Archive for January 2017

Friday Fun: Ice Fun in Finland

Finnish energy expert and inventor Janne Käpylehto wanted to show the world that on land of polar bears there can be fun (and not just extreme weather). So he made a Ice carousel and made a video that has got many video views around the world: Using only a chainsaw, an axe, a shovel and

Bizarre car to “mains” adaptor

Some time ago I built Avalanche pulse generator circuit. In that project I used a slightly odd car to “mains” adaptor device as the DC/DC converter to generate the voltage (around 100V) needed to power the avalanche circuit. Here is view of that part of Avalanche pulse generator circuit: I had bought that device that

Intel’s Incredibly Tiny Compute Card Could Make Obsolete Dumb Gadgets Upgradable

http://gizmodo.com/intels-incredibly-tiny-compute-card-could-soon-run-your-1790826525?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow This new tiny computer card looks like an interesting concept. It looks like a concept that needs to be priced right and supported by many manufacturers – or it is in danger of getting obsoleted soon. Let’s wait to see what is the situation when this becomes really available to buy. 

Debugging mechanism in Intel CPUs allows seizing control via USB port

https://www.scmagazine.com/debugging-mechanism-in-intel-cpus-allows-seizing-control-via-usb-port/article/630480/ Some Intel CPUs have JTAG over USB 3 debugging built-in. This could be good for debugging but is really bad for computer security. “starting with the Skylake processor family in 2015, Intel introduced the Direct Connect Interface (DCI) which provides access to the JTAG debugging interface via common USB 3.0 ports.” Having the DCI

John McAfee’s 3 major cybersecurity predictions for 2017 | CSO Online

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3155572/internet-of-things/john-mcafees-3-major-cybersecurity-predictions-for-2017.html Cybersecurity predictions: 1. IoT denial of service attacks on major Internet carriers will become commonplace 2. The anti-virus paradigm will finally been seen as a dead paradigm 3. Intelligence agencies will finally accept the fact that a sophisticated Nation State can perpetrate any hack and make it point to any Nation or agency that