December 28, 2009
So… looks like Karsten Nohl went through with one of the most pervasive open source experiments in IT history. The GSM A5/1 encryption algorithm is now cracked, code books have been generated, real-time decryption and snooping is now a distinct possibility using off-the-shelf hardware (ATI/Nvidia/IBM-Tosh PS3 Cell Procesors/USRP2) and open source software (Asterisk, OpenBTS).
Assuming that [...]
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May 9, 2009
The ImageWork team was having dinner @ Acqua last night and we spotted Zachary Quinto – who plays Spock in the new Star Trek film at the place. When we hailed him with the usual “live long and prosper” line, he was very personable and humble, taking time to answer all our questions.
Took time to [...]
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May 7, 2009
Back when I started at ImageWork in 2001, all I really had were strong technical fundamentals and confidence. The beauty of growing up in a small company is that it is much akin to deep frying <insert your food of choice here> – you get immersed into high pressure situations and it is sink or [...]
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January 19, 2009
Plane lands in the Hudson river (US Airways) – A320
Plane busts a wing but somehow manages to avoid crashing catastrophically (Lufthansa) – A320
This plane leads a charmed life! Granted, in both scenarios it took skill, grace under fire and rapid decision-making to get these birds down safely.
Odd co-incidence, thought I’d share the correlation. More about [...]
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August 9, 2008
One of the Kings of Comedy, Bernie Mac, passed away today. Way too early, and just when he was starting to enjoy himself. While he’ll never be in Cosby or Pryor or Carlin’s league, I do think he was highly underrated.
He was old-school, talented, kept the themes simple, HBO-only, politically incorrect and had the fiercest [...]
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August 9, 2008
Just got done watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony for Beijing 2008. Wow.
All I can say is… that it was a spectacular exhibition of China’s intent to raise the Golden Kingdom back to the top again.
Some Highlights & Observations:
- Superb choreography by Zhang Yimou, the initial drumbeat orchestration has to be the best of the lot. [...]
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July 11, 2008
Mission critical software. I’ve never understood how people building systems that decide between life & death sleep peacefully at night.
One of my favorite bombers of all time – the B-2 Stealth Bomber took a $2BN joyride into the turf because a malfunctioning moisture sensor fed irrational data into the Operational Flight Program (OFP) of the [...]
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