Blowfish12

Sunday, January 20, 2013

How to make a good password

Along with birthdays, names of pets and ascending number sequences, add one more thing to the list of password no-nos: good grammar.

An algorithm developed by Ashwini Rao and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, makes light work of cracking long passwords which make grammatical sense as a whole phrase, even if they are interspersed with numbers and symbols. Rao's algorithm makes guesses by combining words and phrases from password-cracking databases into grammatically correct phrases. While other cracking programs make multiple guesses based on each word in a database, putting in "catscats" and "catsstac" as well as just the word "cats", none of the programs make the jump to combine multiple words or phrases in a way that makes grammatical sense, like "Ihave3cats", for instance.

Ten per cent of the long passwords that Rao and her team tested were cracked exclusively using their grammar-sensitive methods, unyielding in the face of other well-known cracking algorithms such as John the Ripper and Hashcat.

As processing power continues to fall in price, choosing passwords that are easily memorised but secure is getting harder and harder. A $3000 computer running appropriate algorithms can make 33 billion password guesses every second.
In a paper due to be presented at the Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy in San Antonio, Texas, next month, the researchers suggest that other types of familiar structures like postal addresses, email addresses and URLs may also make for less secure passwords, even if they are long.

Blowfish12@2012 blowfish12.tk Author: Sudharsun. P. R.

Bad Grammar Make Good Password (gizmodo.com)

Bad Grammar Make Good Password (gizmodo.co.uk)

What makes a good password? Bad grammar. (smartplanet.com)

Bad grammar make good password, research say (newscientist.com)

Bad grammar makes good password, research say (wnd.com)

Linguists beware: Passwords with proper grammar are more hackable (geek.com)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A quick look at HTC Sense 4.1

As usual, HTC is always looking to improve its software to deliver a better experience to its handsets. While the latest AT&T HTC One X update to Android 4.0.4 had a few minor tweaks, it looks like HTC may soon have another update which will deliver Android 4.0.4 with HTC Sense 4.1. The software has managed to make its way into the hands of a few folks on XDA-Developers who have already turned it around and backed it into a new ROM for the international HTC One X.

Like the update for the HTC One X on AT&T, Sense 4.1 fixes the “action overflow” feature in Android 4.0 by removing the menu bar that HTC had placed at the bottom of the screen and allows users to configure the capacitive multitasking button on the device to access the menu functionality within apps. The second main feature is the return of the Quick Settings tab in the notification shade, giving users direct access to handset settings without having to dive into the main settings page or waste valuable screen real estate with widgets.

We expect HTC will be pushing out Sense 4.1 to the HTC One X, One S and One V in the coming weeks. But if you can’t wait that long, we suggest you check in with your favorite ROM developers to see if you can get Sense 4.1 a little sooner.

Other HTC Sesne 4.1 fixes or enhancements

Live wallpaper lag has been fixed.

Dedicated button in the Camera app to switch between Front/Backward facing cameras

Dedicated button to switch tabs in the browser

Removal of all 3D-Effects in the launcher

Updated kernel with speed improvements

Wifi-dropping/ Icon showing weak signal fixes

Better Battery life improvement

Blowfish12@2012 blowfish12.tk Author: Sudharsun. P. R.

HTC One S getting Android 4.1 across Europe (phandroid.com)

HTC One S Android 4.1.1/Sense 4.1 Jelly Bean Update Rolling Out Now (techie-buzz.com)

HTC HD2 WP8 port leads to Windows RT on the HTC HD2 (wmpoweruser.com)

Windows RT ported to HTC HD2 (slashgear.com)

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update For HTC One S Rolling Out Throughout Europe (androidpolice.com)

Top 5 Upcoming HTC Smartphones of 2013 (technoinsta.com)

HTC One S gets Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update (91mobiles.com)

Last-minute HTC One X+ emerge ahead of HTC event (reviews.cnet.com)

HTC One X+ review (itproportal.com)

Updated to Android 4.1: Motorola DROID RAZR and MAXX, and the European HTC One S (phonearena.com)

Monday, December 31, 2012

China lifts bans on Internet anonymity

China is taking steps to abolish online anonymity by passing a law which requires citizens to identify themselves when signing up for Internet and telecommunications services.

The new law, Bloomberg says, will require people to provide their full names when ordering landlines, mobile phones, and Internet connections, and it will also mandate online services such as Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, to require real names when posting or tweeting or blogging.

“The Internet is a free and open stage,” an editorial in the People’s Daily said on Dec. 24. “But absolute freedom of the network does not exist … the virtual society and social reality are inseparable.”

The editorial paints the prime issue as one of public safety and well-being, adding that with the rule of law, “the network can be more civilized, more healthy, more secure” and enhanced with more “positive energy.” Others, however, are wondering if it isn’t critique of the government’s sex scandals and shoddy handling of disasters that is more the issue.

Whatever the case, the law is certainly going to further impair online freedom in a country that already isn’t shy about censoring and restricting online communications, as Google’s Eric Schmidt said earlier this year. Although some, including Sinocism China Newsletter author Bill Bishop, say there is already no Internet freedom in the country.

Blowfish12@2012 blowfish12.tk Author: Sudharsun. P. R.

China tightens internet controls (telegraph.co.uk)

Yes, Hands Off the Internet! (Towards "Internet Freedom"!... (gurstein.wordpress.com)

China clamps down on Internet restrictions (csmonitor.com)

China passes rules tightening controls on Internet (seattlepi.com)

China Approves Law Requiring Real Name Web Access (techinasia.com)

China forces every internet browser to register their real name in new free speech crackdown (thisismoney.co.uk)

China passes new law requiring real names for Internet services (digitaltrends.com)

China may force real names on internet (stuff.co.nz)

China forces every internet browser to register their real name in new free speech crackdown (dailymail.co.uk)

Laser cookery makes your food more fun

YOUR toast pops up with a strange pattern burned into it. Pointing your phone's camera at the pattern pulls up a website showing the day's traffic news for your commute. Later, as you're wondering how to make a spring roll, you notice the instructions are etched into the rice paper itself.

These are just a couple of the applications of "laser cookery" envisaged by Kentaro Fukuchi and colleagues at Meiji University in Japan. They reckon laser cutters have done their time in industry and, like 3D printers before them, it's now time for them to come into our homes - as a new breed of laser-enabled kitchen appliances.

At a cookery technology workshop in Nara, Japan, in November, the researchers showed how a bench top industrial laser cutter - normally used to cut or engrave patterns in plastic, wood and metal - could generate a variety of fascinating foodstuffs when hooked up to a computer running graphics software and a webcam.

One delicacy they have developed is the charmingly named "melt-fat raw bacon", an allegedly tasty sliver of uncooked bacon on which the fat is cooked by the laser, using a webcam trained on the bacon to guide the beam. "The well-cooked fat and the fresh taste of the meat can then be experienced at the same time," says Fukuchi. Don't all rush at once.

Blowfish12@2012 blowfish12.tk Author: Sudharsun. P. R.