London police launched on 25th of February a new advertising campaign. Posters and TV ads are urging Londoners to turn in people who might be taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

"Thousands of people take photos every day.

What if one of them seems odd ?

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.If you see someone doing that, we need to know.

Let experienced officers decide what action to take." 

Other posters target households:

"you see hundreds of houses every day. What if one has unusual activities and seems suspicious"

as well as mobile phone users :

"Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious?"

What's going on in London ? Is the Metropolitan police not busy enough ? did they become completely paranoiac ? or do they need some budget increase ?

Where is this so famous British phlegm ?

As a response, many people have already redesigned the posters to point out the absurdity of them. Some samples are available on BoingBoing.

Passengers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1, 2008 as new federal safety rules take effect. The new regulation, designed to reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, will continue to allow lithium batteries in checked baggage if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.

Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage.  However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries, such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage

The following quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” 8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours. 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours:

• Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.

• You can also bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold. Examples of two types of lithium ion batteries with equivalent lithium content over 8 grams but below 25 are shown below.
• For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.
• Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal. But if you are unsure, contact the manufacturer!

Indeed this regulation will first be applicable on US registered aircrafts but as usual we may see this new regulation applicable on all International flights. 

Usually all electrical devices, including batteries, are subject to safety certification so either their are considered to be safe or manufacturer has to review quality and safety of its products. 

I really wonder on which basis these new rules are made from. Did anyone saw any incident statistics, reports etc.. (apart Sony made laptop batteries) or is it just one additional constraints air travel passengers will have to deal with.

After lighters and matches in 06, liquids in 07, 08 will add batteries to the restriction list.

All details are here as well as the complete list of items with air travel restrictions

TGV tests Wi-Fi + satellite link in three TGV trains on its Eastern network. If the experiment proves successful the new service should be generalized, from 2009, to all 52 oars network East.

With combines effort of satellite link and wireless network, in locations, such tunnels and train stations, where the satellite link cannot be established, the wi-fi network takes over to maintain the access to the Web without interruption.

French railways company SNCF previously conducted unsuccessful test using GPRS data network before launching a 2 years research and preparation program to implement this dual solution. Among technical difficulties to overcome are these related to 320 km/h TGV trains speed which causes instability and vibrations. 

The project is done in a partnership with Orange(France Telecom mobile operator), Capgemini, Alstom Transport and Eutelsat.

SNCF will put on board of its TGV a dedicated Web portal providing information about destinations, weather forecast, News, traffic information as well as a real time tracking service. From a technical point of view, TGV trains are fitted with a server where all portal content is loaded prior the journey in order to minimize bandwidth consumption due to its high cost. The tested system has been designed to provide simultaneous web connection for 14 per cent (50 users) of the total capacity of each TGV train (350).

The business plan is not defined yet, but the widespread of the system on TGV Eastern Europe network would represent an investment of 120 millions USD over 4 years. First price estimation given by SNCF Passenger service would be a flat 4-5 USD to access the Web portal during the whole journey and a 4-5 USD per hour to access the Internet.

A very interesting project and definitively a real challenge to maintain permanent web connectivity during a train journey at more than 300 km/h where the 16'000 volt power line running over the train may also create some electro-magnetic interferences and without mentioning all micro interruptions of the satellite link each time the train pass under a bridge or when dense foliage is found within the satellite's line of sight.

Any reader who already had the chance to test the reliability of the service ?

More infos (in French): Journal du Net, CNet France.

British secret services MI5 warned UK businesses about Chinese hackers.

MI5 director-general wrote to 300 UK firms including Banks and law firms to warn them about "electronic espionage attacks" conducted by "Chinese state organizations".

IT Security company Sophos reports that 30 per cent of malware are "made in China". Trojan horses are designed to rob login credentials of anything including email and games. 

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) was already blamed in September 2007 for attacking governments computers of France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and United States, including Pentagon systems.

Trojan horses often target computers with unpatched vulnerabilities and without proper level of security deployed.  

The Chinese government has denied any involvement in the attacks and pointed its finger to unidentified hackers.

The question is now to discover if malware "made in China" are really powerful and smart of if attacked computers were the result of a serious lack of security and preventive protection measures.

Source: The Register 

Cory Doctorow wrote this Creative Commons-licensed fiction story for Radar Online magazine.

  Une version française est disponible ici

“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.” –Cardinal Richelieu

“We don’t know enough about you.” –Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he’d made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He’d emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he’d left the city a month before, he’d been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he’d slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration–Powered by Google.

“I thought that didn’t start until next month?” The man was alternately wearing and holding a large sombrero.

Googling at the border. Christ. Greg had vested out of Google six months before, cashing in his options and “taking some me time"–which turned out to be less rewarding than he’d expected. What he mostly did over the five months that followed was fix his friends’ PCs, watch daytime TV, and gain 10 pounds, which he blamed on being at home instead of in the Googleplex, with its well-appointed 24-hour gym.

He should have seen it coming, of course. The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn’t caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

The DHS officer had bags under his eyes and squinted at his screen, prodding at his keyboard with sausage fingers. No wonder it was taking four hours to get out of the god damned airport.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 years after Sanyo launched its Eneloop batteries, Duracell announces the introduction, on US market, of nickel metal hydride (NiMH) Pre-Charged Rechargeable batteries.

Designed specifically for use in high-drain gadgets including digital cameras, portable gaming devices and MP3 players, Pre-Charged Rechargeable batteries eliminate the need to charge cells before using them for the first time. In addition, these new batteries retains power for up to 365 days while not in use.

Street price: 13 USD for a pack of 4 

At least one third of the population in developing countries has no access to safe drinking water. The lack of adequate water supply and sanitation facilities causes a serious health hazard and exposes many to the risk of water-borne diseases, This situation led to about 4 billion cases of diarrhoea each year, out of which 2.5 million cases end in death. Every day about 6000 children die of dehydration due to diarrhoea.

INDEX 2007 Award winner Solar Bottle created by italian designers Alberto Medo and Francisco Gomez Paz uses the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection ) process, developed by the Department of Water and Sanitation at the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Research. SODIS principle works with the sun to allow UV-A radiation and increased temperature to destroy pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water.The Solar Bottle is made of slim PET, contains 4 liters of water and can be arranged back-to-back for carry. The handle allows balanced transport and is used as stand to provide optimal solar incidence.

Indeed, a less fashionable version of SODIS process using simple ordinary plastic bottles works well too but they are more difficult to carry and the surface exposed to sun radiations is lots smaller.

More about the Solar Bottle on InHabitat
More about SODIS on Eawag.

Sources: Inhabitat & Index

Finally, long waited HTC S620 (Excalibur) upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 has been released. This upgrade was already available in July for T-Mobile Dash users.

Windows Mobile 6 upgrade will provide the following new and improved features :

• Stay connected to your e-mail, calendar, and contacts.- Find what you need quickly and easily including business listings, maps and directions with Windows Mobile's powerful search and filtering features.
• Get access to corporate networks for data and documents stored on file shares and SharePoint sites.
• Fit your style with a variety of designs ranging from touch screen devices with slide out keyboards to sleek full-keyboard smartphones or compact flip phones.
• Receive HTML e-mail support, improved security and encryption, greater integration with Microsoft products including direct SharePoint® intranet access from e-mail links and superior connectivity to Windows Vista™.

45 MB upgrade package is available on HTC member page but be ready for a slow connection as I can imagine the server to be a bit overloaded with S620 and TyTN upgrade downloads.

More once upgrade completed
Update completed, first impressions posted

Source: HTC Club 

I just discovered on technogad the creation of South-Korean young designer JooYoun Paek: The Pillowig, a so called "portable sculpture" made in 2004…

…but Pillowig has a sense of "deja vu"…

27th of May 1931, swiss physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut August Piccard and his assistant Paul Kipfer on board of an atmospheric pressurized balloon took off and reached a record altitude of 15,785 m (51,775 ft).

In order to protect their heads from a potential harsh landing they were wearing an earlier version of the Pillowig

Gentlemen, Chapeau !

Sources : Wikipedia, Technogad, Swissinfo.

ContentRobot has released earlier last week a WordPress plugin (requires WP 2.2.1) that would allow iPhone visitors to optimally view WordPress blogs. The iWPhone plugin comes with its own theme which will automatically reformats blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone.

Feature List

• Formats your blog content for optimized viewing on the iPhone.
• Automatically detects the iPhone’s Safari browser and only displays the custom theme to iPhone visitors, other visitors get your standard theme.
• Simple iPhone-like theme with common interface elements that compliments the iPhone’s internal applications.
• Images larger then 300 pixels wide are automatically scaled down to fit the iPhone optimized width.

If you don't own an iPhone, you can review the reformated site using a small application called iPhoney but so far you need to have Mac OS X 10.4.7 (or later) and Safari installed on it as Windows version of iPhoney is not available yet.

Note: As I don't have a MAC nor an iPhone, feedback from iPhone owners about presentation my site would be highly appreciated

Sources: ContentRobot, MarketCircle, Fran6Art