Video geeking: Revolution and biometrics

Watching TV/movies is becoming increasingly hard for us geeks. Each time they dramatize stuff on the screen, with hex dumps or code, we feel compelled to pause them, take a screen shot, and analyze what we see. I occasionally do this and blog out it. In this installment, I take a look at a screenshot from the TV show Revolution, season 1, episode 18, at around the 17:40 mark.

In this scene, a character attempts to enter a building with a handprint. What's the code to the left? A quick google search using unique keywords in that code sample finds the answer: https://github.com/biometrics/openbr. This is a project called "Open Biometrics".

At least this code is related to what's onscreen. Usually, the code chosen for dramatization is fairly random. The Ironman movie chose Lego Mindstorm code to power the first suit. A Charlie's Angle TV show used Obfuscated C contest code for a safe. At least this biometrics code relates to the biometrics security scanner in the show.

On the other hand, if you look at the "Open Biometrics" project, you'll see that it's designed for facial recognition, and related topics like gender/age determination. Hand print analysis isn't one of the options..

Anyway, I didn't know that there was an open-source facial recognition project. That's kinda cool, maybe something I can hook up with my Google Glass, should they ever start shipping.

Don't drone me, bro

Today President Obama gave a speech taking credit for assassinating an American citizen. His justification was:

And as President, I would have been derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took out Awlaki

So what, precisely, is the president's duty? The following is the entire oath of office he took as president:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Note that the oath isn't to "defend the country", but to "defend the constitution". The constitution lists a number of additional duties, such as sign bills into laws, give a "State of the Union" speech, and so forth. But none of his constitutional duties include ordering terrorists killed.

The constitution guarantees for every citizen the right to due process and equal protection. President Obama ignored these rights. By targeting Awlaki, an American citizen, President Obama was upholding no enumerated duty in the constitution, but was derelict in his most sacred one, to defend the constitution.

I have no doubt Awlaki was a really bad guy who deserved to be killed. I'm sure had Awlaki not been killed, his actions would have led to more American deaths in the future. None of that matters. Nothing in the constitution allows that as an exception. Awlaki was a citizen, he had rights.

This country has hundreds of cybersec/hacking experts who are more of a "threat" than Awlaki. Sure, we all work for the "good" side, but at the same time, we have the skill to conduct the worst cyberterrorism scenarios. We can cause mass blackouts. We can cause refineries to blow up. We can cause the automated drug delivery systems in hospitals to dispense the wrong drugs. We can cause a financial network to collapse. The only thing stopping us is because we don't want to. The moment the government suspects we might be up to something evil, we can expect a drone strike taking us out.

According to leaks, this policy of targeting American citizens started under the Republican President George Bush, and was simply continued by the Democrat President Barrack Obama. This isn't a political argument, but a principled one. Both deserve to be impeached for this policy.

Myth: buying in bulk

The next-gen gaming consoles (PlayStation 4, XBox One) contain 8-GB of RAM. That means a sometime jerkyness in games as the console loads scenes into memory from disk. Why so little memory? Wouldn't it be better to just put more RAM in the device, like doubling to 16-GB? Sure, while RAM is expensive for you and me ($50 for 8GB), Sony/Microsoft can buy in bulk and get a cheaper price, like $20. That doesn't make much difference when selling the console for over $400.

Actually, they don't get such savings. "Buying in bulk" is a myth. If it costs us $50/8-GB, then adding that memory to the console will jack up its price by $50. At least.

Let me prove it to you. On NewEgg right this second, you can get a single 8-GB DIMM for your desktop computer for $49.99. On the bulk spot market, the 4-gigabit chips themselves cost $3.11/chip when buying in very large quantities of 10,000 chips at a time. Since you need 16 of those chips to create a DIMM, that comes out to $49.76 per 8-GB.

In other words, within the margin of error, the price for a single DIMM on NewEgg roughly equals the bulk price on the spot market.

Apple's profits: 70% tax rate

Congress is grilling Apple on it's tax avoidance. The problem isn't with Apple, but with Congress rapacious theft of as much money as it can get its hands on.

The United States is unusual in two respects.

The first is that its corporate tax rate is 40% compared to 24% that is average in the world, and the 0% that economists think it should be. The reason economists believe this is because corporate taxes are double taxation: taxed once when the company earns the money, then a second time when dividends are paid to the stock holder.

The second problem is that, unlike other countries, the United States taxes foreign earnings. This causes another example of double taxation: once in the country where Apple earned the money, and then once again in the United States.

Combined, this means triple taxation. With the current max dividen tax rate of 39.4%, the corporate tax of 40%, and the average foreign tax of 24%, the total tax bill becomes 72%.

In other words, for every dollar Apple earns in profits, 72 cents goes to the taxman and 28 cents goes to the stock holder.

Here is a great CATO article on the subject.

Star Trek 2: warning - you can't unsee it

After the sucky Star Trek reboot, I assumed the series would get better. It didn't, the second installment in the series is much worse. If you are a fan of the Star Trek canon, do yourself a favor and don't see this movie. Once seen, it cannot be unseen.

Nobody reads the ToS -- not even those who write them

GoGo Inflight is running a promotion right now giving you free Internet access on airplanes from your Blackberry phone/pad. Even if you don’t have a Blackberry device, you can still get the free service by changing your browser identifier to match a Blackberry (instructions below). Here’s the question: is spoofing your browser ID like this in order to get free Internet service illegal under laws like the CFAA ("Computer Fraud and Abuse Act")?

That’s an interesting debate, but there is a further twist: GoGo Inflight’s promotion violates their own Terms of Service (ToS). According to the ToS, you need a "user account" to use the service. However, the Blackberry promotion doesn't give you one, because it triggers off the browser ID. Thus, even if you have a valid Blackberry (and aren't cheating), you are still technically in violation of the Terms of Service.

@AP hack: the stock market did not "plunge"

According to all press outlets, the stock market "plunged" today due to @AP getting hacked and reporting explosions at the White House. In fact, stock prices didn't change much at all. Below I've graphed today's S&P 500 stock price. As you can see, it's a flat line hovering within 1% of 1580.

A wonkish look at bitcoin economics

Bitcoin is an increasingly popular electronic currency, used both for legitimate and illegal transactions. Economists haven’t taken a serious look at bitcoin yet, so I thought I’d take a stab at it. In particular, I’m going to look at the “intrinsic value” of bitcoin, answering the question whether the recent rapid rise in price (to $240 at the time of writing this) is justified.

The TL;DR version is this: bitcoins have real value (they are not a fantasy), and that value is between $0.01 and $15000.

How to Dress Like a Cyber Warrior OR Looking Like a Tier-Zero Hero

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A lot of ink’s been spent lately on the idea of cyber warfare, cyber defense, the enemies, the allies, what would we do if we had a cyber Pearl Harbor, etc. As one of the foremost experts on all things cyber, I thought I would take a day to explain some of the finer points of this new realm of warfare and how to fit in.