Some people may be aware of the ongoing struggle Sony have have recently with the hacking of their Gamer Network and millions of their user details being stolen. To be honest, security is always a matter of time and money. So breaking into their network was clearly worth the money and I assume it wasn’t quick or simple to do!

However, what’s interesting about this story is how the company were thought to be storing their detail in clear text like below.

Passwords in plain text

Storing details in plain text means that anyone who’s able to view the database has easy and plain access to the password. People like the staff, developers, marketing managers, database administrators and even hackers. Imagine how many times you use the same password for lots of different online accounts. That’s a pretty important piece of data for a company to not cover up.

So I felt compelled to write about the Thought Den method we use to store our users’ passwords in any bespoke modules of our online software.

Hashing of passwords
None of your passwords are ever kept in plain text. We immediately use a “one-way hashing algorithm” and a hidden keyword to hide your passwords when they’re saved. Or in English, we put it through a sausage masher and then save the result. Then anyone who views the data will never see your passwords in plain simple text, just a mashed view.

Passwords hashed

Nice right! And the beauty is, it can only go one way, so there’s no de-cyphering it backwards.

Next post. SQL injection attack… or in plain English, keeping your borders well checked against trojan horses.

Dan and Antoine spent the morning decorating the office.

Little mini vid for the weekend =D

http://bit.ly/td-card-gundam

A new Geek Club video for you all to enjoy this Friday…

This is a demo of some of the capabilities of the upcoming Flash Player 11, using the alpha Molehill APIs, and a pre-release version of Flare3D. It uses the Spinosaurus model from the AR project we did for the BBC (SpinARsaurus Challenge), and highlights the vast difference in graphical capabilities between previous versions of Flash (up to version 10) and the next release.

The model itself contains 10,000 polygons, which left the CPU working very hard even at 25 FPS, using Papervision3D and software rendering. Now with 60 instances of the same model, it renders extremely smoothly even at 120 FPS. Molehill and Flare3D – along with a number of other up and coming FP11 3D engines (Away3D, Alternativa3D, Unity3D) – also open up further possibilities with full support for complex shaders. In the demo, we went for a shiny, cel-shaded appearance. All the danger of a raptor, plus a backful of spines and twice as slippery. (This is also why they don’t need to move their legs to get around. No friction.)

The animation comprises a red vs. green game, starting with one red (zombie) dino, and 59 green (uninfected) victims. When a red catches a green, they join the bad side. And if they hit the edge of the square, or each other, they bounce off, dazed, before resuming the chase/escape. Just like how scientists predicted spinosaurs behaved in the wild, centuries ago.

Things are going well when the Deputy Prime minister decides to visit!

Nick Clegg!

On Tuesday 26th April 2011, Nick Clegg came down to be involved in a discussion on the creative and digital industries in Bristol. Seems like we’re important or summink

After turning up… a little late (may have been something to do with the riots outside) he was answering questions focusing on “what’s involved with making Bristol a powerhouse comparable to places such as California, Silicon Valley”. Obviously no small task but the responses which focussed mostly around the government having ‘no money’ and ‘do it yourself pals’ were eloquently put across.

Nick Clegg speaking in Bristol

In the end the time seemed to rush away so very quickly and soon he was hastily escorted from the premises.

Next time, it’d be great to hear his thoughts on support for setting up businesses, new online privacy laws with Facebook, the digital rights bill or even if he’s got Angry Birds installed on his phone?

Either way, thanks for the visit, glad you wanted to talk! Who wouldn’t want to chat to this gormless looking pair…

Ben and Dan

Rapid prototyping is like Speed dating for business. You gotta sell a huge idea quickly, help the other party buy into it and then if you’re both aroused, hope for some hugs and sexy time afterwards.

Anyway, we were invited to UWE to take part in a Rapid Prototyping 2day workshop (much like our week long version) to help brush up on skills and solve a question plaguing the music industry. “How do we re-erect flacid music industry sales with a ubiquitous sexy product? Something physical to aid the declining CD and LP record sales.”

Not an easy question, but all the groups worked tirelessly to try and fathom a solution. The event was an ace mix of people; artists, engineers, script writers, technologists, students and research scientists.

I was lucky enough to be involved with an orgy of very clever minds from HP R&D, The Pervasive Media studio and UWE.

Our idea was to create a new market and intentionally stimulate interest in an album before it was even completed. Using some expensive Remote Studio Headphones which tune into the band’s recording studio sporadically. Super fans would to listen to new riffs, bouncing jams, banter and sparky live sets. It was called Gold Jack, see our mascot below.

Gold Jack mascot

To visualise that for a pitch, it was in all a proper dirty experience. With 3D printers burning through litres of plaster, post-its being slammed un-ceremonisasly to most surfaces and all interspersed with a lot of heated USP chats!

Post its

The workshop finished with all groups pitching to Seth from PIAS music and showcased some very beautiful ideas, like the “Music Vault”, engineered to capture memories and “dieTunes”, music only released when the artist had popped their clogs.

dieTunes

Thought Den value these training workshops very highly, it keeps the directors on their toes, tickles their digital gray cells and allows blind exploration into new business opportunities for all our clients.

Thanks UWE and Pervasive Media Studio for a very well organised 2 days.

Sex. (just felt like I needed to write the word after that post)