Category: None

Snow Kitty

Well, it’s finally out. Snow Leopard, Apple’s latest and greatest OS. Officially released on August 28th, they did a hell of a job getting it delivered on time. It arrived, on time, at my house yesterday afternoon. I had it installed on my Macbook Pro that evening.

OS X 10.6 brings full 64-bit application support to the OS. According to Apple, almost every single core app has been re-built to be 64-bit. This means that these applications can access more memory, if necessary, run faster, and actually take up less space on the hard drive. After installing the latest OS, I gained an extra 10 Gig of space on the hard drive.. Finally, an upgrade that really delivers on savings!

In addition to 64-bit, Apple has also included some new technology. First up is Grand Central Dispatch [pdf], a multi-core threading technology. Grand Central is responsible for handling threads, removing the burden from the developer. As long as an application is programmed to use GCD, the OS will take care of optimizing thread usage. Apple claims GCD is extremely efficient at what it does and will dynamically scale with the number of processors in the computer. As a result, programs will run faster, taking full advantage of the system.

Another new technology is OpenCL. OpenCL, or Open Computing Language, is a way for developers to take advantage of extra processing power by utilizing the GPU of the graphics card. I’m a bit on the fence about this particular technology. On the one hand, using the extra power can help programs run faster. On the other hand, it seems that an irresponsible programmer, or perhaps even a well-intentioned one, could use up GPU cycles, impacting overall graphics performance. Though my fear may be misplaced as I’m sure Apple has put some sort of check in place to ensure this doesn’t happen. Regardless, it’s a pretty cool technology, and I’d like to see it in action.

In addition to all of the “under the hood” stuff, OS X 10.6 includes a few new features. One of the more touted features is support for Microsoft Exchange. Mail, iCal, and the Address Book now have built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, allowing business users to easily access their data on a Mac. I don’t have much use for this, and no way to test any of it, so I don’t have much to say about it.

Other features include some additional UI improvements. Snow Leopard allows you to drill down into folders when you’re looking at a stack on the dock. I find this to be a really cool feature, letting me zip around my documents folder without popping up additional windows I don’t really need. Expose has also been updated and integrated into the dock. If you click and hold on an icon in the dock, Expose activates and shows you all of the open windows for that application. From there you can switch to a window, close the application, show it in the finder, and even set it up to launch at login.

There’s a whole bunch of other enhancements as well. You can read about them here.

Since the install, I’ve run into a few problems, but nothing I didn’t really expect. The install itself went smoothly, taking the better part of an hour to complete. I experienced no data loss at all, and it appears that none of my applications were marked as incompatible. I do have a few apps that are not Snow Leopard ready, though.

After launching Mail, I was notified that both the GPGMail and GrowlMail plugins had been disabled due to incompatibilities. GrowlMail is more of a flashy app, nothing I rely heavily on. GPGMail was a blow, however, as I use it daily. And to make matters worse, it looks like GPGMail won’t be updated anytime soon. The short story is that the internals of Mail changed significantly with the new release. To make matters worse, Apple apparently doesn’t publish any sort of Mail API, so it becomes even more difficult to create a Mail plugin. This is a real killer for me, as I really relied on this plugin. Hopefully someone will be able to step in and get this fixed soon.

I also noticed that Cisco’s Clean Access Agent is no longer functioning. It seems to run, but won’t identify the OS properly, so the system is rejected by the network. Supposedly the 4.6 release of CCA fixes this, but I haven’t been able to locate a copy to test yet.

Another broken app was Blogo, my blogging application. As usual, though, Brainjuice was on top of things and I’m currently running a new beta version that seems to work properly. The real test is when I’m done writing this and try to post it…

Beyond these few apps, everything appears to be working properly. Hopefully the apps I have will be updated to 64-bit over the next few weeks and months and I’ll see even more performance out of this system. As it is, the system seems to be running much quicker now. Unfortunately, I don’t have any definitive benchmarks to prove this, though.

So overall, I’m happy with the Snow Leopard upgrade. The speed and performance improvements thus far are great, and the extra new features are quite useful. The extra 10 Gig of disk space doesn’t hurt much either. I definitely recommend the update, but make sure your apps are compatible beforehand.

 

Weave your way through the net …

One of the greatest strengths of Firefox is the ability to extend its capabilities through the use of plugins. If you want more out of your web browser, then you can usually find a plugin that will add that functionality.

One feature I searched for when I first started using Firefox was the ability to backup my bookmarks, and eventually, synchronize them between machines. I didn’t want to send my bookmarks to a third party, though, so addons for sites like Delicious were of no interest to me.

For years, I used a plugin called Bookmark Sync, which eventually became Bookmark Sync and Sort. Unfortunately, Sync and Sort was never updated to work with Firefox 3, so I had to look elsewhere for a solution.

I stumbled across another plugin called Foxmarks, now known as Xmarks. Xmarks was designed to synchronize bookmarks with the Foxmarks site, a third party. Fortunately, they added third-party server support into the addon around the time I was looking for a new solution. So for the next year or two, I used Xmarks.

Earlier this year, when Foxmarks became Xmarks, they started adding additional features that I had no interest in. For instance, when using Google to search, Xmarks added additional content to the search results. I also had intermittent problems with my third-party settings being reset and some pretty serious speed issues when syncing. I tolerated it, because there was nothing better out there, but it still bothered me.

In December of 2007, Mozilla Labs introduced a new concept called Weave. At the time, I didn’t really understand the Weave concept. It sounded like something similar to Delicious and all of the other social bookmarking systems. I planned on keeping an eye on the project, though. Fast forward to earlier this year when 0.4 was released, and I looked a bit deeper into the project.

From what I’ve read, versions 0.1 and 0.2 supported syncing through the WebDAV protocol. 0.3 on supported a custom server, which was released by Mozilla. Additionally, Weave supported syncing more than just bookmarks, such as passwords, tabs, form input, and more. After reading about the custom server, I decided to take Weave for a spin.

The first step in trying out Weave was to set up the Weave server. This proved to be a bit more difficult than I initially thought. Mozilla provides the software via a Mercurial repository, so grabbing the software is as simple as heading to the repository and downloading the latest tarball. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any “official” release channel for new versions of the server software, so you need to manually look for software updates. That said, I’ve had no problems with the current software release.

Once you have the software, place it on your server in a location of your choosing. If you choose to place it within an existing domain, you may need to do some fancy aliases or URL rewriting to make it work. That bit of the install took me a while to get working.

The server software uses a MySQL database to store all of the synchronized data. This was one of the biggest reasons I decided to check out Weave. I deal with MySQL databases almost every day, so I’m quite comfortable with manipulating them. Additionally, this gives me the ability to write my own interface to deal with the MySQL data, if I choose to. It also means I can quickly and easily manipulate the data, should I choose to.

The rest of the server install consists of setting up the SQL database and tweaking some configuration variables. Once complete, you can point the Weave addon at your server and begin synchronizing data. Make sure you go into the preferences and identify what data you’d like to synchronize.

The Weave settings in Firefox are pretty straightforward and don’t need a lot of explanation. One trick you might keep in mind is for the first sync from a new machine. Unless you want the existing bookmarks to be merged with what’s on the server, you need to use the “Sync Now” option from within the preferences menu. This command acts differently when you use it within Preferences as opposed to clicking it on the Tools menu or from the icon at the bottom of the Firefox window. If you click on it via Preferences, you get a small options menu, shown below.

Using this menu, you can choose to replace all of the local data, all of the remote data, or merge the two. Very useful to prevent those default bookmarks from being merged back into your bookmarks again.

Weave, thus far, seems to be pretty secure. It uses an HTTPS connection to communicate with the Weave server. A username and password is required to log into the server, as is typical with most services. What seems to set Weave apart is the inclusion of an additional passphrase used to encrypt all of your data on the remote server. If you look at the data stored in MySQL, you’ll see that all of the data is encrypted prior to being added. Weave encrypts the data locally on your machine prior to sending it over the network to the Weave server. Just do yourself a favor and don’t forget your passphrase. The username and password are recoverable, especially if you run your own server, but the passphrase is not.

As of this writing, Weave is up to a 0.6pre1 release. Synchronization speed has increased considerably, and additional features are being added. The current roadmap shows a 0.6 release by August 26th, but it doesn’t go into much more detail about future releases. Regardless, Weave has proven to be extremely useful and I’m looking forward to see where development will lead. It’s definitely worth checking out.

 

Scanning the crowd

RFID, or Radio Frequency Identifier, chips are used throughout the commercial world to handle inventory, identify employees, and even more. Ever heard of EZPass? EZPass is an RFID tag you attach to your car window. When you pass near an EZPass receiver, the receiver records your ID and decrements your EZPass account an amount equivalent to the toll of the road or bridge you have just used.

One of the key concepts here is that the RFID tag can be read remotely. Depending on the type of RFID tag, remotely can be a few feet to several yards. In fact, under certain conditions, it may be possible to read RFID tags at extreme distances of hundreds and possibly thousands of feet. It is this “feature” of RFID that attracts the attention of security researchers, and others with more… nefarious intentions.

Of course, if we want to talk security and hacking, we need to talk about Defcon. Defcon, one of the largest, and most electronically hostile, hacking conventions in the US, and possibly the world, took place this past weekend, July 30th – August 2nd. Events range from presentations about security and hacking, to lock picking contests, a jeopardy-style event, and more. One of the more interesting panels this year was “Meet The Feds,” where attendees were given the opportunity to ask questions of the various federal representatives.

Of course, the “official” representatives on the panel weren’t the only feds attending Defcon. There are always others in the crowd, both out in the open and undercover. And while there is typically a “Spot the Fed” event at Defcon, there are other reasons Feds may be around that don’t want their identities known. Unfortunately, the federal government is one of the many organizations that have jumped on the RFID bandwagon, embedding tags into their ID cards.

So, what do you get when you combine a supposedly secure technology with a massive gathering of technology-oriented individuals who like to tinker with just about everything? In the case of Defcon 17, you get an RFID scanner, complete with camera.

According to Threat Level, a column in Wired magazine, a group of researchers set up a table at Defcon where they captured and displayed credentials from RFID chips. When the data was captured, they snapped a picture of the person the data was retrieved from, essentially tying a face to the data stream.

So what’s the big deal? Well, the short story is that this data can be used to impersonate the individual it was captured from. In some cases, it may be possible to alter the data and gain increased privileges at the target company. In other cases, the data can be used to identify the individual, which was the fear at Defcon. Threat Level goes into detail about how it works, but to summarize their report, it is sometimes possible to identify where a person works by the identification strings sent from an RFID chip. Thus, it might be possible to identify undercover federal agents, purely based on the data captured in a passive scan.

The Defcon organizers asked the researchers to destroy the captured data, but this incident just goes to prove how insecure this information truly is. Even with encryption and other security measures in place, identification of an individual is still possible. And to make matters worse, RFID chips are popping up everywhere. They’re attached to items you buy at the store, embedded into identification cards for companies, and even embedded in passports. And while the US government has gone so far as to provide special passport covers that block the RFID signal, there are still countless reasons to open your passport, even for a few moments. Remember, it only takes a few seconds to capture all the data.

Beware… You never know who’s watching …

 

From Dinosaurs to Humans …

Evolution, through tech. This is insanely cool… Sure, it’s an ad, but it’s a damn good one. It’s for a german company called Saturn, which I’ve never heard of. According to their website, they’re a consumer electronics company, kind of like Best Buy, I guess. Enjoy the video. (It’s also available in High Definition. You can reach it here, or just click the HQ button on the video after it starts)

 

Tron 2.0

It looks like Disney is moving forward with their Tron Sequel. A sequel to Tron has been rumored since the late 90’s, but nothing ever came of it. Back in 2003, Tron 2.0 was released for PC. Originally, it was intended to be a movie, but in the end, they decided on a game release first.

Although Tron 2.0 didn’t sell that well, Disney has apparently decided to move forward with their sequel, titled Tron Legacy. A teaser for the movie was shown at Comic Con in 2008, and a newer trailer was shown at Comic Con in 2009. The new trailer is below.

The teaser was released during a panel discussion at Comic Con. The panelists also showed stills and concept art which you can find here and here.

Tron is one of my all-time favorite movies and I’m looking forward to checking out the sequel.

 

New Marvel Anime

I’m not a die-hard comic nut, but I do enjoy reading the occasional comic now and again. And while my comic preferences don’t tend towards your typical superhero genre, aka Superman, X-Men, etc., I do get a bit geeked out about some of them coming to the big screen. Iron Man was a particularly excellent film, as was The Incredible Hulk, the more recent one, not that crappy train-wreck that came before it.

Of the comic authors I truly enjoy, Warren Ellis has a pretty decent lead on the rest. He has hit just about every genre I can think of, and each story is unique, enjoyable, engrossing, and more often than not, pretty gruesome too. At Comic-con this year, he announced two movie projects he’s working on, complete with trailers! As he pointed out on his blog, these are both test animations, intended to show off the style, not the content. So take these with a grain of salt. That said, I think the style is incredible.

The first trailer here is for Iron Man.

This next trailer, and the one I’m much more excited about, is Wolverine.

Both of these look gorgeous, and I love the marriage of American comic heroes with east-asian anime style. From what Ellis states on his blog, these are directed by Rintaro, an award winning anime director. Rintaro directed the much-respected, award winning, Metropolis. While these are being produced for the east-asian market, here’s hoping that they are brought to the US as well.

 

Orwellian DRM

On the morning of July 17, 2009, copies of certain books vanished from Kindles across the world. Monetary reparations were deposited into the respective Kindle owner’s account. In a stroke of pure irony, one of the deleted books was 1984 by George Orwell.

According to Amazon, these deletions were in response to a request by the rights holder. Amazon goes on to explain that the digital editions of both 1984 and Animal Farm were uploaded to Amazon’s store through a self-service portal. These were “unauthorized” versions of the ebooks and the party responsible for uploading them should not have done so.

In the end, the consumer loses, having been denied content they purchased. Sure, Amazon refunded the money they paid, but how many of those people were in the middle of reading those books? Or had them in the queue to read later? And what right does Amazon have to take back something they sold you? To borrow a really good example, that’s like Barnes and Nobles coming to your house and taking books off your shelves without permission. Does it make it OK if they leave a check on the table? Ok, sure, it’s your house rather than a device with just books, so how about if you had all of those books in a room, with separate access? Yeah.. you’d still feel violated, wouldn’t you..

What’s interesting is that this is the book industry doing this, and not the music or movie industry. With the insane tactics the RIAA has taken over the years, this seems to be right up their alley.. And the book industry has always had more openness, what with libraries, selling and swapping books, etc. But now there’s suddenly a big to-do about DRM and book rights. Interesting how times change.

 

Holy .. Green?

So yeah, the background of the site is green. Why? Simply put, it’s a show of support for those in Iran fighting for their freedom. Check out the main media outlets, CNN, BBC, etc. And you can follow more on my other blog if you are so inclined. I’m not going to update at all here about Iran related stuff, this is a tech blog. But I’ll show my support nonetheless.