Category Archives: History

History, Security

This day in history: 1942 Val d’Hiv – French Police Raid

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A report in The Guardian a year ago gave a detailed report and analysis of events in Paris on this day in 1942.

The Val d’Hiv roundup began in the early hours of 16 July 1942 and, over the next two days, 12,884 Jews from the Paris region, including over 4,000 children, were taken into custody. It was biggest such mass arrest in France during the second world war. Of these, 7,000 victims were packed into the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor sports stadium. In increasingly desperate conditions they awaited shipment to the death camps in eastern Europe.

What made the event so especially shocking was not just the number of children involved, but that the operation was planned and executed by French police and civil servants.

The Germans had entered Paris in 1940 and established control yet this 1942 tragedy centered on Paris city officials. It was French citizens who very visibly set out to dehumanize and destroy others under their jurisdiction. The idea of safe harbor in France was publicly dismissed and replaced as the French Police made it clear they would torment and execute residents of the city, even children.

René Bousquet, secretary general of the national French police, suggested that it would be less “embarrassing” if his policemen confined their arrests to foreign Jews. The Germans accepted this view and also agreed to a proposal put forward by the Vichy premier Pierre Laval that Jewish children should be included in the deportation. In part, this was to prevent ugly public scenes of the forcible separation of children from their parents. But it was also simply to avoid the financial responsibility for the soon-to-become orphans.

A movie also was released last year called Sarah’s Key that detailed the story and controversy over remembrance:

Nearly half those rounded up in the raid that day, about 5,000, were sent to the Drancy Internment Camp designed to hold less than 1,000. Upon arrival children were separated from their families and then sent to be killed in Auschwitz, Poland. The French had control of Drancy although it was under German SS Captain Theodor Dannecker.

Approximately 70,000 prisoners passed through Drancy between August 1941 and August 1944. […] Fewer than 2,000 of the almost 65,000 Jews deported from the Drancy camp survived the Holocaust.

Among those to remember on this day, as documented by the International Wargraves Photography Project and the Shoa Memorial in France, are the following:

Ottenheimer, Friedel – b. 1891 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 18
Ottenheimer, Lily – b. 1898 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 18
Ottenheimer, Lydia – b. 1891 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 18
Ottenheimer, Paula – b. 1894 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 18
Ottenheimer, Sigmund – b. 1902 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 18
Ottenheimer, Wilhelm – b. 1900 d. 1942, deporté(e) par le convoi n° 25

Transport 18 left Paris on August 12, 1942. Transport 25 left Paris on August 28, 1942.

History, Sailing, Security

Snow on the Mountain in Kansas: Konza Prairie

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It’s been a while since I mentioned the Konza and security so I thought maybe it’s time for an update. Often when Kansas comes up in conversation I hear either one or two responses from Americans:

  • The Land of Wizard of Oz! Where’s Toto?
  • It’s so flat and boring! Right? One time, I drove cross-country and Kansas seemed to take forever…

Yes and yes, but no.

First, the political and historical relevance of the Wizard of Oz and its secret story are definitely related to Kansas. I mentioned it in 2006 and noticed a lot more interest in it after the financial crisis of 2008.

US political historian Quentin Taylor, who supports [Littlefield’s 1964] interpretation, says: “There are too many instances of parallels with the political events of the time.

“The Tin Woodman represents the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is the farmer and the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan.”

[…]

The Wicked Witch of the West is associated with a variety of controversial personalities, chief among them the industrialist Mark Hanna, campaign manager to President William McKinley.

In this scenario, the yellow brick road symbolises the gold standard, the Emerald City becomes Washington DC and the Great Wizard characterises the president – and he is exposed as being less than truthful.

The little dog doesn’t really have any significance (despite some suggesting Toto represents a teetotaler) once characters are framed in 19th Century deflation and depression, with a struggle between populists and industrialists (e.g. the 99% and 1%). That is why no one knows where Toto is.

Second, I have not yet written very much here about my impression of the terrain. So here’s a good example of why flat may not really be flat. This is a photo I took a long time ago. Notice what it does to your focus. The Konza landscape was formed from glacial runoff into giant valleys. Barely hidden beneath the tallgrass are rocks and boulders.


Photo by me

At first glance it may seem to be an endless green space or a flat top. The trained eye soon realizes the open space of a tallgrass prairie belies billions of interesting data points. You might not believe it at first but snow-on-the-mountain is right there, in front of you.

Hills are formed from an inverse effect. What you see through a little window at 70 mph could be a trick on your eyes; easy to focus only on the flat top with some blur below. But take a back road that tries to conquer the elevation change or slow down and let your eyes soak up the view. When you stop you will find an incredible diversity of life at the micro level.

It’s similar to the ocean. You can stare accross the sheer expanse of it through a window and see the emptyness. Or you can ride a wave and slow down to observe life below peak elevation. If you let the data in, you might be amazed.

KEEPBison sampling data on the Konza. Photo from KEEP

Energy, History, Security

Hacking NASCAR: If You Ain’t Cheatin’…

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NASCAR lately has handed out some stiff penalties to competitors for infractions. Yet the Bleacher Report tells us that among the top quotes in NASCAR history there is much evidence that rule-following may be the exception for drivers:

“If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin'” is an old NASCAR expression. Junior Johnson had this to say about his creativity when it came to building cars:

“I loved the game. Maybe I’d have four of five new things on a car that might raise a question. But I’d always leave something that was outside of the regulations in a place where the inspectors could easily find it.

“They’d tell me it was illegal, I’d plead guilty, and they’d carry it away thinking they caught me. But they didn’t check some other things that I thought were even more special.”

BR also cites driver Darrell Waltrip in 1976 after his team was caught cheating with nitrous oxide.

If you don’t cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don’t get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope. Put me where I belong.

Waltrip’s best story might be the time he was caught filling his car frame with BBs to cheat the weight test before a race. Because cars weren’t weighed afterwards he simply pulled a plug and all the weight would disappear on the track without detection. Unfortunately one day the balls jammed. The BBs sat in his car, keeping him at regulation weight, until Waltrip’s car entered the pit. Then, as he approached the other crews, the entire payload came free and pelted them.

That story comes from Popular Mechanics’ article called “The Greatest Cheats in NASCAR History,” which has many other examples:

  • Fuel capacity: Yunick inflated a basketball in the tank during tests, then deflated it before the race
  • Fuel capacity: Yunick quadrupled the 11 ft fuel line diameter to carry 5 extra gallons
  • Aerodynamics: Johnson’s crew chief Knaus altered rear window angle
  • Weight: Flock painted wood to look like metal roll bars

I especially like the fuel line cheat as Yunick argued the line was not technically part of the tank and therefore should not be included in measurement of capacity. Popular Mechanics also quotes a famous cheater who thought “stock” cars meant a challenge to make some stock “better” than others.

“It can be frustrating,” says Chad Knaus, crew chief for four-time champion Jimmie Johnson…. “But it would be more frustrating to give up trying to make our car better.”

I suppose you could excuse failure to follow a rule when a rule is first introduced. There might be confusion and not everyone would be able to interpret the same. That is especially believable when NASCAR found that almost no one passed:

To help cut down on cheating, NASCAR introduces body templates, which race cars must conform to, Prior to the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, 49 of 50 cars entered flunk initial tech inspection.

But that sad tally was decades ago in the 1960s, as reported by Something About Everything Racin’, which also retells a story of Petty’s winning engine. The cylinders apparently had wax in them before a race to pass inspection. During the race it melted so after the race the engine measured much larger than the maximum allowed; it went from just over 350 to 392 cubic inches. At the end of the race, despite all the penalties and warnings, it seems that the winners in NASCAR are cheating all the time.

The names of those caught skirting the rule book read like a “Who’s Who” in NASCAR history: Tim Flock, Smokey Yunick, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Bobby Allison. Richard Petty, Roger Penske, Jack Roush, Ray Evernham … the list goes on and on, almost as if it’s some kind of badge of honor.

Indeed, the badge of hacking just has been bestowed to teams No. 14, No. 3 and No. 18 according to a NASCAR press release:

The No. 14 team in the Sprint Cup Series was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules detailed in Section 20 of the NASCAR Rule Book); and 20-2.1J (unapproved open vent hose inside of the car).

Imagine if computer security regulations had something like “Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing).” Actions detrimental to the industry? The FTC is probably the closest thing.

That vague catch-all 12-1 rule was really meant to help prevent fist fights and other unsportsmanlike behavior. Ironic, since some say the reason NASCAR became so popular in America was a 1979 televised fight.

Oh, and note the NASCAR typo. That should be rule 20A-2.1J. Is the fine removed if there’s no 20-2.1J?

Anyway, with all that background, I’m going to take a guess and say that the vent hose was intentionally routed inside to reduce air resistance. A fairly boring hack and the finding doesn’t seem to be an isolated instance.

The No. 3 team in the Nationwide Series was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1; 12-4J and 20A-2.1J (unapproved open vent hose inside of the car).

As fun as it is to read the infraction reports and the odd-ball excuses or theories of disobedience from the teams, it really just makes me yearn for something more meaningful in development and innovation — where’s the bump in the power to efficiency ratio we could all use?

It will be years before the IndyCar innovation trickles down into NASCAR, despite all the stories of cheating. I wish the car racing regulatory bodies would just speed up the process and let someone race a diesel again.

Now THAT was an impressive hack that translated directly to stock benefit.

History, Security

Aligning NTFS to SSD Geometry

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Frank Shu, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft, gave a presentation in 2008 called Windows 7 Enhancements for Solid-State Drives. The slides illustrated a set of challenges with SSD for the Microsoft Windows OS

  • Reporting non-rotating media will allow Windows 7 to set Defrag off as default; improving device endurance by reducing writes.

He meant that when the ATA8 rotation rate value of 0001h is reported to the Windows operating system, it could automatically disable de-fragmentation.

Shu’s presentation towards the end explains why it matters.

SSD endurance is equal to the safety of user’s data.

Defrag no longer is your friend; it can actually be your enemy. What does that mean for earlier versions? Windows XP is here to stay, right? Note the most recent end-of-life announcement from Microsoft:

We might therefore expect it to be updated to ensure “the safety of user’s data.” Alas, the challenges presented by Shu at Microsoft in 2008 are today still present in Windows XP.

The SSD offers an easy way to give new life to an old system since the price for a reasonable size has dropped under $100. It makes sense that every XP owner would go there and after a little research (uh, four years?) Microsoft would support them. Where do you want to go today? SSD.

Yet defrag is just the beginning. Microsoft has left other SSD problems for Windows XP unsolved as well. Here is an even better example. The presentation revealed major performance risk:

A fresh install of Windows 7 can do a proper geometry alignment but an upgrade from Windows XP would be mis-aligned and inherit a 50% performance hit. Ouch. Common symptoms are a system freezing momentarily.

This leads to a very uncomfortable user experience. You’ll know availability loss when you hit it. After seeing the first taste of SSD speed it feels like slamming on the brakes after driving on the highway.

For a more technical test, simply use Start -> Run and type msinfo32. You can see the problem by looking at the Partition Starting Offset value. Divide the number by 4096. If that number doesn’t divide evenly by 4096, then obviously the partition is not aligned with the 4096-byte sized sectors of an SSD. Here’s an example that shows a start at 32,256:

Divide by 4096 and you get 7.785. Uh-oh.

This also can happen on virtual systems as the physical layer is abstracted completely away. NTFS of a legacy OS could be mis-aligned with VMFS, which itself is not aligned with SAN LUNs. At least in large enterprise you can hope a service provider will be aware and looking for symptoms of read and write degradation as sector sizes are represented up the stack.

Microsoft however has left many users in the lurch. Fortunately there is an easy and free solution…Linux. Here’s a good example of why this actually matters today and how Linux is doing things right.

Let’s say you want to buy a sub 3 pound laptop with a full keyboard, bright screen and 10 hour battery life for under $200.

You can start with a solid machine for just $50. It’s known as the IBM Thinkpad X40 and it was one of the best form-factors ever built. No, I’m not just being nostalgic. If that were the case we’d be talking about the IBM 701c Butterfly or the Apple Duo 230. The X40 is more than a pretty face, it is a very practical and useful system for today’s needs that literally costs $50.

The X40 is perhaps best known for being the lightest laptop when it was introduced in February of 2004, weighing just 2.7 pounds (lighter than the portless Apple Air!). Although the first 1.8″ HDD was introduced in 1991 it was the Apple iPod in 2001 that brought it to mainstream. The IBM X40 then adopted it. I mention that because today buying a tiny 1.8″ SSD for an IBM laptop might feel odd. Just remember that in 2005 the thin and light tablet form-factor was mega-hyped and even helped bring perpendicular recording to market, but I digress…

SSD storage prices have come down so a 64GB 1.8″ SSD for the X40 should be less than $100. Put that with your $50 X40 and you now have a light fast laptop for $150. The official specs say Windows 7 is not supported but you can make it work if you fiddle with the drivers. Or you also could install Linux and go. Mint Maya is very nice.

But what if you want to restore life into an existing Windows XP installation (or install from factory CDs, or want to use the Windows XP license attached to the hardware)? Then you have to do some SSD geometry alignment for NTFS to address all the challenges (e.g. safety of your data) identified by Microsoft yet left for you to deal with on your own.

Linux to the rescue. You only need a 128MB or larger USB drive to boot the system with GParted Live. Creation of the USB drive with GParted is trivial. Download the Tuxboot executable. Run it and choose GParted Live from the source menu, choose the USB device from the target menu. After a few minutes you will be ready to fix your NTFS partition.

Insert your USB device into a powered down system. Next you’ll have to get the BIOS to let you boot from USB. On an X40 this means pressing power and then F12 to get to a device boot prompt. Select USB, answer the GParted setup questions and then the live environment is loaded.

You now can either fix an existing XP installation or create a new partition from the Gparted live tool. If you want to fix alignment, just select the “resize/move” option. Change the “free space preceding” value to 2. Click apply. This will take about 30 minutes on 64GB. Then select the “resize/move” option again and change the value from 2 to 1. Click apply. Wait another 30 minutes. That’s it!

Take another look with Start -> Run -> msinfo32. You now should be able to divide your number by 4096.

The move to 2 and then back to 1 by GParted re-aligns the NTFS partition to the geometry of the drive, per the Microsoft presentation above.

Don’t forget to also disable defragmentation, remove the swap file (a memory upgrade to the max on the X40 is $20)…basically you want to get rid of all the “caching” habits that were designed to help speed up old spinning disks when memory was low or expensive.

That’s how you can go from a 2008 risk presentation on NTFS to a 2012 snappy-lighter-than-air-system-with-lots-of-cool-output-ports-and-10 hour-battery-life for just $150.

Imagine if that would have been the point of the Microsoft presentation in the first place…if you don’t need/want to run a dual core i5-2520M and 8GB RAM in a magnesium skin (e.g. pay for industry-leading engineering like the sub 3 pound yet incredibly durable Panasonic Toughbooks) then why not breathe new life into a classic design by IBM? Think about it.