Aerogels for ultra thin and warm clothing, fake SSL certificates from spying government, gold and silver tender, the programmable camera future
Aerogels are coming to clothing sometime soon: jackets, pants, gloves using Zeroloft from Aspen Aerogels. Thin and light, with unbelievable insulating power, clothing products are not quite in the mass market yet, but their light weight and huge performance advantages over conventional insulators will make them the clothing to have in coming years. I’ve never been bothered too much by my down vest and wind shell, having served me well, but aerogel socks or gloves could sure come in handy in cold conditions. If an aerogel jacket and pants are compact enough, what a terrific piece of emergency equipment, to always have on hand.
Think your browser is secure with SSL/TLS? Think again. All it takes is one cooperating or sloppy certificate authority (CA) to make a mess of things: your browser trusts any site or intermediate CA certificate signed by hundreds of CAs out there. Even if you (naively) believe that the US government would never spy on you as a US citizen, the US is free to spy on overseas citizens, and most CAs are here in the USA, and sign most of the certificates in use today. Now add in the fact that any government can legally compel a CA to produce a certificate to which the government has private key access and the picture doesn’t look so rosy. Especially since that cert can be used to sign other certificates. Read the white paper for details. Strong security doesn’t need to be broken, just bypassed via such compromises, or via socal engineering. I wonder if Amendment IV to the US constitution has any meaning in today’s cyberworld.
No state shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a Tender in Payment of Debts. — United States Constitution, Article I, Section 10, Clause I
Food for thought as the real and virtual printing presses spew out vast quantities of fiat money. Surely that “gold and silver coin” clause meant something important, but it is conveniently ignored today as economic crises are the inevitable result of fiat money.
The Frankencamera is one of a new trend in photography: modular and programmable cameras. Coming soon to a Nikon or Canon camera near you? Let’s hope so, because there are some great things that could be done. Thanks to Bud Ruby for sending me that pointer.
