Category Archives: Technical

General Technical information

3GPP Long Term Evolution

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3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques.[1][2] The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).

via 3GPP Long Term Evolution – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Although commonly referred to as a type of 4G wireless service, LTE release 8 currently in use does not satisfy the requirements set forth by the ITU-R organization. Future releases of LTE (referred to as LTE Advanced) are expected to satisfy the requirements to be considered 4G.

iPXE – open source boot firmware [start]

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iPXE – open source boot firmware [start].

iPXE is the leading open source network boot firmware. It provides a full PXE implementation enhanced with additional features such as:

  • boot from a web server via HTTP
  • boot from an iSCSI SAN
  • boot from a Fibre Channel SAN via FCoE
  • boot from an AoE SAN
  • boot from a wireless network
  • boot from a wide-area network
  • boot from an Infiniband network
  • control the boot process with a script

DNS-Based Service Discovery

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This document specifies how DNS resource records are named and structured to facilitate service discovery. Given a type of service that a client is looking for, and a domain in which the client is looking for that service, this allows clients to discover a list of named instances of that desired service, using standard DNS queries. This is referred to as DNS-based Service Discovery, or DNS-SD.

via. http://files.dns-sd.org/draft-cheshire-dnsext-dns-sd.txt

Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down

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The researchers demonstrated how easy it was to track down a cellular device within a 10-block area in Minneapolis using a T-Mobile G1 smartphone and open source technology. They never contacted the service provider to conduct the test.

via Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down.

PDF can be had here.

Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom

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In contrast to conventional computers that are based on transistors with distinct “on” and “off” or “1” and “0” states, quantum computers are built from devices called qubits that exploit the quirky properties of quantum mechanics. Unlike a transistor, a qubit can represent a multiplicity of values simultaneously.

via Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom – NYTimes.com.

Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux

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This may present some messaging problems for the big commercial Linux vendors, by the way: if the distribution underneath becomes less important, then Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server may soon have a serious fight on their hands. In the past, one of the big differentiators has been that these “big” distros provide solid infrastructures in which business applications can be developed. If this Linux-is-Linux-is-Linux idea takes root, that will undercut a big marketing tool for Red Hat and SUSE Linux.

via Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux | ITworld.

But I don’t think that’s going to last. The Linux community may be cocky now, but let’s think through this Linux-is-everywhere scenario a bit. If the operating system becomes just a background component that runs more web than native apps and app development for the platform itself becomes de-emphasized, then the obvious question then becomes: what does it matter it it’s Linux running on the operating system layer?

You still need a reliable OS to run the web servers which is the space RHEL and SUSE enterprise sell into.

P3P: The Platform for Privacy Preferences

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P3P: The Platform for Privacy Preferences.

The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) enables Websites to express their privacy practices in a standard format that can be retrieved automatically and interpreted easily by user agents. P3P user agents will allow users to be informed of site practices (in both machine- and human-readable formats) and to automate decision-making based on these practices when appropriate. Thus users need not read the privacy policies at every site they visit. Have a look at the list of P3P software.