Either the WSJ hasn’t taken their anti-crazy pills or there is something severely wrong with the military industrial complex. I’m betting on both.

The story says, essentially, that insurgents in Iraq are “taking control” of our pilotless drones with a $25 piece of software called SkyGrabber. By “take control” the WSJ means “download video feeds from” and by “software” I mean essentially a satellite network snooper.

Now I’m not rocket scientist, but it looks like what is happening here is that Iraqis are pointing their satellite dishes into the air and watching for downloads. This would be approximately equivalent to packet or token sniffing that, if I’m not mistaken, is popular with teen l33t haX0rz.

See, all of the “*Grabber” programs – there’s also a LAN program – sniff packets on the Internet and intercept downloads. If you were on my LAN downloading a copy of the Spiderman over an unencrypted connection, I would, in theory, be able to watch this and grab the download alongside you. The same, in theory, can be said of satellite connections apparently used by the freaking US military. This suggests either they’re storing video on MegaUpload or that the US military has a plaintext, uncoded FTP server set up in NORAD for the quick and dirty uploading of images from Predator Drones… you now, because the IT staff wanted to rock some Quake 2 instead of using quantum-encrypted connections for matters of national security.

Declan McCullagh notes that:

This apparent security breach, which had been known in military and intelligence circles to be possible, arose because the Predator unmanned aerial vehicles do not use encryption in the final link to their operators on the ground. (By contrast, every time you log on to a bank or credit card Web site, or make a phone call on most modern cellular networks, your communications are protected by encryption technology.)

This suggests that the final link between the drone and the operator is between a satellite flying around in space and that that final link is unencrypted for reasons unfathomable to anyone with even cursory knowledge of network communications. Maybe they wanted to save on bandwidth costs?

We’ll follow this but I’m kind of flabbergasted.

I know, I know. Water rocket. Whatever, right? Been there, done that, it’s cool and all, but it’s kinda like the diet coke & mentos thing. It’s been done to death. Well, this ain’t your daddy’s water rocket, let’s put it that way.

No sir, this is a multistage water rocket with a nose cone, and parachute recovery system. This is the work of a water rocket scientist, or possibly a student with too much time on his hands. This thing is a beast, and the inventor was kind enough to write up instructions on how you can build one yourself.

Seriously, fins. Nosecone. A launching system. Two stage rocket. Check it out, it’s quite impressive.

Apparently you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to help NASA. The space agency just posted a request for suggestions for future prize contests on their website, and anyone may submit an idea.

Of course you won’t be credited for your suggestions, but wouldn’t it be cool to know that you were the one who came up with the idea for a prize for capturing alien technology? Previous prizes have included the Astronaut Glove, the Lunar Lander, and the Power Beaming contest, all of which had substantial cash prizes.

So go tell NASA your crazy idea, and who knows.. it’s might be your contest they run with.

Research has shown that slot machines tend to get most of their trade towards the end of the evening, and most, if not all players end up losing, due in many cases to the influence of excess alcohol. Clearly this doesn’t happen at an online casino.

Contrary to popular belief, arcades and amusement parks are not the best places to play cherry slot machines. In fact arcades are probably the worst, simply because the slot machines on these premises are being played all day, and by people who know what they are doing (This can be a good place to watch and learn from others, but experts often don’t appreciate an audience, so be careful who you might bother!).

Another disadvantage of slot machines in arcades and amusement parks, and even travelling fairgrounds, is that they are not as well governed. It is not usual for slot machines at these sorts of venues to have been tampered with illegally. I definitely prefer to play free slot machines.

Unfortunately, it does not take a rocket scientist to lower the percentage rate to considerably lower than the 70% requirement, and then to quickly raise it again, when the official inspections are being carried out!

Apart from public houses, other profitable venues to play the cherry slots include: Multiplication Bingo Halls, Working Mans Clubs, Snooker Halls, Ferries, Motorway Service Stations, and many pub type restaurants are also profitable.

Considering Online gambling instead? You can play Double Diamond Slots, free slot games and more.  There are several casinos that have added online casinos to their already existing brick and mortar casinos, as substantially as countless online-only casinos.  Online casino gaming offers a wide range of single-player as substantially as multiplayer games online games. This is good news for those who like to play for high stakes; they can do so from the privacy and comfort of their residence without having to move around with excess cash.