Price: $1850/mo

Historic Inman Park address, and close to downtown Atlanta/I-85. Inviting front porch, large back deck overlooking Inman pool & easy walk to restaurants, shops, Little 5 Points & MARTA.

• 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms
• Garden tubs in upstairs bathrooms
• 1/2 bath on main level
• See thru fireplace on main level with gas logs
• Wet bar
• Wrap around front porch with shade
• Rear deck overlooking community pool
• 2 car garage
• Hardwood floors
• Very convenient to Emory, CDC, Downtown Atlanta, and Georgia State University.

See listing on Realtor.com or call Chuck @ (404)325-5900

The answers to both questions require more than 140 characters. Here, I will try to explain.

The PlayStation 3 as a Computing Platform

Briefly, the PS3 is an amazing computing platform. It boasts a 7-core 3.2GHz IBM PowerPC cell processor architecture unlike pretty much anything available at even twice the price. It works with USB and Bluetooth Wireless input devices (mouse, keyboard, gamepads, &etc), has HDMI, Composite, and Component video outputs, digital audio output, an internal SATA hard drive, 802.11b/g wireless, and a Blu-ray DVD-ROM drive.

Sony has, from the start, marketed the fact that this amazing “game console” also supports the ability to run Linux for those power-users who wanted to also use it as a computing platform. This included feature is known as “OtherOS” support.
[Reference: http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html ]

FWIW, this feature was a deciding factor in my choice of the Sony PlayStation 3 as a game / media / computing platform when I purchased it.

The DRM Arms Race

Without writing yet another long blog about DRM, let me just state a couple of canons about Intellectual Property that I believe to be true:

I: Companies that own intellectual property rights have the right to protect themselves from illegitimate copying, use, or distribution of said intellectual property.

I want to state this up front, because I believe it’s important. Far from the “Information Wants To Be Free!” rally cry of the pirates, I understand and acknowledge that media and entertainment production is a business. And those businesses have the right to not have their products stolen from them.

II. All technological measures to prevent unauthorized reproduction or distribution of media will ultimately fail.

We all need to acknowledge this as well. Every software copy protection scheme, every cable transmission encryption scheme, every satellite distribution set-top-box authorization scheme, every music anti-ripping scheme has eventually been broken by those who want to copy the media.

It has happened, it will continue to happen. You cannot present media to a person and yet prevent that person from ultimately being able to reproduce it without your authorization. That is a certainty – almost a law of information, if you will.

So, with these two points acknowledged, all DRM and anti-copying measures come down to this:

What can be done to make illegitimate copying or distribution of media more difficult, without infringing on the legitimate use by the consumer?

That question, my friends, is what the entire DRM side of the media industry does for a living.

The second half of that question is the line that Sony just crossed with the PS3.

Geohot and the PlayStation 3 Hack

A very talented, well known hacker named George Hotz, or “geohot”, discovered some bugs in the hardware / firmware implementation of the PS3. These bugs allowed him to write an exploit that provided access to parts of the PS3 hardware that Sony had previously restricted from the OtherOS support. In short, this put the security measures that Sony had implemented to protect their platform and its copy protection schemes at risk.

Geohot’s hack is not a way to copy games or movies. It is, however, a way to start tinkering with the protected parts of the system that prevent you from doing so. His hack has a number of beneficial features too, like providing a higher level of customization to power users. Or the ability to include more of the hardware features in custom developed applications for the PS3 OtherOS platform.

A parallel between geohot’s PS3 hack and his iPhone hack that made “jailbreaking” possible has been drawn, and for a good reason. They are very similar hacks. They both “open up” a restricted platform so that the consumer has more abilities than the corporation that created it intended.

If you’re interested, you can read more on geohot’s PS3 blog: http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/

Sony’s Reaction to Geohot’s Hack

Sony’s reaction to Geohot’s hack was swift and fascist in nature.

1. Sony has removed ALL “OtherOS” support from ALL Playstation 3 devices as of the mandatory firmware update 3.21 on April 1st, 2010.

2. If a PlayStation 3 owner chooses not to install update 3.21:

a. Access to the PlayStation 3 Network is disabled
b. Access to online features of purchased games are disabled.
c. Blu-ray movie playback is disabled.
d. Many newer (purchsed) games are disabled.

[Reference: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/28/ps3-firmware-v3-21-update/ ]

So Sony is giving its users a choice. Give up OtherOS support, or give up pretty much all the other uses of the PlayStation 3.  Whether or not you think what George Hotz did by finding and exploiting the PS3 vulnerabilities was right or wrong, I assert one thing:

Sony’s reaction to geohot’s hack is wrong.

They have removed a major feature that was a selling point of the product as a knee-jerk reaction to something that was not only predictable, but inevitable. This “We’re going to take our ball and go home” attitude towards their customers is deplorable.

I ask you, Sony, if you want to retain a modicum of respect from the technical community, please reconsider.  Reinstate OtherOS support on the PlayStation 3.

It’s just the Right Thing To Do(tm).

- Kenneth “K.C.” Budd, CISSP

Old Skool Brought Back: A 1964 Modem Demo on Vimeo.

Thanks to Jason Scott of Textfiles.com.

Interestingly, four months ago a presenter at DEFCON 17 named Righter Kunkel gave a presentation on how antiquated and potentially insecure the FAA’s system – specifically the system for processing flight plans – was.   He pointed out that anyone with very little information could easily flood the system with thousands of bogus flight plans and cause chaos.

That talk was published on the web, publicly, a few days ago.

So, is this what happened?   Naturally, we’ll probably never know.  It might be that, it might be an unrelated failure, it might be that the system finally went over capacity and someone responsible for monitoring it was asleep at the switch.  The truth of the matter is this, many of the systems in place are outdated and needed to be updated.  And this outage will definitely put a huge spotlight on that fact in the public media.

This is where I get concerned.   Sure, maybe it was past time to turn the light on in that closet and see all the roaches scatter.  But my concern is centered around a long-running fight in the aviation community about FAA funding.   There is a group pushing for “user fees” for FAA services, and lately they’ve gained some traction.

The traditional model for funding the FAA and its associated services was through public funding taxes, taxes on things like aviation fuel, and surcharges levied on commercial aviation tickets.  This model has worked in the past, and spreads the cost of aviation services out amongst the public.  In a debate about whether to privatize the Air Traffic Control system, President Clinton referred to ATC as being “inherently governmental.”    Why?  Because safety should be the only bottom line when it comes to services like Air Traffic Control.

So what does that have to do with the funding debate?   Bear with me for a second.

In the user fee model, there will be a fee for Air Traffic Control services.   This means, as a pilot, that I’m likely going to be faced with the following:

• Get an FAA weather briefing:  FEE
• File a flight plan:   FEE
• Get VFR “Flight Following” radar service:  FEE
• File a “pop-up” IFR flight plan enroute: FEE

What’s the problem with this?   Many of these actions are voluntary for flying.   As a pilot, I get to decide when to get an FAA weather briefing.  I also get to decide whether to fly IFR, and whether to file a flight plan, and whether to get radar service in congested areas.

Today, the only factor influencing that decision is safety. I get flight following from ATC when safety dictates that it would be prudent.    I file flight plans when safety dictates that doing so would be prudent.  I contact ATC for services anytime safety dictates that I should do so.  That’s my only decision criteria.

With user fees, I’ll also have to consider the cost of these decisions.   In “marginal” cases, I will be financially incented to make the less safe decision because it will save me money.  I’m not saying that I personally will do things that are unsafe, I’m saying that the pilot population as a whole will be affected.  Their decision making process will be skewed by the possibility of having to pay for services that keep everyone safer.

It’s not just my safety that puts in jeopardy.  It’s everyone’s.   Are you, as someone who flies in our nation’s airspace system (either as a pilot, passenger, or customer of the airlines) okay with that?

If not, please write to your government representatives, especially now, and tell them that.   Tell them you want the FAA Funding Re-authorization bill to exclude user fees and keep safety as the only criteria for making ATC decisions in our nation’s airspace system.   And support AOPA’s advocacy program keeping general aviation safe and affordable for everyone.

The proponents of user fees are going to use today’s failure to trumpet their cause.  I agree that the system should be modernized, but I don’t think lack of charging user fees to the pilot population is what was keeping it back.  Don’t let our government compromise your safety under the guise of improving something they’re responsible for anyway.

- K.C.

The spreadsheet includes a simple macro to make printing the worksheet portion easy. If you get the “Macros Enabled” warning, that is why.

To download, click the image:

Enjoy!

The panorama shot below was taken from Alcatraz Island. (Click for larger)

I’ve got some interesting things lined up, including some demos showing the versatility of the ancient Bell 103 modulation system used by the modem.

Cheers!
– K.C.

The “Metro” is a large warehouse space divided into three main partitioned areas. The first area has an enclosed space occupying roughly 60% of the width of the space. That enclosed area has a couple of single-office sized rooms (one of which is psychadelic painted with glow-in-the-dark stars) and a bathroom with a working shower in it.

The second partitioned area has a kitchen built in it, complete with counter space, a kitchen sink, a range, a dishwasher, and an “island” counter with electrical power and storage space. At the back of the second partition is another enclosed space with two small office-style rooms, another closed-sized bathroom, and a weird small unfinished alcove-like room (not photographed).

The third partitioned area is open warehouse space, with a small semi-wall dividing it from the two large roll-up garage doors in the back.

My photos do not include the front area’s enclosed rooms because they had dark painted walls and no light whatsoever. My attempts to photograph them did not result in anything of use. I’m also missing some of the “nook and cranny” rooms/spaces for the same reason. I think I captured the majority of the space fairly well though.

I also didn’t photograph the bathrooms in either site.

Photos of the Metro:

Green Industrial:
Green Industral site is a fairly standard office/warehouse combo. The front consists of two foyer rooms with tile floors. From there, there’s a standard single-office sized room, a strange “alcove room” (again!), a conference / presentation room, and then the warehouse. There are two small bathrooms as well, one of which I’m told can be converted to a shower instead at possibly no additional cost.

I photographed one of the two foyers, but not the other. (They’re roughly the same, save for the front door.) I also did not photograph the small alcove room or the bathrooms.

Photos of Green: