Just stumbled across this rather neat project - Cryptool. (Wikipedia Link)

Its an open source project aimed at helping explain the fundamental principles behind encryption routines and cryptography in general. Its already in use in schools and universities - and seems to be getting rather a lot of praise!

Whilst it hasn't got a Linux version yet, there is a Qt4 port being worked on - and the current version seems to work fine under CrossOver Office on my xubuntu-x64 machine!

It offers several different encryption routines, allows you to view the output as well as giving you a description on the routine itself and the technical details.

Well worth a download if you're interested in Cryptography!

Following on from the theme of the last blog post - I've been hitting the books quite a bit recently.

Having recently purchased 2 audiobooks - Red Dwarf (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers) and 8 Simple Rules to Dating my Teenage Daughter - both excellent comedies on TV! Having already listened to Red Dwarf I am definitely going to buy the book as well, looks like it would be a good read!

I'm also reading 1984 - by George Orwell. Although I've tried to get through it before, and had an audiobook, I must say - this time I've tried reading it is has made me quite aware of todays world. I've always disliked the needless paranoia around privacy and the government - but actually some of it I was able to liken to things like the Data Protection Act and the Information Commissioner. But lets not get the tin foil hats ready!

Textbook wise I've been hitting the usual suspects - computer security and programming books and some psychology books. Although these have mainly been in ebook format due to the sheer amount of them and the prices! Try-before-you-buy if you like! Currently open are...

- Barry Farber - How to learn any language (I have my arabic books ready! :P)
- Richard N Kocsis (PhD) - Criminal Profiling, Principles and Practice (Interesting to flick through!)
- O'reilly - Hacking: The next generation (Predictions regarding the future of computer security)

Looks like I'm good for reading material for a while.. !

The world respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers much of its course material online for interested people to read! I first remember reading about this on slashdot a few years ago - and looking over the Computer Science courses.

Its offers a wide range of course material; from subjects from mathmatics, to psychology, to computer science! When combined with some of the university lecture audiobooks that "The Teaching Company" offer - its quite a good little set-up!

At the moment I'm listening to the "Psychology of Human Behaviour (Prof. David W Martin)" by the TTC, as well as their "The Life of The Mind (Richard Gerrig Ph.D)". Both of which have been very interesting - The Life of The Mind discussing more the development of the mind in addition to abnormal behaviour and social situations, whilst the Psychology of Human Behaviour covers a really wide range of topics including Drugs, Learning methodology, Motivation, Behavioural therapies, Illnesses and Research methods.

Both of which aren't available for free, unless you go to a certain bay where you can download them! However, I'm sure they're well worth the money - and will be sure to buy them as soon as I see them available somewhere. (Perhaps amazon?)

MIT OpenCourseWare - http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/visits/

Since I've moved I've also come across an old laptop with.. A RS232 (Serial) port! Now this may not seem important, but a number of weeks back I embarked on a project regarding PIC chips - and actually made a PIC Programmer card. (From a velleman kit)

However, I found that it wouldn't work with my hardware, as my RS232 interface was emulated - it wasn't a true interface. That put a bit of a dampener on the project and it was forgotten about.. until now!

I know their are linux drivers for the kit, so I am going to make a live linux USB disk to boot the laptop up under and then transfer the code from my main system via the USB disk+laptop. A long and drawn out process - but atleast it will work!

Now my other electronics project centered around another velleman card - this time a USB Experimentation and Interface Board. This came complete with a C .DLL with all the functions I'd need to manipulate it.

Well, I've found a linux driver and library so I'm going to get developing for that as well now. I've also bought a movement sensor to interface it - in the hope of being able to launch an action on the PC by moving an object... We shall see how that goes! Fingers crossed...


Self-Soldered Boards + Sensor

The time is about 1am, and my phone rings. "Hello?" - the voice at the end of the line was female, albeit far from feminine. By now, I was accustomed to these harassing phone calls - I'd learnt ways of dealing with them, be it simple ignoring them, putting them by a speaker playing music or simply talking until they got bored. However, after over 5 weeks of them I grew bored. I'd moved on with my life, moved 60 miles away and was begining to find them messing my sleep pattern up. What could I do? I knew that I'd need to change my number regardless of any action I took, but I really wanted to report it to the correct authorities.

I began logging the times and dates of the phone calls. After a while though, I knew I had to get some concrete evidence. A name? A number? This phone call was different, this is the one where the ended was begining.. "You know, I don't know why you with hold your number anymore. You forgot to with-hold it about 2 weeks ago. I've got it wrote down..". I knew this would annoy them, how could they be so careless?! But also, I knew they wouldn't suspect me to be capable of doing anything with it.

"Yeah, well you can keep it. What the fuck are you going to do with it, eh? Fucking save it to your phone and ring me then, cu.." - A smile started to spread across my lips, this was the precise reaction I wanted - and one that I expected. Over the past few weeks I'd picked up certain personality traits of my harasser - be it the lack of common sense, the (over-)confidence in my lack of want or ability to take action - or even her complete unawareness about me. The last one I also played upon, whenever she rang she'd have a hard time guessing where I was - this was a huge advantage alot of the time.

The next day the phone rang, "07852723697" flashed upon the screen. Ah ha, my tormentor is back at last.. After answering the phone I confirmed who it was and jotted the number down. Yet again, a smile broke out on my lips - my plan had worked. Her predictibility, lack of common sense and lack of knowledge about how I act had lulled her into a complete false sense of security. For now she *knew* I already had her number (or did I?) and, I expect, she also rang up without with-holding it just to give me a bit of a "Yeah, Have my number again. What the hell are you gonna do with it?"... if only she knew.

I continued my dairy on her activities, times + dates.. then I got a phone call out of the blue. "Did you just try and prank call me? Who the fuck do you think you are?".. This was an interesting turn of events. I noted it down, and also noted its mildly threatening nature. The next one would have to be recorded! This could turn out to be exactly what I've been waiting for.

The phone rang again about an hour later - "You think you're fucking funny don't you? Putting my number on craigslist. You fucking forget I know where you live. Me and my pals are driving to your house tomorrow to pay you a visit". I was standing in a town center 60 miles away from where she expected, this was no threat to me - yet it was good enough to pass the recording on to the police. I jumped up with a huge grin as soon as she ended the phone call - "CHECK. MATE." I said much to the amusement of passerbys.

Now I posessed every card in our game, I knew I was now in 100% control. With enough logs of phone calls for over 5 weeks, a threatening recording and her phone number. The game was mine for the taking. Now I'm here, with my logs and evidence compiled into a format easy enough to handover to the police tomorrow morning, hopefully I'll atleast get a crime number. For that would end the game completely. I can then ring my old house, pass the crime number on and have them alerted and prepared to ring the police should anything happen. (Which, of course, the crime number adds evidence and urgency too any incidents..)

What can they do? For now I have a new SIM card ready to install - they can't carry on ringing. Could they carry out the threat - Nope, I'm nowhere near them - should they attempt it however, I'm sure the local police will be interested.. especially with the crime number for the previous harassment! What can I do? If I wanted too I could use their number and the profile I have of them to give them a much harder time than they gave me, and the best thing is - I could do that regardless of what happens. However, maybe they were right on one account - I really can't be bothered to keep it going!

If you are reading - "Malicious or abusive phone calls are a criminal offence, under section 43 of the Telecommunications Act, 1984,. Alternatively, The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 covers many forms of harassment involving persistent contact that causes distress." ;) Good day!