Author Archives: mea

Can Tesla Power Its Gigafactory with Renewables Alone?

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All of the calculations are for energy, not power. In other words, you might produce 2400 MWh per day, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always have 100 MW available at any given instant. Sometimes you’ll generate more, other times less. Obviously there will be no solar production at night and less wind production on calm days. To be fully off-grid, Tesla will need some form of storage. As I surmised in a previous article, Tesla is probably shooting for more than the EV market; it seems logical for them to be looking into grid-level storage as well. What better way to showcase that than to include Li-ion batteries for on-site storage?

via Can Tesla Power Its Gigafactory with Renewables Alone? > ENGINEERING.com.

How a new HTML element will make the Web faster

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When the browser encounters a Picture element, it first evaluates any rules that the Web developer might specify. (Opera’s developer site has a good article on all the possibilities Picture offers.) Then, after evaluating the various rules, the browser picks the best image based on its own criteria.

via How a new HTML element will make the Web faster | Ars Technica.

Notes on the Celebrity Data Theft

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After this story broke I spent some time immersed in the crazy, obsessive subculture of celebrity nudes and revenge porn trying to work out what they were doing, how they were doing it and what could be learned from it.

1. What we see in the public with these hacking incidents seems to only be scratching the surface. There are entire communities and trading networks where the data that is stolen remains private and is rarely shared with the public. The networks are broken down horizontally with specific people carrying out specific roles, loosely organized across a large number of sites (both clearnet and darknet) with most organization and communication taking place in private (email, IM).

via New Web Order > Nik Cubrilovic – – » Notes on the Celebrity Data Theft.

Offline attack shows Wi-Fi routers still vulnerable

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The research, originally demonstrated at the PasswordsCon Las Vegas 2014 conference in early August, builds on previous work published by Stefan Viehböck in late 2011. Viehböck found a number of design flaws in Wi-Fi Protected Setup, but most significantly, he found that the PIN needed to complete the setup of a wireless router could be broken into smaller parts and each part attacked separately. By breaking down the key, the number of attempts an attacker would have to try before finding the key shrunk from an untenable 100 million down to a paltry 11,000—a significant flaw for any access-control technology.

via Offline attack shows Wi-Fi routers still vulnerable | Ars Technica.

IEEE Guides Software Architects ToSecure Software Design

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The document spells out the 10 common design flaws in a straightforward manner, each with a lengthy explainer of inherent weaknesses in each area and how software designers and architects should take these potential pitfalls into consideration. The 10, in no particular order, are:

  • Earn or give, but never assume, trust
  • Use an authentication mechanism that cannot be bypassed or tampered with
  • Authorize after you authenticate
  • Strictly separate data and control instructions, and never process control instructions received from untrusted sources
  • Define an approach that ensures all data are explicitly validated
  • Use cryptography correctly
  • Identify sensitive data and how they should be handled
  • Always consider the users
  • Understand how integrating external components changes your attack surface
  • Be flexible when considering future changes to objects and actors

via IEEE Guides Software Architects ToSecure Software Design | Threatpost | The first stop for security news.

Three-year, 27,000 drive study reveals the most reliable hard drive makers

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For this report, Backblaze took a look at 15 different HDD models from the three aforementioned major brands. Earning impressive marks for reliability was the Hitachi 3TB Deskstar 7K3000 (HDS723030ALA640) with a 0.9 percent failure rate and an average lifetime of about 2.1 years.

via Three-year, 27,000 drive study reveals the most reliable hard drive makers | PCWorld.

The worst of the bunch, meanwhile was the 1.5 TB Seagate Barracuda Green (ST1500DL003), with an average lifespan of 0.8 years. Ouch!

Let the ice bucket trademark challenges begin! @alsassociation files to register ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE with USPTO

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But who owns the name “ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE”? It is a viral movement. Its origin is disputed, and likely was used for other charitable causes first.

Yet by filing with the USPTO, the ALS Association now alleges that it owns rights to the phrase “Ice Bucket Challenge” in connection with charitable fundraising.

via Let the ice bucket trademark challenges begin! @alsassociation files to register ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE with USPTO – Erik M Pelton & Associates, PLLC.

ALS Association captured a viral wave this summer. And it raised lots of money and attention for the ALS disease and the struggle to find a cure and to assist those diagnosed with it. An effort to register the ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE strikes me as a bit akin to those who sought register BOSTON STRONG after the marathon bombings in 2013

Tenets of the UNIX Philosophy

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The main tenets of the Unix Philosophy are as follows::

  1. Small is beautiful.
  2. Make each program do one thing well.
  3. Build a prototype as soon as possible.
  4. Choose portability over efficiency.
  5. Store data in flat text files.
  6. Use software leverage to your advantage.
  7. Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.
  8. Avoid captive user interfaces.
  9. Make every program a filter.

via  Tenets of the UNIX Philosophy