Nissan Reprograms Skyline GTR Launch Control

Autoblog: GTR's Launch Control Gets Reprogrammed. This applies to cars in inventory, and with "vigorous encouragement" for customers to come in and get theirs reprogrammed too (for free).

Launch RPMs are decreased, and the new softer-side-of-sears launch control is available without disabling VDC/warranty.

Nissan claims standing start acceleration with VDC *on* will improve, but admits the following:

Please note independent media reports of 0-60 drive times with VDC OFF (or what the media call "Launch Control") on closed courses with professional drivers will likely increase after this change.

This does beg the question: Since they added a tamer launch control that doesn't void the warranty to the new firmware, did they also delete the old "secret" launch control that brought them all those magazine acceleration numbers?

Time for a redeux of all the fraudulent magazine tests...

Related:
Anybody who Owns a Porsche... I Suggest You Leave.
Class Action Lawsuit: Nissan Responds by Discontinuing Launch Control
Nissan GTR Black Box Abused for Warranty Denial

Why Bother? Climate Change Found Irreversible

NPR: Global Warming is Irreversible, Study Says. We've already caused damage will go on for more than a thousand years, no matter what we do, the study says... So again I ask... why bother?

One Lap of America Coverage Moving to Motor Trend

Good for them.

Text Messages Could be Used to Stop Stolen Cars

I wonder if they'll figure out how bad an idea this is after a few serial killers text message their victims' cars to pull over...

[Telegraph]

Don't Talk to Strangers (And ID Theft Made Easy)

I was reading an interesting Schneier interview this afternoon in which he is quoted:

Security is designed to protect us from the dishonest minority. It's important to remember that. I remember being told as a child: "Never talk to strangers." That's actually stupid advice. If a child is lost or scared or alone, the smartest thing he can do is find a kindly looking stranger to talk to. The real advice is: "Don't answer strangers who talk to you first." The difference is important. In the first case, the child selects the stranger—and the odds of him selecting a bad person are pretty negligible. In the second case, the stranger selects the child; that's more dangerous.

Good advice. And it got me thinking... From a social engineering perspective, in this age of ubiquitous security checkpoints, what's to stop me from setting up my own security checkpoint for people? Perhaps a roadblock... or an entryway into an important building that doesn't already have security guards... Stop everybody that comes in, drives by, etc... "Screen" them... Voila. Instant identity theft.

So... how do we protect ourselves from this type of stuff... When was the last time you called in and checked the badge #s of the people doing your security screening?

Get Your Own Gun-Free Zone

Thanks to Chuck for this one...

Kentucky Judge, Self-Appointed Ruler of Internet Overruled

Remember the Kentucky judge that decided to steal seize a bunch of gambling domains simply because KY residents were accessing those websites?

Owned.

Related:
EFF, ACLU Seek to Overrule Kentucky Judge, Self Appointed Ruler Of The Internet
Kentucky Judge Himself Ruler of the Internet

Anybody who Owns a Porsche... I Suggest You Leave.

Related:

Nissan Reprograms Skyline GTR Launch Control
Class Action Lawsuit; Nissan Responds by Discontinuing Launch Control
Nissan GTR Black Box Abused for Warranty Denial
What's the Big Deal with the Skyline GTR's Black Box?

Illegal Searches OK if Based on Planted Evidence Computer Errors

Wired Threat Level: High Court OKs Illegal Searches Based on Computer Errors.

It just got a lot easier to falsely search and/or arrest somebody. Just "accidentally" screw up the computer record and voila, instant probable cause. Thank you Supreme Court.

Update (January 28): Bruce Schneier just wrote an excellent essay on this. I learned somehthing from it: while he and I arrived at the same conclusion, I really just used common sense and didn't know the legal basis behind my argument. Shneier's logic:

What's at issue here is the exclusionary rule, which basically says that unconstitutionally or illegally collected evidence is inadmissible in court. It might seem like a technicality, but excluding what is called "the fruit of the poisonous tree" is a security system designed to protect us all from police abuse.

Obama to Defend Telecom Immunity

Is this a surprise?

[Wired Threat Level]

Arrested: Police Can Search Your Smartphone

Cnet: Police Blotter: Handheld search during arrest legal?

My question: So the smartphone is like a "container" that they're allowed to search upon arrest. Understood. But it's also a doorway to your other containers that you aren't carrying upon arrest (such as email boxes, social networking services, voicemails, perhaps even bank accounts).

Does the law allow them to only forensically examine what is physically on the device at the current time? Or can they tamper with the smartphone so it downloads more stuff from your servers/services? Consider that most smartphones auto-check emails the moment you open the email application to read what's currently on the phone...

I think that in the future, smartphone forensics standards will form similar to those for computers: capture the volatile data, poweroff, [jailbreak if necessary,] get full dump. All the while ensuring zero network traffic.

Just my $.02.

Washington State Lawmaker Doesn't Get RFID

But since when has "not getting it" has ever stopped lawmakers from, umm, making laws? I say we make a law banning new laws.

Informationweek: Lawmarker Targets RFID in Privacy Push

I especially like this part below since it'll criminalize pretty much every tollway company:

Last year, Morris supported a bill that became the first U.S. law to make it a Class C felony to intentionally scan someone's RFID chip

I've said it before... protecting our privacy means no longer plastering and beaming our personal data everywhere. Not criminalizing reading it.

The Case for Dark Auto Tinting

The Register: National Safety Council seeks total* cell-phone driving ban (including handsfree).

NYPD: Can You Hear Me Now?

Wired: NYPD wants to jam cell phones during terror attack.

Schneier on Security (December 1): Communications During Terrorist Attacks are Not Bad.

Texas Concealed Handgun Reciprocity

Things sure have changed a lot in the past few years... I can now carry in over half the country. Sweet.

Texas Rep. Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp on the Second Amendment

The MacBook Wheel

Thanks to The Onion for this exclusive first look at the next paradigm in user interface technology, straight from Macworld 2009. [Techcrunch]

Transparency

Who's Got Your Balls?

Happy New Year!

Looking forward to a kick ass 2009!  

Cheers,

Andi