Except almost no one implements "hardened wired connections". Do you run crypto on your wired network? Do you require 802.1x auth on your wired network? Do you you encase all the cabling in pressure-alarmed conduit? Do you perform Functional Compartmentalization where network access is limited on a per-user basis? Almost no one does these things - most of them are non-trivial to do with wired networks. All I have to do is pay a janitor a few bucks to plug something into a wired port and bingo, I have full network access.
Wireless on the other hand has auth and crypto built in so while sniffing is trivial, if you're running 802.11i it doesn't matter. If you're worried about what happens when it reaches the AP, some wireless vendors keep the traffic encrypted all the way back to a controller in the Data Center. There are no crypto keys or user data on the AP so if someone were to steal it or gain access to the cable behind it they would only get encrypted data. Then add in some vendor's built-in ICSA firewall and you can easily perform Functional Compartmentalization on a per-user basis regardless of user location.
The wireless world has moved on from the old WEP days regarding security. There is still the jamming DoS attack vulnerabilities but many people have mitigated or just accepted them in exchange for the huge productivity gains and cost savings.
Currently, the only way to buy oil from an OPEC nation is with "Petrodollars" which are actually US dollars. What this means for the American economy is that oil importing countries (which is pretty much all of them) have to hold lots and lots of US dollars in their treasuries in order to pay OPEC for their oil (and then they have to "buy" more dollars to buy more oil). So if OPEC were to one day decide that they wanted to accept Euros for their oil instead of dollars, then mountains of US dollars would hit the world currency markets to be exchanged for Euros. This would crush the value of the US dollar and leave us in a very bad situation.
It's been said that one of the reasons we went into Iraq was because Saddam was accepting Euros for his oil.
Except I just have to pay a cleaning person a few hundred $$ to plug in a Rogue AP. Turn off beaconing and broadcast probe response and you'll never see it until I start using it (you have to sleep sometime). Heck in a lot of buildings I could walk in and do it myself. Then I could start hammering on your servers at my leisure.
Also, WPA2 uses AES with a key based on a 265-bit Master Key from RADIUS (unique for each user), client MAC, AP BSSID, and 2 nonce (time) values. It would take AGES to brute-force it.
The problem is that most company's VPN gateways aren't sized for wireless speeds. They're set up for internet users - 400kbps or so per user. Not the 3-4Mbps per user you get w/ wireless. To do the above, most companys are looking at a VPN gateway upgrade which often covers the cost of a proper wireless network.
WPA2 is highly secure (as secure as IPSec) and offers single sign-on to users (they can auth directly to RADIUS or LDAP servers like Active Directory using their domain login).
As I've already mentioned, check out the latest Enteprise wireless offerings from Aruba, Cisco, or Trapeze. Aruba even offers an ICSA-certified firewall built-in - no need to run it out to the DMZ. Plus all of those products can dynamically set channel and power settings as the RF environment changes or if an AP goes down.
I would argue that wireless COULD replace a good solid wired connection for MOST (75% or so) users. Most users are doing file, print, and e-mail. Those apps aren't bandwidth or delay sensitive. There are definitely apps where you should stick w/ wire (and you should never rip out perfectly good wire) but if you install an Enterprise class wireless network (Aruba, Cisco, Trapeze) you'll be pleasantly surprised. Heck, your wireless network will become more secure than your wired network (easy to bribe cleaning person to plug in Rogue AP to ethernet jack; hard to break WPA2).
There are highly-secure, manageable wireless systems out there.
Well, if you're using a Linksys AP ifor corporate data access, there's your first problem. You should invest in an Enterprise system like an Aruba, Cisco, or Trapeze.
If you're talking about your home network, yeah that sucks. I have a Linksys AP at home and haven't had that happen. Tried all the obvious stuff like pulled latest code?
Dude, Pre-shared keys are sooooo 2001. WPA/WPA2 in an enterprise deployment use dynamic keys created by a RADIUS server. There is no key on the laptop to be stolen. If you go whole hog and use EAP-TLS (most stick with PEAP as the PKI requirements are lower) then you have certificates on the both the client and server to deal with, plus user credentials. Social Engineering is a problem for any network. Will you allow people to VPN in from home? Then I don't need to be in the office or "leave anything behind" so your argument is moot. Plus you can use the same auth mechanism for WPA/WPA2 as for your VPN (SecureID, etc).
The world of wireless has changed. WPA2 is highly secure. One can never say never with security but it looks like they got it right this time.
This is why I would recommend using 802.11a. Stay far away from 802.11b/g in a a setup like this. Not only are you further away spectrum-wise from common sources of interference, 802.11a allows you 8 non-interfering channels vs 3 for 802.11b/g. This means you can have 8 APs in close proximity without causing interference.
Your calculation of 15-20 users per AP is a sound one. This will equal ~1Mbps/user of actual IP throughput. Plenty for most people.
Finally, I would recommend buying an enterprise-class wireless switch priduct from a company like Aruba Networks, Cisco, or Trapeze. With the density of APs you're talking about you will want the automatic calibration features that these products provide. Not to mention they'll allow you to use the latest Layer-2 auth and encryption schemes like WPA2 so your users will have single sign-on, secure access to the network.
Well, as someone who works for a wireless company - Vista is expected to have a TON of improvements to their Wi-fi stack/clients. Not earth-shattering to everyone but some of us are looking forward to it.
Other than that, -- XP runs my games just fine and I use a Mac at work.
Actually, wireless AP's are restricted to 100mW for indoor use. Cell phones are rated at 600mW. Cell phones are MUCH worse than APs. According to the government, the safe distance from an AP is 21cm.
Cell phones won't work at altitude. Cell towers have a down-tilt built into the antenna so the signals don't emanate upwards. Turn on your cell phone in the air sometime - it won't find a signal.
There would have to do some kind of repeater system to uplink to a satellite or ground station - individual handsets won't function.
Not to mention the cost of shipping is often equal to the cost of the sales tax anyway. Most of the time I find it a wash between local or on-line on a similarly priced item. The difference is that the etailer's price will now have to be lower than the local store by at least the amount of the shipping cost. I expect a lot more etailers will have to run free shipping promotions if this law passes.
Except for all the additional energy required to make and recycle those batteries and additional components. I too long for a true womb-to-tomb impact study. Hybrids certainly require a lot more resources, both electricity (typically made from coal in the US) and materials, to produce and dispose/recycle than an ICE vehicle. I would wager even after you factored in the higher mileage and lower emissions the hybrid is still worse than an efficent ICE vehicle (my Jeep Liberty running biodiesel produces lower emissions than a Prius even w/ half the mileage). I just don't have the patience to figure it all out.
Gee. $200 is a HUGE consolation against the $7k you get to spend on new batteries every 100k miles. I have to disagree w/ the article about the maintenance costs "balancing out". Being easier on brake pads vs the above battery replacements doesn't exactly "balance out". I can buy many brake pads for $7k. And how do non-hyrbids have MORE mechanical systems to break down? A hybrid has all the same mechanical bits PLUS all the electrical bits. You still have to do timing belt and spark plug changes and all that stuff in addition to the battery changes. Not to mention to addition of software bugs into your systems:P
If you really want to save the earth, by a diesel car or SUV and run biodiesel. It's waht all the REAL environmentalists are doing;)
The answer to your hydrogen question is of course another question that is currently unsolved by all the manufacturers and environmentalists. Where will the hydrogen come from? Right now the bulk of hydrogen comes from Natural Gas. Nice for the ozone layer, bad for our dependence on foreign oil. Your other option is to crack water. Those molecules are VERY stable and it takes a LOT of energy to split them. And once you've done that fuel cells waste 30% of their energy to heat. There's a great article in Car and Driver about this. People talk about Hydrogen as if it's a SOURCE for energy; it's not. It's merely a storage medium. Nope, the only way we can move to a Hydrogen economy would be to build a whole 'lotta nuclear power plants.
Sons a Bitches! I just paid $1,499 for a 23" Cinema Display 2 weeks ago. Argh!
Does look sweet on my PD though - Running a 6800GT on my AMD box - LCD's are finally quick enough to not blur when playing FPS's and they're a lot easier on your eyes. not to mention it took my old 21" Trinitron about 10 minutes to warm up;)
Broadband's only subsidized in Europe and Canada? Heh. Broadband lines are heavily subsidized HERE - in the good 'ole USofA. WE gave away right-of-way to the phone and cable companies. WE gave the phone companies legal monopoly status in order to make the money back they spent laying those lines. WE have paid for that copper so many times it makes me sick. Nothing a utility does in "fair and square on the open market".
AFAIK, GM and Ford didn't get Federal subsidies to build their factories (they may have been given local tax breaks but cities trying to lure them but that's much different than what the utilities receive) so they don't have to give anyone access.
Motorcycle Consumer News. http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/editor_intro.asp It's completely ad-free. A nice change since you know they're not beholden to the manufacturers who advertise in other magazines. If you're into motorcycles, check it out.
Chris
Why include speakers on large TVs?
on
CNET's HDTV World
·
· Score: 1
Just have to rant here. I recently purchased a 60" rear-projection LCD. I have had a pretty nice audio setup for awhile but have been waiting for prices to come down on HD TVs. Why do manufacturers insist on hanging speakers on a 60" TV? Who's buying a TV this big w/o having a stereo hooked up to it? And to make it worse, the speakers aren't removeable! There's one huge piece of silver plastic that goes all the way around the screen.
The big silver "ears" are the speakers. Makes an already huge item take up even more space in my living room. I know, it's a big TV, but with just the black border around the screen it wouldn't dominate the room quite so much. I've threatened to pull out the Dremel but my wife won't let me.
I've heard of people using the TV's speakers as a center channel but then you get into all sorts of issues w/ using different types of speakers.
I know plasmas don't have speakers but couldn't afford a large plasma. There's just no reason I can think of for someone needing built-in speakers on a TV of this size. Grr...
Sci-fi isn't in HD yet but w/ Battlestar, they allowed Universal HD (channel on DirecTV, maybe other cable systems) to broadcast Season 1 in HD. Unfortunately Season 2 just ended but I haven't seen any news on if Sci-fi will do the same thing w/ UHD. I hope so.
Plus, w/ the HD Tivo you can still do all the hacking to pull the shows off. Of course even w/ a dual-layer burner a movie will have to be split across discs (HD content off my box runs ~9GB/hour).
Also, all the prime-time broadcast stuff is in HD. Lost on ABC is particularly good and while my wife was horrified at the size of our new TV (went to a 60" from a 32") and wanted me to take it back the night I brought it home, after watching Desperate Housewives she had to admit it looked a lot better.:)
Yeah, it was Modern Marvels on the History channel about sugar.
During the oil crisis Brazil invested heavily in sugar production to make ethanol. They also worked with GM such that all GM cars made in Brazil are flex-fuel. They can run off 100% ethanol, 100% gas, or anything in between.
They said that they're moved from 90% dependence on foreign oil to 15%. You still need gas for chilly mornings so the cars have a small gas-only tank and then switches to pure ethanol after it's warm.
They were showing prices and ethanol was less than half the cost of gas. They also had a government mandate in the 80's that all fuel stations must carry gas, ethanol, and diesel. Much easier to solve the distribution problem that way.
Personally I'm a diesel/bio-diesel fan as I prefer the power characteristics and because ethanol in the US is made from corn by ADM who are decidedly evil but renewables of any stripe are a step in the right direction.
The point isn't whether the USB key will be in THIS car, it's for we slash nerds to discuss the pros and cons of such an idea. It's a novel idea, why not talk about it?
I don't think it's QT - the file may be corrupted. When I tried the first link and it's mirror it hung Firefox and Safari on my Mac at the same place. But since it's Unix I could kill the process and try again:P
Slashdot Mirror
Except almost no one implements "hardened wired connections". Do you run crypto on your wired network? Do you require 802.1x auth on your wired network? Do you you encase all the cabling in pressure-alarmed conduit? Do you perform Functional Compartmentalization where network access is limited on a per-user basis? Almost no one does these things - most of them are non-trivial to do with wired networks. All I have to do is pay a janitor a few bucks to plug something into a wired port and bingo, I have full network access.
Wireless on the other hand has auth and crypto built in so while sniffing is trivial, if you're running 802.11i it doesn't matter. If you're worried about what happens when it reaches the AP, some wireless vendors keep the traffic encrypted all the way back to a controller in the Data Center. There are no crypto keys or user data on the AP so if someone were to steal it or gain access to the cable behind it they would only get encrypted data. Then add in some vendor's built-in ICSA firewall and you can easily perform Functional Compartmentalization on a per-user basis regardless of user location.
The wireless world has moved on from the old WEP days regarding security. There is still the jamming DoS attack vulnerabilities but many people have mitigated or just accepted them in exchange for the huge productivity gains and cost savings.
Currently, the only way to buy oil from an OPEC nation is with "Petrodollars" which are actually US dollars. What this means for the American economy is that oil importing countries (which is pretty much all of them) have to hold lots and lots of US dollars in their treasuries in order to pay OPEC for their oil (and then they have to "buy" more dollars to buy more oil). So if OPEC were to one day decide that they wanted to accept Euros for their oil instead of dollars, then mountains of US dollars would hit the world currency markets to be exchanged for Euros. This would crush the value of the US dollar and leave us in a very bad situation.
It's been said that one of the reasons we went into Iraq was because Saddam was accepting Euros for his oil.
Except I just have to pay a cleaning person a few hundred $$ to plug in a Rogue AP. Turn off beaconing and broadcast probe response and you'll never see it until I start using it (you have to sleep sometime). Heck in a lot of buildings I could walk in and do it myself. Then I could start hammering on your servers at my leisure.
Also, WPA2 uses AES with a key based on a 265-bit Master Key from RADIUS (unique for each user), client MAC, AP BSSID, and 2 nonce (time) values. It would take AGES to brute-force it.
The problem is that most company's VPN gateways aren't sized for wireless speeds. They're set up for internet users - 400kbps or so per user. Not the 3-4Mbps per user you get w/ wireless. To do the above, most companys are looking at a VPN gateway upgrade which often covers the cost of a proper wireless network.
WPA2 is highly secure (as secure as IPSec) and offers single sign-on to users (they can auth directly to RADIUS or LDAP servers like Active Directory using their domain login).
As I've already mentioned, check out the latest Enteprise wireless offerings from Aruba, Cisco, or Trapeze. Aruba even offers an ICSA-certified firewall built-in - no need to run it out to the DMZ. Plus all of those products can dynamically set channel and power settings as the RF environment changes or if an AP goes down.
I would argue that wireless COULD replace a good solid wired connection for MOST (75% or so) users. Most users are doing file, print, and e-mail. Those apps aren't bandwidth or delay sensitive. There are definitely apps where you should stick w/ wire (and you should never rip out perfectly good wire) but if you install an Enterprise class wireless network (Aruba, Cisco, Trapeze) you'll be pleasantly surprised. Heck, your wireless network will become more secure than your wired network (easy to bribe cleaning person to plug in Rogue AP to ethernet jack; hard to break WPA2).
There are highly-secure, manageable wireless systems out there.
Have your techs heard of spanning tree?
Well, if you're using a Linksys AP ifor corporate data access, there's your first problem. You should invest in an Enterprise system like an Aruba, Cisco, or Trapeze.
If you're talking about your home network, yeah that sucks. I have a Linksys AP at home and haven't had that happen. Tried all the obvious stuff like pulled latest code?
Dude, Pre-shared keys are sooooo 2001. WPA/WPA2 in an enterprise deployment use dynamic keys created by a RADIUS server. There is no key on the laptop to be stolen. If you go whole hog and use EAP-TLS (most stick with PEAP as the PKI requirements are lower) then you have certificates on the both the client and server to deal with, plus user credentials. Social Engineering is a problem for any network. Will you allow people to VPN in from home? Then I don't need to be in the office or "leave anything behind" so your argument is moot. Plus you can use the same auth mechanism for WPA/WPA2 as for your VPN (SecureID, etc).
The world of wireless has changed. WPA2 is highly secure. One can never say never with security but it looks like they got it right this time.
Chris
This is why I would recommend using 802.11a. Stay far away from 802.11b/g in a a setup like this. Not only are you further away spectrum-wise from common sources of interference, 802.11a allows you 8 non-interfering channels vs 3 for 802.11b/g. This means you can have 8 APs in close proximity without causing interference.
Your calculation of 15-20 users per AP is a sound one. This will equal ~1Mbps/user of actual IP throughput. Plenty for most people.
Finally, I would recommend buying an enterprise-class wireless switch priduct from a company like Aruba Networks, Cisco, or Trapeze. With the density of APs you're talking about you will want the automatic calibration features that these products provide. Not to mention they'll allow you to use the latest Layer-2 auth and encryption schemes like WPA2 so your users will have single sign-on, secure access to the network.
Good luck,
Chris
Well, as someone who works for a wireless company - Vista is expected to have a TON of improvements to their Wi-fi stack/clients. Not earth-shattering to everyone but some of us are looking forward to it.
Other than that, -- XP runs my games just fine and I use a Mac at work.
Chris
Actually, wireless AP's are restricted to 100mW for indoor use. Cell phones are rated at 600mW. Cell phones are MUCH worse than APs. According to the government, the safe distance from an AP is 21cm.
Cell phones won't work at altitude. Cell towers have a down-tilt built into the antenna so the signals don't emanate upwards. Turn on your cell phone in the air sometime - it won't find a signal.
There would have to do some kind of repeater system to uplink to a satellite or ground station - individual handsets won't function.
Not to mention the cost of shipping is often equal to the cost of the sales tax anyway. Most of the time I find it a wash between local or on-line on a similarly priced item. The difference is that the etailer's price will now have to be lower than the local store by at least the amount of the shipping cost. I expect a lot more etailers will have to run free shipping promotions if this law passes.
Except for all the additional energy required to make and recycle those batteries and additional components. I too long for a true womb-to-tomb impact study. Hybrids certainly require a lot more resources, both electricity (typically made from coal in the US) and materials, to produce and dispose/recycle than an ICE vehicle. I would wager even after you factored in the higher mileage and lower emissions the hybrid is still worse than an efficent ICE vehicle (my Jeep Liberty running biodiesel produces lower emissions than a Prius even w/ half the mileage). I just don't have the patience to figure it all out.
Gee. $200 is a HUGE consolation against the $7k you get to spend on new batteries every 100k miles. I have to disagree w/ the article about the maintenance costs "balancing out". Being easier on brake pads vs the above battery replacements doesn't exactly "balance out". I can buy many brake pads for $7k. And how do non-hyrbids have MORE mechanical systems to break down? A hybrid has all the same mechanical bits PLUS all the electrical bits. You still have to do timing belt and spark plug changes and all that stuff in addition to the battery changes. Not to mention to addition of software bugs into your systems :P
;)
If you really want to save the earth, by a diesel car or SUV and run biodiesel. It's waht all the REAL environmentalists are doing
The answer to your hydrogen question is of course another question that is currently unsolved by all the manufacturers and environmentalists. Where will the hydrogen come from? Right now the bulk of hydrogen comes from Natural Gas. Nice for the ozone layer, bad for our dependence on foreign oil. Your other option is to crack water. Those molecules are VERY stable and it takes a LOT of energy to split them. And once you've done that fuel cells waste 30% of their energy to heat. There's a great article in Car and Driver about this. People talk about Hydrogen as if it's a SOURCE for energy; it's not. It's merely a storage medium. Nope, the only way we can move to a Hydrogen economy would be to build a whole 'lotta nuclear power plants.
d =27&article_id=9978
http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_i
Sons a Bitches! I just paid $1,499 for a 23" Cinema Display 2 weeks ago. Argh!
;)
Does look sweet on my PD though - Running a 6800GT on my AMD box - LCD's are finally quick enough to not blur when playing FPS's and they're a lot easier on your eyes. not to mention it took my old 21" Trinitron about 10 minutes to warm up
Broadband's only subsidized in Europe and Canada? Heh. Broadband lines are heavily subsidized HERE - in the good 'ole USofA. WE gave away right-of-way to the phone and cable companies. WE gave the phone companies legal monopoly status in order to make the money back they spent laying those lines. WE have paid for that copper so many times it makes me sick. Nothing a utility does in "fair and square on the open market".
AFAIK, GM and Ford didn't get Federal subsidies to build their factories (they may have been given local tax breaks but cities trying to lure them but that's much different than what the utilities receive) so they don't have to give anyone access.
Chris - Former SBC employee
Motorcycle Consumer News. http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/editor_intro.asp It's completely ad-free. A nice change since you know they're not beholden to the manufacturers who advertise in other magazines. If you're into motorcycles, check it out.
Chris
Just have to rant here. I recently purchased a 60" rear-projection LCD. I have had a pretty nice audio setup for awhile but have been waiting for prices to come down on HD TVs. Why do manufacturers insist on hanging speakers on a 60" TV? Who's buying a TV this big w/o having a stereo hooked up to it? And to make it worse, the speakers aren't removeable! There's one huge piece of silver plastic that goes all the way around the screen.
C /ref=dp_product-image-only_0/104-1830250-5316732?_ encoding=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B00067AY1
The big silver "ears" are the speakers. Makes an already huge item take up even more space in my living room. I know, it's a big TV, but with just the black border around the screen it wouldn't dominate the room quite so much. I've threatened to pull out the Dremel but my wife won't let me.
I've heard of people using the TV's speakers as a center channel but then you get into all sorts of issues w/ using different types of speakers.
I know plasmas don't have speakers but couldn't afford a large plasma. There's just no reason I can think of for someone needing built-in speakers on a TV of this size. Grr...
Hmm. At those sizes you should be looking at computer monitors. Apple's Cinema Displays run 1920x1200 and have DVI in. Only on input though.
http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html
Maybe other monitor vendors make dual-input models?
Sci-fi isn't in HD yet but w/ Battlestar, they allowed Universal HD (channel on DirecTV, maybe other cable systems) to broadcast Season 1 in HD. Unfortunately Season 2 just ended but I haven't seen any news on if Sci-fi will do the same thing w/ UHD. I hope so.
:)
Plus, w/ the HD Tivo you can still do all the hacking to pull the shows off. Of course even w/ a dual-layer burner a movie will have to be split across discs (HD content off my box runs ~9GB/hour).
Also, all the prime-time broadcast stuff is in HD. Lost on ABC is particularly good and while my wife was horrified at the size of our new TV (went to a 60" from a 32") and wanted me to take it back the night I brought it home, after watching Desperate Housewives she had to admit it looked a lot better.
Yeah, it was Modern Marvels on the History channel about sugar.
During the oil crisis Brazil invested heavily in sugar production to make ethanol. They also worked with GM such that all GM cars made in Brazil are flex-fuel. They can run off 100% ethanol, 100% gas, or anything in between.
They said that they're moved from 90% dependence on foreign oil to 15%. You still need gas for chilly mornings so the cars have a small gas-only tank and then switches to pure ethanol after it's warm.
They were showing prices and ethanol was less than half the cost of gas. They also had a government mandate in the 80's that all fuel stations must carry gas, ethanol, and diesel. Much easier to solve the distribution problem that way.
Personally I'm a diesel/bio-diesel fan as I prefer the power characteristics and because ethanol in the US is made from corn by ADM who are decidedly evil but renewables of any stripe are a step in the right direction.
Yes, we GET it.
The point isn't whether the USB key will be in THIS car, it's for we slash nerds to discuss the pros and cons of such an idea. It's a novel idea, why not talk about it?
sheesh.
I don't think it's QT - the file may be corrupted. When I tried the first link and it's mirror it hung Firefox and Safari on my Mac at the same place. But since it's Unix I could kill the process and try again :P
9 08
Then I used this link (you have to click through some BS to get to the file) it worked perfectly:
http://www.filecloud.com/files/file.php?file_id=1