Tag: General Hardware

A Possible Link Between TSA Body Scanners and Cancer Found

From the no-fucking-shit-sherlock department we have learned that all the claims made by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) about the safety of their naked body scanners are dubious at best. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain documents from the Department of Motherland Homeland Security (DHS) dealing with the safety of those scanners. What they found wasn’t at all surprising:

In a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC has just obtained documents concerning the radiation risks of TSA’s airport body scanner program. The documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests. One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters – safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure. Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST “affirmed the safety” of full body scanners. The documents obtained by EPIC reveal that NIST disputed that characterization and stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test the devices. Also, a Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the “General Public Dose Limit.”

The documents they speak of make for interesting reading. Needless to say nobody has tested these scanners and given them their seal of approval. Hell John Hopkins University flat out said there are hot zones around the scanners that are likely unsafe.

I still have a dream of obtaining a decimeter watch and using it to detect how high the radiation levels of those scanners is. Unfortunately those watches are expensive and I’m unwilling to go through those scanners simply because I don’t believe the government needs to have more biometric data related to me.

HP/Palm TouchPad Goes on Sale July 1st

HP/Palm’s (I know the Palm name is dead but damn it I refuse to stop using it) iPad competitor, the TouchPad, is set to go on sale July 1st. I’m rather excited about this device because I think it’s one of the few new tablet devices that at last has something interesting to offer consumers beyond the capabilities of the iPad (namely WebOS).

It do foresee a problem with the price though as the 16GB model will cost $499.99 while the 32GB model will cost you $599.99. This is the exact same price range as Apple’s iPad which I believe to be a potential problem. I just believe it will be hard to justify the high costs of the TouchPad when the app ecosystem for WebOS is pretty poor (and most current apps being written using the Mojo API will run in a small window much like iPhone apps run on the iPad) and WebOS has very little penetration into the mobile market at the moment. At the price HP/Palm is asking it’s very unlikely I’ll buy one unless they offer a great developer discount.

iOS 5 May Warn About Unsecured Calls

Some chatter has been going around the iOS community about a possible feature in iOS 5 that would warn users of unsecured calls. The encryption used by GSM was cracked and a great presentation and demonstration (which I had the privilege of attending) were given about the crack at Defcon last year. The presentation is available on YouTube for free and is split up into four segments:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXVHPNhsOzo]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo1OPoBS5Q8]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXqQioV_bpo]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4-KAvWUiDA]

Obviously this feature won’t be able to detect if a government agent at the phone company is listening into your phone call (this is why we need secure point-to-point communication capabilities on all phones) it would at least let you know if your phone call is being intercepted locally.

A Slingshot that Propels Circular Saw Blades

I never truly appreciated how awesome of a launching platform a slingshot could be until I came across Joerg Sprave’s YouTube videos. He seems to specialize in slingshots that launch all manners of awesome and in his new video he doesn’t disappoint. For your amusement a slingshot that launches circular saw blades:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrHFxscunOA]

Do You Want a Shotgun That Represents Government Oppression

Do you want a shotgun that symbolizes the government’s attempt at oppressing the actions of free individuals? If so Mossberg has you covered with their one off special edition Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shotgun:

Mossberg put together a one-off special edition of the Mossberg 500 SPX engraved with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) logo. The gun is being donated to a fundraiser to support their fallen agents

The next special edition shotgun will be a Department of Fatherland Homeland Security piece.

Government in Your Phone

Happy days are afoot now. In 2006 the federal government approved the creation of the Commercial Mobile Alert System and it’s ready for action. On the surface it’s claimed to be a mechanism of alerting people in an area of a disaster. I’m sure anybody reading this blog long enough know that I’m very skeptical of anything the government does. First I find the following interesting:

A special chip is required to allow a phone to receive the messages, and soon all new phones will have the technology. Some smartphones already have the chip, and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year, Genachowski said.

Why does this interest me? It interests me for several reasons. First is the design of this chip open for anybody to develop or is production of these chips controlled by one company that was granted a government monopoly? If the design of this chip isn’t open we have no clue what it can actually do. When the government controls something I can’t verify the abilities of I worry.

Another thing I find interesting are the levels of alerts this system can implement:

Presidential Alerts – Alerts for all Americans related to national emergencies, such as terrorist attacks, that will preempt any other pending alerts;

Imminent Threat Alerts – Alerts with information on emergencies, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, where life or property is at risk, the event is likely to occur, and some responsive action should be taken; and

Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts – Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation.

Combine this with the following:

People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts.

So what the Hell is this system supposed to accomplish? Obviously not warning people in an area of natural disasters because those messages can be opted out of. But if there is a terrorist attack in New York again I’m unable to opt-out of that message. I’m sorry but a terrorist attack in another state isn’t something I need to be warned about immediately while a tornado touching down over my house would be of some interest to me. The opt-out mechanism is backwards to say the last and that is also cause for suspicion.

Basically the government has legislated a new chip be required in all new cell phones yet have no released any documents that I can find that give the exact specifications of this chip or its capabilities. I’m guessing we’re going to find something additional functionality further down the road but I could just be cynical due to the history of government implemented projects.

What’s interesting is currently only AT&T and Verizon are signed up for this. Sprint and T-Mobile (who will soon be AT&T) haven’t which really makes me want to utilize my Sprint phone more.

Technological Advancements

The computer field interests me because it’s moving so damned fast. If every industry advanced as quickly as the computer market we’d probably have faster than light travel by now and could live for 500 years. I love seeing demonstrations of these advancements and the fact that an iPad 2 can beat a supercomputer from the 1990s makes for an excellent expression of such advancements.

Just think about that for a moment. In the span of roughly 20 years we’re now at the point where a handheld electronic device that costs hundreds of dollars surpasses the computing power of a massive supercomputer that listed for $17 million (the Cray-2 in this case). The human race is fucking awesome!

Tear Down of an FBI Tracking Device

I can’t express in words my love for iFixit. Somehow the guys there manage to get a hold of every device manufacture and create excellent tear down guides allowing people such as myself to perform self-repairs on many electronic gadgets. It seems that working with Wired the guys over at iFixit were able to obtain one of those Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) tracking devices and went to work tearing it apart.

The thing I was most curious about was the power source. It seems these tracking devices are powered by lithium-thionyl chloride batteries which I’ve never heard of until today. These batteries specialize providing long term power (think 10 to 20 years) to devices which don’t require a ton of power. That’s some pretty sweet technology if I do say so myself.

I was also surprised at the ease at which getting into the tracking device was possible. If I were the FBI and wanted to make a device that allowed me to ignore those pesky laws against illegal search and seizure I’d have epoxied the living shit out of everything inside to make a tear down practically impossible. It’s not like they need to worry about repairing these things as they have access to the government’s printing press as long as they can drop the word terrorism into their request.

The guys at iFixit it also have the following disclaimer:

Disclaimer: We love the FBI. We’ve worked with them on several occasions to fight crime and locate criminals. We’ve helped them with instructions on gaining entry into certain devices. We have nothing against them, and we hope they don’t come after us for publishing this teardown.

I also have a disclaimer… We (by which I mean I) here at christopherburg.com hate the FBI. We feel that no organization should be able to go beyond the law and the FBI has done that numerous times without consequences. The only way we’ll help the FBI is if we are subpoenaed and forced to do so. We have a lot against them including the fact that they’re run by a bunch of authoritarian assholes.

It Took Them Long Enough

Remember roughly a year ago when Apple announced the iPhone 4 and that it would come in both black and white? Well Apple has finally released the white model. Yeah it took them almost a year to figure out how to take a black phone and turn is white. I guess that old phrase, “Once you go black you never go back.” holds some truth here.

I’m still waiting for people to buy this, Apple to announce the iPhone 42, and then those people who just bought the white iPhone 4 to whine that they got ripped off.