They were singing, 'bye, bye PKI . . .'

Well this can't be good: Chinese break SHA-1 encryption. The article (expurgated):

THE SHA-1 algorithm, a method of encryption that has been in common use for the last nine years, has been broken, it's claimed.

In his blog here, world authority on encryption Bruce Schneier, said that a three-person Chinese research team, mostly from Shandong University in China, had been circulating a paper about having broken the algorithm. . . .

He said that the attack pretty much put a bullet into SHA -1 as a hash function for digital signatures, even though it is beyond the scope of most criminals to exploit.

Yeah, there we go again: underestimating the ingenuity of the human mind and "the enemy" -- as usual.

Hunter Thompson: fear and loathing no more

HST killed himself. The Globe & Mail ran a piece from the AP here: Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide. The lead:

Aspen, Colo. -- Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

I loved most of the Thompson stuff and own hardback volumes of most of his works. And, I could never figure out whether he was insanely bright and putting on a show . . . or just insane.

I hoped it was the former but believed it to be the latter, and so this was not merely expected but probably overdue. How sad. He stirred it up and that is an enduring quality that will be sadly missed.

Raid's new slogan: You're really f**ked

Remember the very successful ad run for Raid(TM) bug spray? They were cute cartoony things that ended with "Kills bugs dead." Anyway, scientists have figured out how to get rid of cockroaches in a very effective manner, as described in this Reuters piece: Cockroach 'Come-Hither' Scent Could Conquer Them. The lead:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sexy scent used by female cockroaches to attract males could be the best tool yet against the creepy pests, U.S. researchers said Friday.

They made an artificial version of the mating pheromone used by the bugs and hope it could be used to lure them into traps.

Whoa! Surprise, surprise, surprise . . .

Creators wanted

An article from the NY Times found its way into the Toronto Star (U.S. technology lead slips away, report says). It points to some empirical proof of the headline's proposition. The snip:

The laments have been sounded for years. U.S. research and development is falling off. Other countries are growing more competitive. American schools are turning out too few scientists and engineers.

Now these clouds on the horizon may be converging into something like a perfect storm, according to a troubling report released last week by the American Electronics Association.

The report argues that the U.S. standing in technology is slipping, and the nation is in danger of losing its advantage in fields it has long dominated.

Hmmm. In the article the usual suspects are trotted out for solution: remove immigration restrictions, etc., etc. What didn't show up is: change the reward structure so that lawyers, accountants, and assorted MBAs -- who don't typically create value, just shift it around -- aren't highly-prized while the creators (let's foremost include entrepreneurs) like engineers take second place unless they are ridiculously successful. Which, often requires the "help," "assistance," and "guidance" of the better-paid lawyers, accountants, and MBAs.

Another Kodak moment

From the Toronto Star, Digital-camera sales soar; film fades:

Digital cameras accounted for a whopping 87 per cent of camera sales in 2004 and outsold film-based versions by nearly 7 to 1, according to newly released data from the Canadian Imaging Trade Association, or CITA.

But there's more:

Film sales also took a big hit last year with 31.5 million rolls sold, a fall of 25 per cent. Single-use cameras, which are measured separately, saw only a 2 per cent year-over-year decline with 7.6 million of these throwaways making their way into the hands of consumers, proving that convenience still sells.

And finally,

115-year-old photo giant Eastman Kodak Co. has had to undergo a massive transformation of its business. In September 2003 it acknowledged its film business was in rapid decline and pursued a $3.7 billion (U.S.) digital acquisition strategy.

That strategy is paying off. For the first time, Kodak surged ahead of Sony in 2004 to become the top seller of digital cameras in the United States.

Whew, saved at the bell.

This can't be good: Mad man disease?

Here's a story from CNN International about a Japanese man who's died of the human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow): Japan confirms first mad cow case. Just the other day I read about the first know species skip when a goat in France was confirmed to have the disease. Add two and two together. I hope somebody in some lab is working on this.

The price of a circus

There are so many people making so much of the Gomery cost overruns. Apparently, the cost of the commission's work will reach $60-million. (See Globe & Mail piece here: Gomery cost soars.) They're upset that the scandal being investigated was only worth $250-billion OVER 10 YEARS. A snip:

The cost of the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal is now pegged at $60-million, which is more than the annual budget of the program that it is investigating.

What these well-meaning journalists, editorialists, pundits, commentators, and all-around opiners seem to miss though is that the Gomery Commission has much larger responsibilities than "getting to the bottom of the matter."

It has to do that as well as be months and months worth of entertainment: a circus to keep the media occupied; it has to be a witch hunt; it needs to keep the legal community's employment rate up; it has to ensure a market for the B.C. and Quebec pulp and paper industries.

So $60-million is a small price to pay.