Peter Seibel's forthcoming book, Practical Common Lisp looks like its getting back on-schedule. Though he was supposed to have it submitted at the end of January, I figure he'll be done soon, given that the Chapter Pipeline shows that its almost done, with only a few things left to do.
Jim on 02.26.05 @ 01:35 PM PST [link]
music: Happy Talk/It's Immaterial
Only in Spokane would you find the city government bragging about parking meters.
Long-time readers of this blog may remember that I predicted that the whole "Wi-Fi Zone" bit was about parking fees, and Spokane's inability to service the debt on its White Elephant "Parkade".
The trial of this technology in Spokane, however, does have a very unique element. This is the first time in North America that such parking pay stations are being used with wireless technology.
My take is that Parkeon couldn't sell its equipment to anyone, so they've allowed Spokane a free trial. For those of you who don't know, Parkeon was formerly "Schlumberger e-City", but is now part of Apax Partners, a VC firm. If Vivato isn't already sucking air, then perhaps Stalter and crew are trying to get Apax to throw some money in the pot. I know some of the Apax guys, and they're too smart for that by half.
Here's the problem. There is money (or worse, your credit card number) flowing over those wireless links, and Vivato's first-generation product doesn't support anything that could ever be called "secure 802.11". Its WEP, or WEP with 802.1x, but the chipsets inside are crippled, and are unlikely to ever support TKIP, and without TKIP, WPA isn't possible. While it is possible that Vivato has implemented TKIP (and the Michael MIC) for its first-gen product, I find it telling that the datasheet doesn't claim TKIP or WPA, and that Vivato has not re-certfified with the Wi-Fi Alliance, which would be necessary to claim "WPA" on any revision of that datasheet.
If Vivato still only supports WEP with 802.1x, then the situation is dangerous to the credit rating of anyone who uses it. On August 8th, 2004, a hacker named KoreK posted new WEP statistical cryptanalysis attack code to the NetStumbler forums. The attacks have since seen better implementations in aircrack and WepLab. Still, the new attacks change everything. Now the only issue is the total number of unique IVs captured, and a key can often be cracked with hundreds of thousands of packets, rather than millions. The key actually leaks out the IV stream. I've read analysis that says that WEP is now a "5 mintues and you're cracked" wash-out.
So, until I hear differently, it looks to me like many, many credit-card numbers are about to start flying through the air in Spokane, ready for anyone with a copy of readily-available software to start grabbing them at will. Unless there is some new Vivato firmware in beta, Spokane just set itself up to be the next Bestbuy.
And, even if I do hear differently, I claim the whole thing is a huge hack waiting to happen unless Vivato has implemented per-STA keying. Agere pullled a fast-one here with 802.1x, and its a dirty secret inside the Wi-Fi industry. Perhaps the Vivato deal with Devicescape (aka Instant802) will help solve the problem here.
To be clear, for the sake of the City of Spokane, its citizens, Apax, and whats left of Vivato, I hope that someone with a security bend insisted on this problem being solved before money starts to flow.
The more I sit and think of it, the more it makes sense to re-port the Instant802 software on top of the Agere chipset and use the rest of the management layer that already runs on all of Vivato's other products. Too many people in the industry know that WEP is a non-starter, even with 802.1x. If you own a Vivato 12xx series product, call and demand to see the latest firmware.
Still, even if Vivato has implemented WPA, it brings its own set of fun. TKIP can be used as the lever for a DoS attack. If an AP running TKIP sees two bad MICs within one minute, it assumes it is under attack and kicks all users off the AP and invalidates all key material. This requires only generating bad unicast packets toward the switch which appear to originate at the parking meter. As few as two such events in 60 seconds will take the parking meter offline for a full minute. It non-trivial (but possible) to keep all parking meters associated with a given Vivato switch bound up. Technical details upon request.
Please note that Parkeon uses GPRS for its wireless solution everywhere but Spokane. Given that GPRS data service can be bought for $20/mo, flat-rate from several carriers, I don't understand the economics of using WiFi for the parking meters. Perhaps Tom Sowa will investigate and explain.
In other Vivato news, Steve Renda, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development at Vivato, has left the company. The executive bleed-off continues. Vivato's management still refuses to acknowlege that the CFO left months ago.
Jim on 02.23.05 @ 02:50 AM PST [link]
E = 1/2 C V^2 really big V
Or, if you want something a wee bit safer, you can now build your very own Enigma. Click here if you want a Palm app that implements something similar. Click HERE if you've got $35K to drop on the real thing.
Jim on 02.21.05 @ 05:48 PM PST [link]
Yeah, right... a palm tree.
Lucky underpants.
Cast-iron doorstop: $4,800.
"In the first, our main character, the St. Bernard, holds a weak hand as the rest of the crew maintains their best poker faces. In the following scene, we see the St. Bernard raking in the large pot, much to the very obvious dismay of his fellow players."
On some occasions the doctor they believed to be Charles Momah was jovial and talkative with little accent. He bore certain scars and other physical characteristics. On other visits, the man they believed to be Charles Momah stuttered, had a heavy accent, and even appeared to be a different weight, claim the women who filed suit.[...]
As teenage boys, the Mantle twins are clearly very bright, and display a precocious interest in surgery and women's reproductive apparatus.
Carney said the actor's failed attempt to fake his drug test results came on the first day of the new requirement.
Come for the service, stay for the food.
The project is structured around multifaceted incremental work plan combining novel content design based on new pedagogical paradigms blended with the e-learning environments to facilitate hybrid mode of delivery. This is combined with series of educational experiments on the target learner groups with possibilities to adjust the approach and disseminate the interim and final results.
Why? Because that is where the argument and the difference is
sharpest.
And some people are calling it THE best book ever written about the Bearded Dragon.
Gum control.
Jim on 02.17.05 @ 10:32 AM PST [link]
An Indian walks into a cafe with a shotgun in one hand pulling a male buffalo with the other. He says to the waiter, "Me want coffee."
The waiter says, "Sure chief, coming right up." He gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee.
The Indian drinks the coffee down in one gulp, turns and blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of animal to splatter everywhere, then just walks out.
The next morning the Indian returns. He has his shotgun in one hand pulling another male buffalo with the other. He walks up to the counter and says to the waiter, "Me want coffee."
The waiter says, "Whoa, Tonto! We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that about, anyway?"
The Indian smiles and proudly says, "Me training for upper management position: Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, disappear for rest of day."
Jim on 02.16.05 @ 11:31 AM PST [link]
Those of you who know me know I spent nearly two years in Spokane, Washington. ("Spokane? It rains a lot there!", I'd hear. "No, you're thinking of Seattle. Spokane is over by Idaho." "Oh..." (silence).)
This town of about 400,000 in eastern Washington, some three hundred miles east of Seattle, has no center. No downtown. Really, just go visit sometime. (Or don't.) Everyone who can lives miles away, in Liberty Lake, Moses Lake, Mead or Cheney. Spokane's center is rotten and cancerous after fifty years of sacrifice to the Gods of easy motoring.
The downtown area is a wasteland of parking lots and hovels for the transient poor. Streets are dead zones, dangerous even when its light. Spokane has no bus transit system that normal people (i.e. the non-indigent) will actually ride.
Meanwhile, an orgy of suburban sprawl development continues out on the prairie between Moses Lake, Medical Lake, Mead and Liberty Lake. Visit any and behold this sordid smear of beige-colored tract housing, mirror-clad office boxes, and tilt-up retail pods, all in-meter speaking one message that comes through with laser-like clarity: "No Future Here." Meanwhile, Coeur dAlene is actually a walkable, livable city. Idaho and eastern Washington, separated by mere miles, are worlds apart.
The suburban America "story" has a tragic arc, and since we've squandered our national wealth on it, we are apparently determined to make ourselves feel good about it. You cannot overestimate the delusional thinking that the public will bring to this effort. It will range from credentialed intellectual figures such as Kotkin, to the lowliest Nascar morons defending their entitlements to the American Dream, the way of life that Vice-president Dick Cheney claims to be "non-negotiable."
America can tell itself whatever it wants to hear, but history and destiny have other plans for us. That plan includes a lot of trouble with the energy needed to run the beloved drive-in utopia. No amount of hope for a continuance for that way of life will bring back the depleted oil fields of Texas or the tapped-out gas wells of Oklahoma, or buy us the friendship of the people around the Persian Gulf who own two-thirds of the world's remaining oil.
Spokane has a long history of deep ties with the energy industry. The Steam Plant was owned and operated by WWP, which became Avista. Spokane's #1 cheerleader, "Jon Eliassen" of Spokane EEDC, was once the CFO of Avista:
My name is Jon E. Eliassen, and my business address is east 1411 Mission Avenue, Spokane Washington. I am employed by Avista Corporation as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Only he retired at 53. Why?
Perhaps he knows that the era of cheap oil is ending, and with it, the economies of much of the US. How long will people be able to live in Spokane when the cost of energy starts to climb?
Check out the headlines of this dying city. Or check here, where the local technology reporter goes completely *SIDEWAYS* on Vivato.
Jim on 02.16.05 @ 12:14 AM PST [link]
MD5, MD4, HAVAL-128 and RIPEMD were broken late last year. Paper here.
Today comes the news that SHA-1 has been broken. Not a reduced-round version. Not a simplified version. The real thing.
Jim on 02.15.05 @ 07:44 PM PST [link]
If you value your employees, you will not build a plant in Spokane. Your employees will hate Spokane. Even if they fixed the rampant racism and hatred of outsiders, the food will nearly poison them, while the local water definitely will.
Jon Eliassen, President of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, says Washington is a major contender. He says Washington is one of only four or five other states that have a decent chance of winning, and says the city of Spokane has great selling points.
Hey Jon, (link for email address), name ONE reason why Spokane does not suck.
Jim on 02.15.05 @ 03:49 PM PST [link]
Heh, Google's Image Search for "Vivato" shows a pic of me on Page 2, whiie Biba appears on Page 4 and Stalter doesn't show up until Page 5 (and then they've spelled his name "donslater".)
Jim on 02.15.05 @ 12:41 PM PST [link]
Note how this story can't be viewed at the Spokesman Review, since its behind a cost-wall.
Spokane EMT arrested on child porn charges
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPOKANE, Wash. -- An emergency medical technician was arrested on child pornography charges after he allegedly sent sexually explicit images of young girls to a Spokane couple, who notified authorities.
Christopher J. Twelves, 36, was released without bond after an initial appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.
A two-count complaint charges Twelves with using computer equipment to transport and possess child pornography.
Twelves, who was on a waiting list to attend a police academy to become a reserve officer in the Airway Heights Police Department, was placed on administrative leave from his ambulance company job.
Jim on 02.08.05 @ 11:01 AM PST [link]
Take a gander at Novell's public service announcement.
"Warning, linux may be habit-forming."
Jim on 02.05.05 @ 11:41 AM PST [link]
Same as the old blog.
The link points to "3 Dish Network Satellite TV Dish Network Free Install", where-upon the spammer crowd usurps blogs for their own version of "direct marketing". The ultimate personal/corporate blog.
Something I'll bet Doc and Rageboy never saw coming.
Jim on 02.04.05 @ 11:17 AM PST [link]
Morning Brew in Kailua now gives you two hours of free WiFi love with each purchase. I had stopped coming in because they had one of those "we'll rape you @ $8/hr" plans, which I never used, but it frustrated me to have it there, but not used, because I was unwilling to pay the toll.
I was so serious about leaving that I asked for (and received) a coffee maker for Christmas. I'm up every morning M-F to get the kid dressed, fed, and happily off to school. So I'm up, and given the late nights we keep (running a small business online business is no picnic), it will be a few hours before Jamie is back with the living, so I like to drink cofffee, watch the people, think and work some in the mornings.
I guess other people complained. I'm more than happy to buy the coffee.
Good news.
Jim on 02.04.05 @ 10:13 AM PST [link]
"I think it's clear the market has spoken that open source is the path that the developer community and the customer community wants to drive down, and I think we're going to do what we can to try to give customers as big a set of options as we can," Schwartz said. "I don't think it's going to be limited to simply operating systems. Maybe it will extend to file systems, maybe it will extend to databases, maybe it will extend to middleware."
link
Jim on 02.04.05 @ 08:44 AM PST [link]
this may be the most philip k. dickian hip-hop song ever
Pete Miser also makes the MP3 available.
i'm robot
prgrammed not to know
that i'm a robot
but some dumb fuck emailed me
the computercode that
makes up my soul...
Jim on 02.04.05 @ 07:55 AM PST [link]
Go hit mappoint.msn.com
Start: Address in: norway / City: haugesund
End: Address in: norway / City: trondheim
Click "Get Directions"
(they fixed it)
Jim on 02.03.05 @ 12:42 PM PST [link]
False Alarm, Connecticut Not Being Evacuated.
Executives have been asked to spend up to 2 million yen ($19,290), division chiefs 500,000 yen other employees 200,000 yen on Sanyo products, which include televisions, regrigerators, mobile phones and insurance.
One goal: to increase the seven-minute viewing time historically clocked by the average person who orders an adult pay-per-view movie.
"Do not shoot nails through any part of your body."
"That's yours."
Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography
Evincing a refined bouquet
Of silicon and Chardonnay.
They were in fact doodles made by Bill Gates.
"Lim's performance shows the greatness of the Taoist deities in protecting their devotees from harm," said temple spokesman Goon Fook Theong.
Stick play.
Jim on 02.03.05 @ 12:38 PM PST [link]
"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."
- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, 'U.S.Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967.
We will succeed because the Iraqi people value their own liberty -- as they showed the world last Sunday. Across Iraq, often at great risk, millions of citizens went to the polls and elected 275 men and women to represent them in a new Transitional National Assembly.
"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." POTUS, SOTU, 1/2/05
I think they see it a little differently over there.
Jim on 02.03.05 @ 11:07 AM PST [link]
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