Crash of another Hash

SHA-1 has been reported to be broken.

What is SHA-1?

Simply put SHA-1 is an encryption system used to create online security transfer certificates.

Major banks, money vendors, online storefronts will all be using SHA-1 security certificates over SSL (https) to ensure that the right person is connecting to the right company to make transactions.

So now that it has been proven to be broken it means that now cryptography experts can  prove that fake SHA-1 certs could in fact be produced, and hence added to phishing sites, thus stealing customers money by fraud.

Very serious indeed. 

But fear not......The problem will be resolved soon as all of the big companies will be upgrading to SHA-2. And SHA-2  has already been around awhile and is still secure.

It was stories like these that pushed my team; the NiHao team, forward in our endeavour to replace the www world with a 3d world - NiHao World.

One simple fact is that it is a serious load harder to be a hacker when you are inside a 3d environment.

Lets look at some real world examples:

I am at a real world ATM machine, the guy behind me could easily be recording all that I am doing with the camera in his mobile phone.

Unsafe? Yeap just a little.

I want to send money from one account to another via my online banking system. A hacker down the street has tapped my IP and is copying all the data I am sending while it is in transit.

Scary? Yeap just a bit.

The NiHao solution: 

1/ The first example repeated; Another avatar is standing right next to me as I pop up the "Enter Pin" console at the NiHao 3d virtual world ATM while I  am taking money out for shopping in the 3d shops. The other avatar sees nothing as the console appears on my screen only. For all he knows I am chatting to a friend.

2/ Second example repeated; Mr hacker down the street sees me in NiHao 3d world and knows I am going to spend allot of money today on a car as he has been following me in the 3d environment. Mr hacker even heard me say to the salesperson that I wanted the car to be delivered to my home. What can Mr Hacker copy other than my fashion taste, and walk style?

So security is a big problem with today's internet, shops feel unsafe trading online but must, average Joe has anxiety attacks about entering his credit card details online but must, Aunt Mary loves to read email from her family but fears the sight of spam porn innuendoes that arrive daily to her mailbox, and young daughter Sue isn't even allowed to go online because her parents think the internet is far too nasty for young girls.

Should it be this way?

Well we at NiHao think not.

The idea of NiHao 3d world is not just one of enjoyment, gaming, and entertainment, it is also pschologically friendly, more natural, and somewhat more serene then the present day www world.

The 3d environment as opposed to the www web environment,  can also be a safe haven for big business transactions.

Why do I say this?

Lets look at some known facts.....

Hackers can and indeed do hack games and create cheat mods. This is true, but what can a mod really do?

Well a mod simply performs automated game transactions in games that run scripts based on events occurring, and a mod runs parallel scripts to allow the player get from Level A to Level Z in a game without human intervention. This is game cheating.

Yet in NiHao World this could not happen because;1/ Events are not server scripted. All that one sees happeningh is actually happening therefore cannot be scripted against as tomorrow it will all be very different.

2/ When the avatar must perform a human to human transaction such as when my avatar is communicating with the banker avatar; a mod could not achieve that automation either because the transaction is based upon real time communication not script triggers.

Example of script triggers. 
A script will call to ask did this happen: Y/N. If yes then did this happen: Y/N. And so on. In a real time environemnt the triggers are replaced with real staff controlling the company's avatars and hence able to ask abstract questions that can determine the validity of the customer.

eg. Bank Teller: "Sir could you please answer this question; What colour is missing from this sequence...Red, Yellow.....?"

Customer: "...ummm....(stoopid customer)....ummm....green?"

Bank Teller: "No Sir. Sorry, the answer is not green. Please try again."

Customer: "ummm....(really stoopid customer)...ummm....blue?"

Bank Teller: "Yes sir. Thankyou! And how much will you be withdrawing today?"

While hacking a hacker in a 3d world could hack some environment variables and could hack other avatars, but to what gain?Change the trees from green to blue? Or as Mr Stoopid Customer change the colour blue to green?

Again; in realtime 3d transactions a hacker cannot hack 3d space efficiently enough to steal your data, as 3d space is ever evolving, ever updating, and ever changing.

The difference I am vaguely showing here is that in the www world a hacker can see the code of the page on which you are performing your transaction, see the IP's of all invovled in the transaction, and interupt the transaction without even being noticed.

In a 3d world environment a hacker can visually see the environment that performs the transactions but cannot change it because the NiHao World 3d environment is being updated with new variables every milisecond and in real time.

Example: If I were to say hello to my banker, in a moment another avatar could be walking past me, a cat may jump from the rooftop above, or a car may be speeding down the street nearby.

These other user's events are constantly changing the environment's scripting.

A 3d environment is an ever changing environment that really would be super hard to hack into other than for making some superficial avatar bonuses and image changes. But that is not so of our today www world that is becoming more and more transparent in the eyes of our unfriendly hackers.

So I hope as you are reading this you will have come to understand that;

A/ The www world is boring and needs a 3d facelift anyhow that is why we built NiHao World :) B/ NiHao 3d world is not just a 3d world for fun, but is also a solution for the unstable marketplace that today still sits in www land.

So what is NiHao World?

NiHao World is a world of true freedom.

Now I can run and jump, as opposed to click the Forward and Back buttons.
Now I chat without annoying advertisements.
Now I can visit my friends and see them smile.
And now I can do business safely.

To sum it all up.....NiHao World is SECURITY +1.

Talks Break Down

Well I must say before starting on this post that I am rather disappointed with my business dealings with the Net Dragon company. That is to say I no longer consider doing business with them.

So what happened?

Well......absolutley nothing. 

Net Dragon's officials went to Shanghai to give our business plan pitch (well at least thats what they said they were doing, but who actually knows) and since the event...3 weeks ago today...no word from them.

I have written them twice since the event, and am not getting replies any more.

hmmmm......

This is a little remeniscent of the silent treatment my girlfriend gives me when she's having an unhappy moment, but I would hardly call a multi million dollar deal the right circumstances for "silent treatment."

So on my last mail to Net Dragon I asked them politely to please give me word about the pitch as I really need to make a direction plan for my company.

And this is true....Officially my company is one year old now and me and my team are considering the what next's, new directions, problem solving and remedying old issues, and so on.

Then what happened?

Well still no reply. So last week, Friday; I wrote to two other companies proposing the same deal to them that I had initially proposed to Net Dragon.

Today one of those two wrote me back and I am presently in communications with thier CEO and Managing Director.

So today I put a quiet ending on the Net Dragon saga and am opening a new book for the future of NiHao.

One good thing has come from all of this though....

The dealings I have had with Net Dragon have sharpened my CEO skills somewhat and I am sure will make future corporate meetings just that little bit easier.

Yet in saying this I still feel somewhat heartbroken by it all. Its one thing to give the soul of your work to the table for all to peer within and determine whether it is worth the money you are asking, but it is another thing to be left on an indefinite hold waiting for a perhaps never coming reply. 

Today I feel like a young heartbroken girl, but tomorrow I hope to be a woman of class strutting my stuff in laced pantyhose, and high heals :)

What lessons can be learned from this?

Whether it be your girlfriend, buddies, colleagues, or prospective business companions; if there is a question, then there should always be an answer.

Never let things sit too long, they'll only mould and decay and then your chance will have gone. 

The road to fame

Today I sit anxiously as the bosses of Net Dragon of whom I met 3 weeks ago prepare to go to Shanghai to make the big NiHao World business proposal to their Vice President.

This is the make or break meeting of which their VP will either say "Ok", or "No", and for us at NiHao World that reply will either be our new beginning, or our return to the grinding stone.

Its been a tough road taking this Indie company from an idea to where it is today. One only needs to do a web search for NiHao3d to see how many battles we have already encountered.

Blog battles, spam attacks, criticisms, and more have been added to our entourage of web listings.

My mother always said "...if you're going to make it big at anything, then it wont come without a battle." Remembering her words allows me to stay focused when I could be freaking out at the bad publicity gained.

So I look at these listings and think...ahhh, its ok, I'll leave them there as they are. As later they will show just how torturous and spiteful the path to the top actually was. 

All too common is the belief that the world is a rosy place and that the companies at the top never had troubles during their ascent. The big companies quietly whisk away bad publicity, cover over arguments rendered, and pretend a happy face to the world; its all good for business they say. 

Having gotten this far I now know that most of my common misbeliefs were false, so I figure I'll leave those little black marks there in the search engines so the next me that comes along can see exactly what's in store for him as he climbs the world's corporate internet ladder.

The road to fame was never easy.

One battle's to get there, or one battle's upon arriving.

Last night I was image searching and stumbled across a web image directory.

Clicked upon a couple of links and found a multitude of images of our favourite female stars revealing pussy while trying to get out of their cars.

Hahaha - "The latest trend in professional photography: catch a star's vagina as she's climbing out of her car!"

Isn't that just a little stoopid?

And to those photographers - Wow; your parents must be proud of you and the money they spent on your college education.

And I thought panty sniffing was a criminal act. Go figure?

I think there's a point when mankind needs to sit back and look at the world that they have built.

But for those who are on the great endeavour to make it to the top as I am, I wish you luck and I hope when you succeed you will help me in cleaning up this mess that we call today's civilized society.

Many hands make light work, and many panties are just a pile of laundry.

Net Dragon Meeting

Back from Fuzhou City and feeling rather content about things.

2 of us from NiHao took the journey to Fuzhou late Wednesday night. Plan was to stay in a hotel, then breakfast the next morning, and be picked up by the Net Dragon people at 10am Thursday.

All went well and smoothly as planned....

Arrived at the hotel; simply named "Enjoy Hotel" which was located on a main shopping arterial in Fuzhou.

Room was nice. Had a frosted glass wall between the main room and bathroom area. Not revealing in any way but was an interesting and very nice design element.

Happy for the free internet in the hotel, meant I wasn't completely removed from the real world. So got some work done that night and slept in a very luxurious king size bed with the AC on warm :)

Next morn down to the hotel's dining area and had a lovely buffet breakfast. Sadly no coffee to speak of but China is still not big on coffee yet so am used to that now. 

Then waited for the Net Dragon people to pick us up.  And they did.

The Net Dragon compound was impressive to say the least. Many 3 floored buildings arranged in a High School complex manner, all decked out with very large computer areas.

And computers? Well there were many :)

The best part of the building tour that opened my eyes in amazement was seeing...ok there's the gym, there's the inside heated swimming pool, but then.....there's the outside swimming pool thats the size of a small lake!

Ok I know where I am going for my next BBQ :)

The meeting.....

The Net Dragon people run us through their run-of-the-mill standard company profile powerpoint introducing this and that and talking about their company culture.

We asked questions regarding the this's and that's but our minds were on the main point....lets talk turkey. Finally we got our chance and talk we did.

Rather than saying NiHao is this, and NiHao is that, I decided to make the approach somewhat more like...."Well this is what we are going to do, and we are inviting you to be a part of our system of things."

This approach was very risky....to say the least as they are easily a thousand times bigger than us, what do they care. But it occurred to me while they were talking that they have had this talk before and were not unaccostomed to the probable requests that we could make, "so lets change our approach" was the impromptu decision made when we started talking.

So we talked about the future of it all, and the future of NiHao, and how if the two companies worked together the success could be great for both.

And it worked.

So the meeting ended with them giving us a walkthrough regarding the next steps to take then we shook hands and departed.

Something I had learned from this meeting.....

You have made your proposal, thats ok. They have read the thing...good. Then they ask to meet...great!

Dont be nervous and become the beggar to the master, and dont feel that you need to tell them everything in one sitting. You have been invited to talks because they're interested and because they are interested they will guide you through it all according to their company's "way of doing things." That is their company agenda. Trying to do it any other way would be a certain failure.

Let them talk and learn from their approach, after all they are the pro's and it was you that asked for their help. If you are to be part of their agenda, they'll walk you in as is happening with me and NiHao now.

Ok so what next?

Well I sent off the presentation and humbly asked them to give me advice regarding it; e.g. could more be added, have I said too much?

Then if all is good and according to their agenda, step by step the two companies will become one.

Now I patiently wait for their replies and take each step as prompted carefully and casually and quietly hope that we make it all the way through that big ole door.

There are BBQ's on the other side! BBQ's! Many, many, many, fantastic poolside BBQ's! And my mouth is watering hahaha :) 

Page Building never ends.

Back again and more NiHao news to share.

This week looks to be a possible happy week for the NiHao team. Last week I wrote to a MMORPG game company suggesting that we could join in a subsidary partnership.

The game company reffered to is called Net Dragon and is based in the neighbouring city of Fuzhou.

They replied to me happily indicating that they were busy for that week and would set up a meeting for the following week. Of course I was ecstatic about the news and have been on cloud 9 since then.

So this week...fingers crossed :)

So in the mean time I have continued on tidying up loose ends at the webfront and have added a few more dot coms to the mess I call the NiHao Matrix.

The first of these was the TEACHmats site. I built TEACHmats a long time back but never got to launching it. Reason being that when the NiHao Project had begun I thought I would add TEACHmats to NiHao when NiHao reaches its final stages of development.

So TEACHmats is alive again, but far from completed.

I bought the dot com TEACHmats.com and then proceeded on to copying the text files from the olde TEACHmats to this the new model.

For now the site is still lacking in actual resources for which it boasts to have. But...that will come.

Then onto my next merry adventure; the newly founded NiHao Entomology Department.

Entomology is the study of bugs. Playing a small joke in the NiHao Forums I thought it would be cute to rename the bug report section to the NiHao Entomology Department. After having a bit of fun creating this forum section I ran with the idea and developed a website around it. 

See the original forum entry: NiHao Entomology Department. Scroll down the new page to the section titled Basement.

See the Entomology Website: NiHao Museum Entomology Department.

So a bit of fun was had here :)

Moving on to an important inclusion to the NiHao group of sites was the addition of the Developer's website.

As with every developer company NiHao World has reached a stand still point from where new dev's need to be called upon. What better than to set up a site especially with this goal in mind. The Dev-Guild website is not pretty by any means but it is light, fast, and functional. Its purpose is to introduce the NiHao projects to potential new NiHao Developers and to provide a Join NiHao area.

Visit the Dev-Guild website.

Finally but super most important of the sites I have put up of late is the Superstorms website.

Superstorms is an organization that I created some years back and it has been growing steadilly ever since. Superstorms is a volunteer organization that specializes in typhoon rescues and support.

If you don't know what a typhoon is then think about it as a very huge cyclone storm.

At the end of last typhoon season I took the Superstorms site down with a plan to have near completed the NiHao project before the next typhoon season and hence give the site an overhaul.

Well it didn't quite get an overhaul, as the old site was more than 1000 pages big. Instead I have trimmed it down to a few pages acting as an information booklet regarding Superstorms and will have links going out to the more bulkier data pages.

Superstorms has always been my pet project and almost all I do is done around the Superstorms project. NiHao for example was concieved with the idea that someday it would offer financial support to Superstorms hence making my burden a little lighter.

So there I am in all nudity....I am not a gamer, nor am I a CEO of a gaming Empire, in all honesty I am the head of a non-profit org that is designed to help others in times of disasters :)

Visit the new but not yet completed Superstorms site. 

So the empire grows with more www pages cluttering the internet universe and I hope these pages prove useful to some and many. 

Thats me for today....hoping for a word of magic from Net Dragon and awaiting to write that word here next week :)