Author Archive

Friday Fun: Google Plastic

Virtual reality is today big news. Arguably much of the resurgence in interest is down to Oculus, the company that surprised everyone in 2012 with a fabulously successful Kickstarter campaign to build its Rift VR headset. The company had been acquired by Facebook in 2014  for the previously inconceivable sum of $2bn. The consumer version

New Finnish high tech magazine with articles written my me

Finland has received a new technology trade magazine focusing on developing new technology: Uusi Teknologia (=new technology).  Uusi Teknologia magazine’s first issue devoted to IoT solutions, industrial, internet security and future 5G mobile solutions as well as intelligent interactive textiles. Also included are high-end oscilloscopes and a new ways to program embedded systems. The magazine

Friday Fun: Classic Programmer Paintings

Painters and Hackers: typically people think they have nothing in common whatsoever – but some can see programming as art. Classic Programmer Paintings page shows software engineering as depicted by artists through history: classical paintings with suitable software engineering subtitles (technically, might not be all classical). Here is one example from Classic Programmer Paintings page:

RSA SecurID older model teardown

The RSA SecurID authentication mechanism consists of a “token” — either hardware (e.g. a USB dongle) or software (a soft token) — which is assigned to a computer user and which generates an authentication code at fixed intervals (usually 60 seconds) using a built-in clock and the card’s factory-encoded random key (known as the “seed”).

RSA SecurID teardown

RSA SecurID is a  two-factor authentication device. It gives out number that change depending on the time, and correct number is needed to log-in to sensitive systems (=one-time password functionality).  RSA SecurID 700 is a small key fob that connects easily to any key ring. Here is  front panel of RSA SecurID 700. There is