Earth: Mostly Harmless

Location of first Apple store in Scotland: 147 Buchanan Street

I’m generally guilty of saying ‘I told you so’ too much - but this time, I bloody well did tell you so.

Location of first Apple store in Scotland:

Filed under: Retail, Apple

Survivingcinemas.org.uk has uncovered the future location of Apple’s first store in Scotland. 147 Buchanan Street, Glasgow will house Scotland’s Apple Store as well as a glass spiral staircase and a Genius/iPod bar. This former theater will have an estimated £1,1,68,000 pumped into it to covert it into a stainless steel encased Apple Store (signage will be approved separately). Interestingly, it would seem that this store will not have a theater which is becoming a trend in new Apple Stores.

[via MacNN]

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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)).

The scales of justice

What happens when you publish information on a glaring and well-known flaw in American airport security?

Well, the answer is that the shit hits the fan, Cisco style.

Christopher Soghoian published a PHP script on his site which generates fake boarding passes in any name given, in order to demonstrate the flaw. Perhaps an error of judgement.

Except this time, unlike with the Cisco IOS affair,the flaw is so well known that a United States Senator has already published details of it in an official press release, as well as it being widely reported in the media (as linked above at Slate).

So will the Senator, and indeed Slate be prosecuted? I highly doubt it.

And now, Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who had earlier called for Soghoain’s arrest in colourful and quasi-patriotic language has retracted his request:

“On Friday I urged the Bush Administration to ‘apprehend’ and shut down whoever had created a new website that enabled persons without a plane ticket to easily fake a boarding pass and use it to clear security, gain access to the boarding area and potentially to the cabin of a passenger plane. Subsequently I learned that the person responsible was a student at Indiana University, Christopher Soghoian, who intended no harm but, rather, intended to provide a public service by warning that this long-standing loophole could be easily exploited. The website has now apparently been shut down.

“Under the circumstances, any legal consequences for this student must take into account his intent to perform a public service, to publicize a problem as a way of getting it fixed. He picked a lousy way of doing it, but he should not go to jail for his bad judgment. Better yet, the Department of Homeland Security should put him to work showing public officials how easily our security can be compromised.

“It remains a fact that fake boarding passes can be easily created and the integration of terrorist watch lists with boarding security is still woefully inadequate. The best outcome of Mr. Soghoian’s ill-considered demonstration would be for the Department of Homeland Security to close these loopholes immediately.”

Here’s an earlier BoingBoing story on the matter:

FBI returns to “Fake Boarding Pass” guy’s home, seizes computers:

Xeni Jardin:
(Story background here). Christopher Soghoian today blogs that the FBI returned to his home last night in his absence with a search warrant, and seized computers and other belongings. The 24-year old computer science student is the creator of a website that generated fake airline boarding passes to illustrate a security flaw which has been documented on the ‘net since (at least) 2003. I reached Soghoian by email today, and he declined comment on advice from attorneys.

Snip from his most recent blog entry:

I didn’t sleep at home last night. It’s fair to say I was rather shaken up.

I came back today, to find the glass on the front door smashed.

Inside, is a rather ransacked home, a search warrant taped to my kitchen table, a total absence of computers - and various other important things. I have no idea what time they actually performed the search, but the warrant was approved at 2AM.

Link to full text of post. Search warrant scans: page 1 (BB mirror), page 2 (BB mirror). (thanks, Jan Pederson, David Molnar, Craig, Catspaw, John Hudgens, and others.)

BACKGROUND POSTS ON BOINGBOING:

* Fake boarding pass guy reports he was visited by FBI

* Congressman wants fake boarding pass guy arrested

* Website generates fake boarding passes
* Slate’s Andy Bowers on airline security loopholes

PREVIOUSLY AROUND THE WEB:

A number of people before Soghoian have pointed out the airline security vulnerability his “Fake Boarding Pass Generator” website illustrated. Among them:

* Bruce Schneier (2003): Link

* Sen. Charles Schumer (2005): Link

* Andy Bowers, Slate.com (2005): Link

* Jacob Appelbaum (2005): Link

Reader comment: Kevin says,

I’m pretty sure that you can bank on the fact that the FBI will be going through the IP logs to see everyone that visited that site.

Steve Peterson says,

Here’s an article from Twin Cities newspaper with reaction from NWA (Ed. note: this one, not the one from Compton) to the Northwest Airlines Fake Boarding Pass Generator story: Link

UPDATE:
* Fake Boarding Pass Generator guy and FBI: what about the law? (10-28-06)

(Via BoingBoing).

Rube Goldberg- like tea machine

I love Rube Goldberg devices - once you play Mouse Trap as a child, the composition of simple mechanical interactions into a kinematic story like in the below video becomes fascinating.

This example is really cool.

Rube Goldberg- like tea machine:

James writes ” Me and my friend made a machine that puts a tea bag into a cup… physics, kinematics, mechanics, energy, interesting, amazing, machine, marble, run, contraption device…” Thanks JS! - Link.

Related:

• Ramen cooking Rube Goldberg-like video - Link.
• Make Podcast: Rube Goldberg Contraption Machine Made …. - Link.
• HALF LIFE 2 Rube Goldberg Contraptions - Link.
• Rube Goldberg contest - Link.
• Phil Salkie’s “Rube Goldberg … - Link.
• Marble rolling - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

(Via MAKE Magazine).

UK Think Tank Calls For Fair Use Of Your Own CDs

Sensible proposals from the Institute for Public Policy Research. Shame they’ll probably not be given a second look in the Government’s copyright review.

UK Think Tank Calls For Fair Use Of Your Own CDs:

jweatherley writes “The BBC reports that a UK think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, has called for the legalization of format shifting. In a report commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, they state that copyright laws are out of date, and that people should have a ‘private right to copy’ which would allow them to legally copy their own CDs and DVDs on to home computers, laptops and phones. The report goes on to say that: ‘it is not the music industry’s job to decide what rights consumers have. That is the job of government.’ The report also argues that there is no evidence the current 50-year copyright term is insufficient. The UK music industry is campaigning to extend the copyright term in sound recordings to 95 years.”

(Via Slashdot).

What to do?

So I have a dead hard drive, pulled out of my ancient old PowerMac G3. What should I do with it?

A clock?
A laser oscilloscope?
A speaker?
Wind chimes?

Something else?

Answers on a post-card please. Please include a self-addressed envelope and some sticky-backed plastic.