Posts by PatAdam

Amazon's EC2 brings new might to password cracking

Wrong

The cost given would be the cost if every single one of the possible combinations was tried. Assuming a brute force attack consists of first trying "aaaaaaaaaa" then "aaaaaaaaab" then this would only be true if the password was "zzzzzzzzzz" - which is unlikely.

Then again, are crackers clever enough to use random attacks? Sounds like 'zzzzzzzzzz' is going to become my password of choice from now on.

Europe plots black boxes for cars

Crystall balls

So, if this gadget can detect that you're going to have an accident in the next 30 seconds, why not have it inform the driver of his impending doom to at least give him the chance to take avoiding action or to send a last text message to his loved ones?

Your phone is winding me up

Wire it up to the steering wheel

Then whilst driving with the phone held up to one ear, recharging can be accomplished simply by driving erratically, leaving the other hand free to fiddle with the SatNav in perfect safety...

Scientists: Tasers work, but we don't know how

Piezo zapping

As a kid I remember chasing flies with a piezo electric gas lighter and zapping them with the spark. From memory, they remained paralysed a good few moments, but I don't remember it killing any of them.

Never tried it with humans though...

Europe-wide emergency number is go

Great, but...

All I need to do now is to learn Bulgarian to explain what the emergency is...

El Reg net closes on Street View fleet

World Invasion

Just spotted one in a small village in the French Alps too....

Is there no place to hide??