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Saturday, September 12, 2015

Saturday Night Wrap Up

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Psalm 118:8

An article found in this file:


USA TODAY obtained records through a Freedom of Information Act request indicating that the U.S. Department of Energy was targeted by over a thousand cyberattacks between October 2010 and October 2014.


 159 of the attacks were successful in compromising some level of security.

 "Energy Department officials would not say whether any sensitive data related to the operation and security of the nation's power grid or nuclear weapons stockpile was accessed or stolen in any of the attacks, or whether foreign governments are believed to have been involved.

 ... The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department responsible for managing and securing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, experienced 19 successful attacks during the four-year period, records show.

 ... Records show 53 of the 159 successful intrusions from October 2010 to October 2014 were 'root compromises,' meaning perpetrators gained administrative privileges to Energy Department computer systems."

NOT GOOD!

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The dog chases his tail...


Security reporter Brian Krebs, who has been instrumental in breaking news about the Ashley Madison hack, is now being threatened by the website's former CTO with a libel suit.

 Contained in the leaked data was a series of emails from the ex-CTO, Raja Bhatia, to the CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company.

  In the emails, Bhatia noted a security hole in a competing website, saying that he downloaded their user database and was capable of modifying and exposing it.

 After reporting on these emails, Krebs received a letter from Bhatia's lawyer (PDF) saying the post was libelous and defamatory. 

They demanded a retraction, which Krebs is thus far unwilling to do.

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 Is it just me? NASA photos always seem obscured or blurred.

 NASA has announced that it's partnering with Harmonic to launch a new TV channel that delivers video at 4k resolution (4096x2160)

The channel is called NASA TV UHD, and it'll go live on November 1. 

Content will be generated by cameras at the International Space Station and on other NASA missions, as well as any 4K content they can remaster from old footage.

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 So how did we get our WiFi?

 

In another time 25 years ago...

It was retail remodeling that spurred NCR, a venerable cash-register company, to find out how it could use newly opened frequencies to link registers and mainframes without wires.

 Its customers wanted to stop drilling new holes in their marble floors for cabling every time they changed a store layout. 

In 1985, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to leave large blocks of spectrum unlicensed and let vendors build any kind of network they wanted as long as they didn't keep anyone else from using the frequencies.

 NCR jumped at the chance to develop a wireless LAN, something that didn't exist at the time, according to Vic Hayes, a former engineer at the company who's been called the Father of Wi-Fi.

But unfortunately it is really not good for living things.

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NASA Needs Some Mars Buzz...

NASA has poured considerable time and resources into Ridley Scott's The Martian — perhaps more than any other movie in history — going so far as to time a Mars human landing site selection workshop to coincide with the film.

 Jim Green, NASA's head of planetary sciences, was one of the consultants, with other astronomers fact checking every aspect of the set and script.
 

 The rockets, modules, and space suits were built — and 3-D printed — with heavy guidance from NASA.

 The filmmakers even hired Rudi Schmidt, former project manager of the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, to test the experiments done in the movie, including turning water into rocket fuel — which works. 

And, on the eve of The Martian's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, some of those scientists believe that this obsessive adherence to science fact will be enough to make NASA's Journey to Mars real for Americans. 

The space agency needs a Hail Mary because, in truth, the real program is nowhere near ready for prime time.

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When I was 16 I passed my drivers test in this very car! I was so nervous. It was loud and the engine rumbled, "Bla bla Blam Bla Bla Blam." I could hardly hold it on the road. The DMV person was so enamored by the car he passed me with flying colors.  I was so stoked.

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TIL that NASA hires a man to sniff everything that they send to space. If he doesn't like the smell, it doesn't go to space.

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 Ford's replacement to the steering wheel in 1965

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 The Elephant

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The Georgia Guidestones

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Superbowl Halftime Show 1993 Michael Jackson Very good show


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