IEEE 802.11 Chair on WEP Security

Recent reports in the press have described the results of certain research efforts directed towards determining the level of security achievable with the Wired Equivalent Privacy algorithm in the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard. While much of the reporting has been accurate, there have been some misconceptions on this topic that are now spreading through the media. Befitting the importance of the issue, I am inclined to make a response from the Chair to clarify these issues with the following points ...

Coolest PC in the World

The world of personal computing is driven by meeting quarterly numbers and satisfying the street. Moore.s Law drives expectations for performance. The size of personal devices is determined by display sizes . notebook, tablet, PDA and some would like the watch. This a nice neat package of how computing can be expressed. Right?
Wrong.
At ITU Telecom World we got a sample of another view by NEC. It is based on the pen and called P-ISM. This concept is so radical that we went to Tokyo to learn more.
The design concept uses five different pens to make a computer. One pen is a CPU, another a camera, one creates a virtual keyboard, another projects the visual output and thus the display and another a communicator (a phone). All five pens can rest in a holding block which recharges the batteries and holds the mass storage. Each pen communicates wireless, possibly Bluetooth.
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Making a Can-tenna

Could this be an antenna for WiFi? Could you go wardriving with a can of stew? These and other questions can now be answered thanks to these guys:
Got no dough for a commercial antenna? Looking for an inexpensive way to increase the range of your wireless network? A tin can waveguide antenna, or Cantenna, may be just the ticket. This design can be build for under $5 U.S. and reuses a food, juice, or other tin can.
I am not an electrical engineer, nor do I have access to any fancy test equipment. I've built some antennas that worked for me and thought I would share what I learned. I have no idea if this is safe for your radio or wireless network equipment. The risk to you and your equipment is yours.
[nalleyscanbig.jpg]

Japanese IT businesses turn to Gods to ward off viruses, hackers

The new year in Japan is a time for fresh starts and spiritual cleansing for not only the residents of Tokyo, but also their computers. At the Kanda Myojin shrine in downtown Tokyo, IT businesses and the nearby electronic shops association of Akihabara have gathered to purify their computers and protect them from common electronic evils. For most, that meant warding off computer viruses and hackers. "I work in software development and we faced many threats such as computer viruses and hackers, and if our computers breakdown we can't work anymore. So that is why it's important to me to pray for a year of safe business," said 30-year old Katsutoshi Honma whose computer was blessed according to the ancient Shinto traditions.

Get the “facts” on Linux

Looks like Micro$oft launched a big anti-Linux campaign. Checkout the latest info from 3rd-party experts on Micro$oft's website.

Linux SmartPhone

A Chinese company based in Shanghai named "E28" has quietly been selling Linux-based smartphones in China since August, and today launched its Linux device in Hong Kong. The company also claims to be in talks with US and European companies to bring the device to those regions, according to one source.
Japan, where cellular provider NTT DoCoMo recently adopted Linux for its 3G phones, represents another possible market for the E28 phone.
E28's E2800 smart phone sells for about $600, and targets business users, offering PDA functions, touch-screen, handwriting recognition, a camera, and memory expansion to 512MB through an SD memory card.
[linux_phone.jpg]

Novell’s Linux Battleplan

Novell will begin its local Linux drive with nationwide seminars for partners and customers early next year to educate and train its channel in SuSE Linux.
Its acquisition of SuSE Linux is expected to be approved by February.
The vendor had plans to stage introductory Linux seminars around this time, Novell's manager of partner relationships, Steve Martin, said.
"It'll be one of the biggest things we do next year, if not the biggest," he said.
"Nothing's official yet, but we'll have an introductory seminar to Linux which will be free for partners and potential partners, and then sales and technical training," Martin said.
"The key thing is we'll be exposing them to Linux. We'll be showing them how to implement Linux solutions and how to position themselves in the Linux space."
He said Novell's US operation was currently developing SuSE training courses.

Novell Joins OSDL, Commits to Linux

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium of customers and leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, today announced that Novell has joined OSDL and will participate in the Lab's key initiatives to advance the use of Linux for enterprise computing.

Optimising FreeBSD and its kernel

This is a very simple step by step guide on optimising your FreeBSD server or workstation. It doesn't go into a great amount of detail, but after spending several months searching for one source of simple optimisation information and failing, I wrote this paper. All the suggestions listed here are known optimisations available to you if you know where to find them and have the time to do so. There is nothing secret, or special or amazing in this paper, just information on how you can optimise your system. It can mostly be applied to the other BSDs too, but not Linux. There are plenty of Linux documents out there, so go find one of those. I'm sure there are several HOWTO's. This document is true as of the release of FreeBSD 4.8. Some parts of it, such as optimising your kernel, can also be applied to some previous releases.

RSA-576 Factored

On December 3, the day after the announcement of the discovery of the largest known prime by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search on December 2 (MathWorld headline news: December 2, 2003), a team at the German Bundesamt f�r Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (Federal Bureau for Security in Information Technology; BIS) announced the factorization of the 174-digit number
1881 9881292060 7963838697 2394616504 3980716356 3379417382 7007633564 2298885971 5234665485 3190606065 0474304531 7388011303 3967161996 9232120573 4031879550 6569962213 0516875930 7650257059
known as RSA-576.
RSA numbers are composite numbers having exactly two prime factors (i.e., so-called semiprimes) that have been listed in the Factoring Challenge of RSA Security�.