Dangerous Things
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New GEN2 EPC RFID enabled NEXUS card on its way

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

I went up to the NEXUS office today to do my renewal interview. The interview is just a follow up to make sure my registered information is still current and reiterate the restrictions of the program. After completing the interview, they told me I’d receive my new card in the mail, which was new. The […]

The best "terrorists win" quote I've seen

The best “terrorists win” quote I’ve seen

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctrow points out a BBC article detailing how a professional photographer was stopped by police from taking a photo of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, a building that’s probably being photographed by several cameras at any given time, 24 hours a day. What I really like about his post is the […]

X-Ray image used in student VeriChip video

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

I was recently contacted by a student from Clemson University asking permission to use my x-ray image in a project they were doing. Unfortunately a lot of “chip haters” out there tend to jump all over using my image without permission in their crazy website graphics and doomsday videos. The funny part is, I typically […]

When a DNA testing lab folds, what happens to your data?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Wired had an excellent article on deCODE Genetics, which has filed for bankruptcy and will likely be bought up by another company. The concern is that the purchasing company, driven not by passion for the industry but by profits alone, will opt to sell customer data. It reminded me of the old biometric iris scanner […]

Get yourself genomed on the cheap

Monday, November 9th, 2009

A company called Complete Genomics was able to sequence three human genomes for $4,400 in materials… a micro-drop in the bucket compared to the $3 billion it cost to complete just one only a few years ago. They did this using more common materials, which does introduce some amount of error. However, with an error […]

CDC tapping into electronic medical records

Friday, November 6th, 2009

The CDC has built a nearly real-time H1N1 tracking system called FluView. But how do they get this data? They get it directly from doctors, clinics, and hospitals of course! The CDC said it is now tracking data on 14 million patients from physician practices and hospitals that is stored on a relational database hosted […]

Biometric “fear detector” based on smelling traveler’s armpits

Friday, November 6th, 2009

“Evidence that the smell of fear is real was uncovered by US scientists last year who studied the underarm secretions of 20 terrified novice skydivers and found that people appear to respond unconsciously to the sweat smell of a frightened person. Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a ‘fear detector’ will make it possible […]

Automobile keys with embedded RFID chips

Automobile keys with embedded RFID chips

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

I was at the local VW dealer this morning buying a spark coil for my trusty 2004 GTI when I noticed a bunch of half-naked keys scattered around behind the parts counter. I thought it would make for an interesting picture so I reached across the counter, gathered them up, and laid them across the […]

DIY automated sentry gun

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Like the author of this website, I too have dreamed of the day I had enough time and skillz to build an automated sentry gun. Ever since I saw that scene in Aliens with these automated weapons, I thought it would be pretty sweet to mount a high powered BB gun on a tracking platform […]

Classic security foible at a local Subway sandwich shop

Classic security foible at a local Subway sandwich shop

Friday, October 30th, 2009

As I stood there at the cash register (a PC running POS software), I noticed an upturned napkin with some writing on it. I couldn’t believe that someone (probably the manager) had written down not only the username and password (clearly marked with labels USERNAME and PASSWORD) but also the site those credentials were used […]

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