Printer forensics to aid homeland security, tracing counterfeiters

Remember that episode of the Brady Bunch where Jan was getting special secret presents and they tried to figure out who was sending them, and they found out that Alice's typewritier dropped it's "y" the same way as the "y" on Jan's letters? (or something like that) Anyway... printer forensics - is it possible to tell which printer printed something?


Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method that will enable authorities to trace documents to specific printers, a technique law-enforcement agencies could use to investigate counterfeiting, forgeries and homeland security matters.

The technique uses two methods to trace a document: first, by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer, and second by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents.


UPDATED: BoingBoing now covered this story as well, I suppose we both saw it on Smart Mobs. Anyway, they used the same intro as I did about the Brady Bunch! Except they explained it better...Neat mindshare.

google labs aptitude test

Still looking for something to do after graduation? See how you do on the GLAT: the Google labs aptitude test.

Purdue calls off free bike program

Well, I guess it's a problem all over. Fark reports that Purdue calls off free bike program.

he Gold Bike program, similar to ones used for years at Rutgers and Indiana University, was designed to discourage bike thefts, deputy Chief Steve Dietrich told the Purdue Exponent.

Twenty of the bikes can no longer be used because vandals damaged them, and a few others are missing....

Farmshore Future

Computerworld has an article about alternatives to offshoring - Farmshoring. This is where much of the economic impact of offshoring jobs is saved by using rural Arkansas instead of India, but the emotional impact of American job loss is lessened.

Who says computer professionals "don't work with people" and don't have to have "people skills"?

Of course, it's not so beautiful if you're a programmer whose job is already at risk of being outsourced. If Rural Sourcing succeeds, your fate is sealed. Even if farmshoring doesn't make sending your job away attractive enough, it will start a race that will eventually make your situation impossible. Keeping most pure programming jobs in-house just won't make economic sense.

So now the clock is ticking for you to make a choice. You can start working to shift away from pure programming to an IT job that's a lot harder to outsource -- for example, one that involves lots of hands-on work or face time with users.

Or you can move up the stack to a job that involves more business analysis, so you're writing the specifications those farmshorers will be turning into code.

Ossmole graphic

Instructional Design & Development here at Elon rocks! I asked yesterday for a small graphic for my Ossmole collaborative research project, and wow! They delivered a really cute graphic in like less than 24 hours. I am so impressed. I like this graphic a lot, and their turnaround time is phenomenal.

online radio

Students come to my office all the time and want to know what I'm listening to. It's always internet radio via shoutcast. Internet radio is 100% legal, and when done properly, it can be more interesting than traditional file-swapping of mp3s. I personally like radioparadise, which bills itself as "eclectic intelligent rock", or, occasionally what you might call "chick rock". The "DJ" gives great thought to building blocks of music that "go together". Radioparadise relies on listener contributions, so it does suffer from some of the free rider effect in theory. They have tons of neat features online (listener forums, song ratings) and various incentives for listeners to pledge their support financially. Some other internet radio stations play ads during breaks. (Sometimes I listen to hiphop or some other genre-radio on shoutcast too. Since there is no way I would know which artists are worth listening to in these other genres, it is helpful to have knowledgable DJs compiling playlists for me.

In any event, internet radio gives you playlists compiled by people who love music, and internet radio eliminates the hassle of having to go get an mp3 of the song you want. For me, this is the ideal scenario because I like being exposed to new artists and songs that I *don't* already know about. That's the problem with file-sharing of mp3s, you have to know what you're looking for in order to find it. Often, I don't even care who the artists are, I just want 8 hours of reasonably nice background music in a particular genre. If a song is appealing to me or catches my attention, I look at the playlist on radioparadise, and I can choose to buy the album or comment on the song.

Streaming radio is perfect for me, and I hope more students take advantage of it. Enjoy.