On May 18 2003, officials overseeing an election in Schaerbeek, a suburb of Brussels, got a shock. An electronic vote-counting machine declared that 4,096 more people had cast their vote than the ballot slips testified. The machine had been thoroughly tested and deemed perfect. So what went wrong?

The answer was, literally, a strike from the heavens.

Technicians pointed the finger of blame at cosmic rays -- particles that zip across the cosmos at huge speed and, while rightly ignored by humans as a health concern, can wreak havoc with highly sensitive microelectronic circuits.

Are you fucking serious?

Fried chips: Cosmic rays put new-generation microcircuits to the test

RSnake is a fucking genius. Using a file:/// URL pointed at the manual PDF installed with Acrobat, you can execute JavaScript in the local zone. Oh yeah, local file access, program execution, completely uncrippled XmlHttpRequest.

This is not good.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet has left the building...

Acidus wrote:
There is a flaw in Abode’s Acrobat reader plugin which allows JavaScript to execute. This flaws means ever website that contains a PDF file has a de facto Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Acidus does a good job of putting this latest PDF vuln in perspective.

RE: Adobe flaw #$%&s everyone

Larry's talk is on Google Video. Definitely worth watching. Standing ovation. There are some new ideas that I'd love people's feedback on.

The Chaos Computer Club's 23rd Conference had some heavy hitters speaking this year. This link follows through to Larry Lessig's speech on why the law is out of sync with technology. Joi Ito also spoke on management skills learned playing MMORPGS. Turns out those people who you've lost to WoW addiction may end up being your boss someday. If only crack had similar benefits.

Joi Ito's Web: Larry's awesome 23C3 talk

If you want a more realistic (read boring) set of predictions for technology trends in 2007 I think this article is fairly accurate. Of course, only one of these 5 things is really new.

For example, radio-frequency identification (RFID), frequently viewed as a standalone tagging technology, will begin to ramp up the data loads IT centers must handle, as the tags become more pervasive. Web services, long touted as the next big thing, is poised to begin presenting workaday challenges, as managers are tasked with integrated Web-based apps into the enterprise. Mobile security is a no-brainer as a hot technology for the coming year, as far flung workforces face newer and more troubling threats.

Most challenging may be two technologies which will begin their ascent in 2007, but may take a bit longer to assume a dominant role in the enterprise. Those would be virtualization and advanced graphics. The latter will get a big boost from the advent of Microsoft's Vista operating system.

5 Disruptive Technologies To Watch In 2007 - News by InformationWeek

I've seldom seen as much disruption of the Internet as is still being caused by the Taiwan Earthquakes of 26-27 December. Six undersea cables cut at once may be a record, as may disruptions from Taiwan to Nepal.

This link has an animation of Internet routing chaos in Singapore after undersea fibers near Taiwan were cut.

Taiwan Earthquakes Boil Internet

Napster in 1999. MySpace in 2004. YouTube in 2006. Experts from the tech community look ahead to the innovations that will change how we work, play and communicate in 2007.

STEVE BALLMER; NED SHERMAN; RAFAT ALI; KEVIN WERBACH; CHRIS ANDERSON; HANK BARRY; JOHN BROCKMAN

A set of technology predictions for 2007 from some smart people. Unfortunately, 1 year isn't a great timeframe for tech prediction. Anything that is going to hit the mainstream in 2007 is already going on. Brockman's ideas are the best, I think, but this is also worth looking at for the irony of Ballmer's response:

You'll be back in control
STEVE BALLMER

New "digital rights" technology, which gives copyright holders more control over the distribution and reproduction of their work, will continue to transform the entertainment industry.

I guess Steve has joined Time Magazine in confusing the words you and they.

What will they think of next? - Los Angeles Times

Welcome to WiiLi, a GNU/Linux port for the Nintendo Wii.

A treasure trove of information on Wii hacking.

WiiLi.org Wii Linux - Main Page

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes.

Good riddance! When I was a kid I considered getting a HAM licence, but I had absolutely no interest in becoming proficient in an alternate alphabet. This seemed an arbitrary requirement upholding an obsolete technology and a warning post that other stupid rules would probably be encountered down the road in this overregulated hobby. There were other, ultimately more important technical subjects that I could explore without having to bother with that nonsense. In fact, they killed the code requirement for the lowest class license the same year I started my Bulletin Board System. I did reconsider it at that time, but the interesting stuff still required morse code, so in my mind it was a dead end.

Given that I have a degree in computer engineering I figure I can cut through the technical knowledge required by the exams fairly quickly and I might learn a thing or two about radio. QSLing the space shuttle would be fun!

ARRLWeb: End of an Era: FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

"Police and prosecutors are worried that a Web site claiming to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents will cripple investigations and hang targets on witnesses."

"The Web site, www.WhosaRat.com, first caught the attention of authorities after a Massachusetts man put it online and named a few dozen people as turncoats in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a clearinghouse for mug shots, court papers and rumors."

Heres an interesting first amendment question.

You Dirty Rat!