Obama turban picture, foul!

Take a causal look at the supporter base of Obama - a mostly younger and more progressive crowd. If there are people who won't be swayed by a picture of someone in a traditional costume, they'd be the Obama crowd; and the Clinton camp knows that.

So what on earth? Does anybody really believe that the Clinton camp is stupid enough to use that as an attack?? The motive behind the Drudge Report is quite questionable. I smell foul.

Retrieving encryption key from memory

Researchers from Princeton University have developed a technique to defeat disk encryption (vaults) on hard disks - by retriving the encryption keys from memory. The idea is, an attacker, after gaining physical access of the hardware, can pull the RAM out and scan it for encryption keys.

While I am impressed by them being able to figure out where in memory is that supposedly random encryption key, retrieving data from RAM doesn't sound like a break through to me. They talk about freezing the memory chip so as to slow down data decay... well, how about sustaining it by powering it up with an external power source instead. Besides, they claim that the data will disappear after 10 minutes after power down - that doesn't sound like a lot of time between me forgetting my laptop and the attacker picking it up, running over to a hidden room, pry open the casing, grab the can of compressed air, pull the chip, somehow get to another computer that has the memory scanning software.

The most suprising part is, they couldn't get themselves a female narrator (notice they've resorted to a computer voice). What a bunch of nerds. I wonder if their lab is in the basement.

Password Safe for Windows Mobile

I've come across alot of people who claim their PDAs/cell phones hold their entire lives - all their contacts, schedules, etc. I don't have alot of contacts and I don't have any schedule to keep but some years ago I did experiment with carrying everything on my USB key chain (and later my iPod Shuffle) - music, contacts, and passwords. For passwords, I used Password Safe, originally developed at Counterpane, Bruce "All Mighty" Schneier's company (later acquired by BP I believe). When it comes to storing passwords, I like to put my trusts in people who really know how to hide secrets. I have my password data file as well as Password Safe installer in the USB key.

It didn't really work too well, the carrying around business that is, mainly because the USB key (and the iPod Shuffle) is too bulky to carry around all the time. A wallet, keys and occasionally a watch, that's it for me; that is, until I started carrying a cell phone around.

My car pool buddy Eddie swears he would never want to carry a computer phone with him but at the risk of sounding too geeky, I love it. With a pair of ear phones plugged in I carry not only music and contacts but videos and podcasts (that get me through those lonely time, be it on the can or what not) and books too (PDFs with too many graphics don't work too well, but text only stuff are great) in the phone. Tai Chi tutorial video is next.

That still leaves passwords. My phone can transfer via infra red and blue tooth but most desktops don't have those; and I am not about to carry a USB cord with me all the time. So I started scrambling for something that not only stores passwords but also let me view them on my phone.

At first, KeePass looked very promising. There is a PocketPC version and a Windows version. But I am very used to Password Safe and don't know want to switch because I don't know how well it will perform. Besides, it doesn't import from Password Safe very well.

Later I found out there is a Password Safe for PocketPC on SourceForge. It didn't show before because it was based off version 1.9 (an older version). I loaded it up, fired up Embedded Visual C++ and got it compiled and running. I simply exported my current password data file as 1.x format and loaded it on the phone, everything just worked beautifully.



A password protection program is something you don't want to just download and run (if you can help it). You want to be able to examine the source code and make sure there isn't anything funky in there, and compile it yourself. I am thankful that Microsoft made Embedded Visual C++ a free download and folks who worked on Password Safe made the source available.

I am also sorry for people who use those fruity (metaphorically) phones that they can't compile and load their own programs (okay, latest news is that a certain fruity phone will finally have its SDK published, we'll see). I wonder if they have the equivalent of KeyChain on the iPhone.

Ever been mad at your computer?

As a programmer, it can be frustrating when your program won't compile and you don't know what's going on. After swearing helplessly you wholeheartedly believe the computer is lying about those syntax errors, and you want revenge.

Or, you can attach a motion sensor to your monitor, then program your computer to...

50 years of LEGO bricks

Happy birthday LEGO bricks. It's amazing these seemingly simple bricks inspire imaginations of so many kids around the world. I was a big fan.

Of all the sets I owned, I loved my Galaxy Explorer (497) the most, along side the Space Cruiser (487). Next would have to be the helicopter (8844) which I also put in my electric motor (870) for the rotor.



I am surprised that the timeline poster got it wrong. Every LEGO fan knows 6080 (which I loved and only dismantled a few years ago) wasn't the first castle set. The first castle set was 375, the yellow castle with a red draw bridge and horses built with lego bricks (which I also owned and loved).

My background is in Windows

I have been developing applications on Windows platfrom in my day job for more than 3 years now, it's interesting to see how differently people see me, and themselves, than when I lived and breathed full time all Sun Sparc Solaris the prior 10 years.

First there are these people who think I am ignorant of Unix. Like today when I complained about my many bad experiences in compiling open source distributions. "That's cause you're doing that in Windows." was what I got. Humorous.

Then there are these people who feel embarrassed having to ask for my help in Windows related stuff. They'll go like "too bad my background is in Unix" just to make themselves feel better.

Oh shut up! Everybody's background is in Unix, cause that's what they teach in school, cause that's whay they show you in the text books. They showed you chmod with a hex mask and you went along to this day (chmod takes alphabetical arguments, like u for user, g for group and o for world which is easier to remember). They showed you vi or emacs and you sticked to the for the rest of your lives (tedit is a superior editor).

One side note: you hear all these excitements about Linux gaining market share in the desktop space all the time. So and so is now selling a labtop with Redhat or what not. The fact is, Linux is simply not ready for prime time in the desktop environment. All these "it is faster" is just a load of crap. Take for example my experience loading a media application on my ancient Pentium II last year. It took less than 45 mins to get Windows XP MCE running. To get MythTV on the same box, it took me 3 hours to put in a Fedora (thank God I remembered to load a compiler this time, cause you need a gcc to compile a gcc you downloaded!) and then another 5 hours getting MythTV to compile - just because like the 10000 open source software out there, as soon as I run make, I realize I need to first install these 5 packages, which in turn require another 10 packages which in turn require another... well, you all who have 5 different TCL and 10 different GTK installations on your box know what I am talking about. Windows open source stuff? They just compile. Or event better, they have a precompiled version. Nuf said.