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Showing posts from March, 2017

What is a Raspberry Pi?

What is a Raspberry Pi? A Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized computer originally designed for education, inspired by the 1981 BBC Micro. Creator Eben Upton's goal was to create a low-cost device that would improve programming skills and hardware understanding at the pre-university level. But thanks to its small size and accessible price, it was quickly adopted by tinkerers, makers, and electronics enthusiasts for projects that require more than a basic microcontroller (such as Arduino devices). The Raspberry Pi is slower than a modern laptop or desktop but is still a complete Linux computer and can provide all the expected abilities that implies, at a low-power consumption level. Is the Raspberry Pi open hardware? The Raspberry Pi is open hardware, with the exception of the primary chip on the Raspberry Pi, the  Broadcomm SoC  (System on a Chip), which runs many of the main components of the board–CPU, graphics, memory, the USB controller, etc. Many of the project

Top 10 ways to tune up your body

1. [Lift weights to increase your flexibility.] By performing weight-training exercises through your full range of motion, you can build strength and extensibility in your muscles and connective tissues all at once, says Bill Hartman, P.T., C.S.C.S., an Indianapolis-based strength coach. "Exercises such as lunges, chinups, squats, and Romanian deadlifts improve your performance in the gym and on the sports field better than static stretching," he says. (Note: Hartman does recommend static stretching for injury prevention-see The Rehab Clinic on page 134 for an example.) 2. [Drink milk.] There's been a backlash against the stuff in recent years due to the fat and high calorie content. But switch to skim and you've got one of the cheapest, simplest, and most effective post-workout shakes available. "Twenty ounces provides an ample serving of carbs and both whey and casein protein, two kinds that are absorbed at different rates," says Hartman. "The comb

Bypassing encryption;Lawful hacking is the next frontier of law enforcement technology

The discussion about how law enforcement or government intelligence agencies might rapidly decode information someone else wants to keep secret is – or should be – shifting. One commonly proposed approach, introducing what is called a “backdoor” to the encryption algorithm itself, is now widely recognized as too risky to be worth pursuing any further. The scholarly and research community, the technology industry and Congress appear to be in agreement that weakening the encryption that in part enables information security – even if done in the name of public safety or national security – is a bad idea. Backdoors could be catastrophic, jeopardizing the security of billions of devices and critical communications. What comes next? Surely police and spy agencies will still want, or even need, information stored by criminals in encrypted forms. Without a backdoor, how might they get access to data that may help them solve – or even prevent – a crime? The future of law enforcement and