Dear Farhad, I just got back from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. I saw it with my own eyes- the system of occupation is stronger than ever. In places like the south of Hebron and East Jerusalem, I saw Palestinian land being taken daily through an insidious collaboration between violent settlers, the military, and the Israeli government bureaucracy. The government regularly appropriates land for what it calls "sterile zones." This means no Palestinians allowed. Instead, families are driven from their lands and forced to live in smaller and smaller areas. There's no other way to put it. This is ethnic cleansing. Because it's happening now, and not just in the distant past, we still can stop it. Especially today when the world's attention is on settlements, and for the first time in recent memory, a US administration is creating pressure on Israel. But we need your financial help to do it. From Dheishah refugee camp to Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem to Gaza, people I met knew the work of JVP. They are strengthened by it. They need us, and they were very clear - they need JVP to do more, not less. We need your financial support now to make this possible. But we must do more. And all of our work takes money. If you haven't already, please make a donation today. We need to raise $100,000 in the next two months to maintain and expand our campaigns. Your gift of $60, $100, $250 or whatever you can give will help us reach our goal. P.S Jewish Voice for Peace's goal of ending the Occupation is a long-term one. We are in this struggle for as long as it takes, and we need your help. Please make the largest gift you can, today. Every gift is put to good use.
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20090723
Jewish Voices For Peace: What else do you call it?
20090721
FYI : The relevance of tamper-proof designs
The relevance of tamper-proof designs
http://www.edn.com/fpgagurus/blog/890000689/post/1510046151.html?nid=4719&rid=9121315
Altera Corp.'s addition of physical-layer tamper-proof features in the Cyclone III LS jogged my memory regarding the tough uphill battle security experts faced in the last decade, convincing companies that protocol-layer encryption and digital signatures were important for commercial-grade IT designs. It took scares involving the wholesale theft of credit-card numbers and the hacking of corporate Wi-Fi networks before many companies started to treat encryption seriously. Will it take the same valiant effort to make JTAG port analysis and tamper-resistant circuit designs a mainstream feature?
What Altera is offering is not new to the FPGA market. Xilinx, for example, offers tamper-resistance for IP cores in its military-qual Virtex-5Q family. But Altera's efforts to bring such features to the mainstream of both military and commercial designs is to be commended. In May 2008, when IEEE Spectrum published an article on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Trust in Integrated Circuits (TRUST) program, there was plenty of eye-rolling among those in commercial designs. Maybe an electronic warfare system was a legitimate platform for physical-layer protection, but was DARPA paranoid? Was the agency suggesting that any IT platform could be a target for hostile hacking at the circuit-board level?
Well, yes. The establishment of the Air Force's 24th Air Force/Cyber Command, and President Obama's subsequent assignment of a civilian cyber initiative under NSA auspices, should convince skeptics that the federal government considers cyber offense and defense primary focus areas for the next decade. And one needn't assume a hostile government is focusing a board-level design. If corporate espionage spends the resources to crack 256-bit keys, it's perfectly feasible to expect future (or maybe even current) efforts to probe the internal layout of an FPGA design.
I'm not so sure most FPGA customers will buy into this until horror stories emerge similar to those experienced in the Layer 2 and 3 crypto community. But I'm glad to see FPGA vendors prod customers into thinking about tamper-proof IC design.
20090717
The future is here : Pentagon is designing a Robot fighter that can EAT!
20090715
What are Israeli soldiers saying about Gaza? Share this report with Congress.
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New Propaganda: Germany believes Iran could have nuclear bomb within 6 months'
| Another unnamed source coming via Haaretz claiming that Iran is only 6 month away from a nuclear bomb! Funny that this has been 6 month since 2005 and still not managed to get pass that majic 6 month! From 2005: http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/september2005/200905sixmonths.htm From 2008: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/iran-6-months-away-from-nuclear-weapons Iran will "know how to" make a nuclear bomb in 6 month: http://www.newser.com/story/43170/iran-boosts-uranium-stockpile.html 2005: Iran is six months away from having the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says From one of "iran-opposition" sites And my favorite site is this one: http://www.iranwatch.org/ourpubs/articles/iranucleartimetable.html They have a time table with exact date of when IRI will be able to make a bomb! Very very 'accurate' if you do not question the accuracy of their claims :) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100387.html Iran is capable of assembling an atomic bomb within six months, German intelligence analysts told the German weekly newsmagazine Stern. "If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months," an analyst with Germany's intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the magazine.
"Nobody would have thought this possible some years ago," an intelligence official told Stern. The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Tehran for defying its demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Some analysts say Iran may be close to having the required material for producing a bomb, but most say the weaponization process would then take one to two years due to technical and political hurdles. "Weaponizing" enrichment would not escape the notice of UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), unless it was done at a secret location. Until now there have been no indications of any such covert diversion, a point made by the IAEA's incoming director-general shortly after his election earlier this month. Current IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said it is his "gut feeling" that Iran is seeking at least the capability to build nuclear weapons, in order to protect itself from perceived regional and U.S. threats. Libyan leader: Peaceful nuclear program should be encouraged Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says Iran should be encouraged to pursue its nuclear program as long as it is for peaceful purposes. Gadhafi was addressing Wednesday's opening session of a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. The 118-nation group includes Iran. He said it is "unjust" to stop Iran from enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, but that it must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The United States and Israel say Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is for generating power. Libya in 2003 abandoned its own program to develop nuclear and chemical weapons. |
20090708
Good and free timing diagram program/site!
Hi guys,
I am not sure if I send this to you earlier but this is a good site for creating timing diagram for your designs for test and documentation. It is free to use but you need to register in order to access it.
http://www.timingtool.com/tt_lite
Best regards,
/Farhad
20090707
It won't be easy attacking Iran
| Here you have an interesting blog about the issue that a friend of mine sent me on Facebook: http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2009/07/joe-biden-map-office-is-calling.html The article is OK, but the interesting part is the comments (even thought the exadurate the payload of the Eitan that is around 1000 Kg): The Eitan payload is not negligible at at. If some Eitans are used to refuel the others, an Eitan can carry a 2,000+ Kg bomb. Israel has the technology to deply those accurately from 40,000 feet. A simple GPS gudiance system would do. A simple calculation would allow launching the weapons so that they hit the target almost simultaneously. Furthermore, since these planes are unmanned and also manufactured in Israel, Israel has the capability to send tens or hundreds of them on one critical mission. In addition, Israel may not have an aircraft carrier, but UAVs can be launched from much more smaller ships. Israel could launch a wave of UAVs at Iran from a few "merchant" ships in the Indian Ocean. Here you can find more info about the Eitan:The simplest form of argument is to ignore completely any evidence that does not fit your theory. The Times is a repected newspaper that doesn't publish on a whim. Of course the Israeli government would deny it. They do not want to compromise the Saudis. Israel is playing a delicate game with Iran and people like you. If Iran is not convinced Israel can attack, Israel will eventually have to attack. That is why there was a leak to the Times. It is interesting that basically the same arguments that were put forward before Israel bombed the Iraqi reactor are put forward now. People never learn. ----------------- First, my whole point is that you do not even need to fly over Saudi Arabia or Iraq to attack Iran. Second, how would Iran know over which countries the Israeli planes flew to get to it? Again, you are underestimating Israel and its electronic warfare capabilities. Israel attacked the nuclear plant inside Syria without the Syrian radars even picking up the planes. Both Israel and Saudi would deny that Israeli planes flew over Saudi. How would the Iranians or anybody else prove it? A coordinated attack of a about 50 manned aircraft and hundreds of UAVs will bring down the Iranian nuclear effort. Of course, only after Israel attacks you will believe. Thank goodness that the Arabs think like you and have always understimated Israel and its capabilities. The downside is that people like you undemine Israel's deterrnece and therefore make war much more likely. ------------- Cordesman, the so called expert, does not even mention the Eitan in his report. He only mentions UAVs in defense contexts against ballistic missiles. His report lacks any imagination. Furthermore, we are talking large numbers of UAVs and serious electronic warfare. This is not something the Iranians can handle, especially with the UAVs flying at 40,000 feet. Nobody thought Israel would beat the Arab armies in 6 days, free its hostages in Entebe or bomb the Iraqi reactor. It was also lack of imagination that led to 9/11. Everybody thought that Bin-Laden could do it or would do it. Israel has also committed the sin of lack of imagination, with 1973 being a prime example. Here are the facts: 1) Israel is only second to the US in electronic warfare with Israel selling such systems to India, Australia and even China if not for a US veto. 2) Israel was the first to perfect the use of UAVs in battle and exports tons of them per year. The Eitan can fly to iran and back without any problems. 3) Israel has been planning for an attack on Iran for years. 4) There are reports from respectable newspapers that the Saudis are on board. 5) Israel successfully attacked an advanced Russian system in Syria without the system ever detecting its planes. It is clear to me that all you need to employ is a little imagination to see that Israel can strike effectively at Iran. Do you think Israel will publish all the capabilitis of its UAVs? Or agreements it has with other neighbors of Iran (not Saudis)? Use your imagination. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Eitan And this from Paris Air Show 2007: http://defense-update.com/events/2007/summary/parisairshow07uav.htm
The Watchkeeper UAV built by Elbit Systems and Thales for the British forces is also maturing. In recent months, the WK-450 (now designated Hermes 450B) was reshaped to accommodate specific British requirements. Its fuselage diameter grew by 30 cm, allowing more space and payload capacity adding 200 pounds for more fuel and systems. The WK-450 was displayed at the Thales outdoor exhibit, where visitors could also see the ground control segment. Some of the advanced applications developed for the system were also displayed. Elbit Systems also unveiled Hermes's big brother - the new Hermes 900. It is currently under development, with first flight expected in late 2007.
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Designed as a top tier tactical UAV, Hermes 900 will assume many of the missions of MALE platforms, while retaining the ground support and commonality of current Hermes tactical UAV units. With a typical payload capacity of 300 kg, Hermes 900 can easily carry multiple payloads as well as external stores. Elbit did not elaborate on the types of such stores, but among the items that could be considered are suitable guided weapons, cargo dispensers or air-deployable mini UAVs (a concept first utilized by the Finder UAV).20090706
This is not a JOKE: Ryanair to make passengers stand
Ryanair to make passengers stand
Ryanair is considering proposals to make some of its customers stand during flights.
By Ben Leach
Published: 7:00AM BST 06 Jul 2009
Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, plans to make some passengers stand
The low-cost airline would charge passengers less on "bar stools" with seat belts around their waists.
Michael O'Leary, the chief executive, has already held talks with US plane manufacturer Boeing about designing an aircraft with standing room.
He is now seeking approval from the Irish Aviation Authority before ordering a new fleet of carriers, according to The Sun.
A Ryanair spokesman told the newspaper: "If they approve it, we'll be doing it."
Mr O'Leary is reported to have got the idea from the Chinese airline Spring, which has put forward similar plans. It estimates space could be made for up to 50 per cent more passengers and costs could be cut by 20 per cent.
It is not the first time Ryanair has come up with a controversial proposal for cutting costs. Earlier this year Mr O'Leary suggested passengers could be charged £1 to use the on-board lavatories.
In an interview on BBC television he said that the low-cost airline was looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that "people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny."
Mr O'Leary also considered introducing a "fat tax" for overweight passengers.
