French filmmaker Freres-Hueon has recreated the epic lightcycle battle from Tron in fantastic stopmotion form. Using cardboard cutouts to replace the computer graphics, and the entire scene is re-enacted in all it's glory.
Feast your eyes on this gem:
Utterly fantastic. Head on over to http://www.gltron.org/index.php and relive the fun for yourself. There's an IRIX binary available to, to give your SGI workstation a proper workout.
Monday, 31 March 2008
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Ling from LINGsCARS on website promotion
I've known about Ling's Cars for a while. Not only is the website pretty awesome, but Ling also has a Zil 131 truck with a fake nuclear warhead strapped to the back. I've been a big fan of Zil and Gaz trucks for ages, so that's how I first came across Ling and her site.
Ling has a fantastic post on her blog at http://www.lingscars.com/blog/?p=2412 where she goes into detail on how she builds awareness of her website. This should be required reading for anyone who's trying to get traffic or raise the profile of their site - it's not all about PPC and Google Adwords.
Well worth a read, and I can highly recommend subscribing to her RSS feed as well.
Ling has a fantastic post on her blog at http://www.lingscars.com/blog/?p=2412 where she goes into detail on how she builds awareness of her website. This should be required reading for anyone who's trying to get traffic or raise the profile of their site - it's not all about PPC and Google Adwords.
Well worth a read, and I can highly recommend subscribing to her RSS feed as well.
Friday, 7 March 2008
Home Secretary in ID Card database security gaffe
Home Secretary in ID Card database security gaffe: "
Unhackable? Up to a point, minister
Security experts have rubbished claims by the Home Secretary that databases for the controversial National ID Cards will be 'unhackable' because they are being kept off the public internet.…
"(Via The Register.)
When will the current Government learn the lessons from IT gaffe after gaffe? Jacqui Smith's speech is well worth a read through, just to understand how badly the Home Secretary and the Government are trying to mislead votes over the ID cards scheme.
For an even more complete takedown, read the thorough dissection at the excellent SpyBlog.
Monday, 25 February 2008
How is this legal?
So I was reading a report in Management Today detailing HMRC's involvement with a Lichtenstein 'Deep Throat' mole.
For some background: Lichtenstein is a tiny country in Europe that exists purely as a tax haven. A number of years ago, an employee of a main bank there stole some account details.
Let's be clear here - he stole them. These contained information including balances, transfers, and other account details for a number of very wealthy account holders, who had Lichtenstein bank accounts for - surprise! surprise! - tax avoidance purposes.
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have bought this list, and are now using it to conduct tax investigations against a number of people.
What exactly seperates HMRC from any other criminal organisation at this point? There was no moral outrage here, the guy wasn't a whistleblower - he stole people's bank account details and has been trying to sell them to the highest bidder. He'd already sold them to the German tax authorities for £5m.
Given HMRC recently lost personal details (including bank account information) for 25 million people, it's clear how little they value personal information - at least, the public's personal information. Their automated systems also recently screwed up and they sent out hundreds of 'missed payment' penalties to businesses across the UK. Bear in mind, these weren't 'friendly reminder' notices, these were 'we are taking you to court because our system says you didn't pay your taxes 3 years ago' notices.
Try getting a Freedom of Information (FoI) request carried out by HMRC. The double standards here are breathtaking.
Grab the full Management Today story at http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/786024/mtsweek/hmrc-cash-liechtenstein-deep-throat/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News
For some background: Lichtenstein is a tiny country in Europe that exists purely as a tax haven. A number of years ago, an employee of a main bank there stole some account details.
Let's be clear here - he stole them. These contained information including balances, transfers, and other account details for a number of very wealthy account holders, who had Lichtenstein bank accounts for - surprise! surprise! - tax avoidance purposes.
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have bought this list, and are now using it to conduct tax investigations against a number of people.
What exactly seperates HMRC from any other criminal organisation at this point? There was no moral outrage here, the guy wasn't a whistleblower - he stole people's bank account details and has been trying to sell them to the highest bidder. He'd already sold them to the German tax authorities for £5m.
Given HMRC recently lost personal details (including bank account information) for 25 million people, it's clear how little they value personal information - at least, the public's personal information. Their automated systems also recently screwed up and they sent out hundreds of 'missed payment' penalties to businesses across the UK. Bear in mind, these weren't 'friendly reminder' notices, these were 'we are taking you to court because our system says you didn't pay your taxes 3 years ago' notices.
Try getting a Freedom of Information (FoI) request carried out by HMRC. The double standards here are breathtaking.
Grab the full Management Today story at http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/786024/mtsweek/hmrc-cash-liechtenstein-deep-throat/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News
Friday, 8 February 2008
Friday, 11 January 2008
Wing Commander ship blueprints
I can remember being blown away by Wing Commander when it came out. That, and having to save everything I earned from my holiday job to get a 386. Tough times.
If you have fond memories of tackling the Kilrathi in your trusty Hornet, then you'll be pleased to hear that high resolution blueprints for all the Terran ships are available for your download and printing pleasure.
The Wing Commander Combat Information Centre have 1600x1100 blueprints of all four Terran ships - the Hornet, Scimitar, Rapier and Raptor.
Or you can grab the entire blueprint pack. Although it's a monstrous 42mb, it does have the blueprints at 5000x3300 resolution.
Get those printers warmed up!
If you have fond memories of tackling the Kilrathi in your trusty Hornet, then you'll be pleased to hear that high resolution blueprints for all the Terran ships are available for your download and printing pleasure.
The Wing Commander Combat Information Centre have 1600x1100 blueprints of all four Terran ships - the Hornet, Scimitar, Rapier and Raptor.
Or you can grab the entire blueprint pack. Although it's a monstrous 42mb, it does have the blueprints at 5000x3300 resolution.
Get those printers warmed up!
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
MiFare RFID vulnerabilities exposed
Great video presentation from the recent CCC in Germany, highlighting flaws and issues with the security around Philips' MiFare RFID tags (as used on Oyster cards ;-)
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