Windows 8, improved efficiency and battery life are probably the strongest and most recurring themes. If the unremovable Metro Start Screen and Surface tablets wasn’t proof enough, this laser-tight focus on efficiency makes it patently clear that Microsoft’s primary concern is being competitive against Google and Apple in the mobile computing sector.
Black Hat hacker gains access to 4 million hotel rooms with Arduino microcontroller
Bad news: With less than $50 of off-the-shelf hardware and a little bit of programming, it’s possible for a hacker to gain instant, untraceable access to millions of key card-protected hotel rooms.
via Black Hat hacker gains access to 4 million hotel rooms with Arduino microcontroller | ExtremeTech.
Tatu Ylonen, father of SSH, says security is ‘getting worse’
I think it’s getting worse. Consumer privacy is disappearing totally. And SSL [Secure Sockets Layer] is being questioned and the problem isn’t the protocol itself but the key infrastructure. There have been several incidents where someone has stolen from the certificate authorities.
via http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/072512-blackhat-ylonen-261134.html.
Welcome to SIPp
SIPp is a free Open Source test tool / traffic generator for the SIP protocol. It includes a few basic SipStone user agent scenarios (UAC and UAS) and establishes and releases multiple calls with the INVITE and BYE methods. It can also reads custom XML scenario files describing from very simple to complex call flows. It features the dynamic display of statistics about running tests (call rate, round trip delay, and message statistics), periodic CSV statistics dumps, TCP and UDP over multiple sockets or multiplexed with retransmission management and dynamically adjustable call rates.
via Welcome to SIPp.
SIPp can be used to test many real SIP equipements like SIP proxies, B2BUAs, SIP media servers, SIP/x gateways, SIP PBX, … It is also very useful to emulate thousands of user agents calling your SIP system.