News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
I remember hearing about the Tweel and thinking what a great idea it was—no more flat tires and no more wasted gas or uneven wear due to improper inflation. Unfortunately, Michelin hasn’t done much with the technology. But now there’s another contender in the airless tire arena. Let’s hope this military technology makes its way to the consumer market sometime soon.
Link: http://www.gizmag.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Over the past several years there have been many cases of people and institutions getting in trouble because of poorly-secured wireless networks (e.g., the now-famous T.J. Maxx credit card theft). The linked article has another example, this time a home user whose network was used to illegally transmit child pornography. In these situations, the police confiscate your computer equipment with no warning. Then it’s up to you to get a lawyer, defend yourself in court, and try to get your stuff back.
While the official Chad’s News position is that there is no such thing as wireless security, it’s still possible to make intrusion difficult enough that you’ll be left alone. For starters, use the WPA2 security protocol. If your wireless router does not support WPA2, then consider getting a newer one. Also, be sure that your router has the latest firmware updates. Finally, there are a few additional steps you can take—none of which will work against a determined hacker, but which will make your system less tempting. The absolute worst situation is to have no wireless security at all. It’s the computer equivalent of leaving your car with doors unlocked, windows down, and keys in the ignition.
Link: http://www.komando.com/…
Lifehacker performed some non-scientific speed tests on the latest versions of popular browsers. As expected, Google Chrome completely destroyed the others in the JavaScript category. This is why I use Chrome for Facebook—Firefox just can’t handle it on my underpowered machine. The only reason I stay with Firefox is because of its wide variety of extensions. Note that I was a bit surprised to see that Apple’s Safari also had very fast JavaScript processing.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
Ever wondered why human babies take so long to become functional, while many animals are able to walk and take care of themselves shortly after birth? It comes down to brain and pelvis size. If the baby’s brain was large enough for it to be self-sufficient, both the mother and the baby would die during birth.
When our ancestors started walking on two legs, it reduced the size of the human pelvis, thus making the birth canal smaller. In addition, the human brain got bigger, requiring a larger birth canal. Obviously something had to give. What happens is that the baby is born with an immature brain that’s small enough to allow passage through the birth canal. Then the brain continues to develop afterward.
Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Here at the Chad’s News network command center, we have long been aware of the difference between the hard disk capacity reported in decimal bytes by the manufacturer and the the same capacity reported in binary bytes by Windows. In fact, I was once published in a print magazine after the editors incorrectly answered a question on the subject.
Most computer programmers and system engineers already know why one kilobyte (KB) can either be 1000 or 1024 bytes, and the more experienced ones know that a kibibyte (KiB) is always 1024. For others, the linked article explains all. I found the most useful part of the article to be Tables E and F, which list the measurement type used for various protocols and computer components.
As I grow older, I’m amazed to see the creation of technologies that I once read about in science fiction books. The Japanese government is spending $22 billion on a project to put a large solar panel array in orbit that will generate energy and beam it down to the Earth.
Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/…
(via digg)
I’ve previously heard bad things about the Grand Canyon Skywalk, but the linked article has a very precise explanation of why you don’t want to go there during your vacation. One item being that it will cost you at least $75 per person. The Consumerist did some followup and verified that it’s as bad as the linked article says.
Link: http://travelonthedollar.com/…
(via The Consumerist)
Long-time Chad’s News readers already know that using WEP security for wireless networks is about as effective as having no security at all [link1, link2]. The solution has been to use the more advanced WPA security. Unfortunately, researchers are now able to break a certain type of WPA encryption in about 60 seconds, opening your network to the world.
The solution is to use WPA with AES encryption or to use WPA2. Some wireless routers will allow you to choose AES or WPA2, so it doesn’t hurt to check and see what’s available on yours.
But even then, wireless security is an iffy proposition should someone really want to break into your system.
Link: http://www.networkworld.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Firefox 3 made some improvements by moving the browser history, bookmarks, etc. to an SQLite database. It also changed the default settings to keep history information for a longer period of time. Regular use causes the the places.sqlite file to get fragmented and bloated, and slows down Firefox’s performance.
This problem is easily solved by periodically “vacuuming” the places.sqlite database. You can do this manually via the directions in this Lifehacker article. Alternatively, the Firefox extension in the linked article provides a status bar icon to do the job, and also allows you to set up automatic defragmentation. Note that the extension only works for Firefox 3.5 or later.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/…
(via Lifehacker)
There are many ways to start a fire when you’re lost in the wilderness, but this one is pretty innovative. Use a chocolate bar to polish the bottom of a soda can, then use the can to focus sunlight on your tinder. This generates sufficient heat to light the tinder and start the fire. I’m thinking toothpaste might also work in place of the chocolate, should you happen to have some.
The linked article lists 10 different ways to demolish a hard drive. Unfortunately, several of the methods don’t actually destroy the data, but they do incapacitate the drive and necessitate the use of special equipment to read what is left. For those that do wipe the data, item #3 (using a grinder) is probably the simplest, and item #10 (Thermite) is definitely the most satisfying. Also, I’m not sure that any magnet, no matter how powerful, is able to completely wipe a disk. Back in my military days, the only approved method for disposing of classified hard drives was to physically break the platters into pieces.
Link: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/…
(via Slashdot)
Due to a major security problem in older versions of WordPress, the software behind Chad’s News, I have finally updated from the very old 2.0.* branch to the latest version, 2.8.4. The site appears to be working correctly, but if you see any problems, please let me know.
