We haven’t made a regular habit of watching BoingBoing TV, but lately they’ve been covering topics we’ve been interested in… not the dolphin pr0n. In yesterday’s episode they talked to Jacob Appelbaum and members of the EFF about the cold boot encryption attack. The attack involves dumping the contents of memory to a storage device by power cycling the system. Cooling the memory chip with compressed air helps preserve the integrity of the data. The attacker can then search the data to find encryption keys protecting the contents of the hard drive. A fool proof solution to mitigate this attack hasn’t been developed yet. You can read more about cold boot attacks at the Center for Information Technology Policy. The BoingBoing TV episode, bizarre editing and all, can be downloaded directly here.
Misc Hacks4086 Articles
Charter Screwing With DNS
Charter Communications seems to be pulling some sort of crap with their DNS servers. While working on a new project our friend Billy Hoffman, discovered that Charter was reporting absolutely every domain as resolving. They do offer a solution by providing an opt-out cookie, which isn’t useful at all if you’re not using a web browser… and I’m guessing most of Charter’s subscribers aren’t looking for a bastardized version of the net. We’ve seen recently that messing with DNS like this can actually open up new security holes.
Human Sync Optical Tachometer
[Jared] sent in this optical tachometer by [Mike Freeman]. The write-up and code requires a free registration, but if you’ve got a use for it, it’s probably worth the hassle. The zip archive includes a nice writeup in PDF format, and the code needed for the pic controller. The tach was built specifically for model helicopters. The user looks through the viewfinder and adjusts the pot on the side until the spinning helicopter blade visually stops turning.
The Future Of The Internet And How To Stop It
Yes, even we were getting tired of that Indiana Jones marathon on TV. So, we ventured online to find something entirely too geeky for a Sunday afternoon. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It is a presentation Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain gave at Princeton near the end of March.
He begins by covering early 20th century “sterile” technology like tabulation machines that were rented by the census bureau. The machines didn’t encourage any sort of innovation. Next he talks about “generative” technology like the internet and modern OSes where anyone can build whatever they want. The final step is the more recent move to what he calls “tethered” technology. These are the systems with upgradeable firmware where devices can ship with unfinished features and remove features after the consumer has already purchased the device. He uses the iPhone as an example of this walled garden that could hurt innovation. Watch the video for his thoughts on this new world and how he thinks it could be fixed.
Kernel Driver For The PIC18F4550 Microcontroller
[Pziz] wrote in with one of his projects. He created a linux kernel driver for the PIC 18F*55* series based on some available development tools. Continue reading for his (slightly edited) writeup.
Continue reading “Kernel Driver For The PIC18F4550 Microcontroller”
DIY Dynomometer
A Dynomometer measures actual horsepower and torque output at the wheels of a vehicle. Aside from racing, it’s long been the way to test out engine modifications. [Steve] built his own. It uses a Basic stamp for data acquistion, and a custom machined drum for the physical interface.
Long Range R/C On 868Mhz
Been looking for some extra range for your R/C projects? [Tron]’s managed to control his planes from 9.8Km using this kit at 868Mhz. I don’t know if I’d have the patience to fly the plane for that long, but this beats the pants off of just about everyone else home R/C gear.
