http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/05/random_number_b.html

This is a big deal:

On May 13th, 2008 the Debian project announced that Luciano Bello found an interesting vulnerability in the OpenSSL package they were distributing. The bug in question was caused by the removal of the following line of code from md_rand.c

	MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
	[ .. ]
	MD_Update(&m,buf,j); /* purify complains */

These lines were removed because they caused the Valgrind and Purify tools to produce warnings about the use of uninitialized data in any code that was linked to OpenSSL. You can see one such report to the OpenSSL team here. Removing this code has the side effect of crippling the seeding process for the OpenSSL PRNG. Instead of mixing in random data for the initial seed, the only "random" value that was used was the current process ID. On the Linux platform, the default maximum process ID is 32,768, resulting in a very small number of seed values being used for all PRNG operations.

More info, from Debian, here. And from the hacker community here. Seems that the bug was introduced in September 2006.

More analysis here. And a cartoon.

Random numbers are used everywhere in cryptography, for both short- and long-term security. And, as we've seen here, security flaws in random number generators are really easy to accidently create and really hard to discover after the fact. Back when the NSA was routinely weakening commercial cryptography, their favorite technique was reducing the entropy of the random number generator.

22 мая, четверг, 20.00

bad loop, Esem, Planet Boelex

Лейбл www.kahvi.org открыл миру таких мастеров idm как Lackluster, planet boelex, esem, stud и др.

 bad loop (Финляндия)

Финский электронный проект российского происхождения, сочиняющий качественный downtempo и idm. Несмотря на сравнительно недолгую историю коллектива, проект успел засветиться на нескольких международных фестивалях, а также гастролировал в Европе, в частности в Англии. Первое выступление в Москве.

Esem (Болгария)

Альбом проекта Esem – Scateren изданный бесплатно в формате ogg на лейбле Kahvi.org стал одним из самых скачиваемых в истории нетлейблов. Первое выступление Георгия Маринова в России несомненно станет событием в музыкальной жизни столицы.

Planet Boelex (Финляндия)

Проект финского музыканта Оскари Сорри, полюбившегося московской публике на NCCA Fest 2007, вновь с концертом в ГЦСИ. На этот раз новая программа, уже отыгранная на фестивалях K?lmk?la Paide (Эстония), Virus Art Festival (Литва) и Klusa Daba Festival (Латвия).

 Вход 300 руб.

By the way, the 25th of May is also Terry Pratchett Fan Day (thanks for the heads-up, joezippo). Some of us will be wearing lilacs with our costumes in observance.
******************************************
If you're coming in from out of town for the party, please let me know when you'll be here. It would be nice if we can arrange to get together outside of the party.
******************************************
I need minions volunteers for the party!

• Decorators Sunday afternoon (the more, the merrier) -- the most labor-intensive part will be simply blowing up balloons. Otherwise, the decorations are very simple.


• 3 people to walk among the crowd with a donation can while emcee or DJ is asking for donations. The "beg" will happen twice during the night.


• Some number of people to take turns watching the towel table near the entrance. People will feel a greater pressure to donate for a towel if someone is standing there.

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Also, for you out-of-towners, here are a few things to occupy you during your stay in Portland.
Powell's City of Books is a required stop for anyone visiting Portland. It is the largest independant bookstore in the US (or is it the World? I forget).
Saturday Market (goes Sunday, too)
For Friday night clubbing, I recommend Dementia at Mt. Tabor Legacy (Goth Industrial), or you may prefer Shut Up and Dance! at the Fez Ballroom for (mostly) alt-80s dance music. I will not be going out Friday night, by the way -- busy with other social engagements.
Care to join us for Saturday morning brunch? Email me for information.
Saturday afternoon, a number of acts frequently seen at Subversive Zone will be doing an open-air performance on SE Belmont St.
I can't remember what's going on Saturday night, but when I think of it, I will post.
Sunday, of course, is Towel Day.
Monday, Memorial Day, Veterans for Peace is having a picnic at the Peace Park after gathering for our Memorial Day observance at the Korean Memorial wall at Memorial Coliseum. That night, there is an IVAW musical fundraiser happening at Mt. Tabor Legacy.
On Tuesday, if you're still around, there is always BUTT at Bailey's Taproom, SW Broadway & Ankeny.
******************************************
Have you ever noticed that the little separator I use in my posts is 42 asterisks? DEC(42)=BIN(00101010)=ASCII(*)
******************************************

Yesterday was a pretty awesome, wonderful day!

Planting at the peace park was well under way when K2 and I arrived at about 9:45. At the time things were scheduled to start, about 25 or so volunteers had nearly one-third of the flowers already in the ground! To my great delight, metagoth was there helping out, too. My knees don't allow me to be of much use on planting day, but I am always there, and I try to be useful where I can.

It was a killer hot day, and one of our older veterans, Spencer, was keeping himself cool with a wet towel wrapped around his shoulders. I gave him a thumbs-up, and said, "You've got your towel -- you're set!" This of course led to a conversation about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I mentioned Towel Day coming up next week, my 42nd birthday, and the party plans. Spencer then removed the towel from his shoulders to show me what it said on it.


Photo by soothsavage: click for larger image
Spencer did the lettering on this towel in 1990, then took it hitchhiking across the US and back.

Two hours after our towel conversation, as we were finishing up the planting for the day, Spencer gave me his towel. He is 70 now, and when I tried to beg off the gift, he said, "My hitchhiking days are over. You should have it. It's fate. I'll never again meet someone who is turning 42 on Towel Day." He won't be able to make it to the birthday party, a fact that left him even more disappointed once he heard about the Vogon Poetry contest, so I gave him one of the promotional posters as a keepsake.
******************************************
After Planting Day, K2 and I picked up my friend Mia, who wanted to help me shop for party stuff. We found some cool centerpieces at Dollar Scholar on Hawthorne, along with some other useful decorations. I had been hoping to be able to get some towels at Dollar Tree, but struck out on that one. Fortunately, though, I found $2 towels at K-Mart later in the day.

K2 went to Bishop's for a haircut, while Mia and I made a quick stop for an oil change. Due to the line at Bishop's, we still had to wait about 15 minutes before K2's hair was done, so they gave me a beer. Free beer = good beer
******************************************
Mia home, K2 to a friend's house for studying and a group project, the aforementioned shopping trip to K-Mart, and I was finally back home, where I discovered in the day's mail another birthday gift. kittekaat sent me The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, Literary Classics Edition. Very, very cool! This edition is very nicely bound in soft black leather, embossed, and gilded. It has six blank pages at the front, and eight blanks at the back, which I'm going to ask my party guests to help fill in during the party next Sunday as a sort of guest book.
******************************************
I spent the entire day feeling rushed, and in a bit of a panic, so I dropped a few things off the to-do list, then went to Pub at the End of the Universe in SE Portland. I met the owner there, whose son and son-in-law were both tending bar, and talked with her about Towel Day. The Pub is not doing anything for Towel Day, and she said that she would be happy to help promote my Towel Day celebration. Whee! I also had the most chocolatey chocolate stout while I was there. Mmm...yum!
******************************************
I then had a brief visit (all too brief!) with ennazusmiranda and her perfectly charming daughter, before picking up Mia again so we could go clubbing.

While walking across Hawthorne Blvd. to the front doors of Mt. Tabor Legacy, I noticed that Lorde was on a ladder updating the marquee: "SU: TOWEL DAY / SEAN S BDAY BASH!" Cool. :-) Inside, had a great time of dancing and socializing with Mia up until the end of the night. Things got a bit weird and unhappy toward the end, but not unhappy enough to entirely ruin one of the happiest days I've had in a very, very long time.

That was a big crowd!

-k

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/literally-last-minute-doodle-reminder.html

Just a reminder.... the National Doodle Day auction has an hour to go. Quick! Bid for a good cause!

(Last year, Barack Obama's doodle went for $2075... I hope we can get some of the high scoring doodles up to those kind of figures. Please don't make me run for president. Of anything.)

The National Doodle Day auction has begun. Proceeds will benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc. (nfinc.org).

To immediately access the eBay auction --
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnfinccharity

Direct Links to Neil Gaiman's doodles plus his fave doodles on the auction block:

Ebay link to doodle #1

Ebay link to number 2

Kendra Stout: Ebay link here

Cat Mihos: Ebay link here

Fred Hembeck: Ebay link here

Sergio Aragones: Ebay link here

Gahan Wilson: ebay link here

Here's a remix I did for hip-hop act Custom Made.
Let me know what you think.
DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.zshare.net/audio/121788824497f7f5/
FILE NAME: custom_made_original_dynasty_smp_remix.mp3.mp3
FILE SIZE: ~4.30 megabytes

Zonewire will be debuting new material and the "tour" lineup in preparation for the West Coast tour being planned for Sept. at the special Red Zone Electronic Erotic Ball on Friday May 30th!  We hope you will come out to see us with our new friends Monody and local industrial rock faves Ghost Motor!
The night will also include a fantastic lineup from PanZen Soundsystem!

Doors open at 8:30 pm and Music starts at 9pm.  Sliding scale cover of $5-15 so pay what you can and enjoy a night of live EBM that will have you on your feet all night long!
( Flyer behind cut because well. . . it's EROTIC! )

Zonewire will be debuting new material and the "tour" lineup in preparation for the West Coast tour being planned for Sept. at the special Red Zone Electronic Erotic Ball on Friday May 30th!  We hope you will come out to see us with our new friends Monody and local industrial rock faves Ghost Motor!
The night will also include a fantastic lineup from PanZen Soundsystem!

Doors open at 8:30 pm and Music starts at 9pm.  Sliding scale cover of $5-15 so pay what you can and enjoy a night of live EBM that will have you on your feet all night long!
( Flyer behind cut because well. . . it's EROTIC! )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/not-really-about-anything.html

Let's see -- spoke at Maddy's school yesterday, to about a hundred 13 and 14 year olds. Survived. The pear tree and the cherry trees are coming into blossom too. Tomorrow, without the glorious leadership of Bee Boss Sharon Stiteler, I get to inspect the Kitty hive and go and see how the queen is doing...

I'm currently spending most of the time in the gazebo at the bottom of the garden, alternately writing a sort of outline for something and proofreading The Graveyard Book. This is the US edition of The Graveyard Book, and now I'm taking all the corrections and fixes I did to the UK manuscript when I was in Australia and transferring 90% of them over to the US version (only 90% because I'm letting a few Americanisms that my UK editor had problems with stand -- particularly the ones my otherwise wonderful UK copy editor and I butted heads over. )(There's me at two in the morning on Skype muttering, "Look freak out can't just be a newfangled Americanism -- it's in Fanny Hill, for heaven's sake...") [For the curious, http://fiction.eserver.org/novels/fanny_hill/09.html five lines from the bottom.]

....

If you're on the upper East Coast and sad that you won't get to see me at MIT as all the tickets have sold out, you could -- and should -- down your sorrows in Cory Doctorow reading from Big Brother. If you click on http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000357.shtml you can learn all about it....

What: Cory Doctorow Benefit Reading For CBLDF

When: Sunday, May 25 at 5 PM; VIP After Party at 7 PM

Where: Comix, 353 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014

How Much:
General Admission: $20/advance $25/day of show;
VIP Admission: $100/advance only, includes preferred seating, copy of the book, & After Party with open beer/wine/soda bar

Tickets:
General Admission tickets available at
http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=416&sid=1302;

VIP Admission available at
http://store.fastcommerce.com/prod_cbldf-ff80818119f1676e0119f2fbcdc91642.html


You should go.

...

I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush...

"To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll.... More of A question really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, I mean, when you add in the answers, not just the questions, weeelll, you're looking at numbers that are positively astronomical and... for that matter the other question is what you lot are doing on this planet in the first place, and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?"

There. Thanks. Sorry about that.

...

This came in from Laurel Krahn -- I've already mentioned Fourth Street Fantasy on this blog, one of my very very first American conventions, the one at which I first discovered the joy of talking to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (amongst others) and failing to argue with Steve Brust:

Any chance you could mention the return of Fourth Street Fantasy Convention in your journal/blog thing? We've extended the pre-registration date from May 15th to May 31st to give us all more time to plug the convention, it also gives those who haven’t registered yet a bit more time to gather the funds together to do so.

June 20 - 22, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Guest of Honor Elizabeth Bear.

More details at http://www.4thstreetfantasy.com/

My friend Lillian Edwards pointed me at the TechnoLlama blog, where over This, this and finally this post the entire matter of Dr Who knitting patterns is discussed to within an inch of its life.

I crochet, and I'm a Doctor Who fan, so I've been following the thing with the knitted pattern a little. I've always had a set of Lil' Endless on my mental list of things to eventually crochet, but now that you've mentioned that DC is a bit strict about things I think I might just keep them to myself instead of writing up a (free, not to be sold) pattern. What would your feelings be about crochet/knitting patterns of your characters? It's not just The Endless I have in mind, I've done a seven legged spider before, and there are several other characters or concepts that I think would make neat projects.

As long as things aren't being sold in quantity, DC Comics is incredibly unlikely to grumble about it.

I don't mind at all, as long as it's not commercial. I don't mind anything that's creative, and I especially don't mind if people ask nicely first.

(I mind, very much, things like people selling on ebay CDs with PDFs of the complete Sandman books on them.)

(Nobody is going to complain if a fan turns a Barbie into a Death -- although I heard that DC said no to one of those appearing in a book of photos of interesting Barbie dolls. Nobody is going to grumble if a fan puts up a "how to make Barbie into Death" guide online. If someone put up a how to guide, and then one day hundreds of Death Barbies turned up on eBay, I can see Warners lawyers trying to close it down...)

...

Had a conversation with Paul Levitz the other day about Gaiman's Law of Superhero Movies, which is: the closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is (which is something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right) and the conversation went over to Watchmen, which had Paul explaining to me that the film is obsessive about how close it is to the comic, and me going "But they've changed the costumes. What about Nite Owl?" It'll be interesting to see whether it works or not...

Vogue Night at Club V will be rockin the house this weekend May 17 with DJ's Evan Blackstone and Eternal Darkness. Come out and dance.









Door: 10-2



Cover: 6

CHAC Lower Level

1621 12th Ave.







21+ w/ID



Please read the following article.







http://slog. thestranger. com/2008/05/goodbye_chac_hello_velocity



The CHAC is losing their lease come June 30. We are hopefully relocating to the lower level at Neighbors, the space where we celebrated NYE 2008. The move to Neighbors is pending until further notice. We are on through the rest of May and a few Saturday's in June.









I will keep everyone updated when we decide when our last night at the CHAC will be. Should you have any questions please ask either Roxy or I.

Vogue Night at Club V will be rockin the house this weekend May 17 with DJ's Evan Blackstone and Eternal Darkness. Come out and dance.









Door: 10-2



Cover: 6

CHAC Lower Level

1621 12th Ave.







21+ w/ID



Please read the following article.







http://slog. thestranger. com/2008/05/goodbye_chac_hello_velocity



The CHAC is losing their lease come June 30. We are hopefully relocating to the lower level at Neighbors, the space where we celebrated NYE 2008. The move to Neighbors is pending until further notice. We are on through the rest of May and a few Saturday's in June.









I will keep everyone updated when we decide when our last night at the CHAC will be. Should you have any questions please ask either Roxy or I.

Give.

Unfortunately, DJ BLACK MARU will *not* be spinning tonight @ the Merc as originally planned due to a personal emergency, so DJ SERAPHIM will be providing the music in his stead. Enjoy!

I'll be back next weekend with tons of new music from Festival Kinetik! À Bientôt!



THE MACHINERIES OF JOY
w/DJ Hana Solo + guests
Saturdays 9pm - 4am
be 21+ and bring ID
free for members before 10pm
$5 after


The Mercury is a private club. If you don't know, you can't get in. But you can try.

I took this through my window last night in SE Portland: