Welcome to my digital home! There are lots of articles you might find helpful buried in this site on topics such as modifying an Alfa Romeo 159, rebuilding a Lotus 7 (Robin Hood 2B), not to mention a ton of stuff on technology in general. It’s all here somewhere, so use the search function or navigate using the menu structure. if you want to talk, reach out via the contact function, I usually do answer!
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InfoSecThis is a short video explanation of how the UK Cyber Security Challenge’s launch cipher was put together, and subsequently how to break it!
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GeneralWell, despite wanting to spend thousands of pounds on the perfect setup, I decided I had to transition away from Vinyl completely first and get used to the fully digital interfaces. So, in my usual, straight out of left field way, I bought myself an M-Audio Xponent and some new speakers 🙂
The Xponent is an awesome tool, it is the perfect transition medium for anyone thinking of moving into digital and is very well featured. Its a little on the plastic side, and the faders feel like they are fisher price, but it works like a dream and is portable enough to follow me around the country!
I now have two primary setups, home & away.
Home is the Xponent, married to my main desktop feeding a pair of KRK RP6G2 Active Studio Monitors, and it sounds awesome!
Away is the Xponent. married to my X200s Laptop & feeding a pair of M-Audio AV20 portable studio monitors, although it lacks base, it has punch, power and clarity and lets face it, we don’t want to piss off the neighbours in the hotel now do we 🙂
I still suffer from the age old problem of not actually having time to use this lot, but the away kit helps with that problem a fair bit, so once I get fully transitioned, expect a flurry of new mixes on the way!
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InfoSecFirst of all, legislation doesn’t die, it just becomes BAU. PCI is still a pain for most, but as a race, us Humans are fickle creatures who like our topics and news to be current, so the latest and greatest will always be at the top of the agenda.
PCI on the other hand has a few cards left to play, first we see the move from 1.1 to 1.2, and although the content is still uncertain, it is likley to include calrifications of “what they actually meant” and additions. Aside from the revisions now and future to the PCI-DSS, PA-DSS, and other relevant standards are likeley to appear to help ensure that those organisations we entrust with our data, do the minimum to keep hold of it.
of course, we have seen some clarifications and “movement” on the existing standard, as well as finally, some teeth being displayed by the PCI through fines.
In my view, PCI is by no means dead, or even old news, its just part of the legislative landscape that is a part of business today, not to be ignored.
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Alfa 159Once the planning was complete and I had the Amp prepared for some serious load, it was over to the car for a complete strip of the boot and sound proofing. The approach taken was to utilise a number of different sound proofing materials once I stripped the car back to the shell.
To start with , a Bitumen material was used to create a panel deadening effect to eliminate rattles and vibrations. This was applied to all panels in as much quantity as was viable. The second stage was to utilise a 12mm thick high density foam to act as a sound proofing material. This was used to create a sound proof shell in the boot to stop the low frequencies going anywhere but into the cabin, as such, this material was not used on the parcel shelf, where the bitumen product was, but was utilised on every other surface that was externally facing. Where it was just not possible to utilise the thick 12mm foam, I made use of a 7mm medium density foam that was more pliable and easier to work with.
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General…..put simply, because you have to!
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a thousand reasons for the upgrade, but did you know about this one? There is actually a very serious and technical reason that you should upgrade. I’ll try and explain it to you in lay terms….
The current “2G” iphones operate on the GPRS/EDGE Networks (I won’t get into the technical stuff, use wikipedia for that). Now you will think that actually that’s a good thing, better data usage is good news surely? Well it would be if their was not one simple problem with the 2G network. That is that you cannot use voice and data to the same endpoint (i.e. iphone) at the same time!!! Yes, that’s right. You cannot surf and chat simultaneously! Now, this has never really been a problem before a device like the iphone, as most of use would use the data facilities on our nokia or sony so infrequently that we never noticed a problem, however the iphone, being a data hungry beast, is a regular user of data, without your permission!
What this all equates to is simple. If you iphone decides it needs a data connection, say to update its email or something else useful, and at the same time, someone tries to call you, guess what, they don’t get through! This kind of defeats the object of the iphone qualifying for the use of the word “phone” IMO!
So whats the answer? simple, upgrade to a 3G phone! this makes use of the new third generation network (HSPA/UTMS), which of course, being data centric, allows simultaneous use of voice and data from a single device.
What more of an excuse do you need to go and get that upgrade?
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RH2B Build DiaryFor the longest time I have had an itch that I needed to scratch. Specifically the itch of a lightweight, open top, fast road toy for the summer days and track. This desire was in the particular flavor of a Lotus Super 7 Kit car.
The new Toy!
There are many styles of Super 7 to choose from, GBS Zero, Haynes Roadster, Westfield, Caterham, Dax etc etc etc. Literally too many to choose from, however, luck, proximity and price brought this little bundle of joy into my life.
She is a Robin Hood 2B Roadster, based on a Sierra donor with all the right bits under the bonnet, but in need of some much needed TLC! This was just the right combination for me to jump on the purchase and start my journey.
The car was in need of some love though as she is ultimately nearly 20 years old! Fortunately, I am not shy with a spanner and had every intention of bringing her back to her former glory.
That is where this journey begins. I will post updates on the progress and modifications as I go, but here is a short description / summary of the vehicle as a base:
Robin Hood 2B Roadster base car with Ford Sierra donor partsSGS Engineering double wishbone conversionFord Zetec SE (Sigma) 1600 engineFord Type 9 Gearbox with ShortShifterFord 7″ Limited Slip DifferentialMegasquirt MS2 ECUThrottle Bodies (converted Deloorto Carbs)Westfield 15″ WheelsBlue with Ford ST Racing Graphics
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LiveMixeshttps://jabawoki.com/wp-content/mp3/Jabs_20092001_Summer_House.mp3
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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InfoSec……can be reverse engineered by mankind.
Its a simple mantra, but one that has served me well in security.
Think of of this way, it doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, someone, somewhere is more intelligent! When it comes to security this is never more true. As we all know, security is asymmetric, in so much that the effort required to secure something is significantly more than that required to break into it. Given this point, it makes the mantra even more relevant! If security was symetrical, you would have a 1:1 effort relationship, however, as its not, (we will for the purposes of this article assume its 2:1, i.e. double the effort required to secure), it would theoretically take less brain power than it took to create the control to break it.
Obviously I accept that this is a very simplistic representation of the point, but one I think is valid.
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InfoSecI recently was asked by Bloomberg to comment on the raft of Android malware recently discovered. During that interview I mentioned some concepts around the open vs closed models and wanted to expand on this thinking a little further.
As you may know the Google Android platform has been open source since 2008, and as such has a healthy following of developers and an open list of problems that anyone can view and contribute fixes for. Contrary to this, Apple IOS has, and most likely always will be closed and the intellectual property of Apple, and therefore is managed by an army of developers working directly for Apple. Other than these two business models being the polar opposites of each other, the devices themselves do share some common ground, an example of which is they are both based on a *nix base and both allow anyone to develop an application for their platform.
So which is better, open or closed? Both have equal merits and demerits, but for me the key one we need to consider is the security of the applications. Given a smartphone platform is ultimately a portable computer in your hand that you can transition a significant amount of daily communications to, in any corporate environment you need to be thinking about how you maintain the security of that device. For the purposes of this article I am going to discount all the other major security problems with both platforms and specifically look at the apps. To this end I want to create the abstraction between the platforms and the application environments as people seem to confuse these two and blur the lines, and forget that we aren’t talking “open-source” as both platforms are in fact “open-shop”.
If your app store is 100% open, as we have seen with Android, anyone can release any app into it without any form of quality control or security audit. This, as we saw, resulted in a number of applications having more functions that the user subscribed to, and left the devices open to abuse from those individuals that would make money from negative actions. In a corporate environment this means that you have got to control what apps get put on the phone, and create a whitelist and policy enforcement system, which as we all know, we cause the end user to get upset as their freedom of choice is restricted. For the general consumer this means that they, at some stage, will likely end up getting literally robbed blind by their smartphone, because, in an open model, there is no one controlling what gets onto their device for them.
The other end of the spectrum is of course where we are with Apple. Onerous quality assurance, technical and security checks and numerous caveats to adhere to, before your app even gets into the store. But this conversely reduces the risk to business and the consumer equally. In this model, Apple takes control and responsibility for securing the applications on their platform, and minimising the risk to the user. I of course, still would recommend in any corporate environment the use of policy enforcement and approved applications, but you’re at least starting for a better place, and don’t need to do a full source code review of every app your planning to use just to make sure it’s not a Trojan of some kind!
So which model is right?
To be honest, both have their merits and both have their flaws, but I still, personally, favour Apples approach, to err on the side of caution and ensure that the apps they release are 100% up to the task. Let’s face it, developers are known for cutting corners where they can to save a few lines of code, so someone cracking the whip on quality and security can’t be all bad now, can it.
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Alfa 159After the successful modification made to the gearbox cooling system https://jabawoki.com/2016/01/27/alfa-159-gearbox-cooler-modification/ I found that, while the cooling was perfect while the car was moving over 30mph, there was an issue at lower speed.
On more than one occasion I found that if I sat in traffic, slowly edging forwards towards a busy roundabout, once I got to the roundabout and accelerated away, I would have a shift flair for the first gear change. This would disappear by the second change so was clearly a cooling issue where the lack of airflow meant that the gearbox temps would rise in traffic until you had airflow again.
The fix is/was simple. I just needed a thermostatically controlled fan adding to the radiator so that I could generate airflow at low speeds.
After doing some basic research I found a really nice 5″ fan from SPAL, available from Merlin Motorsport.
This unit was very high power and perfect for the job but I needed a thermostatic control solution as well. Merlin had the ideal solution as well, a Davis Craig Thermostatic Adjustable Fan Controller.
This fan controller was ideal as it had a separate external temp sensor that was fitted into the radiator itself which meant I did not have to cut into the oil lines to make the mod.
Fitting required removal of the bumper as usual, but that gave me an opportunity to fix a crack that was temporarily repaired previously.
Adding the fan was very easy as it came with its own mount kit that essentially used special plastic ties that passed through the fins of the radiator and clamped it securely to the rear of the unit.
Fitting the fan controller was a little more tricky but only due to the very short wire run on the temperature sender which meant it had to be within two feet of the fan. Fortunately it nestled perfectly between the ECU and the headlight!
The unit can control two fans but I am only using it in single mode. It has an adjustable temp trigger so mine is set to 75C which is a reasonable point to start testing from. The added digital temperature display is also quite useful for diagnostics!
I will have to see how it pans out but I am pretty confident that this will sort the last pesky shift flairs for good!
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