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WARNING: THIS MAN IS CLASSIFIED AS A MUNITION
[U.S. ITAR/EAR REGULATIONS -- RSA IN THREE LINES OF PERL]

#!/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
$/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)

FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS TRANSFER OF THIS MAN TO FOREIGNERS.

The main problems are that NASA because of "security reasons" can't give out a lot of the taxpayer funded research that would help these companies get off the ground. So, what took NASA many years to do doesn't have to be reinvented by a private company.

The bigger problem with "security reasons" that commercial companies like SpaceX has is with things like ITAR export restrictions; these are the same regulations older slashdotter might remember from the late 90s, where strong encryption was regarded as a munition as people were tattooing encryption code to themselves along with the text "this man is a munition." A recent example is with SpaceX's delayed launch of Malaysia's RazakSat satellite:

Technicians discovered the satellite and the Falcon 1 upper stage rocket share a nearly identical vibrational mode, which could set up a damaging resonance. SpaceX is bound by ITAR restrictions from assisting with any technical problems on the foreign-owned payload, so the company delayed the launch to add some vibration isolation equipment between the rocketâ(TM)s upper stage and the payload adapter.

"The easiest thing would actually be to make some adjustment to the satellite . . . but that's not allowed," Musk says.

Also, if anything, reinventing from the ground up is a big part of why SpaceX has been able to get costs as low as they have. Instead of designing their rockets to satisfy the politicians' fetish for spreading assembly over key congressional districts across the country and the engineers' fetish for maximizing performance at the cost of all else, SpaceX has been able to design their system from the get-go to minimize production costs, minimize the size of their ground crew (SpaceX Falcon I just needs something like 20 personnel at the launch site, instead of the 100 or so needed for EELVs), and maximize potential reusability.

None of what you describe is terrorism.

Get back to me when your computer network tortures you and your family, or outright blows you up or guns you down with automatic fire. Being without power and without computers is NOT terrifying. Look at the definitions of terrorism from Jay Dyson's 2002 Toorcon keynote:

http://www.treachery.net/articles_papers/tutorials /the_myth_of_cyber-terrorism/

"economic terrorism?" WTF is that?

Terrorism is the act of inciting TERROR. I'm not terrified of losing all of my money, or of someone owning my computers or even disrupting my Internet connection. Being cut to pieces by rusty shrapnel, or possibly tortured while tied down in a dark room. Now *that* incites terror. Having to fight for my survival after being severely injured. THAT incites terror. If my computers or networks cease to function, it is inconvenience, NOT friggin' terrorism. People need to stop lightly throwing that word around. Terrorists don't give a fuck about your fucking computer or money. They care about SCARING THE HELL OUT OF YOU THROUGH VIOLENCE. In that regard, they've done really well (been to an airport lately?).

Same goes for 'cyberterrorism'. An interesting paper on the topic presented by Jay Dyson at Toorcon 2002: http://www.treachery.net/articles_papers/tutorials /the_myth_of_cyber-terrorism/The_Myth_of_Cyber-Ter rorism.pdf

I think the real news here isn't the fact that they're taking deposits (they've been doing this for a while), but that Branson and Rutan have started up a new business, "The Spaceship Company."

From here:

But today's announcement reflects a finer appreciation of the financial and regulatory realities. Several months ago, Rutan complained to Congress that U.S. export restrictions [NOTE: These are ITAR restrictions, the same ones which turned this tattoo of encryption code into a munition a few years back] were making it difficult for the British Virgin Galactic project to move forward.

The new arrangement restructures the deal: The Rutan-Branson venture, called The Spaceship Company, will license SpaceShipOne's technology from Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company set up with financial backing from software billionaire Paul Allen and intellectual property from Rutan's Scaled Composites.

The Spaceship Company will then do the actual building of SpaceShipTwos (or Threes ... or Fours) for Virgin Galactic, and for any other spaceline company that wants a suborbital craft. You can assume that the company is structured so as to avoid running into export roadblocks, while keeping the British financial backer in the loop.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

Hmmmm I tried opening this file with CS and it worked.

I tried it with this file and it also worked.

So these scans were maybe too low res. Normally when counterfieters pass off false currency its in a bar or someplace where people arent paying attention, so it looks like these restrictions wont stop anything at all, since both those files could produce a note that was indistinguishable in poor lighting conditions. These new "features" were probably put in at the behest of "the feds".

This means a coupla things:

Mo more high res Parodies

All the old versions of Photoshop, especially 7, will now never ever go away.

Old style film repro gets to live a few more decades.

Counterfeit cash is here to stay. After all it only works if someone accepts it in return for goods and services. If that recieving person is dumb / untrained, thats all it takes to transform it into real money at the time of that one transaction. After that, the counterfieter doesnt care what happens to it.

Somebody beat them to it.

Early Bird Intrusion Detection aims to catch the NIMDA worm.

To answer the question "is the DMCA a viable tool to ensure security?"

Here's an article from the BBC.

and here's a good presentation from toorcon.

and lastly, this is a good article from ITWorld.

http://www.treachery.net/~jdyson/trojans/

send em to friends, watch them laugh as their hard drives get erased

send em to enemies

run them yourself! viruses rule! http://www.treachery.net/~jdyson/trojans/

http://www.treachery.net/~jdyson/trojans/

send em to friends, watch them laugh as their hard drives get erased

send em to enemies

run them yourself! viruses rule! http://www.treachery.net/~jdyson/trojans/

While it may become a huge bureaucracy, it's not intended to be.

Nobody intends for government to swell out of control. Sometimes the best intentions get out of hand. One might argue that the Constitution is in place to protect us from politicians' good intentions.

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. - Daniel Webster

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient.... The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C. S. Lewis

Back to your post now...

And finally, how are you going to protect yourself from a plane flying toward your office building at 600 mph? Raise a militia?

At the point a bomb is falling on your head, it's obviously a little late to do anything about it.

The point is that, if the 2nd Amendment were respected, there would be people (private citizens) already on the plane to take care of it. If concealed carry was legal in all 50 states, you'd have many more "air marshals" in a similarly good position to thwart hijackers, all without the intervention of government.

Absolutely. It is possible to increase security without decreasing freedom. In fact, we can increase liberty in the process. Make concealed-carry legal in all 50 states. That would solve the problem.