Here’s a 40-minute video of Intel Senior Fellow, Mark Bohr, giving Robert Scoble a tour of Intel’s new 45nm chip fabrication plant. Most of the interview focuses on the 45nm technology, but there are several shots inside the fab.

Click here to watch the video (requires Flash Player)

If you listen close, he even mentions the Folsom Chipset group I used to work for

Edited 1-30-2007:

The exciting thing about the new 45nm process is that Intel is replacing the SiO₂ (silicon-dioxide) gate dielectric with a high-k dielectric like HfO₂ (hafnium-dioxide). The gate dielectric is a thin layer (about 5 atoms thick with SiO₂) that prevents current from leaking through the gate.

The problem is that the electric field generated by the gate must still be strong enough to create the inversion channel between the source and drain of the transistor (more information here). As transistors get smaller, the dielectric layer has to be so thin (to maintain the correct capacitance) that current begins to flow (leak) across the gate dielectric. This consumes power and generates heat.

Read the rest…

Back in December, a list of 34,000 MySpace usernames and passwords was released on the Internet. Hackers had used a phishing attack to lure MySpace users to a fake login page. There, users would try to login, only to have their username and password sent to a server in France. This is a classic example of people failing to follow one of the golden rules of email: “Don’t trust links in email… ever”.

What I found interesting was some of the analysis security experts did on the released data. From Bruce Schneier’s artcle in Wired:

The top 20 passwords are (in order):

password1, abc123, myspace1, password, blink182, qwerty1, f*ckyou, 123abc, baseball1, football1, 123456, soccer, monkey1, liverpool1, princess1, jordan23, slipknot1, superman1, iloveyou1, and monkey.

If your password is in the list, or is as horribly insecure as these are, I suggest changing it… hackers aren’t stupid. In many cases they are professional engineers. There is enough money to be made by stealing this stuff that many criminals can now afford to hire professionals.

Here’s something else I found interesting from an article in InfoWorld by Roger Grimes:

I was surprised about how many Christian-sounding — for example, “Ilovejesus” — log-on names were associated with the worst cuss words.

I think that one speaks for itself…

And there’s always something funny from Dilbert:

The Washington Post is reporting about how Microsoft enlisted the National Security Agency’s help in securing the next version of Windows. Sounds good, huh? Looks like Microsoft is doing everything is can to secure Vista. The NSA is the best-of-best when it comes to this stuff, so who better to turn to, right?

Well, there’s a subtle reason why this is not good, and I believe Bruce Schneier offers a good summary as to why this is:

It’s called the “equities issue.” Basically, the NSA has two roles: eavesdrop on their stuff, and protect our stuff. When both sides use the same stuff — Windows Vista, for example — the agency has to decide whether to exploit vulnerabilities to eavesdrop on their stuff or close the same vulnerabilities to protect our stuff. In its partnership with Microsoft, it could have decided to go either way: to deliberately introduce vulnerabilities that it could exploit, or deliberately harden the OS to protect its own interests.

So, which choice did they make? We’ll probably never know, but given the current administration’s feeling about privacy and warrentless eavesdropping, this whole thing doesn’t make me feel any better about Vista security.

The real irony of the whole thing is that this could make Vista seem more secure, when actually the opposite is true. There’s an old saying in the security field: “No security is better than poor security.” When there’s no security, at least people are cautious with their data. With the “illusion” of security, people tend to act as if they are truly secure.

As a side note, this is an example of why security is so hard to get right. In many ways, true security is counter-intuitive… that’s part of what makes this field so interesting.

Here’s a great video clip of Dave Weckl and band jammin’ away. Dave is truely one of the drumming greats (his bassist ain’t bad either :-)). Click the link below to watch.

Dave Weckl - “Chicken”

(Quicktime movie - 18MB - courtesy of Drummerworld)

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith lately. I think all too often Christians confuse hope for faith. There’s a very important distinction between the two: you must have hope to have faith, but you don’t have to have faith to have hope. Look at Hebrews 11:1 again… a part of having faith is “… being sure of what we hope for…“. The problem is that many of us stop there. We know what we hope for, but that’s only the first part of having faith… we have to be “… certain of what [we] do not see.” Faith requires both parts! Substituting hope for faith is like trying to win a race without crossing the finish line… you have to start and finish. The power is not in starting the race… anyone can do that. The power is in finishing. This is why faith is so difficult.

Read the rest…

“A dilatant material is one in which viscosity increases with the rate of shear.” (wikipedia)

In other words, a dilatant material will become “thicker” or “harder” when it is hit. This is counter-intuitive… imagine a liquid that becomes solid when it is hit, then quickly returns to a liquid.

A simple example of a dilatant material is called “oobleck“. Oobleck is a mixture of cornstarch and water. Click here to learn how to make oobleck at home.

There is currently research going on that uses dilatant materials for flexible body armor. When a bullet strikes the fluid, it immediately becomes hard, protecting the person wearing it. The armor is full of polyethylene glycol with nano-particles of silica suspended in it. For you super-nerds: polyethylene glycol is a relative if ethylene glycol (anit-freeze), and is used to thicken shampoo and cosmetics.