MIND|DROPS

Now over the loop..

MzC — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:49:58 +0000

Blog migration just completed, from mindrops.org to overtheloop.org.

Don’t forget to update your feed!!

The Way of Man

MzC — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:13:00 +0000

There are three principles in a man’s being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don’t do what I say.

Martin Buber in “The way of man according to the teachings of Hasidism”

Thanks Claudio for having passed this book on to me..

The Way of Man, According to the Teachings of Hasidism) 1948

Disassebling my Nokia N80

MzC — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:22:23 +0000

My mobile phone suddenly died, after 3 years of excellent service, just showing a fixed white screen. The following video explains in great detail (in a way which may even seem ridiculous, as when it indicates carefully the order of the screws which need to be removed..) how to disassembly a Nokia N80, component by component. Then, if you can spot or just think of a fixable damage, you can give it a try and find the broken part. In my case the chief suspect was the flex ribbon cable connecting the display to the motherboard, very common in slide phones. So I bought a new one for just 3 euro, replaced the old one and finally got the phone repaired.

I could not leave my old Nokia as it was, lifeless and with no warranty..

Browser fingerprint

MzC — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:55:24 +0000

Apparently even the browsers leave a sort of fingerprint during the navigation, page after page, and the one sown by my fox seems to be unique among those so far analyzed by Panopticlick..

Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 741,598 tested so far.

Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 19.5 bits of identifying information.

With all the complexity today’s browsers can reach through the integration of various plugins and the configuration of advanced functionalities, of course linked to the preferences of users, each client can easily become unique in the eyes of the servers and identifiable and/or traceable over the Internet, with in theory no protection for the privacy of the user..

Has anyone got a non-unique fingerprint as a result?

Ad personam

MzC — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:44:10 +0000

Following below an opinion poll I’ve decided to create in TwtPoll (originally started by Francesco in his blog), basically asking to choose among four recently approved ad personam laws which one is the worst dirty trick invented by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Hope you manage to find more information on Internet, in case you want to know more..

Top 25 most dangerous programming errors

MzC — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:57:40 +0000

On the official website of Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) you can freely consult a community developed dictionary of software weakness types. Following below the list of 25 most dangerous programming errors updated to 2010, certainly a valid reference for any developer.

The 2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors is a list of the most widespread and critical programming errors that can lead to serious software vulnerabilities. They are often easy to find, and easy to exploit. They are dangerous because they will frequently allow attackers to completely take over the software, steal data, or prevent the software from working at all [...]

Rank	Score	ID	Name
[1]	346	CWE-79	Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure (‘Cross-site Scripting’)
[2]	330	CWE-89	Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command (‘SQL Injection’)
[3]	273	CWE-120	Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (‘Classic Buffer Overflow’)
[4]	261	CWE-352	Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
[5]	219	CWE-285	Improper Access Control (Authorization)
[6]	202	CWE-807	Reliance on Untrusted Inputs in a Security Decision
[7]	197	CWE-22	Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (‘Path Traversal’)
[8]	194	CWE-434	Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
[9]	188	CWE-78	Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an OS Command (‘OS Command Injection’)
[10]	188	CWE-311	Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data
[11]	176	CWE-798	Use of Hard-coded Credentials
[12]	158	CWE-805	Buffer Access with Incorrect Length Value
[13]	157	CWE-98	Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program (‘PHP File Inclusion’)
[14]	156	CWE-129	Improper Validation of Array Index
[15]	155	CWE-754	Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
[16]	154	CWE-209	Information Exposure Through an Error Message
[17]	154	CWE-190	Integer Overflow or Wraparound
[18]	153	CWE-131	Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size
[19]	147	CWE-306	Missing Authentication for Critical Function
[20]	146	CWE-494	Download of Code Without Integrity Check
[21]	145	CWE-732	Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
[22]	145	CWE-770	Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
[23]	142	CWE-601	URL Redirection to Untrusted Site (‘Open Redirect’)
[24]	141	CWE-327	Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
[25]	138	CWE-362	Race Condition

Landing in Ireland

MzC — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:10:12 +0000

Well. I think they really do..

UPDATE 16/03/2010 – Video no longer available..

And Java eventually became red

MzC — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:31:48 +0000

I knew about the acquisition of Sun Microsystems recently accomplished by Oracle Corporation but I could not imagine such a strong rebranding, so here is how http://java.sun.com/ looks like now..

Even the address http://www.sun.com/ appears to redirect to http://www.oracle.com/ ..

Hoping that Duke will survive after all these huge movements (and that our certifications won’t soon “expire” at least, joking of course..), I wish this big business operation won’t result negative for one of the main technologies object of this acquisition, the Java platform, a language which has definitely marked the history of object-oriented programming and third generation programming languages.

Google Buzz vs Twitter

MzC — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:42:03 +0000

I’ve just come up to use this brand-new service just released by Big G named Google Buzz, so I’m going to report here some first impressions trying to make a quick comparison with Twitter, along with I think Google Buzz is sharing the basic idea (but probably only that). Anyway, I’m not going to talk about FriendFeed (which is probably more similar) but just because I’m not using it, or about Facebook and other popular social networks.

Like Twitter the key concepts are very simple:

There are followers and following people
You can share short messages

Unlike Twitter:

There is no limit to the number of characters you can type in (140 in T.)
The service is embedded within a mailbox platform (T. offers integration through its APIs) *
Messages are editable after the submission
You can post private messages
You can insert images from your computer or picasaweb (with T. you need to use additional services like TwitPic)
You can share videos and see them from inside the messages (eg. Youtube videos)
You can express appreciation through the button like/unlike
You can hide a conversation through the option mute/unmute
You can continue or just move a conversation to a chat (GTalk) or to emails

Google Buzz confirms again Google’s main goal, gather as many users as possible to enlarge the network and increase the time adopters spend on the offered services. In fact this new service will soon provide Google with more information about users’ behaviors and preferences, obviously resulting in more earnings in terms of advertising (main Google’s business). My only question is: will Google Buzz be used as a “real” social network? It’s not easy to fit into a market already dominated by many other competitors, even though with Gmail I have to admit things have gone pretty well.

* UPDATE - Google Buzz APIs also available.

Ireland vs Italy at Croke Park

MzC — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:42:26 +0000

Great atmosphere, unfortunately I could not watch the match..

IRELAND 29 – ITALY 11