Zenblaster's Rants of Silence
Rantings in the digital wind as your Grot Shop of the information age. "I didn't get where I am today without recognising a completely useless machine when I see one" - C.J.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Hackers Vie to Win DefCon's Mystery Challenge. One of DefCon's most difficult contests is the Mystery Challenge. Teams compete to solve a series of riddles and cryptographic conundrums in order to win a black badge that grants them DefCon admission for life.
Thomas Friedman compares how Scandinavia deals with energy. "Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent. (And it didnâo[dot accent]t happen by Danish politicians making their people stupid by telling them the solution was simply more offshore drilling.)" ::Thomas Friedman in New York Times
The Editorial is even better." A toxic combination of $4 gasoline, voter anxiety and presidentia...
Working Medeco high-security keys can be whittled out of plastic.
Researchers at DefCon in Vegas have demonstrated that they can make "high security" Medeco key-blanks out of the plastic used in credit-cards, and then whittle them into working keys by referring to low-resolution photos of original keys.
"Basically, we've destroyed Medeco's key control, because we can make (plastic keys) for any of their M3 locks and a lot of their Biaxial locks, which is their last generation of locks," says Tobias, who authored the book Open in Thirty Seconds, with Bluzmanis.
The researchers demonstrated the technique using a Medeco mortise cylinder that Threat Level purchased in California before leaving for Las Vegas. After buying the lock, Threat Level scanned the key and e-mailed the image to the researchers, who then created several plastic keys. When Threat Level arrived in Las Vegas with the lock, it took about six seconds to open the lock using a plastic key.
"It's keys by e-mail," says Tobias. "It's key-mail."...
The Medeco M3 key does have an extra feature to secure the lock -- a step protrusion on the side of the key that's designed to move a slider inside the lock. But last year at DefCon, Tobias and his colleagues showed how they could simply insert the end of a bent paper clip into a Medeco high-security lock to push back the slider, rendering the slider ineffective as a security layer. Once that is done, they're then able to insert the plastic key in this new attack, to lift and rotate the pins.
...Another MPAA Burn in Hell type article. I hope someone builds some stuff with this in in, and it goes the way of the Divx DVD format disaster that Circuit City was involved with. I STILL try to avoid Circuit City when possible to punish their wallets.
-Jon-
Here's the blog post:
Public Knowledge's "Selectable Output Control" video -- show this to your friends and get them to take action.
The good folks at Public Knowledge have produced a fantastic video explaining the MPAA's "Selectable Output Control" proposal -- the idea that a TV show should be able to disable parts of your home theater (for example, if MTV is worried that your Dolby sound outputs might be used to record the audio portion of music videos, they could shut down those outputs and only allow you to hear sound via the speakers in your TV).
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to engage in [base ']Äúselective output control[base ']Äù (SOC). If the FCC agrees, the MPAA and the movie studios it represents (Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers) would be able to [base ']Äúturn off[base ']Äù any output plug they choose, like those on the back of consumer electronics devices of an entertainment system, during special video-on-demand movies on cable television. Public Knowledge opposes SOC and along with Consumer Federation of America, Digital Freedom Campaign, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and U.S. PIRG, has filed comments urging the FCC to deny the MPAA[base ']Äôs request.
Just in time for the next round of college applications, the Princeton Review announced its latest round of college ranking guides, but this year the guides will include a green ranking of universities, among the other rankings like best program for a particular degree category, as well as colleges with the best campus social life. 534 schools were included in this ranking, with most progressive campuses earning Honor Roll status....
In related hydrogen breakthrough news, a team of scientists from Melbourne's Monash University has developed a new fuel cell prototype that could pave the way for a generation of much cheaper, more efficient fuel-cell vehicles. The results of their project, which was led by Maria Forsyth, a professor of materials engineering at the Australian Center of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, are published in the current issue of
Several major U.S. utility companies may accelerate plans to integrate solar power into their electricity mix following a fact-finding trip to Germany.
Twenty-three electric utilities were represented on the trip to Germany, the world's leading producer and installer of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. All of them may now advance solar projects in the United States, a trip leader said, further expanding a growing solar market.
"Every single utility would decrease the time they said it would be before solar would be a significant part of their utility mix," said Julia Hamm, the executive director of the Solar Electric Power Association, which organized the trip, covered some participants' travel expenses, and conducted a poll on solar power upon the trip's conclusion.
The tour was an opportunity for utility executives and managers to speak with German utilities and address concerns about how expanded solar energy may affect grid reliability. The trip, which took place in June, was summarized in a Solar Electric Power Association report [PDF] released last week.
Roy Kuga, vice president of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), said his concerns about distribution were put at ease, although the intermittent nature of solar energy may still be problematic. "In a country where solar radiation is sub-par compared to many parts of the U.S., I have to hand it to the progressiveness and commitment [Germany] made to solar," he said. "Their technology advances will later help us."
In Germany, a feed-in-tariff law [PDF] requires utilities to pay customers a fixed rate for any renewable energy they feed into the grid, such as solar power generated from rooftop PV panels. While the policy sets the cost of renewable energy higher than traditional energy sources, the price decreases over time.
Mainly due to these fixed rates, Germany is home to nearly half the world's installed solar cell capacity. About 1,300 megawatts (MW) of new PV capacity was installed in 2007, bringing the country's total to more than 3,830 MW.
In the United States, solar PV is growing. The country ranks fourth for total capacity, with at least 450 MW installed. An assortment of rebates, grants, and low-interest loans is scattered across the states.
Utilities represented on the tour included two of the largest U.S. utility companies, Southern Company and Duke Energy. Represented utilities also included Southern California Edison and PG&E, the U.S. utilities with the most installed MW of solar power and the most overall solar capacity, respectively.
This year, utilities have already announced plans to expand rooftop PV capacity. In June, Duke Energy proposed a $100 million expansion of solar panels on 850 buildings in North Carolina. Southern California Edison plans to install 250 MW of distributed capacity over 65 million square feet (19.8 million square meters) of roofs in the next five years. PG&E plans to help California meet the state's goal of 3,000 MW of customer-installed solar power by 2017. "In the upcoming months, we should expect to hear more from PG&E activities in this area," Kuga said.
Several of the utilities on the tour were less experienced with solar power installation. "Half the utilities on the trip really had done nothing or little [solar installation]," Hamm said. "It was a complete eye-opener for them."
Jim White, a senior energy services engineer with a Washington state public utility, said he was most impressed with Germany's efficient methods of solar installation. For instance, when a PV system is set up, a new electric panel is placed inside homes with a separate meter for solar energy. "It's plug-in and play, literally. You buy a solar panel and put it on your roof...drop down two wires and call the electric utility," White said. "It's an order of magnitude faster than where we are today."
One problem with wind and solar power is that for either to be able to provide a round-the-clock source of reliable power, you need some sort of back up power source. Or you need to have some way of storing the excess energy produced during the day for use at night or when the wind isnâo[dot accent]t blowing. Well, though itâo[dot accent]s a long way from being commercially deployed, a new development by MIT chemist Daniel Nocera may bring the holy grail of renewable energy storage a bit closer to hand.
...
It may have recently officially overtaken the United States as the worldâo[dot accent]s leading emitter of greenhouse gasses, but China also leads the world in another environmental category: Installed Renewable Energy Capacity. A new report from The Climate Group rounds up the steps China is taking to wean itself off the polluting energy forms which are behind both its greenhouse gas emissions and its
âo[breve]Green Crudeâo[dot accent] Milestone
In what it calls its most significant milestone yet, Sapphire Energy , claims it has succeeded in refining a high-octane gasoline from algae that is chemically identical to crude oil. According to Sapphire Energy, âo[ogonek]The resulting gasoline is completely compatible with current infrastructure, meaning absolutely no change to consumerâo[dot accent]s cars.âo� This is of course in addition to the benefit that their Green Crude is a carbon neutral fuel.
...
Abu Dhabi is not content to just sell you the oil that fuels your
SUV; now its going to sell you sunshine to keep your lights on and
power your electric car when the internal combustion engine goes the
way of the buggy whip. Masdar, the oil-rich emirate[base ']Äôs $15 billion
renewable energy venture, and Spanish technology company Sener on
Wednesday announced a joint venture called Torresol Energy to build
large-scale solar power plants in Australia, Europe, the Middle East,
North Africa and the United States.
Torresol initially will invest $1.2 billion in three solar power
plants to be built in Spain but the company is targeting the global
[base ']Äúsunbelt[base ']Äù for future expansion. Masdar will take a 60 percent ownership
stake in Torresol with Sener holding a 40 percent stake. A Torresol
spokesman declined to reveal the dollar amount of the investment. A
prime market for Torresol will be the U.S. desert Southwest, where
companies like Ausra, BrightSource Energy, Solel and Abengoa Solar are
competing for contracts with utilities PG&E (PCG), Arizona Public Service (PNW) and Southern California Edison (EIX).
Torresol potentially could shake up that market, given its very deep
pockets and ability to independently finance billion-dollar solar power
plants.
The venture is just the latest move by Abu Dhabi to control what Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber described to Green Wombat recently
as [base ']Äúthe whole value chain[base ']Äù of renewable energy, from research and
development to manufacturing silicon for solar cells to the large-scale
deployment of green technology.
The irony is too rich to leave unsaid: A leading oil producer
invests billions in carbon-free energy while a leading consumer of
fossil fuels - the United States - continues to subsidize Big Oil while
while offering only tepid support for green technology. It is
inevitable that climate change will foster the rise of renewable energy
- the only question is which countries and companies will profit from
the new energy economics. It is entirely possible that the U.S. will
trade energy dependence of one kind - on Middle East oil - for another
- on Middle East and European solar technology - in the era of global
warming. It[base ']Äôs no coincidence that most of the solar energy companies
with contracts to build utility-scale power plants in California and
the Southwest have overseas roots - Ausra hails from Australia,
BrightSource was founded by American-Israeli pioneer Arnold Goldman,
Solel is based in Israel and Abengoa is headquartered in Spain.
Torresol plans to build solar power plants using a technology it
calls a Central Tower Receiver system. It[base ']Äôs similar to technology used
by competitors like BrightSource in that fields of mirrors called
heliostats focus the sun[base ']Äôs rays on tower that contains a receiver. In
this case the receiver is filled with salt which when heated vaporizes
water to create steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine.
The company says it intends to have 500 megawatts of solar electricity
online by 2012.
After the absurd news of the past week revealing in pathetic detail just how far the current U.S. administration has its head in the sand when it comes to pressing environment problems, for some this next bit may just add fuel to the fire.
Moratorium on Solar in Six Western States
We learn from The New York Times, that citing the need to review envir...
AP - There's a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says.
Image: Getty Images
graphic of hydrogen bonds (in green) between oxygen (red) and hydrogen (white): 
Wind farm outside of Urumqi photo by 
photo: Sapphire Energy
photo by 
