Siftables!

Really cool idea demo'ed by David Merrill at TED. Something like Furbys on steroids, but in toy block form.

• Blog post
  
• Video
  
• Siftables page (mit.edu)

TrueCrypt 6.0a is out

Available for download from their downloads page.

.NET: ILMerge

For .NET developers: ILMerge takes multiple .NET assemblies and merges them into a single .NET assembly. Might come in handy sometime in the future.

[Link]

Intel unveils new remote lock-out technology for stolen laptops

[From TechRepublic blogs]

Interesting technology to have, but I wonder how long before someone manages to use it for a DOS attack?

Microblogging

First blogging took the (inter-webs) world by storm, and it was one of the contributing forces towards the change in how the internet is used.

Next up: micro-blogging. Where you can blog even easier, wherever you are. I'm trying out Twitter if you noticed, but don't expect me to put on it stuff like where I am, or the time I go to the toilet, etc etc etc. (sorry stalkers)

It'd be interesting to see alternative uses for it though, one I can think of is for it to be a command and control channel for botnets (coming from the idea that social bookmarking sites can be used for such nefarious purposes also; I can't remember where I read that from..). ;)

Broadband over mobile isn't exactly "safer"

Have been using and playing around with mobile broadband for the past few months. =D

If anyone says that mobile broadband is safer (in the sense that we're less exposed to the internet), let me highlight some things here (though these should be pretty logical/obvious) :

It's true that the IP addresses given are for "private addresses", meaning that the clients are in a segregated "protected" network. This is seen by the fact that the IP address leases are in the 10.0.0.0 Class A network, but it does not stop other clients from accessing your computer directly, which is the important thing of note here.

Attached is the screenshot of my firewall events log, which has been showing similar hits all the time. First of all it shows that various clients have been trying to access my computer, though I've yet to figure out how do they know about my IP address, nor who are these clients.

The other thing of note is the frequency and range of ports that were logged. Tallied with the list of TCP/UDP ports...

• 137-139 TCP/UDP, NetBIOS related services (not shown in the screenshot).
• 1433 TCP/UDP, Microsoft SQL database system.
• 135 TCP/UDP, Microsoft RPC Locator Service.
• 445 TCP, Microsoft-DS (used for Active Directory; the channel for some Windows worms to propagate like Sasser)
• 2967 TCP, Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition. (I'm not even running this! Unless the other client is?)

The bottomline (at the bottom of this post) is: If other network clients can access your computer directly, it is still possible for attacks to occur over the network. Running a (properly configured) client-side firewall would be a worthy investment of your time and effort ;)

No Tech Hacking book released

Johnny Long's No Tech Hacking book has been released!

It's interesting to see how "hackers" can make use of everyday situations and objects to perform an attack on a "system", without the high tech gadgetry. If James Bond reads this, maybe Q will be out of a job =D yeah right.

In any case, will try to buy/borrow/beg for one when it becomes available.

A sample chapter can be found here.

Changing to mobile broadband

My fixed line broadband contract just ended, and I've just signed up for Singnet's BB on mobile 1.8mbps plan. Faster than my old plan, cheaper, and mobile!

The problem is that most locations have run out of stock for the USB modem, but it's ok. A quick check on the net showed that my laptop has a type 2 PC card slot (which is unused anyway). So I got the PC card modem instead.

Looking forward to trying out my broadband connection on the go when it activates ;) Maybe there'll be some interesting stuff to try with this setup.

Google's Experimental Searches

Google has some experimental modes for your google search results page. Pretty interesting! Stuff like alternate views, keyword suggestions (Google suggest), keyboard shortcuts, left-hand search navigation and right-hand contextual search navigation.

I quite like the alternate views one, partially because I'm a data visualization junkie, and also I do my searches from my Firefox search box anyway, so I already have suggestions popping out as I type.

What do you think?

Social Engineering

Malicious people/worms are getting smarter and smarter. We know that they've always made use of social engineering to get people to do stuff like running programs to propagate them or to give money. From email attachments in the past, to phone scams and MSN worms these days.

We could learn a thing or two from these worms even, though it's best not to emulate them by writing worms of your own =)

Following is an excerpt from one of my MSN contacts. The worm has been trying to send out an image file ("conveniently" ZIPped up for you). And when the recipient doesn't respond in a timely manner (like I did), it tries to resend it again saying that he/she has "fixed the mess up"!

Names have been changed to protect the innocent =)

MSN_Contact says (18:03):
omg look at this pic so old!

MSN_Contact sends: (the ZIP file named image24.zip)

You have failed to receive file "image24.zip" from MSN_Contact.

MSN_Contact says (18:09):
sorry about the messup i fixed the pic! Try it one more time pz

MSN_Contact sends: (the same ZIP file named image24.zip)

You have failed to receive file "image24.zip" from MSN_Contact.

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 2.0.0.8 Released

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 2.0.0.8 has been released!

Hybrid scooter hi-tech miser

Link

Regenerative braking...wonder what it'd be like if it was retrofitted on a car? ;)

Virtually Non-Stick Gum Created

Virtually Non-Stick Gum Created

Maybe it's almost time for chewing gum to be legalized again in Singapore...heh ;)

Super Trackstick

The Raw Feed has an article on the Super Trackstick. Portable GPS tracker which outputs conveniently to Google Earth.

Be careful of what gets put into your bag, especially by those who "like" you too much ;D