Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Sneak Peek: The SNL Thanksgiving Special

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/sneak-peek-the-snl-thanksgiving-special/n43586/

Siskel and Ebert defend Star Wars

http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky9-eIlHzAE?version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=TS75nuG1VsvHcU6DlpcIBw&autoplay=1&autohide=1

Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable according to this Cornell paper

original Cornell article link: http://arxiv.org/abs/1311.0243

From I-Programmer:

Written by Mike James

Wednesday, 06 November 2013 08:00

original article link: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/181-algorithms/6571-flaw-in-bitcoin-algorithm.html

Now in a new paper, Ittay Eyal and Emin Gun Sirer of Cornell have noticed that there is a strategy whereby a group of miners can receive more Bitcoins if they work together.
Currently miners do organize themselves into pools but these are more like betting syndicates. The miners simply agree to work together and share the Bitcoins that they earn. This smooths out the statistical fluctuations in a miner's earnings.
However, if any pool notices that there is an advantage to be had from deviating from the standard behavior then the system falls apart - and this is what the researchers have found. The profitable deviation isn't obvious, but it is easy to implement. When a miner finds the solution to a block the idea is that this is announced at once. This is noticed by the other miners who then move on to the next block and regard the previously current block as solved. Now consider what happens if a mining pool decides not to announce that it has solved a block. That pool is the only group of miners that knows to move on to the next block. The other, honest, miners waste their time trying to solve a block that has already been solved.


Ittay Eyal, Emin Gun Sirer

(Submitted on 1 Nov 2013 (v1), last revised 5 Nov 2013 (this version, v3))

 

Cite as:	arXiv:1311.0243 [cs.CR]
	(or arXiv:1311.0243v3 [cs.CR] for this version)

 

RowboatCop: Origins

http://www.youtube.com/v/K0J2WDC1GIc?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=y0wY9rqO5xpoOtJDGXQTDw&autohide=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autoplay=1

Brewing Beer with Robots

http://www.youtube.com/v/P4wzOA7NB_M?autohide=1&version=3&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=IaxW12EB4wTTFHs0Con6kw&autoplay=1&autohide=1&feature=share

SpinRite never quits! A heralding story in the making

I hear Steve Gibson's stories every week on Security Now (http://twit.tv/sn) and agree with them, since I've been a user for many years now. All the "SpinRite saves the day" proclamations have been true and I've been on the saving end of a dozen or so, similarly self titled hard drive stories. 

Today is just another in the making... but taking a while longer than most, hence the post at 4% mark of the marathon. Can't blame me for trying to be optimistic at and estimated 390 remaining. 

Here are some screen shots of the never waivering efforts of the magical hard drive potion available at http://www.grc.com/spinrite

Enjoy! And pass this on to any friend, family member or professional that has had a seemingly "lost cause" story on a hard drive. One bout of this powerful program will brighten anyone's pessimistic ponderings over the spinning (or static) data storage units.