Matter and Anti-Matter (and God)

I've just seen some news about a discovery on the matter vs anti-matter topic here.

The results seem to show that matter particles are slightly more predominant than the anti-matter counterparts and this is how we came to existence.

However what is more interesting in that page are the comments that have been generated. I've been reading some of them. I found very interesting the replies to "read the Bible GOOF BALLS". It seems that there are still some believers out there (I am one of them) but also people that would use the Bible to wipe out their ass.

I don't know if such discoveries will ever be able to actually proof the origin of our universe or our own existence but they certainly encourage people to forget about God and restrict themselves only to science theories. It remains to be seen what will be the impact of this research.

Facebook privacy

A few days ago Yahoo has published a guide to help people in making the right settings on Facebook. That guide is a good place to learn about the bunch of settings needed to protect your Facebook profile from unwanted access.

However, today I found out of a great tool that does all the necessary checks for you and allows you to fix all the problems by simply clicking a button. The tool is available here. You don't need to be a guru to use it. Just copy a link into your bookmark bar, log in to Facebook and click the bookmar link. The rest is piece of cake.

I am just a bit worried about the extra stuff this tool might do. However they provide the source code on their website and many magazines seem to write well about the tool. But I am still wondering if the actual button does more than just fixing your privacy issues. If anyone has made a full test of the code (I just don't have time to do it now) please let me know.

Romanian Easter and Others

I know it has been a long time without posts and the Orthodox Easter has passed a few weeks ago.

I haven't posted in a while because of work stuff. I just had the last exam of this term today. Now it just remains to go on with the project.

With the occasion of the Orthodox Easter we went back to Romania for 10 days. As usual, trips to Dana's grand parents, Bran and some other activities. Time went too fast to understand much of the trip.

Oh yes... I also got the prize for the best player of my football team. Who would've think of :)

Xavi Alonso style

This is a one-more post on the football topic. I know I've put already a few posts about this but... it's the first time I score a goal in a real game from the half of the field. It was also the goal that probably confirmed our victory on the league.

Just a few comments on that game:

"Omar spotted their keeper off his line and launched an exquisite looping 45-yard shot towards goal, which dipped at the last minute to leave their goalie with no hope. You could also describe it as a hoof from the half way line, but the result was the same - 2-0"

"Not forgetting Omar's 'I must break you' moment which resulted in his

sending off..." (that happened as well... but just trying to protect the score :D).

"Just as well he scored the winning goal Xavi Alonso style, from our own half."

Chip and PIN is broken

Be very careful about your credit/debit cards. In case you loose them, don't rely on the fact that an attacker cannot use your card.

Check the following video, to see what my colleagues in the security group have found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPAX32lgkrw

If you want to know all the details, check the full article:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/banking/nopin/oakland10chipbroken.pdf

PS3 on LCD/CRT VGA monitor

I want to share a trick to use a PS3 on an LCD/CRT VGA monitor.

When I moved from France to UK I didn't bring the TV with me. However I did bring my PS3 as we were very attached to all the funny games we had for it. We didn't want to buy a TV because in the UK you need to pay around 150 £ for the annual TV license. So what to do?

Well... fortunately there is a VGA cable (not produced by SONY), called HDFury which makes a hack to transform the HDMI signal (from the PS3) into the VGA signal used by an ordinary LCD monitor (if you don't have DVI). The cable is at the link below and works great:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001IZK0AQ/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

I know it is quite expensive but after reading many posts it is quite clear this will be the only solution guaranteed to work.

Now what about the sound? Clearly you won't get any sound from your LCD monitor. So the solution is to use the composite output of the PS3. Normally you get this cable with the PS3. If you had lost it, like me, no problem. Again, amazon solves the issue:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000SEU92W/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Now all you need is to plug the composite audio signals to some speakers and you're done :)

Burns Night

Yesterday night we went to a Scottish party, called "Burns Night". It seems to be a traditional party to celebrate the life of a poet that had 13 children, each with a different woman. I don't remember the details but he died somehow at the age of 37 (probably because of the women :D ).

We had a traditional dish, with some mixed meat, very much like the Romanian "cartabos". However it was somewhat lighter and tested better :). As with any party there was wine and other drinks. But above all we had a live music band playing traditional Scottish songs which was very nice.

During the evening we've been learning many traditional dances. There was a lady showing us what to do before the music started. On every dance there was at least a person not understanding the steps, confusing everyone after the music started. Lots of fun anyway.

Take a look at the video below for a sample of the event. Photos on facebook.