Slashdot Mirror

An idea: rather than giving the chip a model name of "Athlon 1600", call it something like "Athlon 1.6GHZ". The hertz is, of course, the SI standard unit of frequency, and the standard specifies that the abbreviation 'Hz' be spelled with a lowercase 'z'. So "1.6GHZ" cannot be a frequency; it must be a model name.

"Security Level 4 provides the highest level of security. Although most existing products do not meet this level of security, some products are commercially available which meet many of the Level 4 requirements. Level 4 physical security provides an envelope of protection around the cryptographic module. Whereas the tamper detection circuits of lower level modules may be bypassed, the intent of Level 4 protection is to detect a penetration of the device from any direction. For example, if one attempts to cut through the enclosure of the cryptographic module, the attempt should be detected and all critical security parameters should be zeroized. Level 4 devices are particularly useful for operation in a physically unprotected environment where an intruder could possibly tamper with the device."

t00t TooT

anyone care to explain this constant? Why its significant? What is it used for?

If you follow the links provided on the given page, you'll soon reach here (claims to be for non-experts).

There exists an entire sub-culture who believe in the Great Conspiracy and those who try to refute QM are no different, tilting at windmills while the rest of us get on with our lives and work with with the best available evidence. Ultimately, the anti-Non-Locality folks have to believe in a grand conspiracy of nature to make their ad hoc models even come close to reproducing the non-local correlations observed in quite a few experiments (using different systems, methodologies). We have had experiments which closed the locality loophole (Gisin, Geneva), experiments which closed the detection loopholes (Wineland, Boulder), and there are proposals to close both at the same time.

As new experiments are done, improving on the previous ones, the results merely confirm the predictions of QM, no sign of deviation from what we should expect. Not to mention that QM is the basis of electronics, which seems to work to a remarkably high degree, for a supposedly `wrong' theory. I see a parallel to the `Creation Science' debacle, where anti-evolutionists play their `argument from incredulity' card and try to poke holes into a straw man of their devising. Those rejecting the established results of QM are our latter-day Flat Earthers. I admire their ability to perform logical and factual contortions to support their untenable position.

As for the funding situation, the amount of money spent on Quantum Computation is mere loose change, just enough to keep mainly theoreticians lean and mean, with a few small scale experiments running (we're not talking SSC here). A 10 year time-line for the development of a fully functioning quantum computer is a stretch though, the technical challenges are very formidable, and it may follow the Fusion Power story. Still, the fundamental research in Quantum Information Theory is still very worthwhile in its own right, whether or not we can build a scalable quantum computer. The outlook for quantum crypto is much better, commercialised systems may come out within a 10 year horizon.

Sure, there is a lot of hype, and I cringe everytime I read a popular account of QC for all the misunderstandings promulgated, but it is a very serious research programme. Through considerations of quantum information, we may find a way of unifying the two great pillars of modern physics, GR and QM.

I've been wondering about this, and I'm not so sure Java will even stay out of the "optimized stuff" for long, either. E.g., COLT JavaNumerics

If companies would invest one fourth of their legal budget in developing stronger encryption, we wouldn't need such strong laws to protect them.

As it is, companies are being taught that 'pretty strong encryption' and 'pretty strong laws' combine for a secure solution based on a mix of technical difficulty and fear of persecution. Maybe they should take a look at the AES and realize there are better, more community-oriented ways of creating secure solutions instead of creating half-assed systems and persecuting those who prove just how half-assed they are.

Also, isn't it interesting that when it's their encryption it's 'anti-piracy' and when it's your encryption it's 'privacy'?

Speaking of Rijndael, where can you download a good implementation that is free and licensed for commercial use? I recently had to choose an encryption package for a program my group was writing and our client (government affiliated) wanted to go with Rijndael since it was the new AES standard. The NIST implementation is not licensed for commercial use and other implementations don't seem to come from trustworthy enough sources. I couldn't find anything that I felt comfortable recommending so we ended up going with Blowfish.

RoboCup is only one part of IJCAI. Another interesting event taking place at IJCAI is the AAAI Mobile Robot Competition for urban search and rescue (USAR) robots. They have to navigate three courses developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The courses have proved extremely difficult for autonomous robots to navigate.

According to the The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty the correct terminology is derived from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Prefixes for binary multiples. So as you can see, the correct term would actually be one mebibyte (1 MiB = 220 B = 1 048 576 B). It is suggested that in English, the first syllable of the name of the binary-multiple prefix should be pronounced in the same way as the first syllable of the name of the corresponding SI prefix, and that the second syllable should be pronounced as "bee."

According to the The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty the correct terminology is derived from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Prefixes for binary multiples. So as you can see, the correct term would actually be one mebibyte (1 MiB = 220 B = 1 048 576 B). It is suggested that in English, the first syllable of the name of the binary-multiple prefix should be pronounced in the same way as the first syllable of the name of the corresponding SI prefix, and that the second syllable should be pronounced as "bee."

I wanted to get the contact up quick to make sure people saw it, but after finishing the professor's paper, I don't see the DOC's role as implied by the submitted story. It looks to like the people to send gripes to are at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (rdesilva@ntia.doc.gov), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology

The Reuters report mentions that it takes up a couple of rooms. I would think that it takes pretty exotic equipment to constantly suspend the single ion of mecury so they could bounce lasers of from it.

I'm sure someday they will get all the laser/optical processing smaller, but it is probably isn't a priority right now. The most important use of accurate clocks will come from the PARCS project.

Realizing that G=(10^3)^3=1,000,000,000 bytes, the NIST (a governmental body that sets standards) decided to formalize binary multiple prefixes, which of course are based on powers of 2 rather than powers of ten. They defined Gi (gibi) to be (2^10)^3=1,073,741,824, which is quite different from 1,000,000,000. In this article the reader confuses gibi with giga. Please use GiB for multiples of 1,073,741,824 bytes, and GB for multiples of 1,000,000,000 - this will help avoid confusion, as well as keep drive manufactures honest.

I wish people would start using the binary prefixes to avoid confusion. I found an old Slashdot aricle about it. An explanation of the binary prefixed can be found here.

This looks something like a concept I've been working on for a little over a year. I call it " openreference ".

It's basically just "object-oriented" hypertext.

In the browser the interface could look something like the Windows SendTo menu. (The equivalent of the Unix Pipe.)

If anyone has ideas or is interested in helping out, send me an email.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is part of the Commerce Department. There are a lot of smart people at NIST. They have been involved in computer and network technology for many years.

If of any interest, Skipjack (used by Clipper) and KEA (used by Capstone) were declassified in 1998 because the Fortezza hardware was too expensive for the Defense Messaging System. They wanted to switch to software implementations, so they had to declassify the algorithms.

This was some time ago, so I had to refresh my knowledge base:

good description
Epic's rundown
Computer Security Resource Center version

This isn't specifically for bytes, but the list of SI prefixes is here

The new prefixes for binary units (which nobody uses (the prefixes, not binary units)) are here

This isn't specifically for bytes, but the list of SI prefixes is here

The new prefixes for binary units (which nobody uses (the prefixes, not binary units)) are here

While it's certainly cool that you can file your FAFSA on line, the PIN number they use is only a digital signature in the legal sense--it's not a public key based digital signature, but, rather, a shared secret. (The government is working on public key certificates, q.v. the Federal PKI group.) The IRS does it the same way, with pins.

I think if you look closely, you'll find that the guts of these operations are outsourced to contractors in both the Departments of Education and Treasury. Particularly egregious is the symbiotic relationship between Treasury and electronic tax filing services--Treasury has basically agreed not to compete with them, so there will never be a way to file electronically without paying a fee, save for the sop thrown to very low income people filing very simple forms. I believe the taxpayers have already paid once for the IRS infrastructure, and should not have to pay either a private vendor or the government an additional fee to file electronically.

Perhaps a technology czar would create the expertise in the civil service to bring those services in house, where they can be maintained without the danger of future problems often associated with the extensive use of contracting.

If you get Home Planet, other useful things are NISTime (freeware time synch program from NIST) available here, and you can get two-line satellite tracking (TLE) info (also useful at the Earth and Moon Viewer site) from NORAD's satellite catalog here. It's all text files, and there are several that are designed for automated downloads for the real fanatics.

In general, everything is surprisingly simple, and it doesn't take much to, say, get the latest telemtry on Endeavor (STS-100) here, cut-and-paste it into a Home Planet satellite database (text file), and see exactly where the shuttle is.

Previously, we worked on a publicly available implementation of SNMPv3 (first in net-snmp and then from scratch in opensnmp, both of which are BSD copyrighted code).

My next project is targeted to large scale management of IPsec installations, the code for which should also be released to the public (though the popular FreeS/Wan code base won't accept US patches, so we'll probably be instrumenting Cerberus instead; FreeS/WAN's loss I guess, otherwise we might have implemented code for them both).

Working on projects like this is great, because it's typically in the form of "here's a hard problem", now "go solve it" without any mention of "do it this way".

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

NIST discovered the 5th state of matter!!! NIST scientists receieved a nobel for this discovery a few years ago!!
NIST runs MEP, one of the few government programs that generates a profit while aiding small business development in america.
NIST development created WAIS, Wide Area Information search, the precursor to WebCrawler and Lycos.
NIST invented the scanning tunneling microscope, without which the RAM your computer is running could never have been designed.
NIST research was the first to show that the universe has parity

NIST's Information Technology Laboratory has contributed open research to America about IT, including a lot of open source software. Sure, it doesn't show a profit, so Congress can call it "waste" - but I know that you know that we all use it.
get a goddamn CLUE!!!

Or someone will beat you with the clue stick.

NIST has a solid history of debunking junk science and provide nobel-level physics and science research. If you are reading this on a laptop, your screen's interface was designed at NIST. The sad part is that I can barely remember all their contributions to science in the 5 minutes i'm taking to write this.

But I shouldn't have to. Why don't we tear down the space shuttle and use it to build houses?

Get your stupid troll out of my face.

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

In fact I recall I think it was 20/20 or 60 minutes which had an article where researchers were being paid high salaries to test the flow of ketchup (catsup/ketsup) and if it was thick enough for the American market.

What is it with luddites on Slashdot? NIST is a vitally important hi-tech facility that does far more than simply measure the viscosity of ketchup. I live 5 minutes away from it and have been there many times and I never knew this. Taking one *minor* area of research and blanketly saying they aren't necesary is a disservice to NIST and the country (USA). BTW the reason I *don't* work there now is because I can make more money in the private sector. My dad worked at NIST (not on this alleged ketchup project) and I have surpassed his salary.

Surely someone can regulate what constitutes a neccessity, but why not branch some of these things to academia, where things are always revolutionary changing constantly to keep up to date, as opposed to following standards set eons ago.

You don't understand what they mean by standards. They can very accurately measure flow rates (like at your gas pump), weights (for commerce), lengths (for better manufacturing), etc. They aren't about establishing standards (though they do sometimes) so much as QA of current standards like the meter, the US pound, etc.

Government can cut budgets by passing some of these tasks to colleges, then pay the universities to keep track of this at the fraction of a cost, keep students excited about helping government, and saving us all some money.

Um how? You mean by giving them more money? The government already gives state Universities money. What proof do you have that a bunch of students often more concerned about getting drunk can do what phDs at NIST do better and for less money? They serve different purposes and handle things that University research can't do.

NIST is one of the reasons that America is at the leading edge of technology. NIST and research labs like it employ *many* phDs from all over the world. Believe me, there are far more intelligent people at NIST than any of the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for. If we cut funding to NIST then many people will not have a reason to get a phD because there will be no jobs for them (outside of Universities). Guess what? Many smart people will leave the country and go to other places with hi-tech research and we will become an insigificant country.

Here is a *small* list of the many important things that NIST does:

• Better fire detectors
• Bomb sniffing
• Nanotechnology
• 1997 Nobel prize winner in physics for using lasers to cool atoms. This was a Slashdot topic BTW
• Advanced Robotics
• Advanced Manufacturing - This is really cool stuff.
• Semiconductor Fab - i.e. making faster computer chips
• ...

NIST (formerly the National Bureau of Stanards) is also the home of Expect, a Tcl-based tool for automating all sorts of stuff. It was designed as a system administration tool, but has become incredibly popular for test automation.

Expect is not GPL'ed; by law, it's public domain.

They got a homepage too with a nice organizational chart to give you an overview.

Don't dare to mod me up!

They got a homepage too with a nice organizational chart to give you an overview.

Don't dare to mod me up!

This legislation includes $535 million in pork-barrel spending. This is an unacceptable amount of money to spend on low-priority, unrequested, wasteful projects. Congress must curb its appetite for such unbridled spending.

Pork-barrel spending today not only robs well-deserving programs of much needed funds, it also jeopardizes social security reform, potential tax cuts, and our fiscal well-being into the next century.

enhance digital information security by publishing an advanced encryption standard and guidance for federal agencies on its use; by extending the public key infrastructure testbed to support industry development of interoperable digital signatures and encryption applications; and by developing, extending, and disseminating standard reference guidelines for emerging biometric authentication techniques;

support business use of electronic commerce by developing and disseminating a software translator that will convert a company's internal dictionary of product terminology into the industry-standard format, thus enabling engineers and designers to compare products and check their compatibility.

This legislation includes $535 million in pork-barrel spending. This is an unacceptable amount of money to spend on low-priority, unrequested, wasteful projects. Congress must curb its appetite for such unbridled spending.

Pork-barrel spending today not only robs well-deserving programs of much needed funds, it also jeopardizes social security reform, potential tax cuts, and our fiscal well-being into the next century.

enhance digital information security by publishing an advanced encryption standard and guidance for federal agencies on its use; by extending the public key infrastructure testbed to support industry development of interoperable digital signatures and encryption applications; and by developing, extending, and disseminating standard reference guidelines for emerging biometric authentication techniques;

support business use of electronic commerce by developing and disseminating a software translator that will convert a company's internal dictionary of product terminology into the industry-standard format, thus enabling engineers and designers to compare products and check their compatibility.

Either you're april fooling us or you're unaware that the Earth's rotation actually IS slowing. It may or may not be from missles and dams, but whatever the cause, this is why we have to add one or two leap seconds to every year.

--------------------------------

Believe it or not, the issue of units naming for bits and bytes has been addressed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Though the unit names are not officially part of SI (Systeme Internationale), and the chosen names are unfamiliar, they make a good starting point.

Schwab

: I don't understand why they specifically mentioned TV and radio.

Large vocabulary (but somehow predictible), speaker trained to overarticulate, no superposition between different speakers, slightly simpler language model (complete phrases, language close to written).

State-of-the-art recognizers have an error rate of ~10% on that test, which until last year was one of the evaluation tests at the speech group at NIST. Check http://www.nist.gov/speech/tests/index.htm for details.

Since the point of disminishing returns was reached, the test in going to be replaced with a new one, a audio/video recorded meeting transcription. Much, much harder.

OG.

So this "change", is really just rewriting Rijndael to fit the NIST's proposal. Check the original 1997 request for candiates.

I don't know what it is about cryptography that causes people to widly speculate about it, but unless you have any evidence, I claim that there is no known backdoors in DES, or AES. Period.

If you read Steven Levy's Crypto, chapter 2, you'll see that DES was quite strong in its day. Its structure now makes sense, once the T-attack was rediscovered by Biham and Shamir as differential cryptanalysis. The only just criticism of DES was that even then 56-bit was conceiviable weak in the future, not in the 1970s when it was first made standard.

The NSA has two responsibilities , to gather national intelligences, and to preserve the US Government's own security. The AES will be used as the standard encryption for non-classified (basicilly non-military) security, and willing likely be adopted by X9 as a sucessor to TripleDES for banking and international financial security. Using a weak algorithm for AES is would not make the NSA's responsibility of protecting the US Government's security easier, so I do not see the benefit of trying to do such a thing.

Can be found here.

Finally, on October 2, 2000, NIST's main AES site is the place to start.

is supposed to read thusly:

Finally, on October 2, 2000, NIST released their final decision, that Rijndael was to be the AES selection. Simultaneously, NIST released a paper detailing their rationale for the selection. In sum, this paper says that any of the finalists could have been selected (an opinion echoed by many in the industry), but that Rijndael proved to have the proper balance necessary between speed in hardware, speed in software, and security. To quote from NIST's statement:

Rijndael appears to be consistently a very good performer in both hardware and software across a wide range of computing environments regardless of its use in feedback or non-feedback modes. Its key setup time is excellent, and its key agility is good. Rijndael's very l ow memory requirements make it very well suited for restricted-space environ environments, in which it also demonstrates excellent performance. Rijndael's operations ons are among the easiest to defend against power and timing attacks. Additionally y, it appears that some defense can be provided against such attacks without significantly impacting Rijndael's performance. Rijndael is designed with th some flexibility in terms of block and key sizes, and the algorithm can accommodate alterations in the number of rounds, although these features would require e further study and are not being considered at this time. Finally, Rijndael's internal round structure appears to have good potential to benefit from instruction-level parallelism.

At this point, it's all over but the shouting. At some point later this year, the Secretary of Commerce will officially designate Rijndael the Advanced Encryption Standard, and a new era will have begun. AES was specified (and is expected) to remain a standard for at least as long as DES, and to protect data for even longer, and barring a major development (such as faster-than-forseen developments in quantum computing), this standard will likely be met. No one expects research into new algorithms to die, however. There will continue to be parallel algorithms developed and used, just as there are today. Thanks to be combined efforts of NIST and the community, however, there will always be the bedrock of AES available.

In conclusion, I'd like to point out the positive role that the U.S. Government, as represented by NIST, has played in this process. The Free Software/Open Source community has taken its share of shots at the government over patents, copyright and crypto export over the past several years, and deservedly so. The AES process, however, was lauded throughout the encryption community as a fair and open process that brought together the best minds available to select the algorithm for the next century (as NIST likes to say). Making an algorithm a FIPS standard gives it a legitimacy that cannot be obtained in any other way, especially given the way that this standard was arrived at. The algorithm is completely free of any IP hurdles, as was specified at the beginning of the process, and since the code is open, it can be downloaded by anyone in the world (and since it was designed outside of the U.S., any attempt to regulate its export from the U.S. would be silly). It is reasonable to criticize when a situation is bad, but it is only fair to praise when something is good.

I used a great number of sources from print and the web, so it's only fair to list them here. I also put many links in the body itself, most of which go into much more detail than I did.

• NIST's main AES site is the place to start. It links to most of the technical information I linked to above.