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Visitors to Olympus' UK Facebook page were met with some "BREAKING NEWS!!" on Friday. According to the post, the camera maker is developing a new DSLR that would theoretically offer focusing performance on par with the OM-D, while providing native compatibility with the company's high-end Zuiko Digital ED lenses, such as the 90-250mm f/2.8. We reached out to Olympus reps in the US, who added the following:
"A new camera body is currently under study to complement our line of Zuiko Digital Specific Four Thirds lenses. However, Olympus has NOT issued a press release on this new camera body."
With Photokina just a month away, it's unclear whether or not this new mystery DSLR will make its debut there, but it's certainly a possibility. As for looks -- that's anyone's guess, though the company's social media arm opted to include a picture of the E-5, which serves as Olympus' current full-size flagship. You'll find the full Facebook post at the source link below.


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All purchases will go through eBay secured checkout to ensure that your order is processed without any delays. After you have made your purchase you can either click on 'pay now' or follow the instructions in an automated email that you will receive shortly after your purchase. During the checkout, you can make an immediate payment by PayPal or select an alternative method of payment, and receive the necessary payment details.
All payments accepted in '£' Sterling only and include VAT on the total purchase cost when using PayPal.
We DO NOT accept payments by cheque.
We can take payment by credit or debit card but not by American Express due to their high handling charges.
Please note: If you have already marked payment as sent then you MUST mark as payment not sent otherwise the PAY NOW button will not be available.

subset: commoncrawl


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MADRID, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Radar signal detection systems and low probability intercept radar systems by Indra of Spain are being installed on Indonesian submarines.
Indra reports the contract for the systems was given it by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.
The systems will be installed on three Type 209 vessels of the Indonesian navy and are worth more than $13.6 million.
"The electronic defense system will enable the submarines to detect and analyze any radar signals there might be in their surroundings and identify the type of vessel, submarine or aircraft they correspond to," Indra said.
"It is a Radar Electronic Support Measurement system based on broadband digital reception technology. This type of processing guarantees high sensitivity for the system, even in a dense electromagnetic environment and extremely quick analysis capabilities."
Spain, Germany and Italy have chosen Indra's system for a number of vessels.


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Terceira Island, also known as Ilha Lilás, is a Portuguese Island with a thriving local community and a mountainous forest region. Its volcanic history makes it a popular destination for science lovers, and its average summer temperature of 26°C makes it popular with summer holidaymakers. Book your flight to Terceira with TAP Air Portugal today and save big!
Terceira has a bus schedule that provides daily bus services throughout the entire island. Taxis are available but buses prove extremely popular with tourists and locals. To start your journey in style, and on budget, book your flight to Terceira with TAP Air Portugal today!


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Germany's vice chancellor is struggling to quell speculation about his leadership of the country's junior governing party, whose dire poll ratings are a complicating factor as Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks re-election this year.
Philipp Roesler, who is also Germany's economy minister, appealed to his pro-market Free Democratic Party on Sunday to show unity ahead of a state election in his home region of Lower Saxony on Jan. 20, an important political test ahead of national elections in September.
Polls suggest the center-left opposition has a good chance of winning Lower Saxony from Merkel's center-right alliance, largely because the FDP is very weak, and claiming a significant boost ahead of the national vote.
Speaking at a traditional New Year party rally in Stuttgart, Roesler portrayed his party — which opposes government intervention in the economy — as the only one which defends traditional German economic principles. The FDP is, he said, "the economic policy corrective in this government."
The party has often talked particularly tough on the eurozone debt crisis, and Roesler stressed anew its vehement opposition to pooling European countries' debt.
The FDP became Merkel's junior governing partner when it won nearly 15 percent of the vote in Germany's 2009 election with a campaign that focused heavily on substantial tax cuts. It failed to achieve them and received much of the blame for frequent squabbling in the coalition; it currently polls just below the 5 percent needed to win parliamentary seats both nationally and in Lower Saxony.
Roesler became party leader and vice chancellor in May 2011, when he declared that "starting today, the FDP will deliver."
That has haunted him as the party flatlined in polls, while Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats are strong and the chancellor is fortified by her handling of the debt crisis and a strong economy. Merkel's center-right coalition lacks a majority in national polls, but they suggest she may well be able to keep power after September by seeking a new partner.
Speculation has swirled for months that Roesler, 39, would have to go if the FDP does badly in Lower Saxony, and carping from members has intensified recently. Development Minister Dirk Niebel vented his frustration about the situation in a speech to Sunday's event, insisting that the party can't wait until a scheduled convention in May to choose its election campaign team.
"Things can't carry on in the FDP as they are now," he said. "It tears me up inside when I see the state of my, our FDP."
Roesler said that credibility is "also a question of style, fairness and solidarity." He urged the party to "send a signal that we are ready to fight together" in Germany's election year.


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"CID arrays offer considerable promise in many applications due to the focal plane architecture that allows random pixel access and non-destructive readout," said Ninkov, a member of RIT's Center for Detectors and Future Photon Initiative. "In addition to improving presently available devices, the development of next-generation imaging arrays promise considerable flexibility in read-out and on-chip processing for the future."
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, on Feb. 19, carried the charge injection device to the International Space Station in the cargo of supplies and science experiments. Astronauts have installed the camera on a platform outside the space station. They will test the camera for six months.
"We expect to start seeing results by the end of April," said Batcheldor, lead scientist on the project. "A complex test pattern will be sent from a successfully operated camera through the ISS systems and down to the ground. A successful demonstration of CIDs on the International Space Station will put this technology at the NASA Technology Readiness Level 8, which means it's ready to fly as a primary instrument on a future space telescope."
Batcheldor is a former post-doctoral research associate in RIT's School of Physics and Astronomy and a former associate research scientist in RIT's Center for Imaging Science. He and Ninkov have worked together on this experiment for years. They previously have tested charge injection devices from ground-based observatories. Limitations created by the Earth's atmosphere prevent the sensor from capturing images sharp enough to detect planets in other solar systems, Batcheldor noted.


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Big Brains For Rent is the branding for the combined consulting services of Intelligent Assistance, Inc. bringing together the brilliant brains of Dr Gregory Clarke and Philip Hodgetts to bear on your consulting needs. Intelligent Assistance is primarily a Systems and Technologies company.
Big Brains For Rent specializes in three areas:
- Video post-production workflow and Custom Software development;
- Encoding workflow and settings for internet, TV, new media and podcasting; and
- New internet distribution.
Big Brains For Rent has a unique set of skills to bring to bear on any Metadata/Post Production Workflow/video/Internet/RSS related problem associated with digital content production and distribution.


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Bring a powerful burst of style into your home with this fantastic tapered triple gourd butter glaze ceramic table lamp.
Additional Info:
Constructed in the U.S.A., this beautiful tapered triple gourd base ceramic table lamp will brighten up your home with the elegance of contemporary style. Finished in a vibrant butter glaze with a square clear lucite stand below that plays off the soft pearl dupioni fabric shade on top. A sophisticated and tasteful design from Robert Abbey.


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Control - You must learn control!
Some GM/DM/ST Advice:
The Monolog
There are times when you are running a game, and you set up the great encounter facing the big bad evil guy and the guy is about to spill the beans on his master plans. Cliché to the max but it happens. Ok there is always one smart ass player that will want to shoot him before he is done. As a rule of thumb just ask to not attack until after the monolog. This will solve a lot of issues.
I've come to the recent conclusion about my own styles lately.
I'm a dice chucker and this is why. If there were no stats there would be no dice and there wouldn't be a game. It would only be an interactive story. During yesterday's chat room game Dan/Sabby was facing an angry mob of 38. For the purist role player he played his character. He decided to retreat back into the store front and talk with the people. The clues that were presented to him (getting shot at 38 times and only


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A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
? - 1899
Historical Period:
The 19th Century
Lalor is best known as the editor of the mammoth three volume cyclopedia of economics and political science which he published in the late 19th century. He also wrote his own primer of political economy and translated works on musical biography, law, and economics from the German; most notably Roscher's Principles of Political Economy and Ihering's The Struggle for Law. See the table of contents of Lalor's Cyclopedia here.


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This week's Spotifriday playlist features the likes of Wilco, Presidents of the United States of America, Johnny Foreigner, Ben Frost, Africa Hitech and then a few more. Click here to listen to it.
1. Wilco - 'Open Mind'
Wilco recently played a couple of shows in London, both at the Roundhouse. I hear they went down well. If you weren't there but wondered what it looked like, or were there and fancied getting a closer look then you should have a look at this photo set from from one of the nights.
2. Thomas Dolby - 'Road To Reno'
Thomas Dolby is perhaps one of those guys who should be a lot more celebrated than they actually are. Either way, if you want a great deal of insight into the man himself and his new record, A Map Of The Floating City, then it'd be a good idea to start with Joseph Stannard's review of it. Just saying.
3. Johnny Foreigner - 'Hulk Hoegaarden, Gin Kinsella, David Duvodkany, Etc'
This may well be the worst song title of all time, although I admit it does raise a least a little chuckle for its complete silliness. Still, it's taken from their newest and third full-length record, which was released on Monday this week. It's pretty good, but don't take my word for it, take someone else's.
4. Ben Frost - '4 Good Reasons To Leave All Of This Behind'
There is not a great deal of Ben Frost's music on Spotify, which may be a good or bad thing. In fact this is the only 'proper' track. It's taken from a great little compilation called On Isolation which, I believe, is actually out of print. So check it out on Spotify. Anyway, Frost is included as his album with Daniel Bjarnason, Sólaris, was released earlier this week. Read a (my) review of it here.
5. Slayer - 'Angel of Death'
Nine times out of ten I end up mistyping "Slayer", either writing it as my own surname or a mixture of that and the band's name. It's quite frustrating, and has been even more so this week as the band have been announced to headline a night at ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror festival, 2012 edition. Also on the bill: Guided By Voices and Codeine.
6. The Presidents of the United States of America - 'Lump'
So, the Presidents of the United States of America are to give their self-titled debut album the "Don't Look Back" treatment, although not in association with ATP, you understand. They'll be performing it in full in the UK next year, on a selection of dates. Click here to find out when and where they are.
7. Lindstrøm - 'Where You Go I Go Too Part I (Prins Thomas Remix)'
This, my friends, is a particularly long track, in comparison to the couple before it. It's certainly no worse off for it, though. It does all the things you'd expect a Prins Thomas remix to do, thankfully enough. Lindstrøm will release a new album in February next year. Click here for more information.
8. Laura Marling - 'Night After Night'
Does anybody get the feeling that Laura Marling's career trajectory appears to be heading downwards rather than upwards? Or is that just me? Still, it's not like her latest record was actually bad, just perhaps not as good as the previous one, which in turn...anyway. There are some photos of her recent cathedral tour here.
9. David Lynch - 'Football Game'
David Lynch bloody loves football, doesn't he? Or does he? Perhaps you can find out in our review of his album Crazy Clown Time.
10. Africa Hitech - 'Do U Wanna Fight'
OK, so this isn't the Single of the Week, but the title is remarkably similar. I'm not entirely sure what the differences are but I think they are two versions of the same song. Either way, 'Do You Really Wanna Fight' was Wendy Roby's top favourite of the week, writing that she reckons "wise and larksome enough to convince a mob" to not fight. Could happen.
Click here to listen to this week's playlist and here to browse through our extensive archive of them.
Main photo by Alison Harger


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Well, it's officially raining pumpkin in my inbox. You guys are amazing! I asked for pumpkin and I got pumpkin. Seriously? My thighs are growing with each email I open. I'll probably have pick my top three and go from there. But who knows, we have a month and a half till Thanksgiving! Yummy. Many thanks for sharing your recipes!
And speaking of rain….or the sky….or things that are spooky and fall-like….here's what my kids woke up to this morning….
Hundreds of little bats, making their way into our kitchen,
checking out our pumpkin,
and making us all smile (if bats can really do that).
We're simply batty over here!
Too much? Okay.
So, I don't usually decorate for Halloween, as in the creepy coffins and skeletons kind of way. But I was inspired by this idea on Country living. And I tried it out. And I loved it so much, I'm sharing the steps with you!
It's very easy to do:
• First download a free template HERE. Then print the page from your home computer, cut it out, and now you have a pattern piece.
• Use black cardstock or construction paper. This package of all-black cardstock is perfect. (affiliate link)
• Fold the cardstock/paper in half and lay the bat template "on the fold" as indicated on the template.
• Cut out your bats! Don't bother with tracing–that takes way too long. Just hold the pattern on there as you cut. Doesn't need to be exact.
When you're done you have these cool little guys! I cut out about 100 bats.
And if you spend a couple hours at the park cutting while the kids play, then you have even more to hang on the outside of your house.
I probably need another hour at the park to cut out more….so they fly all the way up to the door.
When you're done cutting, hang them up by applying a small piece of scotch tape or double-stick tape on the back. If you're hanging them outside, use duct tape.
NOTE: our outdoor bats are starting to sag a bit today (I put them up last night) and I'm not sure if it's the Texas humidity or they just don't last long in general (outside). Laminated paper would be perfect but sheesh. Who wants to do that much work?
The inside bats, however, are still going strong and look great.
Arrange them in any fashion you like. Bats usually fly in a stream, following each other.
And if you've ever been to Austin, you know that we're known for our bats!!
A year ago before we moved here, Casey and I were downtown hanging out on a dock by the river and just happened to glance up to this amazing sight:
Every night around dusk, millions of bats emerge from under the Congress Bridge (where they've been chirping and hiding all day) and they fly off to find food. They follow each other in a stream like this for an hour! It's truly an amazing sight; I've never seen anything like it.
What I'd like to know is, which bat is the first one to yell out "go time!" I'm sure the hundreds of spectators waiting for them to fly out would like to know so we can plan our evening a little better.
Who knew bats could look so pretty?
Especially at night, by candlelight.
Enjoy your bat sightings!
Check out all of our Halloween house decor HERE, use these 5 tutorials:


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A California city has selected a medical marijuana dispensary owner to be mayor over its 7,500 residents, and officials believe he's the first dispensary owner in the nation to hold that post.
The Sebastopol City Council selected 36-year-old Robert Jacob as mayor on Tuesday in a unanimous vote. Jacob is the founder and executive director of Peace in Medicine, which operates two dispensaries in Sonoma County.
Jacob has been on the city council for two years, and most recently was vice mayor. He's worked to create statewide dispensary regulations. He was out of town on Friday and couldn't immediately be reached for in-person comment. But he did issue a statement after being selected for the new post.
MORE: Angry Customer Rams Van into Pot Dispensary
"My life has been about service," Jacob said. "By addressing social problems such as homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and access to medical cannabis, we can shape a better world for ourselves."
Sebastopol is a small city about 50 miles north of San Francisco, known for liberal politics and small-town charm. It may be best known for its lush plum and apple growing capabilities. It's known locally for its annual Apple Blossom Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair.
The new mayor outlined many of his mayoral goals: Increasing the diversity of local business and prioritizing pedestrian improvements and road maintenance.
Jacob, a self-described champion of the "disenfranchised," said that he also wants to help patients "who need safe access to medical cannabis."
"As a mayor," he wrote as a guest commentator in the Sonoma County Gazette, "I can facilitate even more public policy work in my efforts to providing help to those in need."
Americans for Safe Access, which advocates for safe and legal access to therapeutic marijuana, called Jacob's selection as mayor historic and unprecedented.
"This historic, unprecedented vote in Sebastopol illustrates that the medical marijuana community has political strength and the influence to elect advocates to public office," Don Duncan, California Director with Americans for Safe Access, the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy group said in a statement. "Although medical marijuana enjoys the support of 80 percent of Americans, Jacob's election as mayor of Sebastopol brings additional legitimacy to the patient community."
After opening Peace in Medicine in 2007, Jacob began serving on the Sebastopol Planning Commission in 2011, then successfully ran for city council in 2012.


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Investing is like a coin flip game: it's a two-faced gamble. You can either gain tremendously or lose a fortune. That is why some people who do not want risks do not want to venture off into investing. Some more would say that investments lead to income that only equal the costs so why bother investing in a no-profit transaction. And even some more who don't believe that investments lead to income at all. But for those who really want to secure future finances find investing as the best way to do so and all one has to do is to learn how to properly invest and to invest in the proper company at that. And that these risk-takers find their investments to be really rewarding.
A Present Dilemma
Seeing New York Times' article on Generation's X and Y on investing, it is without a doubt, a dilemma that young would-be investors are facing. Fidelity's Millionaire Outlook found that Gen X and Gen Y were deeply engaged in managing their money, though that engagement was not necessarily paired with a deep knowledge of investing. Technical knowledge on investing can be covered by seminars and tangible references; however, the mindset of our young investors is something we need to change.
Aside from the knowledge of investing and the luck that comes along in every case, what spells the difference between a successful and failure in investing is the social cost that one would either luxuriously expend for, or would thriftily ignore.
Social costs are those you incur in order to fit in and be with the crowd – the in crowd, so to speak. The relationship of this in investment is that you give up or at least control your social spending in order to bring out the best to reach your financial goals. Think about it, you would not be able to save anything if you keep on spending what you can add to your money stash. Even if you invest a million dollars in a stable company that can give you 10% or $100,000 annually but spend $99,000 then would it not have been better to have invested to that which can yield $1000 a year?
The Social Aspect of Investing
Investing is a science. You would be able to see signs for ups and downs in the financial charts if you try to learn about it. You could withdraw your funds when you expect the company to fail or increase them when you expect a boom. But your knowledge would do you no good if you have no control over your social spending. Social spending embodies those unnecessary wants that we just need to be cool and trendy. Such needless money-burning will really determine whether or not you would have success in your journey to investing.
Take this as an example, Felix and Christopher are both working in New York, with the same profession. The two equally receive $7000 a month as salaries. Felix buys $1000 worth of stocks every month, each yielding 10% or $10 annually. Christopher, on the other hand, does not save at all. Christopher goes for a shopping spree every salary day and he makes sure that he has the latest gadget there is. His expenses are almost equal to his wage, but other people think of him as very rich because he can afford these luxuries.
One summer, the two decided to go mountaineering. They geared up and were set to go on their little adventure. But while they're at it, they had an accident and suffered injuries. Both were rushed to the hospital. Who do you think can afford the bills? It's sure that both can pay their bills but Felix won't be as tight in the pocket as Christopher would be. What more if the place they're working on disallow them to work for a few months? Christopher would be in quite a trouble but Felix wouldn't be. Depending on the terms with the financial institution he'd invested in, Felix could recover his money, enabling him to survive until he can work again.
But poor Christopher, since he spent so much on social costs, he will be forced to depend on his family for some time. This is how our social costs hamper our aim to be financially free. We are blinded by our wants instead of focusing on what we need. We tend to buy too much of anything because it's a way of flaunting one's riches. Spending sprees are short term gains only. If we learn how to properly allocate our budget and continue to expand our earning opportunities, then we can see ourselves retiring early, or even just retiring free from worries of financial problems.
Weighing the Reasons Behind Spending
It doesn't matter if you socially spend a bit. It's not bad at all to have some gadgets that could help you out in your activities and for a little entertainment. But don't overspend just to show off because this will cost you what should have been your savings to be used on unexpected needs like hospitalization or house and car repairs. Learn to spend wisely and save while you're at it! Because if you think you can always find money lying on the ground, then buddy, I think you're stuck in a video game!
Read More From NerdWallet:
- How to Open An Online Brokerage Account in 5 Steps
- Study: 81% of Americans Don't Know How to Open an Online Brokerage Account
- NerdWallet's Recommended Brokers for Penny Stock Trading
Story by Guest Contributor Jason Boden of Action Binary
maxhphoto / Shutterstock.com


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No shopping yesterday AND I managed to avoid the grocery store. 🙂 My kids and I went to see the Sno-cone Lady, then went to the library, and they actually wanted to sit there and read for a long time. Wow, that was nice. Much better than being in a store hearing, "Mom, can we get this?" I guess I should mention that during prayer time last night, after my kids prayed for all of the needy people to have what they need, Joe did also pray for the new iPad he wants. Oh well, at least he prayed for the important stuff before wedging in the electronics.
I received some good info from some friends yesterday, so that's what I would like to highlight today.
Thrift store gift cards
Maria facebooked me that The Colony's reSale shop has gift cards. I shop (treasure hunt) there regularly and I had no idea they had those. Here's the link on their website, and they have a 20% off coupon! If you are not in the north Texas area, check your local thrift stores. What a great gift idea! These could also be a good thing to carry around with your fast food gift cards to give out to homeless people.
Recycle your bras
Yes, that's what I said. Here's the message Brenda sent…
Just heard about a company that recycles used bras! very cool. maybe you can include in your trash society blog. they area for profit company that also donates to women's shelters, etc but theyare for profit….but still it's cool, I normally throw mine away but they take the fabric and wire and remake them. the name of the company is bossom buddies or something like that …i believe they said they were from arizona.
Here's the website… http://brarecycling.org/ I usually send mine to the thrift store, but I plan to send some here. I suppose, that is, when I can actually part with the 7- year old tattered things.
Thanks you guys for sending this info!


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TOWAMENCIN - Draw control was never more crucial than in the final minutes of the District One girls lacrosse first-round game between North Penn and Upper Dublin on Tuesday.
Clinging on to an 8-7 lead, the 15th-seeded Maidens needed to make a few more stops over the last two minutes to end the 18th-seeded Flying Cardinals' seasons. However, the Redbirds really wanted to give two of their sidelined starters a chance to return from injury and play at least one more game.
The Cardinals were short a few players because of a minor car accident the night prior, but not short of determination. With two goals in the final 24 seconds the Suburban One League American Conference champs defeated North Penn 9-8.
'The team could have given up or gone for broke,' Cardinals coach Dee Cross said. 'The girls that were in the car accident are fine, but they could not play today. They were just sore. We put girls in today that really have not played all season and they played their hearts out.'
The Cardinals (15-4) won the final draw control, giving them a 9-8 advantage for the game. Junior Kayla McAneny sprinted toward the Maidens' goal and dished off to Shelby Kenney for the game winner with 11 seconds remaining. Kenney scored two goals, while McAneney had four goals to go with two assists.
'North Penn played a great pressure defense on us and we could not play our attack,' Cross said. 'Kayla usually does not score for us, but had to be moved to a midi.'
A large reason the Cardinals could not run away with the game was Maidens senior Lauren Green. While her teammates struggled to find the back of net, Green never allowed her team to trail by more than one goal. Her five goals forced the Flying Cardinals to face-guard the attacker.
'Lauren Green seems like the only player on our team that was able put it in the back of the net,' Maidens coach Jami Wilus Behm said. 'You need a go-to player in the district playoffs, but we also needed to play like a team. We did not play like a team in all facets today.'
The Cardinals' Dominique Green-Coleman was assigned the Maidens' main source of scoring and it did force the second place squad from the SOL Conference to look elsewhere. Goals by Brittany Tyson and Juliana Hill came 27 seconds apart in the 48th minute of action.
'Dominique normally would play midfield for us and we had her playing defense,' Cross said. 'We have face guarded teams all season, but it usually is not her.'
While Tyson and Hill's heroics did not last long it was clear the Maidens were going to fight to the end. They finished the season 13-5 overall, but never had the same chemistry, specifically offensively without junior midfielder Kaitlin Suzuki.
'We shot right at the goalie,' Wilus Behm said. 'We have not found an offensive leader after Kailtin Suzuki went down in the middle of the season with a knee injury. We had our opportunities and if we would have shot well it would have been a different game.'


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Get Social On Spotify With New Swarm.fm App
Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.
Spotify rolled out a new app last week: Swarm.fm, which adds new social music features to both Spotify and Facebook, and offers a plethora of powerful features for actively discovering music from your friends, or sitting back and turning just about anything in the service, from tags to friends, into a personalized radio service that also reflects your own taste.
If you haven't heard of Swarm.fm before, that's probably because it's been hiding in stealth mode until this release, which constitutes "the first glimpse into Swarm.fm," according to the start-up. The Swarm.fm app (video below) bridges gaps that previously existed between Spotify, Facebook, and your friends, allowing you to see and hear what all of your Facebook friends have been listening to in any Facebook-Connected music service — i.e. not just Spotify.
"I can confirm 100 percent that it works with Rdio, Songza, etc.," Swarm.fm co-founder Peter Watts told Evolver.fm. "Anything that publishes here."
Swarm.fm Spotify App Tour
And that's just the beginning. To get started, you don't have to authorize Facebook, but the app works better if you do because most (all?) of us have more friends in Facebook than we do in Spotify's own social network. (Watts and co-founder Andrew Dever promise that the app won't post stuff to your wall.) Regardless of how you register, Swarm.fm offers a short tutorial about each tab, which is crucial, because there's a lot going on here.
Swarm.fm's Spotify app represents the culmination of quite a bit of evolution, from a neat Chrome extension that put play buttons all over Facebook even before Facebook launched its big music initiative last fall, to a music hack that won 10 grand at a Music Hack Day earlier this year, to this, today's release within Spotify, which signifies the first time the whole vision has been realized, according to Watts and Dever, who are not shy about extolling the virtues of their creation.
Why are these people so excited? Swarm.fm's Spotify app promises the following:
"Powerful Aggregation
See what friends are listening to, liking and sharing online, even if they don't use Spotify or Swarm.fm
Relevant Activity
'Mute' friends with bad taste, and stay connected with those you care about
Personalized Releases
Brand new albums from artists you love, as they happen
Artist Profiles
Explore rich artist profiles, with music, photos, tags and friends' activity
Friend Profiles
Dive deep into a friend's collection, or play their favorites as an instant mix
Radio Mixes
Listen to personalised mixes from any genre, mood, year or artist.
Instant Browse & Search
Quickly navigate your music library, including artists, friends and tags
Your Swarm
Access your Spotify, Facebook and Swarm.fm favorites, all in one place"
It's one thing to promise the world, and another to deliver it. So, how did Swarm.fm stack up?
Overall, we found that it definitely added powerful social features to not just Spotify but Facebook too, that were otherwise missing. As I write this, I'm listening to an album from my old coworker's band, Wooden Shjips, which I had somehow not known about. Really, that's proof enough that it works — if I actually know a person and didn't know about their album, a social music app would do well to let me know about it. That's just what Swarm.fm did, in minutes.
We found the Home screen to present a nice dashboard of what's going on today with our friends, and with the artists in our "swarm" — basically, what we and our friends are listening to. Thankfully, you can "mute" friends if you don't like their taste, and they'll never be the wiser.
You'll also see new releases (and just about everything else in this app) personalized to your taste based on past Spotify behavior and local music library; Recent additions; artist profiles based on your taste (this worked great); and a tags section (which delivered an awesome krautrock selection).
This versatility means you can either "lean forward" by actively seeing what your friends are listening to and researching artists to add to your own playlists — and you can play their activity not just on Spotify, but on any other Facebook Connect music service, which is the first time we've seen that.
Or, you can "lean back" by turning any artist, friend, tag, year, or mood into a playlist/radio stream — all of which are informed by your own previous Spotify listening. (Swarm.fm uses APIs from Last.fm and The Echo Nest, publisher of Evolver.fm for some of this.) And from the Friends section, you can also listen to instant mixes based on their favorite tracks, or delve into their entire collection of Spotify playlists. You can also do the latter in Spotify's own social network, but again, you're likely to have many more Facebook friends, which makes this a new feature too. On top of that, Swarm.fm has its own social network, so if you just want to add someone in Swarm.fm to track their music, but don't want to go so far as to "friend" them, you can.
The Activity page is our favorite aspect of this app, because as mentioned up-top, it gives you something that neither Facebook nor Spotify does on its own: a simple, unified interface for seeing what your friends Liked on Facebook, or listened to in Spotify or any other Facebook Connected music service, and turning all of that into easy on-demand listening playlists or radio stations. This activity is sliced into three categories: Recommendations (the stuff you're likely to like, which worked great); Top Friends (these are people on Facebook or Swarm.fm whom you pick manually); and All Activity (a combination).
Finally, Swarm.fm puts all of your own Facebook artist Likes, Spotify starred songs, and Swarm.fm favorites in one place, so you can more conveniently keep track of your own taste, in addition to that of your friends on all three social networks. Whew.
You can try the Swarm.fm app now by going here, or by installing it from the Spotify App Finder.


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Black Bat Costume Photo 4 of 9
Rate this costume:
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|Costume type:
|Costumes for Boys
This homemade costume for boys entered our 2013 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Kenneth, the 'Black Bat' costume creator:
After fearing daddy's Bat for several years it must have rubbed off on him, lol. Buddy boy at age 7 allowed dad to paint and glue prosthetics to his face and head. We went to... Read more »


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Hilary Alexander hosts Fashion For The Brave 2013
This year I attended Fashion for the Brave, which was held at The Dorchester Hotel. HRH Princess Beatrice is a patron and she attended the event in a black evening dress with buttons on dress, giving it a military influence. Her table was next to mine – she's quite beautiful and elegant in person. The black tieContinue reading


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What is the scope of Cisco certifications? How is the demand and job market scenario?
The average salary for a Cisco certified professional with work experience ranges from $70k to $110k and for beginners, the average salary is $50k to $75k.
According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for IT professionals holding a Cisco certification will experience an 8% growth up to 2024.
Cisco Systems are leading in network technologies and holding a certification offered by Cisco will be highly beneficial for a professional striving to make a successful career in the networking field.
The CCDE® certificate helps in assessing and advancing network infrastructure design, principles, and fundamentals that are required for large networks. The CCDE® certificate confirms that one has deep technical networking knowledge that is helpful in network infrastructure.
This certification tests your ability in performance design and is accepted worldwide as one of the most prestigious networking certifications in the industry.
The Cisco Certified Design Expert certificate can be taken up by those professionals who want confidence and credibility by showcasing their knowledge. Some of the objectives of this course are:
It helps to validate one's knowledge across several different key areas
It helps in applying network design methodologies
It helps in describing what software-defined networks are and provides a solution
It helps in applying network design concepts of modularity and hierarchy
It helps in creating and designing a resilient and scalable Campus network
It helps in providing connectivity between parts of the enterprise network
It helps in integrating and collaborating wireless infrastructure into core networking.
Helps one in acquiring knowledge
advances your career opportunities and career path
Enhances job opportunities and credibility
It helps you get accredited as a certified professional of the world-renowned professional group.
Helps any professional to demonstrate their technical expertise and advance their career
Validate skills and knowledge in the computing platform
It helps in getting listed as top certifications worldwide.
This certification boosts one's self-esteem.
It helps in integrating and collaborating infrastructure into core networking.
It helps in identification and helps in the application of technical and business requirements.
It helps in identifying the missing information and requirements
It helps in dealing with merger and acquisition and migration design
If you are looking for ways to advance your career and becoming an expert in designing, getting CCDE® certification is the best option.
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CCDE® written exam:
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CCDE Practical Exam is an 8-hour, scenario-based design exam
Note - The Practical Exam can be taken up only when one passes the written exam.
The CCDE certification is valid for a period of 2 years.
The CCDE exam has no specific prerequisites.
Yes, completion of all the videos is mandatory before taking up the final exam. This is to ensure the candidate is well acquainted with all the topics and well versed in the subject being taught.
To familiarize you with the exam pattern, we conduct mock tests. Although it isn't mandatory, taking up the mock tests is highly recommended for getting better results in the finals.
Yes, you can apply for re-exam. In case of the failed first attempt, you need to wait for a month before applying for the exam for the second time.
However, most of the candidates taking our training pass the exam in just one attempt.
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In our classroom mode of training offered in Podgorica, professionals can take up the course by attending classes the conventional way and get trained in a classroom environment. You can enroll in the upcoming batch in Podgorica and join our industry expert trainers. Professionals can take up this offline form of training and attend classes in groups too.
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Certifications have undoubtedly become a significant criterion for the job selection process and promotions. The certificate gained from Sprintzeal surely holds great value. It can certainly help one land a great job or help experienced professionals get promoted. It improves skills and knowledge of a candidate which becomes an asset to having a fulfilling and successful career.
The chances of getting a job increases manifold on getting certified. It surely acts as an add-on that gives you an edge over your competitors. However, since several other things are also taken into consideration by interviewers, we cannot give a 100% guarantee as a considerable part of the selection depends on the interviewer and the candidate.
With over 200000+ professionals trained across the globe the success rate of Sprintzeal's training programs is impressive with 99.6 %.
When you complete the training course, you will receive a course completion certificate from Sprintzeal. However, Sprintzeal does not administer the CCDE certification, but once you have passed that exam, you will receive the prestigious CCDE certification from Cisco.


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Robert Kilroy-Silk
British politician (born 1942)
Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born 19 May 1942), British politician and Member of the European Parliament, and former chat show host.
- I didn't really hit him. If I had, he'd have stayed down.
- On being accused of hitting Jeremy Corbyn MP in 1985
- Independent, 6 June 2004
- They [Muslims] are backward and evil and if it is racist to say so... then racist I must be — and happy and proud, to be so.
- Daily Express, 25 February 1991
- Moslems everywhere behave with equal savagery. They behead criminals, stone to death female — only female — adulteresses, throw acid in the faces of women who refuse to wear the chador, mutilate the genitals of young girls and ritually abuse animals.
- Daily Express, 15 January 1995
- A country peopled by peasants, priests and pixies.
- Describing Ireland, Daily Express, 9 November 2002
- The indigenous population is not responsible.... It is the foreigners that we have to focus on.
- Discussing a rise in HIV infections in Britain, Sunday Express, 1 December 2002
- The orgy of thieving in Iraq has more to do with the character of the people than the absence of restraining troops. And to think that good, decent, law-abiding young British and American men and women laid down their lives to liberate this thieving mob.
- Sunday Express, 4 May 2003
- We're told that the Arabs loathe us. Really? For liberating the Iraqis? For subsidising the lifestyles of people in Egypt and Jordan, to name but two, for giving them vast amounts of aid? For providing them with science, medicine, technology and all the other benefits of the West? They [Arabs] should go down on their knees and thank God for the munificence of the United States. What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in the hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders? That we admire them for the cold-blooded killings in Mombasa, Yemen and elsewhere? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors?
- Sunday Express, 4 January 2004 (full text of the column)
- This column resulted in Kilroy-Silk's dismissal from the BBC.
- Their fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft.
- Shafted, 2001
- Frequently shown as a running joke on Have I Got News For You


text:
With Revere out a while, Phils seeking center fielder
Outfielder says he could miss 6-8 weeks after breaking bone in ankle
PHILADELPHIA -- Ben Revere had been one of the hottest hitters on the planet until he broke a bone in his right ankle Saturday in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park.
He said Sunday he could miss six to eight weeks, although he will learn more Monday when he visits a foot specialist. In the meantime, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the Phillies are in the market for a center fielder.
"The prognosis doesn't sound too good," Amaro said. "I think it's something that's going to take a while. … Whoever we think is an upgrade, whether it's defensive or offensive. We'd like to probably get a little bit better. John [Mayberry Jr.] is a good center fielder. He's not a plus defender. So if we can get a better one than that, that'd be good."
Losing Revere to injury is a blow to the Phillies, whose offense has picked up in recent weeks. Revere was hitting .347 since the end of April, which is the sixth-best mark in baseball in that span. His .380 on-base percentage was 19th out of 164 qualifying hitters.
The Phillies activated catcher Erik Kratz to take Revere's spot on the roster, although it seems likely the team will not carry three catchers following the All-Star break.
"It's one of those deals," Revere said. "It's part of the game. I've probably hit a couple balls on the same spot a couple times and really nothing happened, except a bruise. But it was good the next day. But this was finally the one that cracked it."
The Phillies also are looking internally at options in center. They recently started playing Triple-A Lehigh Valley second baseman Cesar Hernandez in center, but they have accelerated his learning curve. He had been scheduled to play in the International League's All-Star Game this week, but the Phillies are sending him to Double-A Reading to play center instead.
"He'll be playing exclusively in center field to see if that's an option for us," Amaro said. "He struggled yesterday, , but it's a new position for him. But we'll give him a shot."
Triple-A shortstop Freddy Galvis has played some outfield for the Phillies, but Amaro indicated center field is not an option for him.
So make that two spots the Phillies say they are trying to upgrade before the July 31 Trade Deadline: bullpen and center field.


text:
The Commission's efforts in support of improving the quality of life for its regional citizenry are not undertaken unilaterally. In fact, nearly every facet of SAP&DC's efforts are in partnership with other organizations, public bodies, non-profits and the private sector.
"Progress Through Regional Cooperation" is more than a slogan at the Southern Alleghenies Commission, and the cooperative efforts of "our partners" is hereby recognized.
The following is merely representative of the numerous other excellent organizations, and therefore, any omissions should not be taken as intentional.
Convention & Visitor Bureaus
County Planning Commissions
Economic Development Agencies
Business Service Providers
State Partners
Federal Partners


text:
I have a polyline which is divided into multiparts and these parts are not well ordered so that the vertex's ID are not following the polyline's plotting.
This polyline is a representing a bus line and I need to have the plotting following the driving way of the bus. I would like to know how to merge the multiparts of this polyline?
I have already tried to Split and Unsplit, as well as Multipart to Single Part, Union, Merge, etc. but no one is giving me the result I want.


text:
Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn't get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that's how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our recommendation of random things that we've actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we'd actually tell our friends about. And now we're telling you.
Like most of America, when I was a kid, the only way I could reliably get from place to place was if my parents drove me there. When you live 25 miles from the nearest hospital, biking from place to place just isn't an option, and adult independence (and survival, since we also lived several miles from the nearest grocery store) and driving are inexorably linked. I devoted an entire page in my FEINGOLD 1998 bumper sticker emblazoned journal to the day I got my Wisconsin driver's license, a day that, in my teenage mind, was the beginning of a whole career of driving around without my parents' help. I had arrived!
But my attitude toward driving soured quickly after college when I moved to Chicago, a lovely city where the government exploits car ownership as another way to pump its citizens for more money, and having a car there amounted to much more trouble than it was worth. Sure, it was nice to have a vehicle for when I had to go to the grocery store and get the cat hoarder-size vat o' kitty litter ("I only have one cat! I'm just super lazy about going to the store!" I'd titter to the clerk as they nodded incredulously) or pick someone up from the airport, but other than that, it was basically a gas-powered headache machine. Once, it was towed three times in ten days. Another time, a group of youths defaced it, smashing the windshield for fun while the old lady who lived in the garden apartment across the street watched. Eventually, I drove it back home and dropped it off at my parents' house. I was done having a car; from that day forward, if public transportation couldn't get me there, it wasn't worth going. The next year, my license expired. I didn't renew it.
And I've never looked back.
I'm not alone — according to Reuters, Generation Y (as in "Y such a terrible name, demographers?"), or people between the ages of 19 and 34, are driving less than any other living generation. A quarter of young Americans don't have their drivers' licenses, citing the expense, environmental impact, and general ass-pain it is to be responsible for a car. Some people in this generation have eschewed cars in favor of bicycles, but others, like me, have utilized the privilege of geographic mobility to choose to live in cities where cars aren't necessary. The American Public Transportation Association estimates that commuters who utilize public transportation over private vehicles save an average of $9,797 annually. In New York City, commuters without cars save $14,458. In Chicago, it's $11,494. That's a lot of cab rides and/or student loan payments.
Being free from worrying about paying for insurance, about where to park, about paying city licensing fees, about constantly being the persons unscrupulous friends would yoke with designated driver status, about trying to deflect my mother's suggestions that I drive home "for the weekend" (it was a 14 hour round trip from Chicago to my house, which gave me enough time to drive there, spend less than 24 hours with my parents, and drive back) has been totally worth it.
Don't get me wrong — in some places and circumstances, not having a car is out of the question, and I'd never begrudge anyone for choosing to live in a place where they need a license to get around or for wanting to have a car to tote kids from place to place or for not wanting to be carless in, say, LA or Miami. Eventually, I'll probably cave and get a license again; it's good for emergencies and for getting the hell out of dodge. But for my situation — young, urban, physically able to get around freely, childless — there's no reason to add the unnecessary stress of a car to my life.
Not driving a car, $9,797 annual savings.
Worth It only features things we paid for ourselves and actually like. Don't send us stuff.


text:
Law Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC)
PEAC Class of 2011
January 12, 2011
PEAC offers hands-on opportunities for law students to be involved in real-world practical advocacy at a level unmatched by clinical programs around the nation.
The PEAC experience is cited as a leading reason for aspiring environmental attorneys to chose Lewis & Clark Law School.
Where law school graduates and associates at private firms rarely lead or litigate federal cases until many years into their careers, PEAC law students consult, research, draft and attend agency, state and federal arguments all the way up to the Ninth Circuit and, in one case, the Supreme Court.


text:
Front Runners List: Click to see list completion progress by climbers that log their climbs using Peakbagger.com.
Multiple Ascents Grid: Click for a grid showing all of Mike Stinson's ascents of peaks on this list (including up to 10 rounds of repeats).
Compare Climbers: Click to compare ascents of up to 5 climbers working on this list.
This list shows the highest points of the 50 largest counties in the US outside of Alaska. All but four of them are in nine western states. There is one each in Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Maine.
Thanks to John Hasch for suggesting the addition of the Area column, greatly improving the usefulness of this list.
= Peaks climbed by Mike Stinson = Unclimbed peaks
This page has been served 639995 times since 2004-11-01.


text:
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi is showing off her post-baby bod on the cover of US Weekly.
The 25-year-old Jersey Shore star gave birth to her son Lorenzo in August. Since then, she says she's lost 42 pounds, weighing in at 102 pounds.
Photo gallery: Dramatic celebrity weight loss
"When you have a baby, everything changes," she told the magazine. "I lost [the weight] for me, but I also wanted [my fiancé] Jionni to know that I can be hot as a mom."
Snooki has been open about her weight struggles and says her battle with an eating disorder in high school left her weighing 80 pounds. Prior to her pregnancy, she showed off her newly svelte figure.
How do you think post-baby Snooki looks?


text:
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text:
Julius is a freelance network consultant in the Philippines. He can be contacted at [email protected]
There are two general methods of scrambling information: public-key encryption and symmetric encryption. Symmetric encryption is divided further into two major classes: stream cipher and block cipher. Of these two, the block cipher is the more popular, due mainly to the immense attention given to the Data Encryption Standard (DES), the most popular encryption algorithm in the world. Designed by IBM, with the aid of the NSA in the early 1970s, DES has been the focus of numerous studies by many mathematicians since its adoption as a Federal Standard in 1977. The lessons learned from these analyses spawned countless other block ciphers that bear many of DES's features.
Some Block Cipher Theory
Using a block cipher, data to be encrypted (also called plaintext) is first divided in chunks (or blocks) of equal sizes. The size corresponds to the block size of the cipher. For DES, data is encrypted in chunks of 64 bits, while the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) candidates divide data in blocks of 128 bits. Next, the first plaintext block is encrypted, using a secret key, to produce the first encrypted block (also known as the "ciphertext block"). Next, the second plaintext block is processed to create the second ciphertext block, and so on. When all plaintext blocks have been encrypted, the ciphertext blocks are strung together in the order that they were created to form the final encrypted data, called "ciphertext." This mode of operation is known as Electronic Code Book (ECB). See Figures 1 and 2 for visual descriptions of ECB mode.
As you can see from the diagrams, encryption/decryption in ECB mode need not be done sequentially. In fact, since the blocks are processed independently of each other, they are best encrypted/decrypted in parallel.
There are problems in the block cipher, however. First, plaintexts don't always divide neatly in exact multiples of the block size. The last plaintext block may end up shorter than the block size. This is a problem of all block ciphers. The second problem concerns block ciphers in ECB mode: Identical plaintext blocks always produce identical ciphertext blocks. This is a problem because a cryptanalyst can create a code book of plaintexts and corresponding ciphertexts. If he learns, for example, that the plaintext block 0x4e6a89fb encrypts to ciphertext block 0x75f0c3d1, he can immediately decrypt that ciphertext block whenever it appears in another message.
But here's the clincher: If a certain block cipher has a block size of, say, 64 bits, the code book will have 264 entriesmuch too large to precompute and store, even with today's technology. And that's just for one key only. Now, if that block cipher uses a 128-bit key, a total of 264×2128 code book entries will have to be made. Given this immense storage requirement, it is practically certain that no storage device will ever be built to hold this huge code book. So, it turns out, this problem is purely theoretical. Yet, if you're the paranoid type, you'd be happy to know that there is a Perl module that avoids this ECB weakness.
For the first problem, the solution is to pad the last plaintext block with some regular patternzeros, ones, alternating ones, and zerosto make it a complete block. Figure 3 illustrates a typical padding scheme, the so-called PKCS #5. In the figure, assuming that the underlying block cipher has a block size of 64 bits (8 bytes), the partial block (consisting of five blue squares) is extended by padding it with three ASCII 0x03 characters.
For the second problem, the most common solution is to XOR (symbol: ...) the current plaintext block, bit by bit, with the previous ciphertext block before it is encrypted. This way, identical plaintext blocks will not encrypt to identical ciphertext blocks. Of course, plaintexts that start the same will still encrypt to the same ciphertexts up to the first difference. To prevent this, encrypt a random block of data (called an "initialization vector" or IV), and treat it as the first ciphertext block. An IV doesn't have to be meaningful; it's only used to make each message unique. This mode of operation is known as Cipher Block Chaining (CBC). Figures 4 and 5 are visual descriptions of CBC mode.
CBC mode is not without its own drawbacks, however. Some of these problems are:
- The IV must be unique for every message if you wish to encrypt with the same key, and the IV must not be reused. These factors increase the complexity of implementation.
- Encryption cannot be done in parallel because the previous ciphertext block must be computed first before the current plaintext block can be processed (although decryption is parallelizablesee Figure 5).
Perl Implementation of CBC
Lincoln Stein's Crypt::CBC module is a pure Perl implementation of CBC (http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/L/LD/LDS/Crypt-CBC-1.00.readme). Its only requirement is that the underlying block cipher must be able to report the block size and key size it's using when Crypt::CBC asks for them. Lincoln, however, made some exceptions. He accommodated Blowfish, a strong, time-tested block cipher that uses variable-length key sizes, even though it's unable to report its own key size. When Blowfish is used, Crypt::CBC defaults to Blowfish's maximum key size of 448 bits (56 bytes). On the other hand, if no block cipher is specified, Crypt::CBC defaults to DES.
I'll illustrate how Crypt::CBC works by using it in working Perl scripts. The scripts presented here use the block ciphers Khazad and Serpent, both available from CPAN as Crypt-Khazad and Crypt-Serpent, respectively. If you wish to run these scripts, please download and install these block ciphers first.
The first Perl script, khazad, shown in Listing 1, shows how to encrypt simple messages. Notice that our preferred block cipher module, Khazad, is not used anywhere in the script. That's because Crypt::CBC automatically loads it for us.
As with any object-oriented way of doing things, the first order of business is to instantiate an object. This is done by calling the new() function of Crypt::CBC (Line 10). Additionally, six hash keys need to be set before Crypt::CBC goes to work: key, cipher, iv, regenerate_key, padding, and prepend_iv. These are set in lines 10-15.
key. This is the password or passphrase used to encrypt or decrypt a message or file. If you're using a block cipher that takes, for example, a 128-bit (16-byte) key (or whatever length), you must ensure that you supply a key exactly that long. A key that's too short or too long would produce an error similar to this:
Uncaught exception from user code: Key setup error: Key must be 16 bytes long! at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/Crypt/CBC.pm line 95. Crypt::CBC::new('Crypt::CBC','HASH(0x8116654)') called at ./cbc-mode line 11
To take care of this problem, set the hash key regenerate_key to a nonzero value. See line 13.
regenerate_key. When regenerate_key is set to a nonzero value, Crypt::CBC hashes the supplied key using MD5, a strong one-way hash function that produces a fixed, 128-bit message digest. Crypt::CBC then uses this message digest (a 16-byte binary string) as the actual key for the encryption.
If the underlying block cipher requires a longer key, Crypt::CBC hashes the 16-byte key, thereby producing another 16-byte string, and appends it to the old 16-byte key. The resulting 32-byte key is again hashed, producing another 16-byte string, and appends it to the previous 32-byte key. This hashing process is repeated as often as needed until the final string is at least as long as the cipher's key size. The final string is then truncated to the desired length if it exceeds the required key size. For block ciphers with key sizes less than 128 bits (DES, for example, uses only 64 bits), the hashes of their keys are just truncated to the required lengths.
On Line 7, it is perfectly all right to use a key of arbitrary length because regenerate_key is set to 1.
On the other hand, if regenerate_key is set to 0, Crypt::CBC uses the user-supplied key as is. Just make sure that your key conforms to the key size of your block cipher.
cipher. This is the name of the block cipher to be used. There's no need to use it in your script because Crypt::CBC automatically loads it for you.
iv. The IV should be as long as the block size. Line 8 uses a static IV, which is really not a good idea.
padding. When padding an incomplete plaintext block, Crypt::CBC employs a variety of padding options. These are:
- Null padding
- Usage: 'padding' => 'null'
- Pad the last plaintext block with as many ASCII 0x00 characters necessary to fill the block. If the last block is a full block, an extra block of all ASCII 0x00 characters is still appended. See Figure 6 for a diagram of null padding. This padding option is recommended only for encrypting text data.
- Space padding
- Usage: 'padding' => 'space'
- Same as null padding, but uses ASCII 0x20 instead. An extra block containing all ASCII 0x20 characters is still appended if the last block happens to be complete already. See Figure 7 for a diagram of space padding. This padding option is recommended only for encrypting text data.
- One and zeroes padding
- Usage: 'padding' => 'oneandzeroes'
- Pad the last plaintext block with one ASCII 0x80 character followed by zero or more ASCII 0x00 characters necessary to fill the block. If the last block is already full, append an extra block. This extra block starts with ASCII 0x80 followed by as many ASCII 0x00 characters necessary to complete a block. See Figure 8 for a diagram of one and zeroes padding. The name oneandzeroes comes from the fact that 0x80 is 10000000 in binary representation. The last block is appended with a "1" bit followed by as many "0" bits as necessary to complete a block. This padding option is recommended for all types of data.
- Standard padding
- Usage: 'padding' => 'standard'
- This padding scheme is also known as PKCS #5. An example would clarify this padding option. Suppose that the last block is 5 bytes short of becoming a full block. With this padding scheme, append five ASCII 0x05 characters to that block. See Figure 3 for another visual description of this padding scheme. If, on the other hand, the block happens to be complete already, we still append an extra block. If the block size is, say, 8 bytes, this extra block contains eight ASCII 0x08 characters. See Figure 9 for a diagram of standard padding. This padding option is recommended for all types of data. If no padding method is specified, standard is assumed.
prepend_iv. When prepend_iv is set to a nonzero value, the resulting ciphertext will start with a 16-byte prefix. The first eight characters consist of the string "RandomIV" followed by another eight-character string. During decryption, if Crypt::CBC sees the regular expression /RandomIV.{8}/, the eight characters following "RandomIV" will be used as the IV. Obviously, this is unacceptable for block ciphers with block lengths longer than eight bytes. New block ciphers, like Rijndael, Serpent, RC6, Twofish, and Anubis, use block sizes of 16 bytes. To disable this feature, set prepend_iv to 0.
A Sample File Encryption Script
The next Perl script illustrates the use of Serpent, a 128-bit block cipher that uses a 128-bit key. The whole Serpent script, appropriately called serpent, is shown in Listing 2.
Suppose that you want to encrypt the file sample.txt. To encrypt, type
./serpent encrypt sample.txt > sample.enc
You will be asked to enter a password twice. When this is done, a new file, sample.enc, is created. To decrypt sample.enc, type
./serpent decrypt sample.enc > sample.dec
Just like in the preceding example, you will be asked to enter a password twice. After this, the decrypted file, sample.dec, is created. The original file, sample.txt, should be identical to sample.dec.
In this script, the IV is generated by reading /dev/urandom (line 8, and lines 47-49), and the IV is saved for future use in the file iv.rand (line 9, and lines 50-52). get_input() (lines 16-37) simply asks for a key twice while echo is switched off.
Taking a string argument, start() (lines 62 and 77) is a Crypt::CBC method that initializes the encryption or decryption process. For encryption, the argument must be "E" or any word that begins with "e." For decryption, the argument must be "D" or any word that begins with "d."
During decryption, the file iv.rand is read to retrieve the IV used in previous encryption (lines 66-68).
Lines 80-82 tell Crypt::CBC to call the method crypt() for as long as there is data to be processed. The crypt() method performs the encryption and should be called after start().
Finally, on line 85, the method finish() is called to process the last plaintext block.
Creating a Crypt::CBC-Compliant Module
Suppose you'd like to make your own block cipher module that is Crypt::CBC-compliant. Your block cipher must be able to return the block size it is using, as well as the length of its key when Crypt::CBC asks for them. Suppose that your block cipher is named MyBlockCipher, and uses a block size of 64 bits (8 bytes) and a key size of 128 bits (16 bytes), and further suppose that you'd like to use XS programming. Edit your .xs file and add the following lines:
int keysize(...) CODE: RETVAL = 16; OUTPUT: RETVAL int blocksize(...) CODE: RETVAL = 8; OUTPUT: RETVAL
Your .xs file should now contain the following:
1 #include "EXTERN.h" 2 #include "perl.h" 3 #include "XSUB.h" 4 #include "ppport.h" 5 6 /* some code here */ 7 8 MODULE = Crypt::MyBlockCipher PACKAGE = Crypt::MyBlockCipher 9 10 int 11 keysize(...) 12 CODE: 13 RETVAL = 16; 14 OUTPUT: 15 RETVAL 16 17 int 18 blocksize(...) 19 CODE: 20 RETVAL = 8; 21 OUTPUT: 22 RETVAL 23 24 /* some more code here */
The keyword int must be on a line by itself. RETVAL stands for "return value," and this is the data that Crypt::CBC needs. Read the perlxstut man pages for more details.
In the .xs file above, the keysize() function returns a value of 16 bytes (the 128-bit key), while blocksize() returns 8 bytes (the 64-bit block length).
Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, Second Edition. Bruce Schneier, John Wiley & Sons, 1997, ISBN 0-471-12845-7
Crypt::CBC Module, Lincoln D. Stein, http://www.cpan.org/ authors/id/L/LD/LDS/Crypt-CBC-1.00.readme.
1 #!/usr/local/bin/perl 2 use diagnostics; 3 use strict; 4 use warnings; 5 use Crypt::CBC; 6 7 my $key = "hello, there!"; 8 my $IV = pack "H16", "0102030405060708"; 9 10 my $cipher = Crypt::CBC->new({'key' => $key, 11 'cipher' => 'Khazad', 12 'iv' => $IV, 13 'regenerate_key' => 1, 14 'padding' => 'standard', 15 'prepend_iv' => 0 16 }); 17 18 my $plaintext1 = pack "H32", "0123456789abcdeffedcba9876543210"; 19 print "plaintext1 : ", unpack("H*", $plaintext1), "\n"; 20 21 my $ciphertext1 = $cipher->encrypt($plaintext1); 22 print "ciphertext1 : ", unpack("H*", $ciphertext1), "\n"; 23 24 my $plaintext2 = $cipher->decrypt($ciphertext1); 25 print "plaintext2 : ", unpack("H*", $plaintext2), "\n";Back to article
Listing 2
1 #!/usr/local/bin/perl 2 use diagnostics; 3 use strict; 4 use warnings; 5 use Getopt::Long; 6 use Crypt::CBC; 7 8 my $SRC_RAND = "/dev/urandom"; 9 my $IV_FILE = "iv.rand"; 10 my $BLOCKSIZE = 16; 11 my $BLOCK_CIPHER = "Serpent"; 12 my $IV; 13 my ($encrypt, $decrypt) = (); 14 GetOptions("encrypt" => \$encrypt, "decrypt" => \$decrypt); 15 16 sub get_input 17 { 18 my ($message) = @_; 19 local $| = 1; 20 local *TTY; 21 open TTY,"/dev/tty"; 22 my ($tkey1, $tkey2); 23 system "stty -echo </dev/tty"; 24 do { 25 print STDERR "Enter $message: "; 26 chomp($tkey1 = <TTY>); 27 print STDERR "\nRe-type $message: "; 28 chomp($tkey2 = <TTY>); 29 print STDERR "\n"; 30 print STDERR "\nThe two $message", "s don't match. ", 31 "Please try again.\n\n" unless $tkey1 eq $tkey2; 32 } until $tkey1 eq $tkey2; 33 34 system "stty echo </dev/tty"; 35 close TTY; 36 return $tkey1; 37 } 38 39 my $key = &get_input("password"); 40 41 chomp $ARGV[0]; 42 open INFILE, $ARGV[0]; 43 44 my $cipher; 45 46 if ($encrypt) { 47 open RANDSRC, $SRC_RAND; 48 read(RANDSRC, $IV, $BLOCKSIZE); 49 close RANDSRC; 50 open SRC_IV, "> $IV_FILE"; 51 print SRC_IV $IV; 52 close SRC_IV; 53 54 $cipher = Crypt::CBC->new({'key' => $key, 55 'cipher' => $BLOCK_CIPHER, 56 'iv' => $IV, 57 'regenerate_key' => 1, 58 'padding' => 'standard', 59 'prepend_iv' => 0 60 }); 61 62 $cipher->start('encrypt'); 63 } 64 65 if ($decrypt) { 66 open RANDSRC, $IV_FILE; 67 read(RANDSRC, $IV, $BLOCKSIZE); 68 close RANDSRC; 69 70 $cipher = Crypt::CBC->new({'key' => $key, 71 'cipher' => $BLOCK_CIPHER, 72 'iv' => $IV, 73 'regenerate_key' => 1, 74 'padding' => 'standard' 75 }); 76 77 $cipher->start('decrypt'); 78 } 79 80 while (read(INFILE, my $buffer, 1048576)) { 81 print $cipher->crypt($buffer); 82 } 83 84 close INFILE; 85 print $cipher->finish;Back to article


text:
Walker, Christie attend Milwaukee fundraiser
Third party groups also pouring millions into race for governor
With millions of dollars already raised in Wisconsin's recall race for governor, two campaign fundraisers will add even more to the coffers.
Gov. Scott Walker touted his economic record as governor in Green Bay and Oak Creek Tuesday with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at his side.
Christie told the crowd that the recall election will have a ripple effect across the country.
"For the next five weeks, the eyes of the nation will be on Wisconsin, and we will find out what's more powerful -- the people or the special interests from Washington. Wsconsin will answer that that question," Christie said.
Walker and Christie also attended a fundraiser at Milwaukee's Italian Community Center late Tuesday.
Walker is facing a recall election that has become a national showdown over union rights. Walker's decision to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for public employee unions ignited a political war that has left Wisconsin as polarized as any state in the country.
In New Jersey, Christie has picked a fight with the public teachers union and has forced pension and health care concessions from union workers through legislation.
Walker set the fundraising record for a state office with $12.1 million raised last year. Campaign finance records filed Monday show he has already easily surpassed that this year, raising $13.1 million between Jan. 18 and last week. He spent nearly $11 million and had almost $4.9 million in the bank.
His biggest donor was Diane M. Hendricks, founder of Beloit-based American Builders and Contractors Supply Co. Inc. Forbes estimates her worth at $2.8 billion. She gave the governor $500,000. She did not immediately return messages left through her company spokeswoman.
The next two biggest donors were Sheldon Adelson, chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands casino, and Richard DeVos, owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team and co-founder of the Amway Corp., a direct-sales company now under the Alticor company umbrella. Both gave Walker $250,000. Attempts to reach them Monday evening were unsuccessful.
Monday's filings show Walker's opponent in the Republican primary, college-aged political protester Arthur Kohl-Riggs, raised just $2,045 and spent about $480 between Jan. 1 and April 23. He had $1,565 in the bank.
The two Democratic front-runners, Kathleen Falk and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, have each raised close to $1 million in the recall race.
Falk's report showed she raised $977,059 and spent $884,859 between Jan. 1 and April 23. She had $118,062 on hand. Barrett, who didn't enter the race until March 30, raised $831,508 and spent $808,975. He had $475,496 on hand.
Falk and Barrett's campaigns both issued similar statements blasting Walker for traveling around the country rather than focusing on job creation in Wisconsin. State Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski issued a statement calling Walker's totals "breathtaking."
"It is true we will be badly outspent. It is also true that, at the end of the day, and until Walker makes it otherwise, money does not vote," Zielinski said. "The people vote. And it is the people of Wisconsin who will win victory over Scott Walker on June 5th."


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15 May 2012
The world's oldest running automobile
Recently sold at auction for $4.6 million, this is an 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trapardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout.
It is steam-powered, achieved speeds of 38 mph, was a veteran of four London-to-Brighton runs, and participated in the world's first auto race in 1887.
It got 20 miles on a tank of water.
Via Jalopnik, Autoblog, and First Time User.
1 comment:
- maindawgJune 5, 2012 at 7:46 PM
Ah yes, steam technology. Those were days!ReplyDelete
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text:
Everything Is Blowback - Our Problems, Part 2
(Not quite eveything, but the major problems which tormented us in the last century and plague us today.)
Following from the artificial nature of our problems, we can then understand that these situations are blowback from previous decisions that were unwise or of a criminal nature.
* WWII was blowback from WWI. In part, due to the revengeful Versailles Treaty, but also the support the ruling classes of Europe and America gave to Mussolini and Hitler and the tacit support for Franco, as he destroyed Spanish democracy. (WWI is the best example of how one incredibly stupid decision can have a long-lasting and devastating effect upon the future.)
* Islamic Fundamentalism is largely blowback for US hostility toward Arab and other Muslim secular nationalist regimes, the carte blanche given to Israel, support for reactionaries like the Wahabist Saudi kingdom, and for overthrowing the progressive nationalist Mossedegh in Iran.
* Al Qaeda is blowback for supporting Islamist guerrillas against the Russian-backed secular Afghani government.
* Organized crime was blowback for Prohibition.
* Drug crime was blowback for treating addiction as a crime and not a social/medical problem, thus creating a lucrative black market into which the aforementioned blowback- created organized crime could step into.
* The crack cocaine epidemic was blowback from US terrorism against Nicaragua, as the CIA imported tons of cocaine into the US to pay for Contra arms.
* Massive "illegal immigration" is blowback from the wrecking of "Third World" economies by IMF- World Bank debt servitude and the destruction of peasant farms by government subsidized "First World" crops.
*Workplace massacres (Goin' postal) are blowback for 30 years of declining working conditions and the destruction of trade unions.
And you can add your own examples of blowback...