CCC vs Wanktanks

December 30, 2009 in GSM, hacker, Wanktanks

Other people’s TDLs. I note that this year’s CCC has devoted some time to the wanktank phenomenon in Germany, and also elsewhere. Volker Bilk’s slides are here; it makes a lot of sense, but there’s quite a bit of German philosophical maundering in there, and I’d have liked to see more case studies/howtos. As far [...]

TDL@TYR

December 30, 2009 in admin

To-do lists are good. Grandad Bill lived by them; we found ones up-to-date for the day before he died. In that spirit, here’s a rough one for this blog in 2010: 1) Finally, end this twin-blog nightmare. I’ve had requests from multiple readers for this. I think I’ll standardise on WordPress and host it myself [...]

going quiet

December 23, 2009 in admin

Before the blog goes quiet for the traditional Christmas ceasefire, I’d like to say that my grandfather, Paul William Gibbs, died yesterday. I’ll be posting something about him when I’ve finished writing it. Now for the quiet.

mystery jet update: Malian 727

December 23, 2009 in 4GW, aviation, Viktor

More mystery jets. In the last couple of weeks there’s also been some progress on the 727 abandoned in North-Eastern Mali. For a start, it’s a 727, which is something. And, finally, there are pictures. The National of Abu Dhabi – a newspaper that is developing into a surprisingly useful source – has a good [...]

All the 4L-AWA that’s fit to print

December 23, 2009 in Viktor

I should have done this earlier rather than committing fanfic with a sliver of valuable blogging time, but it’s high time to catch up with the 4L-AWA seizure. It’s looking like this is a serious coup – not only is the aircraft one with a long and complex history in the trade, but a lot [...]

the untrue history of the Conservative Party

December 20, 2009 in sci-fi

Charlie Stross has done a short story that is set in an NHS facility. This done, I feel he needs to take his unique view of Britain’s national institutions to its logical, strategic target. The whole project of much of his work deals with the civil service; he’s had a go at the military, at [...]

look what the cat dragged in

December 16, 2009 in Viktor

So this is the best news story on the Ilyushin 76 seized in Thailand I’ve yet seen. Based on that, we know that the aircraft is ex-Beibars (a company that suddenly appeared on the Viktorfeed at the end of 2007, and which is banned from the EU) and ex-East Wing. But we still didn’t have [...]

submarine, cocktail party, etc

December 6, 2009 in admin, glob-Al

I’m going to America. Specifically, I’ll be organising Telco 2.0 Americas in Orlando on the 9th and 10th of December. Then, I’ve got a two-and-a-half day layover in a hotel with marching ducks. The prose is worth quoting: In a special elevator, the five North American mallard ducks, four hens and one drake, comprising The [...]

progress in the arsehole theory of terrorism

December 6, 2009 in terrorism

Here’s something interesting, from Kings of War; statistical analysis shows that there is no correlation between arrests on terrorism charges and the concentration of Muslims in the population. It’s almost as if…a gratifyingly small percentage of people are completely fucking stupid and pig-ignorant, that this is normally distributed in the population, and it’s essentially a [...]

revenue engine

December 6, 2009 in 4GW, Afghanistan, corruption, Pakistan

We had a post about the MQM in Karachi and the Taliban. Strangely enough, Reuters got a fascinating interview with the MQM mayor of Karachi a couple of days later. It’s a must-read – one of the main points that comes through is the way in which the struggle up on the frontier and in [...]