Earth: Mostly Harmless

Initial thoughts on the MacBook

November 30, 2006 on 2:57 am | No Comments
Categories: apple, macbook, macintosh, my life, technology, video, wifi
Tags: airport, apple, core-2-duo, hd, high-definition, intel, isight, laptop, macbook, macintosh, magsafe, my life, notebook, review, technology, video, wifi

I received my new MacBook on Friday, so I’ve been swiftly copying everything I can onto it in the hope of moving lock-stock to it from my iMac G5 in the next few days. Some initial thoughts:

It’s built like a tank.

I managed to drop it this morning but despite a nasty deflection off a wooden desk it survived unscathed (the desk came off worse somehow - a big slice taken out of it).

The AirPort connection is erratic

This could be none of the MacBook’s fault, since my AirPort Express is very flaky, but it does tend to drop connections quite a lot. I haven’t had enough time yet to evaluate it on the office or university WiFi to verify this though.

The power system is extremely well designed

The battery itself is really very capacious - and the MagSafe adaptor is a decided improvement on the old Apple adaptor. Power management is also very good - including the very cool safe sleep (watch video demo) function.

The screen is a fingerprint magnet

I should also say that it looks fantastic in all conditions despite this - but I’m definitely going to have to get a proper cleaning cloth…

The iSight is streets ahead of the FireWire version

Perhaps because it’s so small - but having it built-in is so much more natural during conference use than an external camera. The resolution also seems better, though it’s probably just the same in fact.

It gets hot

Really quite hot! Not enough to burn you, but certainly a little uncomfortable for long periods on your lap. The obvious solution is to put it on a desk, but clearly this isn’t always possible. This isn’t really a design fault - I’d rather have a hot but quiet notebook than the noise of a small aircraft engine taking off every time I run something demanding. Interestingly, the battery doesn’t heat up at all, unlike our 12″ PowerBook G4.

It’s fast

Really very fast! Rosetta apps (ones written for PowerPC chips and so which run in a transparent emulation layer) aren’t noticeably slower, though I’ve been sticking to Universal Binaries wherever possible out of consistency.

The graphics chip could be better

It relies on Intel’s integrated graphics system, and so doesn’t have a dedicated graphics chip in the normal sense of the word. This is a bit of a shame, as my quick high definition video tests show. Playing 1080p24 clips from Apple’s HD movie trailers site (an activity which pushes my iMac G5 2Ghz over the edge) hardly even taxes the processor cores (about 20% CPU usage on each). But actually displaying twenty-four frames of 1920×1080 seems to cause the graphics system a bit of a problem. QuickTime Player reports that the full frame rate is being attained, but there’s a noticeable flicker. This could be a player/codec issue, so I’ll persist and see what I can find out.

However, 720p24 plays great. EyeTV footage looks fantastic in progressive scan mode too.

Overall, I’m really happy with the machine. I think it’s one of the best-value machines that Apple have ever made, and it will serve me well.

The scales of justice

October 30, 2006 on 1:13 am | 1 Comment
Categories: law, politics, technology
Tags: airport, christopher-soghoian, congress, fbi, law, php, politics, script, security, senate, technology, tsa

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).