Y'know what's better than a a link to a random webpage? A link to a random game that misappropriates Nintendo trademarks. Huzzah!

He's a Nobel prize-winning white trash dog-catcher with a winning smile and a way with the ladies. She's a man-hating hip-hop nun with an MBA from Harvard. They fight crime!

Hunter S. Thompson shot himself in the head on Sunday. He was 67. That link is from MTV.com, because such madness amuses me. I haven't read much by Thompson, aside from a few articles for ESPN.com's Page 2, so Thompson was never one of my influences. He was a guy who had a book that was turned into a movie with Johnny Depp in it that I've never seen, and occasionally wrote for ESPN. Also, I remember reading that he liked the San Francisco 49ers. Whether he wrote those words or I just imagined them, Thompson is forever linked in my mind to that team. I had the opportunity to get a copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 while at a Borders book store just north of the Caltrain station in San Francisco. I did not avail myself at the time, and now I wish I had. I hate feeling like I'm reading something just because they died.

Warren Ellis comments on Thompson here. Warren's work has influenced me heavily, which is sad because I've mostly read only his comics. Ellis was influenced by Thompson, as evidenced by Transmetropolitan's headlining character, Spider Jerusalem, the mad, drug-swilling journalist. Which is what Thompson was. Ellis creates what is, to my mind, the best of the commentary on Thompson's life and especially his death. Thompson was a brilliant artist whose work I will now not be able to read without the subtext that "this man killed himself." It's something I know about, say, Hemingway; but I can distance myself from Hemingway's suicide since Hell, it's been that way for as long as I cared about it. It is the Way It Always Was. For Thompson, it will be the Way Things Should Not Be.

And this seems horribly self centred while commenting on a man who just died. But these are my thoughts, and Thompson has had no direct impact on my life. My heart goes out to his family, who no doubt discovered his body. At the same time, I had no idea he had a family until he died. He was not a person to me, just a persona.

I will read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hell's Angels. Hey Rube. Perhaps I will learn he is the most brilliant author humankind has ever known. Perhaps I will learn something else. But I am confident either way that this man, who ended his own life, still has something to teach me.

I think I have a new favourite link.

...

I want it.

So yeah. nakedjim.com. Um. James is very disappointed.

Reknowned security guru Bruce Schneier posts a follow-up on the ramifications of SHA-1 being broken (Including mentioning that a 38 million dollar machine could now break it in 56 hours). Take a look...

(via slashdot, again)

Don't panic...

(seen a number of places, I'll give credit to Beryl, what with that being the first place I saw it)

One final note: I've got a timeframe for 2^69 operations. Given a 4GHz processor and assuming that one operation can be undertaken every clock cycle, it will take 2^37 seconds (since 4GHz = 2^32 Hz). That's a little more than 4355 years, and I'm perversely counting leap years. Assuming you can turn this into a distributed algorithm; if you've got a shitload of money, you can parallelize the process to your hearts content and crack it in significantly less time. Although I'd recommend waiting a while: according to (a simplified version of) Moore's Law (processor speeds double every 18 months; Moore actually said something else very closely related), get 1024 processors in a little more than 15 years and you'll be able to do it in a day and a half.

So. A little more on the previous post. Keep in mind this is an 4th year undergrad talking, with half a course in Cryptography under his belt.

SHA-1 is a cryptographic hash function. This devlopment reduces the number of operations required to find a collision from 2^80 (which is unfeasible) to 2^69, meaning it would no longer be considered 2nd preimage resistant. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but consider this: if it took 39 years before, at 2^80 operations, now it takes less a week - I'm not sure how long it actually takes; I'm illustrating a point. Remember, 2^11 is a lot, especially when you're multiplying something already huge by it.

What does this mean to you? Any password systems using SHA-1 are less secure - normally, a hash of your password is stored rather than your password itself, since otherwise the admin can get it. But now, assuming they have access to the hashed value, they can get something that, while it may not be your password, will get them into whatever you've password protected. 2^69 operations is still a lot of effort, so while it is LESS secure, your passwords can probably still be considered pretty safe. But digital signatures using SHA-1 should be treated as crap, since everyone's got access to the hashed value (that's the point!), and thus can use a dummy key to fake the signature. Using something like SHA-512, which has a much longer key length, will help restore the security for now; but now that we know that we can do better than brute force, the question becomes how MUCH better can we do? The SHA family's days could be numbered, depending on what other smart people can do with it.

Of course, this also requires getting the paper, which is from researchers at Shandong University in China. They're reputable, since they've done this before with MD5 (also a hash function), and because Bruce Schneier says so. But I AM really looking forward to getting my hands on the paper. We'll see when we get it.

Look! Relevance! The SHA-1 hash function, which just a week or so ago my CO 487 prof claimed wasn't broken, has been broken. Neat!

So, I vote that we all get perfect on the midterm due to this development.

via slashdot

Hmm...

Ah, cough medicine. Can you do no wrong?

So the NFL finally has a black man owning a team. Why do I even bother to mention it? Because he will own the Minnesota Vikings, a team who's logo consists of a burly white guy with blond hair. This amuses me greatly, for reasons that even I cannot fathom.

Ah, the halcyon days of youth, when girls were icky. Happy Valentine's Day.

And now that they aren't icky, rather are something to be desired, what are my plans for tonight? Tenatively, scotch and Las Vegas on the TV. Although I should be studying for the psych 101 midterm tomorrow. The decisions a single person faces on the day of St. Valentine...

Saw Ong Bak tonight, first movie in Waterloo since The Village last August, last movie period since Blade Trinity last December. It was good. Lots of violence and fights; perfect for the weekend prior to Valentine's Day. Well, at least for me right now. Made me wanna play Tekken again - until that guy's arm was brutally broken, which turned me right off those video games for a while. There were idiot high school kids drinking and smoking in the row behind us, one of whom got really drunk and wouldn't shut up, except when me or Ernie glared at him. (Zach didn't care, so far as I noticed.) Talking loudly through a movie annoys me greatly. Quiet, fine; loud, no.

It strikes me that there are only two types of people who speak loudly through movies: old people who are having trouble understanding them, and punk teenagers who just don't seem to give a damn about anyone else.

But yeah. Healthy dose of ultra-violence; and very little blood so as to maintain the fantasy. Good times.

EEEEE!!!!! Does it come in black?

Well, today I acccidently destroyed a post Raymond was going to make to his site. So I'm going to write one as if I were Raymond. And I'll be nice. Mostly:

"The new project is completed! Ultra-portable is here. 1.6 GHz max speed Pentium M, plus I can control just how fast the processor operates at to conserve battery life. The full-size battery does let it run for twelve hours though. Twelve hours! WOOT! And a carbon fibre body means it ways 3 pounds. There's no well between the touchpad and the rest of the body, so there's no place for dirt to build up. Much like Mark's new iBook.

Mark turned off my computer when I was making a post. So he won't be getting any guacamole at his Superbowl part Sunday [author's note: PLUG PLUG PLUG! BE THERE BY SIX!]. Jerkface.

In other news, [author's note: fill in things that happened to Raymond. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Do-it-yourself fun!]"

See? I was good! And the turning the computer off thing? An accident. That power button should be in a DIFFERENT PLACE, dammit!

PSP? Sorry, too expensive. I'm not paying that much for Wipeout:Pure. Bring on WarioWare: Touched!

An in-depth comparison of the PSP and DS. Probably the best article I've seen on the subject, especially considering the PSP isn't out on this side of the Pacific Ocean yet. Enjoy!

Watching GWB's State of the Union Address on CNN, John Stewart et al's America: the Book sitting open next to me. I hate most of everything Bush is saying. At least he hasn't announced an invasion of Canada.

Sealab 2021 Season 2 came out today!!!


You are Sparks. You care about Sealab only because
it's full of fools to take advantage of.


Which Sealab 2021 character are you?
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