Hakiri

Another interesting TED talk. Paul Rothemund discusses how genetic engineers can fold proteins by writing the sequence of the DNA and compiling it with a DNA compiler. The result? Well, you can come up with whatever you want – from simple figures to actual living organisms.

This topic was introduced to me by Ramsesoriginal on a discussion within the House of Hackers network. When I saw the video I thought that it is all good but they still write the DNA sequences with very simple language, which can be compared to an extend to the machine language, although much primitive. So now I am thinking: can’t we just write a high-level compiler? Sure it is not very hard to write the language parser. That’s easy! So, I guess that we, as hackers should take on this challenge and write one just for fun. Also having a simple interpreter could be very beneficial so that we see the result before executing the program through the DNA compiler.

Do you think that’s a good idea and should we do it? More over, do you think it is feasible?

Everything that causes WOW-kind of exclamation should be considered a hack. Here is that kind of a thing:

The video is just brilliant.

From Tokyo, Yasuhiro Yamashita presents the Penguin house. The architecture is relatively small compared to traditional houses but once inside you will perceive the space much larger then it really is.

Now, this is what I call a slick looking and very practical hack.

The world is quickly going online. While I caution against online voting, it is clear that online gaming is taking the Internet by storm. In our new age where virtual items carry real dollar value, and fortunes are won and lost over items that do not really exist, the new threats to the intrepid gamer are all too real. To protect against these hazards, you must understand them, and this groundbreaking book is the only comprehensive source of information on how to exploit computer games. Every White Hat should read it. It’s their only hope of staying only one step behind the bad guys. Amazon

I did some research on online games as well and I must agree with both Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw that this is very much unexplored hacking discipline when compared to the security industry as a whole.

The future is now. Both footages provide the same technology implemented in different ways. In the first footage we can see a part of the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruz uses his hands to control a crime investigation software on a some kind flat screen surface. Very cool and useful, indeed.

In the second footage we can see the same effect but produced with the help of Nintendo Wii, without no doubt, the best product of 2007 and maybe even 2008.

CourtTV (TruTV) has a new series starting Dec. 25 at 11 pm called ‘Tiger Team.’ It follows a group of elite penetration testers hired to test organizations’ security using social engineering, wired/wireless penetration testing, and physically defeating security mechanisms (lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows). They do all of this while avoiding the organizations’ various security defenses as well as law enforcement.

Basically this is the US equivalent of a popular British show known as The Heist or something like that. Never the less, it will be interesting to see what exactly it is.

I bet that you remember the the Mentor’s last words: You may stop me, but you can’t stop us all. Bullshit or not, this is the essence of the hacker community.

His words will forever be remembered and immortalized through the movie Hackers, a cultural tripping point for me and many others.