California days 3, 4, 5 & 8675309
Wednesday was cool. I went to a seminar on nano technology. If focused on several things: First the progress that has been made on the production of nano scale materials; Second the educational path for those interested in contributing to this field; and lastly how nano-scale materials may effect the future of IT. The Guy who gave the lecture Dr. Stan Williams is the manager of the HP research labs- the most advanced nano lab in the world. He was awesome, he gave a very good presentation and then stayed after to talk with a small group of us for an extra 50 minuets- after giving a 2 hour long presentation. He mentioned several really cool subjects- active vs. passive power, the Feynman processing limit, quantum states, and spintronics. Then went to a lame tech museum- think Betty Brin Museum, just a little more mature target audience.
Thursday we went IBM's Almaden Research Center- the place the hard-drive was invented. We listened to a really good presentation by their research head, and an awesome, but incomprehensible one by one of their senior chemists- I maybe understood 10% of what she was saying, thought i kept nodding off it was so dry. We started on our future tech projects- my groups is designing ways to reduce traffic fatalities. Ohh and I almost forgot- Microsoft came and gave us a talk-the Q&A section was filed with numerous GNU/open source questions, meant more to be caustic than to learn anything. Although 1 good thing came out of the presentation: We became the first-with the exception of 2 control groups- to see the new Portable Media Centers. Think Ipods with some cool extras. They play mp3's, movies, and can show photos- on built in color LCD screens. They are about 6" by 3" and I would definitely get one except they are gonna hit the market with a $500 price tag, still it was cool to know that no-one else has seen what we have.
Today we listened to a little speech. Our speaker was introduced by none other than Steve Wozniak- co-fonder of Apple Computers. Steve gave us a little talk-5-10 minuets- then introduced Kevin Mitnick. OMG is this guy good. He told use some really good social-engineering stories(Ask me about: Stan, the Blizzard story, and the Pam/Alisha story when i get back), and showed us some cools stuff. He called a volunteer up on stage. Asked the kids name and typed it into a website, within 5 seconds he had the kids Social Security number date of birth, address, and home phone number; went to second site- got mothers maiden name; and then on to third site for drivers license number. He got everything you'd need for a credit-card application in under 2 minuets- scary. Then he decided he was going to show us another cool trick. Calls up another kid, and asks for the kids cell phone number. He then whips out his cell phone-which is hooked into the audio system. It dials the kids number" calling 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx from 1-yyy-yyy-yyyy". The kid's phone rings and the kid shows us all his caller ID. It reads:'867-5309'-not Mitnick's number obviously. How fucking cool is that: being able to forge the outgoing caller ID. The day went down hill when i went and attended the start-up/small business working culture panel- it boiled down to a bunch of kids winning about having no customer base for their various small businesses. blah :( But
Thursday we went IBM's Almaden Research Center- the place the hard-drive was invented. We listened to a really good presentation by their research head, and an awesome, but incomprehensible one by one of their senior chemists- I maybe understood 10% of what she was saying, thought i kept nodding off it was so dry. We started on our future tech projects- my groups is designing ways to reduce traffic fatalities. Ohh and I almost forgot- Microsoft came and gave us a talk-the Q&A section was filed with numerous GNU/open source questions, meant more to be caustic than to learn anything. Although 1 good thing came out of the presentation: We became the first-with the exception of 2 control groups- to see the new Portable Media Centers. Think Ipods with some cool extras. They play mp3's, movies, and can show photos- on built in color LCD screens. They are about 6" by 3" and I would definitely get one except they are gonna hit the market with a $500 price tag, still it was cool to know that no-one else has seen what we have.
Today we listened to a little speech. Our speaker was introduced by none other than Steve Wozniak- co-fonder of Apple Computers. Steve gave us a little talk-5-10 minuets- then introduced Kevin Mitnick. OMG is this guy good. He told use some really good social-engineering stories(Ask me about: Stan, the Blizzard story, and the Pam/Alisha story when i get back), and showed us some cools stuff. He called a volunteer up on stage. Asked the kids name and typed it into a website, within 5 seconds he had the kids Social Security number date of birth, address, and home phone number; went to second site- got mothers maiden name; and then on to third site for drivers license number. He got everything you'd need for a credit-card application in under 2 minuets- scary. Then he decided he was going to show us another cool trick. Calls up another kid, and asks for the kids cell phone number. He then whips out his cell phone-which is hooked into the audio system. It dials the kids number" calling 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx from 1-yyy-yyy-yyyy". The kid's phone rings and the kid shows us all his caller ID. It reads:'867-5309'-not Mitnick's number obviously. How fucking cool is that: being able to forge the outgoing caller ID. The day went down hill when i went and attended the start-up/small business working culture panel- it boiled down to a bunch of kids winning about having no customer base for their various small businesses. blah :( But