Let's hope that they will be able to secure the access to these things.
On the rare occassions that people have gone on the rampage with tanks and stuff, the results have been dramatic. If I recall correctly, after one such tank theft incident, the local comander explained why it was so 'easy' to steal a tank, "If you're under attack, you don't want to be looking for the ignition keys". Fair point.
So, these fighting vehicles will have to be easy to use, to be useful. Lets hope that does not also make them easy to steal.
Since you say you used to work for an ISP, I'm sure you know this, but just in case:
1. Try changing port to a higher one, (might work if they've got really dumb filtering software). 2. If uploading, check (in Bittorrent) 'Force Encryption' and uncheck 'allowing incoming legacy connections', (may hurt your download speed if the downloaders are using older/poorly configured clients). 3. If using XP, fixes exist for the Windows conex limit (I assume you're referring to half-open conex limit?) - as always, Google is your friend.
Oh, and for the posters who think that bittorrent is only for copyright infringers, there are plenty of legit uses, including Linx distros. Also, there are many places where copyright infringement is not illegal, (but not where Comcast operates...)
Or put the money into prevention, education etc. which is more cost-effective than repression.
I'm not sure things would 'dry up' though. Prohibition (of alocohol) led to the same sad results that we've got with hard drugs. Well-organised and financed crime.
Plus it would be illegal! Surely they would never do something like that?
More seriously, one can think of several reasons, (including denyability - does that word exist?), for a gov. to maintain a secret botnet. The attack on Estonia springs to mind...
I'm sure there's plenty more out there, but at least they're trying...
It's like the so-called 'war' on drugs, it is unfortunately very hard to align the same financial - and therefore physical - resources as the bad guys.
Also as per the war on drugs, the bad guys also include people in governments - but think Russia and China rather than Colombia & Afghanistan...
"Windows takes 2 days of updates, driver downloads, and reboots..."
Whaaat! C'mon, if you're a CTO / Software engineer you must know about sliptreamed install CD/DVDs and unatended installs...really cuts down on the pain. Plenty of tools available to roll your own, or just download 1 from the net. Check it first for 'extras' though;-)
At end, insert your valid serials for the software, (XP, Office, whatever) and you're good to go.
Agree about the drivers, though. Whenever I install a new peripheral(s), I just throw away the install CD that came with it/them, and download the latest. Normally avoids all sorts of pain, but takes a while...
Since the post you refer to did not make the cut, I presume that it's 'Those than can, do; those that cannot, teach'.
Sorry, but like most truisms, it's - well - based in truth!
I lecture on MBA programs, teach (mainly my own kids) and also do training in industry, including very senior Execs. The general standard of 'teachers' that I observe around me is appalling.
All that I teach comes from experience in doing - I deliberately balance my time between teaching and project work.
Whilst I would be the first to admit - indeed support - that the transmission of knowledge and, harder still, competency, is a noble, important and difficult task, the simple fact remains that most of the people who pretend to do it are not up to the challenge.
They are also typically the ones who complain the most when criticised. "Those that are confident do; those that are not, bitch".
1. If you're in business to make a profit, you realise that long-term profitability depends on goodwill, reputation, brand image and promise..or simply put, not fucking over your customers. Microsoft scores poorly on this one - like many monopolies. But things are changing, as the marketplace slowly starts to punish them. Lack of competition and some real innovation, (getting things to work *enough* - I don't mean pseudo innovation like IBM's OS/2 - a much better product, but only if you had IBM PS/2s) got them where they are - now they are losing it. Studies have shown that customers will put up with substandard quality for the 'latest' stuff, especially if it realy does deliver genuine value, (when it works). Urm - what's compelling about Vista? Office?
2. Making profit also means you're clear about what support costs, and for how long you are offering it. Options exist to get rid of Jet, (which, if my memory serves me correctly, has always been a pile of buggy inscure crap, and the subject of many Office-related security patches), so - just say either stop supporting it, (watch the market scream), or *gasp* make people pay for updates...
The problem is, M$ has always turned into a hybrid of 'product' comany and 'software & services' company. Watch while they kill support for XP in the same way, to try and push 'product' sales of Vista. I'm sure - when faced with massive switching costs - big corp. users would pony up plenty for ongoing XP updates...
Especially as UK policies are mostly dreamed up and implemented by Scots...who also have their own parliament, where non-Scottish MPs cannot vote, although they can vote in the UK Parliament. Meanwhile, back on topic.
1. REALLY punish the bastards who steal personal data - even if 'just for fun'. 2. Adequately compensate the people who suffer from data theft. 3. Punish the people who make it possible for people to lose the data, (by not issuing them with good encryption, and training and monitoring them in secure procedues). 4. Punish the people who lose the data through negligence or stupidity.
Sort of in that order of importance.
Looks like since they've failed to do 1, they'll move right on to 4....why? Cheap and easy. Oh, you've lost your laptop? You're GUILTY! Go straight to jail, do not pass go..
I love these DARPA challenges, and they seem to be working better for Uncle Sam than handing over gazillions to greedy, incompetent 'cost-plus' military sub-contractors. Good publicity, too...
On the other hand, whilst I know it's 'the American way' to have a unique winner, perhaps the nexy step would be to encourage winning teams to create reusable, modular compotents / subsystems. Every winner is a unique expression of its creating team's creativity and technical competence. DARPA gets to keep the winning team's tech. Great. But will it blend - sorry, scale?
If, each year, the teams could build upon ALL the previous teams developments, (kinda like FOSS model), then surely we'd all move together faster. No need to write lines of code for stereoscopic vision - use the module that worked best last year. Collision avoidance logic required? Download latest stable from Sourceforge, or secure DARPA equivalent.
It's like the X prize - Rutan did a great job with SpaceShipOne, but nobody is pretending that it's really a technological stepping stone to civillian (orbital) space flight...
Yeah, I know who contols GPS. True about Ronnie, may the old boy rest in peace. But it was Clinton - if I recall correctly - that made it posible to get good-quality signals...
I don't think it's a bad thing that the military can turn off the GPS signal if they suspect the bad guys are using it. While we're busy being offtopic, I believe that commercially available GPS devices are also limited in altitude and speed, so they can't be integrated into naughty people's missles, planes and so forth...
I'm not sure that we need the Russians etc. to make sure that the Internet works.
I'm a European, so no Bush fanboi, and I'm ashamed to say that we've got nothing better to propose. The EU, the UN? Hmmm...
I offer the only parallel I can think of, (a free, global system, originally developed by - and for - the military), namely GPS.
GPS is great - period. I travel all around the world, and my cheap GPS receiver always tells me where I am. Thanks to the Internet, I can even get maps/sat pics of 'forbidden' or 'unmapped' places beforehand, and find my way.
Russia's GLONASS and the EU's Galileo are not operational, (think 2010 earliest). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation_system)
The Internet works pretty well too. Except when I travel to....guess where! China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia....in places that have shitty oppressive regimes, esssentially.
So, tell me everyone, who do you want 'in charge' of the Internet?
1. CIA=sharp, Academe=smart. The NSA boys are both smart and sharp. They've got the budget. Wonder when the 'super brains' from Google will get into crypto? They have the market cap now - thanks to the inexplicable hype over Android... 2. Yup - I tend to metamod the -ve mods as 'unfair', because they seem to be driven by bigotry than than sense.
So, inserting one trapdoor? Likely, but not probable. Insert an easy one to find, so we miss the others...now that's smart 'n' sharp
Oh, marvellous. This is some nerdy test, posting links in German?
Thanks to the efforts of the crypto boys, (started off by the Poles, let's not forget), and also of the many of my ancestors sadly buried around Europe during WWI and II, I was not forced to learn the language;-)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. I'm waiting for the 'war on dandruff' to be declared - bound to happen soon.
Back on topic, espionage can lead to loss of life, both in times of war and peace.
Here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/29/1936220
Nice one. As the parent of three teenage girls, I'd like to nominate Avril Lavigne.
Let's hope that they will be able to secure the access to these things.
On the rare occassions that people have gone on the rampage with tanks and stuff, the results have been dramatic.
If I recall correctly, after one such tank theft incident, the local comander explained why it was so 'easy' to steal a tank, "If you're under attack, you don't want to be looking for the ignition keys". Fair point.
So, these fighting vehicles will have to be easy to use, to be useful. Lets hope that does not also make them easy to steal.
Since you say you used to work for an ISP, I'm sure you know this, but just in case:
1. Try changing port to a higher one, (might work if they've got really dumb filtering software).
2. If uploading, check (in Bittorrent) 'Force Encryption' and uncheck 'allowing incoming legacy connections', (may hurt your download speed if the downloaders are using older/poorly configured clients).
3. If using XP, fixes exist for the Windows conex limit (I assume you're referring to half-open conex limit?) - as always, Google is your friend.
Oh, and for the posters who think that bittorrent is only for copyright infringers, there are plenty of legit uses, including Linx distros. Also, there are many places where copyright infringement is not illegal, (but not where Comcast operates...)
Well, you got what you asked for!
Silly, really, since many people here think that rootkitted non-win servers play a key role in controlling botnets.
They are the 'Generals', whilst the windows boxes are he expendable 'troops'
Yeah, I though it was hard..did not take it as an insult personally...still, sticks and stones...
Well, I'd spotted that, thanks all the same for the sarcasm.
Not sure how that works with the 'offtopic' mod then?
I'm neither Jewish, nor pro or anti Jewish, by the way.
Just thought that this was a tech board primarily, not a soapbox for loonies.
(Althought I do love the humour!)
Parent post gets modded 'insightful' instead of 'flamebait' or at the very least 'offtopic'? What's it got to do with nerve gas treatments?
Or put the money into prevention, education etc. which is more cost-effective than repression.
I'm not sure things would 'dry up' though. Prohibition (of alocohol) led to the same sad results that we've got with hard drugs.
Well-organised and financed crime.
Sadly though, alcohol abuse is still with us...
Plus it would be illegal! Surely they would never do something like that?
More seriously, one can think of several reasons, (including denyability - does that word exist?), for a gov. to maintain a secret botnet. The attack on Estonia springs to mind...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberattacks_on_Estonia_2007
I'm sure there's plenty more out there, but at least they're trying...
It's like the so-called 'war' on drugs, it is unfortunately very hard to align the same financial - and therefore physical - resources as the bad guys.
Also as per the war on drugs, the bad guys also include people in governments - but think Russia and China rather than Colombia & Afghanistan...
Guilty as charged, M'lud!
Urm...only for QWERTY keyboards. Ok, for pendants, you can remap them...
"Windows takes 2 days of updates, driver downloads, and reboots..."
;-)
Whaaat! C'mon, if you're a CTO / Software engineer you must know about sliptreamed install CD/DVDs and unatended installs...really cuts down on the pain. Plenty of tools available to roll your own, or just download 1 from the net. Check it first for 'extras' though
At end, insert your valid serials for the software, (XP, Office, whatever) and you're good to go.
Agree about the drivers, though. Whenever I install a new peripheral(s), I just throw away the install CD that came with it/them, and download the latest. Normally avoids all sorts of pain, but takes a while...
Since the post you refer to did not make the cut, I presume that it's 'Those than can, do; those that cannot, teach'.
Sorry, but like most truisms, it's - well - based in truth!
I lecture on MBA programs, teach (mainly my own kids) and also do training in industry, including very senior Execs.
The general standard of 'teachers' that I observe around me is appalling.
All that I teach comes from experience in doing - I deliberately balance my time between teaching and project work.
Whilst I would be the first to admit - indeed support - that the transmission of knowledge and, harder still, competency, is a noble, important and difficult task, the simple fact remains that most of the people who pretend to do it are not up to the challenge.
They are also typically the ones who complain the most when criticised. "Those that are confident do; those that are not, bitch".
1. If you're in business to make a profit, you realise that long-term profitability depends on goodwill, reputation, brand image and promise..or simply put, not fucking over your customers. Microsoft scores poorly on this one - like many monopolies. But things are changing, as the marketplace slowly starts to punish them. Lack of competition and some real innovation, (getting things to work *enough* - I don't mean pseudo innovation like IBM's OS/2 - a much better product, but only if you had IBM PS/2s) got them where they are - now they are losing it. Studies have shown that customers will put up with substandard quality for the 'latest' stuff, especially if it realy does deliver genuine value, (when it works). Urm - what's compelling about Vista? Office?
2. Making profit also means you're clear about what support costs, and for how long you are offering it. Options exist to get rid of Jet, (which, if my memory serves me correctly, has always been a pile of buggy inscure crap, and the subject of many Office-related security patches), so - just say either stop supporting it, (watch the market scream), or *gasp* make people pay for updates...
The problem is, M$ has always turned into a hybrid of 'product' comany and 'software & services' company. Watch while they kill support for XP in the same way, to try and push 'product' sales of Vista. I'm sure - when faced with massive switching costs - big corp. users would pony up plenty for ongoing XP updates...
Especially as UK policies are mostly dreamed up and implemented by Scots...who also have their own parliament, where non-Scottish MPs cannot vote, although they can vote in the UK Parliament. Meanwhile, back on topic.
1. REALLY punish the bastards who steal personal data - even if 'just for fun'.
2. Adequately compensate the people who suffer from data theft.
3. Punish the people who make it possible for people to lose the data, (by not issuing them with good encryption, and training and monitoring them in secure procedues).
4. Punish the people who lose the data through negligence or stupidity.
Sort of in that order of importance.
Looks like since they've failed to do 1, they'll move right on to 4....why? Cheap and easy.
Oh, you've lost your laptop? You're GUILTY! Go straight to jail, do not pass go..
I love these DARPA challenges, and they seem to be working better for Uncle Sam than handing over gazillions to greedy, incompetent 'cost-plus' military sub-contractors. Good publicity, too...
On the other hand, whilst I know it's 'the American way' to have a unique winner, perhaps the nexy step would be to encourage winning teams to create reusable, modular compotents / subsystems. Every winner is a unique expression of its creating team's creativity and technical competence. DARPA gets to keep the winning team's tech. Great. But will it blend - sorry, scale?
If, each year, the teams could build upon ALL the previous teams developments, (kinda like FOSS model), then surely we'd all move together faster. No need to write lines of code for stereoscopic vision - use the module that worked best last year. Collision avoidance logic required? Download latest stable from Sourceforge, or secure DARPA equivalent.
It's like the X prize - Rutan did a great job with SpaceShipOne, but nobody is pretending that it's really a technological stepping stone to civillian (orbital) space flight...
"I, for one, welcome our new non-obligatory overlord referencing overlords....oh wait"
There, fixed that for you.
"In other words a none story"
/.
Yup, but watch while everybody jumps onto the empty hook anyway...this is
Yeah, I know who contols GPS. True about Ronnie, may the old boy rest in peace.
But it was Clinton - if I recall correctly - that made it posible to get good-quality signals...
I don't think it's a bad thing that the military can turn off the GPS signal if they suspect the bad guys are using it. While we're busy being offtopic, I believe that commercially available GPS devices are also limited in altitude and speed, so they can't be integrated into naughty people's missles, planes and so forth...
I'm not sure that we need the Russians etc. to make sure that the Internet works.
I'm a European, so no Bush fanboi, and I'm ashamed to say that we've got nothing better to propose. The EU, the UN? Hmmm...
I offer the only parallel I can think of, (a free, global system, originally developed by - and for - the military), namely GPS.
GPS is great - period. I travel all around the world, and my cheap GPS receiver always tells me where I am. Thanks to the Internet, I can even get maps/sat pics of 'forbidden' or 'unmapped' places beforehand, and find my way.
Russia's GLONASS and the EU's Galileo are not operational, (think 2010 earliest). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation_system)
The Internet works pretty well too. Except when I travel to....guess where! China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia....in places that have shitty oppressive regimes, esssentially.
So, tell me everyone, who do you want 'in charge' of the Internet?
Agree with both.
1. CIA=sharp, Academe=smart. The NSA boys are both smart and sharp. They've got the budget.
Wonder when the 'super brains' from Google will get into crypto? They have the market cap now - thanks to the inexplicable hype over Android...
2. Yup - I tend to metamod the -ve mods as 'unfair', because they seem to be driven by bigotry than than sense.
So, inserting one trapdoor? Likely, but not probable. Insert an easy one to find, so we miss the others...now that's smart 'n' sharp
Oh, marvellous. This is some nerdy test, posting links in German?
;-)
Thanks to the efforts of the crypto boys, (started off by the Poles, let's not forget), and also of the many of my ancestors sadly buried around Europe during WWI and II, I was not forced to learn the language