05
May 07

Key Generator

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Key Generator
Date: Sat, 05 May 07 05:36:21 GMT

This night/dawn/morning, although I was flat tired,
while putzing aroung with some graphing software I
arrived at a set of four polynomial functions that
generated a set of 16 strangely familiar numbers.

This is the graph I got while playing around…

[Link]
http://mv.asterisco.pt/Images/keygraph.png

When I created a small python script to generate
those four polynomial functions and output them in
hex,it got even stranger. Here’s the code to see if you
can figure it out…

88
#!/usr/bin/python

def f1(x):
return 114.83333*x**3-925*x**2+2211.1667*x-1391.9
def f2(x):
return -66.5*x**3+1273*x**2-7992.5*x+16607
def f3(x):
return -13.666667*x**3+496*x**2-5871.3333*x+22845.1
def f4(x):
return -9.5*x**3+430.5*x**2-6440*x+31936
def tohex(x):
return ‘%02X’%x

key = map(f1, range(1,5)) + map(f2, range(5,9)) + map(f3, range(9,13)) + map(f4, range(13,17))
print map(tohex,map(int,key))
88

A friend told me that the results were similar to some
copyrighted string that was being posted all over the net.
I told him that weenies post strings; real men post code.

And I dont see how the output of a block of simple code
with 4 simple functions can be some sort of secret…

— MV


30
Apr 07

YIES

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Y|IES
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 07 21:08:21 GMT

Lancamos hoje (ITIJ/MJ) em producao mais um projecto
no ambito do Simplex, a Informacao Empresarial Simplificada.

www.mj.gov.pt/sections/destaques/home-ie-dto/nova-medida-simplex
www.ies.gov.pt

Nao sera de chamar muito a atencao para o facto de o www.ies.gov.pt
correr em Linux (Python/Zope/CPS); mas ja e de notar o facto de o
core do sistema ser a validacao de 2 anos de trabalho e a primeira
utilizacao intensiva do ESB da Justica, pedra basilar para uma
arquitectura de informacao orientada a servicos (SOA).
Os produtos utilizados (Sun JCAPS e Sun ESB), estao obviamente a
correr em Linux tambem.

www.sun.com/software/javaenterprisesystem/javacaps/
www.sun.com/software/javaenterprisesystem/javacaps/esb_suite.jsp

Hats off para a equipa (em particular Celso, Paul, Marta, Zaida e
Carlos). Quando os ratings de Portugal subirem, ja sabem a quem
mandar as comissoes…

www.fitchratings.com/corporate/ratings/issuer_content.cfm?issr_id=80442204

— MV

PS – Next: Eleicoes da Madeira ( www.eleicoes.mj.pt )


25
Apr 07

Teenage Mutant Ninja Leecher

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Teenage Mutant Ninja Leecher
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 07 23:26:21 GMT

www.dajobe.org/software/logtools/reports/1993-08-top100users.html

Yes, I was a teenage (25 yo. actually) mutant ninja leecher! Eheheh…

At first I didnt know how this seemed to come about, but I
quickly found out:

http://www.dajobe.org/software/logtools/reports/
http://www.dajobe.org/software/logtools/reports/1993-08-01

“9:58 /ftp/pub/sunsite/pub/Linux/distributions/SLS/a1.3 1474560”

Era eu a sacar a minha 1a distribuicao Linux (Softlanding, antecessora
da Slackware), em floppies…

— MV


25
Apr 07

Another Trilogy Bites The Dust

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv.books
Subject: Another Trilogy Bites The Dust
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 07 23:05:21 GMT

So, it seems that this dawn (woke up at 3 a.m. and
stayed awake reading until 6.30) I got the reading of
another trilogy under my belt, the Galactic Milieu Trilogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Milieu_Series
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=galactic+milieu

About time too, since I had bought and read the prequel quadrilogy
(or a trilogy with 4 volumes, if you know what I mean) called
“Saga of the Exiles” back in 1986 or something like that; and
the bridge volume “Intervention” connecting both sagas in the
early 90s…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=may+exiles
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intervention-Julian-May/dp/0330303090/

Both are connected in an ingenious way. In “Saga of the Exiles” you
follow the lives of people who, living in years beyond 2080, go through
a gate back to prehistoric Earth, back to the Pliocene. There, besides
numerous stuff that I wont tell you about, they find a group of rebels
from the future, metapsychic rebels. The hapenings that lead to this
metapsychic rebellion are those that are detailed in the “Galactic
Milieu”, where eventually you get to the point where you find the
self-exiles from the previous trilogy and the metapsychic rebels and
follow them to the point where they get through the time gate.

I have to say that this is one of my preferred multivolume fantasy
operas, at the same level as “Lord of the Rings” and “Dune”.

What took me so long (close to 20 years) to finish it up? Well,
for once the fact that they got out of print and I slowly acquired
the last volumes “Jack the Bodiless” and “Diamond Mask”. Since I
couldnt get the last volume “Magnificat” in new pristine condition,
I finally resignated and bought second hand at Amazon for my birthday
about 2 weeks ago. Which was the other delaying factor: back in my
youthful days a 600 page book would have a lasting factor of about
2 or 3 days; now it took me nearly 2 weeks to finish them.
All is not lost: during real-summer-and-at-the-beach holidays I
still clock in at about 250/300 pages a day… Hayek and Drucker
seem to be the only exceptions.

— MV


24
Apr 07

Its Getting Late…Part II

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Its Getting Late…Part II
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 07 05:45:21 GMT

“I cant get no sleep…”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOy5LOsV6Vs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxejuztwIj8

— MV