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Most Linuxen, for example...

For the last time: it's not Linuxen, it's Linuxes.

C'mon, guys, how hard can that be? Google is your friend

This quote first appeared in print in the first edition of Web Security & Commerce (O'Reilly, 1997, S. Garfinkel & G. Spafford). The quote is on page 9:

Secure web servers are the equivalent of heavy armored cars. The problem is, they are being used to transfer rolls of coins and checks written in crayon by people on park benches to merchants doing business in cardboard boxes from beneath highway bridges. Further, the roads are subject to random detours, anyone with a screwdriver can control the traffic lights, and there are no police.

I originally came up with an abbreviated version of this quote during an invited presentation at SuperComputing 95 (December of 1995) in San Diego. The quote at that time was everything up to the "Further...." and was in reference to using encryption, not secure WWW servers.

I fixed a family friend's computer and instead of cash I asked him for a ride in his BMW Isetta (Infamously known as the Urkel car)

Pretty sweet deal

A picture of it is right here: http://expert.ics.purdue.edu/~akovacs/P0005830.JPG

Don't think I got so many amazed looks when riding in a car before.

You'll probably get it too -- the country is so evenly divided that the winner of the 2004 presidential election will very likely not have a majority. I don't see how it would help, though... two of the last three Presidential elections were won that way (2000 and 1992), and people pretty much shrugged it off each time.

Btw, in Sweden we call this "kardborreband" (kardborre is a flower, look here: http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nordflor/pics/4 .jpg, and "band" means, hmm, eh, band. A quite logical name for it.). Don't know what that flower is called in english but I guess most of you have got one of those stuck in your clothes or on your dog... :)

Here in the Great White North, they're generally referred to as "burs", as from the burdock plant.

E-Bay has this great ability to avoid the fraud scandals that have hit their community. They always do a great job of getting the public to buy into the fact that they are just a marketplace, and nothing more. I am glad to see some changes coming in the AUTO's area though. It really doesn't suprise me, as the cars I'm sure make them a pretty penny in fee's.

E-Bay has this great ability to avoid the fraud scandals that have hit their community. They always do a great job of getting the public to buy into the fact that they are just a marketplace, and nothing more. I am glad to see some changes coming in the AUTO's area though. It really doesn't suprise me, as the cars I'm sure make them a pretty penny in fee's.

Brad Lucier at Purdue founded an online publishing group called Trillia, which does something similar.
He has submitted a related story on Slashdot before.

Caltech...underground tunnel system

Purdue has similar rules. Most tunnels (except the ones marked Accessible Tunnels)are banned because of safety reasons - apparently several have live bus bars running down the ceiling which is apparently quite low. And some really old (~80 years) steam tunnels have asbestos insulation with signs next to them saying "Danger! Asbestos!" or something similar.

But the bigger mystery at Purdue is how to get to the campus particle accelerator beneath the Engineering Mall. Everybody knows it's accessible from the MSEE building, but nobody knows exactly which entrance to take, unless they go with someone who already knows where it is situated (like a faculty member).

There is also a nuclear reactor in the basement of the EE building's annexe, of which there used to be occasional tours. I don't know if they still have those tours.

Caltech...underground tunnel system

Purdue has similar rules. Most tunnels (except the ones marked Accessible Tunnels)are banned because of safety reasons - apparently several have live bus bars running down the ceiling which is apparently quite low. And some really old (~80 years) steam tunnels have asbestos insulation with signs next to them saying "Danger! Asbestos!" or something similar.

But the bigger mystery at Purdue is how to get to the campus particle accelerator beneath the Engineering Mall. Everybody knows it's accessible from the MSEE building, but nobody knows exactly which entrance to take, unless they go with someone who already knows where it is situated (like a faculty member).

There is also a nuclear reactor in the basement of the EE building's annexe, of which there used to be occasional tours. I don't know if they still have those tours.

Caltech...underground tunnel system

Purdue has similar rules. Most tunnels (except the ones marked Accessible Tunnels)are banned because of safety reasons - apparently several have live bus bars running down the ceiling which is apparently quite low. And some really old (~80 years) steam tunnels have asbestos insulation with signs next to them saying "Danger! Asbestos!" or something similar.

But the bigger mystery at Purdue is how to get to the campus particle accelerator beneath the Engineering Mall. Everybody knows it's accessible from the MSEE building, but nobody knows exactly which entrance to take, unless they go with someone who already knows where it is situated (like a faculty member).

There is also a nuclear reactor in the basement of the EE building's annexe, of which there used to be occasional tours. I don't know if they still have those tours.

Heres a graph that I ripped out of some lecture notes. It shows how much of a problem congestion is on 802.11b networks.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~dphillip/802.11b.gif

For a little explaination, where it says "Node 50" or "Node 100" that means that there are 50 or 100 computers on the wireless network. And the throughput numbers are for the whole network, not per host. So when 100 nodes are getting 3.5 Mbps that's .035 Mbps per host.

Thanks to professor Park

It is pretty cool to watch some of those guys dance, nut no matter how good any DDR player is I can't imagine they are better than this guy.

Amazing. Have you seen these? They combine both Pop'n Music and crazy freestyle dancing. Not as much button mashing, but funny to watch.

• popnmusic_freestyle.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_4.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_6.avi

It is pretty cool to watch some of those guys dance, nut no matter how good any DDR player is I can't imagine they are better than this guy.

Amazing. Have you seen these? They combine both Pop'n Music and crazy freestyle dancing. Not as much button mashing, but funny to watch.

• popnmusic_freestyle.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_4.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_6.avi

It is pretty cool to watch some of those guys dance, nut no matter how good any DDR player is I can't imagine they are better than this guy.

Amazing. Have you seen these? They combine both Pop'n Music and crazy freestyle dancing. Not as much button mashing, but funny to watch.

• popnmusic_freestyle.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_4.avi
• popnmusic_freestyle_6.avi

I remember there was similar research at Purdue University some months back. Here's the link and here's a pic.

I remember there was similar research at Purdue University some months back. Here's the link and here's a pic.

SIGNS: The toxin in tobacco is nicotine, an alkaloid with an irritating effect on the stomach and intestines and also the nervous system. This toxin is related to the toxins in poison hemlock and lupine. Concerning nicotine concentrations, an average cigarette can contain between 20 and 30 mg, and 120 mg for a cigar. One report indicates that for a human unaccustomed to tobacco, 4 mg can cause clinical signs, and 60 mg at one time can cause death.

therefore a non smoker chain smoking for an hour, (roughly 6 cigarettes (more if "hot boxing")) could die from poisoning.

Isn't Purdue where George Goble teaches? I wonder why his LOX BBQ lighting page was taken down.

Anyway, back on topic, there's no question that CAD is more precise but during early design stages, precision is not the goal and too much focus on computer-generated perfection hinders the process. People tend to get wrapped-up in the workings of the software and can produce brilliant-looking, but comepletely stupid drawings and unworkable designs.

My opinion is that CAD people should learn how to draw by hand before they even get to touch drafting software. This would weed out the wannabes and ensure that people learning the field are not completely useless when working onsite or when having to graphically communicate ideas quickly without the use of a machine.

Bad analogies: do grade school kids get to use calculators for addition/subtraction exercises? Do phones without numeric keypads (0-9) sound like a good idea (I.E., all phone numbers pre-programmed or voice-activated)?

Larger screenshots of the 3D search engine can be found here and here.

Larger screenshots of the 3D search engine can be found here and here.

Indiana University (my employer) and Purdue University (where I got my undergrad degree) have a joint institution in Indianapolis called Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis or IUPUI (where I work and take grad courses). I found it shocking that a joint venture between the two top rated doesn't even rank. None the less, as someone from IUPUI (or Indian in general)it makes me proud to see IU and PU listed as the top two, especially considering that Indiana is far from what I would consider a high-tech state, rather to the contrary actually. Indiana is still a farming state to some degree. Purdue is actually known for two things: engineering and agriculture. Go figure.

Nope, never heard of him. But Purdue has the first computer science program in the nation. Maybe the name "Spaf" rings a bell too?

Nope, never heard of him. But Purdue has the first computer science program in the nation. Maybe the name "Spaf" rings a bell too?

If you are interested in some statistics for the Purdue wireless network:
http://www.noc.purdue.edu/traffic.php?tree_id=10

For more general information:
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/airlink/

If you are interested in some statistics for the Purdue wireless network:
http://www.noc.purdue.edu/traffic.php?tree_id=10

For more general information:
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/airlink/

Yeah, I have to say, Purdue's WiFi, affectionately known as AirLink, is pretty cool beans. It was my motivation for purchasing a cheap laptop and putting off upgrading the desktop another year or so.

As long as I shut the damn thing off when I'm in class, it isn't too distracting. It's so fantastic to be able to get a burrito or whatever in the Union, sit, catch up on email, do research (with the purdue.edu IPs it's easy to get into the library's online journals and stuff), listen to Air America Radio's stream, and so on.

If it hasn't made me more productive, I feel more productive, at least. And perception of functionality always trumps actual functionality!

Yeah, I have to say, Purdue's WiFi, affectionately known as AirLink, is pretty cool beans. It was my motivation for purchasing a cheap laptop and putting off upgrading the desktop another year or so.

As long as I shut the damn thing off when I'm in class, it isn't too distracting. It's so fantastic to be able to get a burrito or whatever in the Union, sit, catch up on email, do research (with the purdue.edu IPs it's easy to get into the library's online journals and stuff), listen to Air America Radio's stream, and so on.

If it hasn't made me more productive, I feel more productive, at least. And perception of functionality always trumps actual functionality!

My neighbor wanted to take down his tree. It was 150 feet tall.

I'm sure I don't have enough information to judge, but... what the heck is this guy thinking? He'd got a fifteen-story tree, a masterpiece of Nature's art, and he wants to get rid of it?

The tallest thing that grows on our God-forsaken played-out cotton field is mesquite, which would grow to maybe 20 feet if left alone, but turns into a spiky 5-foot bush 'cause the ranchers keep cutting it down. I'd give my left n^Hleg for a 150-foot tree out here!

Well, for heaven's sake, talk to one of them, will you?

Wrong. This says otherwise.

No, it doesn't.

Do you know something scientists at Argonne National Labs don't?

No, but I know something that you don't, apparently the difference between the sentences "Distillation removes both ionic and nonionic organic contaminants" and "Distillation removes all ionic and nonionic organic contaminants." Distillation can remove a large amount of contamination, especially if done repeatedly using industrial equipment. But the fact is that the distilled water you buy at the grocery store has got nothin' on the deionized water used to clean silicon waffers.

I am also curious how you know Calder is a "scientist at Argonne National Labs" and not a high school geometry teacher: (from your link) "NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators." I just find this funny because you took issue with my citing the site for a furnishing industry earlier.

Now, because I am getting tired of carrying on this stupid debate, here is a bunch of those fancy internet links you love so much:

These people manufacture deionized water. Suppose they wouldn't know anything about it. . .

Microelectronics and Nanotechnology Research Laboratory

Myron L Company

Deionized water as a cleaner Question: Why not just use distilled if it has even less ion concentration? Why buy more expensive de-ionized water?

Lytron Fun quote: "Care must be exercised when using DI water. The very lack of ions also makes this coolant unusually corrosive. Called the "universal solvent," DI water is one of the most aggressive solvents known. In fact, to a varying degree, it will dissolve everything to which it is exposed. Therefore, all materials in the cooling loop must be corrosion-resistant."

Semiconductor Glossary

another random newsgroup

Office of water quality technical memorandum

Early Death Comes from Drinking Distilled Water Very interesting article.

Wikipedia entry Interesting quotes: Even distillation does not completely purify water, because of contaminants with similar boiling points and droplets of unvaporized liquid carried with the steam. However, 99.9% pure water can be obtained by distillation. Reverse osmosis is theoretically the most thorough method of large-scale water purification available, although perfect semi-permable membranes are difficult to create.

Why I say no to distilled water Another interesting article on the health side effects of drinking distilled water.

Why purified water is bad to consume

Note that there is a difference between household water purifiers (both distillers and deionizers) and industrial equipment. The later only run the process once, and the so the water has been distilled/deionized, but that doesn't mean it is deionized.

Now, I'm sure you can find a thousand more sites telling me how distilled water is actually so pure it will sometimes spontaneously develop sentience and how deionized water is not only good for you it can kill cancer and stop

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Are you kidding? I mean, If I'm reading an article, and I see part of it highlighted as a link - I'm going to assume its going to be more content for the story I am reading, maybe adding a deeper explaination or background to whatever phrase is highlighted. If I am seriously studying a story, and follow a link to somehting like "air saferty", I want to see an article on air safety, not some page with 100 flashing banner ads trying to convince me that i need to buy a 'terrorist detector 2000' for only 29.95.

The only way that I could ever see this justified AT ALL, and i still think its not cool, would be that Every ad linkd from the story is labelled "AD" somehow - either by bracketed text, or maybe the link being a different colour from normal links.

I find it very hard to see any way that this isn't a bad thing. I think it could turn in to a very bad think.

Remember - Adverts were first picked up by old paper media as a way to support the actual journalism - It would cover the costs to create and deliver the content. Now it seems we're getting closer and closer to the content being made to deliver the adverts. How long until articles are being changed to fit in certain key words from advertisers? Scary.

Actually there's a much better congressional testimony quote on the DMCA. On page 13 of the following PDF (labeled page 11 in the text) says:

8. Revisit laws, such as the DMCA, that criminialize technology instead of behavior. It is extremely counterproductive in the long run to prohibit the technologists and educators from building tools and studying threats when the "bad guys" will not feel compelled to respect such prohibitions.

It's a rather diplomatic way of asking them to repeal the DMCA.

-

For those of you interested, CERIAS is actually a pretty impressive research group. One of the PhD students is teaching our cs426 class right now, and it's one of the few CS classes I've taken where I'm actually learning practical knowledge about computer security.

Go Boilers!

Searching by shape is a bit of a nutty idea, if you ask me... words can describe shapes quite well.

Yeah right, try to describe these.

I can see you sitting in front of your computer and typing into 3D-Google "L-shaped thing with small hollow cylinder on one side and two small holes on the other with a funny angle to it, looking like the alien gun in last weeks X-files, but without the pyramid on top" ... and then you press "I'm lucky".

What is the difference between white and brown rice? Brown rice is unpolished whole grain rice that is produced by removing only the outer husk. It becomes white rice when the bran layer is stripped off in the milling process.

That's true. But I was talking about wild rice, not brown rice.

Actually, in other countries people thing that there is something wrong with white rice, since it is white and not brown. So, you have not case in those two getting mixed up.

In most of the world, people eat white rice almost exclusively. The reason is that the bran of the rice contains oils which can go rancid at room temperature. By polishing the rice and removing the bran, a supply of uncooked rice will last much longer. (without refrigeration)

I grew up in Illinois, next door to your state, and we had more than our share of community colleges and "direction" schools as we called them. Tuition at all of our public schools was compairable, I went to U of I. because it was the best one I could get into. Are you telling me that USI is substantially cheaper than Purdue or Indiana University? Purdue in particular has excelent engineering programs.

Unfortunatly I agree with the parent, during my time at UIUC I saw the CS program (which I was not in, I minored in CS and majored in TAM) get a lot easier at the freshaman level, and now all the kids that were switching to business majors the year I took the intro CS class, were passing, and they are going to start taking advanced classes were they will severly slow the learning of those who deserved to be there, or have to switch majors in their 3rd or 4rth year...

Could they not stamp "THIS SIDE UP" or whatever on the components?

They did something similar with the modified 747 that carries the shuttle orbiter back after landing. See this picture. This is supposed to be a sign on top of the 747, where the orbiter links to the top of the 747's fuselage. It reads "Place Orbiter Here...Black Side Down".

If this is real, they have one hell of a sense of humor.

The sad thing is the parent is both a troll and insightful.

The Unix experts have been saying for decades now that using a secure operating system will protect you from viruses.
The anti-virus industry would have you believe Unix was never populare enough to make this possable. WHAT A LOAD OF BS.

Unix was THE operating system for mainframes in the 1970's and 80's.
So they adjust the excuse "Oh well virus writers are only after desktops"... Wrong again.

First what is a virus?
According to The Dirty Dozen it is "The Ultimate Trojan Horse".
What do hackers do with trojens?
According to the book "Outside the Inner Circle" (By Microsoft press) trojens are used by hackers to gain more access to the servers they already have low level access on.

But to use the trojen you need to hack into the system to start with. Wouldn't it be great if you could trick a system admin (or better yet user) to install the trojen for you?
Thats what a virus is. That is what it's for. Every script kiddies wet dream has been for the last 2 decades a Unix virus.
And we don't have a Unix virus yet becouse the virus writers don't have any motivation to write one? Bull.

Outlook is just one example of just how sloppy Microsoft really is when it comes to software design.
Download and install ANY other e-mail client and you won't need to fear e-mail viruses. That's easy enough isn't it? You don't even need to install a new OS just use a better e-mail client.

Someone has already made a cluster out of mini-ITX machines. While it may not be the fastest cluster in the world, I bet my university would rather throw a bundle of these into a small closet, rather than dedicate a huge lab to a bunch of ATX cases... especially given our space problems.

Someone has already made a cluster out of mini-ITX machines. While it may not be the fastest cluster in the world, I bet my university would rather throw a bundle of these into a small closet, rather than dedicate a huge lab to a bunch of ATX cases... especially given our space problems.

Brenda Myers, quoted in the CNN article that the slashdot link in the parent links to, said, "Every time you go these places [national electronics retail stores], they think women don't know anything, and they don't you the same features as they would when my husbands goes with me."

Was he joking? Neither my wife nor I could tell, so we decided right there that the University of Illinois was not for us. It didn't help their case that they didn't even bother to respond to her requests for appointments. We found our way up the road to Purdue University where she and I are working on our doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, respectively.

The moral of this story: Don't be surprised if this happens to you at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

At my school, they called it "volume licensing" and charged $5 per CD to students. They could have just done away with pretense and charged a penny.

Direct link to the file.

They even take requests

Of course, if you're not near Northwest Indiana, it's probably not all that convenient.

If you're near Chicago you can always check out American Science & Surplus, or you can order stuff delivered from their web site.