Al Hoang

Okay, I’m really lost. I’m noticing on an iMac that after awhile it gets DOG slow. As in waiting tens of seconds for any response from the GUI after awhile. I’m completely baffled to why this happens. The Console Log tool shows nothing. When I ssh into the machine (lucky when that even works) and get a process listing I see -psn_0_blahblah tacked onto Finder based processes. Does anyone know what these mean? I’ve been googling around but can’t find a single instance of this anywhere. Doesn’t anyone else see these things? Here’s a snippet to show what I mean (emphasis added to show the -psn options):
401 ?? S 4:28.92 /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock -psn_0_393217
402 ?? S 0:36.82 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer -psn_0_524289
406 ?? S 12:35.89 /Applications/Virex 7/Virex 7.1.app/Contents/MacOS/Virex 7.1 -psn_0_917505
476 ?? S 0:03.14 /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/MacOS/AppleSpell -psn_0_1441793

Got this link from the Cincom Blog on new technology to help find card counters. Seems the cat and mouse game between the smarter gambler and the craftier house continue on. The MindPlay technology uses some really hefty image recognition algorithms to pull in image information so it can keep track of the cards and various other table information and try to detect anomalies. I can’t wait to see what the answers to this are. Too bad by the time I learn of them they’ll be outdated techniques.

That reminds me I need to get this book sometime soon


. Although I’ll wait until the paperback comes out.

There’s a story from the Inquirer competely debunking the HavenCo project some geeks started running in an area known as Sealand which is some island hanging off of England. Some more background info on this can be found in this Wired article. After reading the Inquirer editorial I think I have to agree with the Inquirer. As cute as the idea as some data haven completely free of government to store any type of data one wants. I have to say the idea sounds utterly naive. Here’s the presentation on the ‘failing’ of HavenCo. Sheesh, write up some stupid presentation and get a free pass to a hackers conference… gee maybe I can get in with a topic like ‘Hacking the Transatlantic Telecommunications Line by Dolphin Radar’ or something.

Kudos to Hack the Planet on the Inquirer link.