asciilifeform: decimation: LFSRs suck. and virtually every academic treatise on rng design assumes a very impoverished physical entropy source.

asciilifeform: am i the only one here who remembers how rsa sig algo works !?

asciilifeform: joecool: i don't generate keys on card << still has rng, for signature nonces.

asciilifeform: (e.g. the hardcoded master key that inevitably turns up in audits of various crapware)

asciilifeform: orthogonal to this is the other problem, that you (owner) have no way of verifying what it is the gizmo is capable of

asciilifeform: the very next time victim enters pin.

asciilifeform: if you plug dumbcard into a pwned box, it will sign whatever the enemy wants to sign.

asciilifeform: fails the 'would you plug this in at dr. evil's house?' test.

asciilifeform: joecool: not only this, but laptop 'knows' that a crypto gizmo is connected.

asciilifeform: bose is a terrific scam (what spends so much on glossy magazine ads, and isn't ?)

asciilifeform: decimation: same. this is because they inevitably emit an audible hiss of their own.

asciilifeform: joecool: 2) vlsi - thus non-inspectable - rng and cryptographic functionality.

asciilifeform: joecool: 1) pc knows that dedicated crypto hardware is connected. compromised pc can then mitm the user.

asciilifeform: joecool: same problems

asciilifeform: decimation: those transformers are 'golden toilet' priced - no surprise, given the 'medical' label

asciilifeform: scratch that - iem appears to be actual headphone. thought you meant plugs, as used by construction crews

asciilifeform: i still have mine from uni

asciilifeform: you get sweaty

asciilifeform: there's a reason everybody doesn't simply wear rifle range headphones on the plane

asciilifeform: don't knock antiphase headphone till you've tried it. great in airplanes, machine rooms.

asciilifeform: (love the log, spares my keyboard years of life)

asciilifeform: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=15-03-2014#560871 ☝︎

asciilifeform: re: dumbcards:

asciilifeform: s/ftp/blockchain

asciilifeform: jurov: this is already SOP. i've one right here (phase cancelling headphone)

asciilifeform: 'happy lives the man who has only one leg. one sock won't tear, and he needn't the other boot.' (russian childrens' rhyme)

asciilifeform: he could switch off whatever noise, or just plug necessary audio into a jack in his head. was envious.

asciilifeform: reminds me of a conversation i once had with a fellow who had an implanted electronic prosthetic ear

asciilifeform: what are good eyes good for? legs, arms? plenty.

asciilifeform: (transformers buzz from 'magnetostriction' of iron. varnish acts as a dampener.)

asciilifeform: my theory: old engineers (what still remain) went deaf from old age; young ones - from 'concerts'; no one remaining who thinks noise is a problem.

asciilifeform: ~16kHz whine.

asciilifeform: i can hear a 'kindle' gizmo flipping pages. across a room.

asciilifeform: even the tiny little things in laptops, tablets

asciilifeform: also annoyed that the art of varnishing and baking transformers seems to have been lost. just about anything you buy now buzzes like electric chair.

asciilifeform: aye, if the surplus turds were meticulously labeled, i'da bought one already.

asciilifeform: rather like it.

asciilifeform: a room full of various strange

asciilifeform: computers, lab instruments, laser cutter

asciilifeform: (there are folks in usa using actual flywheels for this purpose, still! world power, yeah.)

asciilifeform: plus, the bigger, the better it works. think of it as electrical equivalent of flywheel.

asciilifeform: gotta have 1kw, preferably 2

asciilifeform: yeah thought about getting a surplus medical unit, but they tend to be small.

asciilifeform: 1:1 winding

asciilifeform: these things aren't even 'officially' necessary in the 'civilized' world.

asciilifeform: dignork: we're talking about a 20kg monster

asciilifeform: america. where you get to re-wind transformers, just like grandfather.

asciilifeform: damn, as usual.

asciilifeform hates only one thing more than calculating drill annular ring diameters by hand: having to do it twice.

asciilifeform: (ferroresonant)

asciilifeform: none of the recent semiconductor-based 'on-demand' crap. can one still get the massive soviet-style ones, i wonder.

asciilifeform: gentlemen - who wants to recommend a modern stabilizer transformer? mine's dropping the ball.

asciilifeform: since i generally avoid the 'redditum' birdcage liner, senses stay sharp

asciilifeform: ^ from same link

asciilifeform: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/these-grown-women-are-about-to-see-their-own-vaginas-fo-1583732505

asciilifeform: afaik coinbase is famous for this. works as printed on the box: 'we fuck you raw.'

asciilifeform: ^ same model

asciilifeform: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_(ship)

asciilifeform: and every drop of sea water.

asciilifeform: *gram

asciilifeform: every grab of the planet's crust is 'conflict mineral.'

asciilifeform: re: u.s. electronics: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=09-03-2014&bots=true#552471

asciilifeform: they're ubiquitous.

asciilifeform: if only a voltage regulator.

asciilifeform: pop open virtually any pc, you'll find at least a few ti parts.

asciilifeform: ti makes an astounding variety of components that are found in just about everything.

asciilifeform: geological runtimes are the unquestioned norm in winblows engineering tools.

asciilifeform: naturally.

asciilifeform: it is a plague.

asciilifeform: decimation: i've very little respect for the ltspice fellow. he leads by example - the ancient tradition of 90% of usable electronics tools being winblows turdware.

asciilifeform: 'the only winning move is - not to play'

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: ever see film 'war games' ?

asciilifeform: i suspect that most twitter users cannot distinguish between their arse and their elbow.

asciilifeform: (not to be confused with common american 'duracell')

asciilifeform: ^ bad opsec. and, nitpick: 'durasell' is an actual battery. bought some at a 'dollar store' as student, they leaked immediately. (chinese)

asciilifeform: http://m.theeagle.com/news/local/article_b2de6879-06ff-52f9-a67a-0381dbec5dad.html?mode=jqm

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: note that the potting didn't save the gizmo: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/descrack/attack.html

asciilifeform: full of analogue strange

asciilifeform: the 'votrax' voice synth that the ubiquitous unix 'speak' command was originally meant for came as a huge breadbox-sized potted turd

asciilifeform: 'potting' was common in the past. it was thought to make the life of reverse-engineer slightly more difficult

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: as seen in the popular 'IBM 4758'

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: 'potting.' (term of art.) this example appears to be strictly ceremonial: in examples with booby trap, there is usually a fat brick of epoxy with conductive mesh underneath.

asciilifeform: (not necessarily through any fault of its own)

asciilifeform: even if it works 'as printed on the box' - feels like gasenwagen bait.

asciilifeform: anyone actually use 'xapo' yet ?

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: http://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/fs5000/img/301524/024/full.jpg << gold in the hills

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: unrelated: http://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/fs5000/img/301524/060/full.jpg << notice the 'mosquito net' under the lcd glass.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: anything is portable - in pieces.

asciilifeform: (why was it not confiscated and boiled in oil in a dungeon, in private? or kept as trophy by fuhrer)

asciilifeform: considering that the machine was sawed apart ceremonially in public, one is led to think of disinfo - 'let kgb think we can magically curse dc-dc converter!'

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: either a moronic whim of a bureaucrat - or it has storage - or it came in a diddled, radiant version.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: now consider why they sawed off the fluorescent inverter.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: related: https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/what-does-gchq-know-about-our-devices-that-we-dont

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=12-12-2013#419649 ☝︎

asciilifeform: ;;later tell mircea_popescu re: pipeline.corante.com << old favourite haunt of great master, 'uncle' al schwartz.

asciilifeform: put on ebay - nobody bought.

asciilifeform: (after cannibalizing for spares for remaining 2)

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: only the last alphas are costly rarities. the 1ghz and below variants are dirt cheap. i threw away 5 of them a few years ago.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: if you've become a connoisseur of vintage iron, get an 'alpha'

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: if you dredge up an sgi, don't even think about running the traditional 'irix' - swiss cheese.