The contest is a farce, there is no way for contestants to verify the parameters, thus no way for contestants to know the contest is winnable. Even if there was, nobody is going to do it for $40. Even if someone would, the challenge requests the recovery of the file metadata, not the actual data of the file, which is usually the more difficult (and least important in the real world). Even then, the challenge requires a "reproducible manner", when data recovery is never advertised as being 100% reliable.
So, if the point is that data cannot be 100% recovered from a zeroed drive, then I'll agree. If the point is that any data recovery on a zeroes drive would be prohibitively expensive in all practical situations, then I'll agree. But, your claim is that recovery (implicitly *any* recovery) is impossible, well there you are wrong.
No, gparted only changes the partition and filesystem tables, it doesn't change the parts of the disk where your files were stored. It's akin to ripping the table of contents out of a book, the data in the pages is still there, you just don't have a map of what is where.
Not all x.04 releases are LTS. Ubuntu plans on an LTS release every 2 years, there was 6.06 and now 8.04. 10.04 is the next scheduled LTS. 7.04 and 9.04 were normal (not "cutting edge", just normal) releases.
Okay, I was thinking of SXW, which was XML-based, predated ODF,and was used by OpenOffice.org 1.0 (I'm not sure if StarOffice ever supported this format).
The CIA doesn't want fusion, the world economy would crash if there were free energy. They'll even level several Chicago city blocks in a hydrogen explosion and kidnap or kill scientists to prevent it from getting out.
I was thinking more along the lines of the electro-magnetic force being freakin strong.
Anyway, if you are compelled to turn over any key, then it's established that the cops have a "reasonable belief" that you possess that data.
The police have a "reasonable belief" that you possessed some data, have proven that you have an encrypted file/volume, and that you are can produce the key to decrypt it.
However, they can't prove that the unallocated space on that encrypted file/volume contains any hidden encrypted data, therefore they can't show "reasonable belief" that you can produce a key to decrypt it, since they can't even show that such a key would exists.
When encrypting a volume, the entire content is encrypted, and unallocated space is usually filled with random data. Since a good cipher text is indistinguishable from random data, you can hide additional encrypted data in the space no used by data stored by the main encryption. When given the main encryption key, the authorities will see the decrypted data, and random data in the unallocated part accounting for the total size of the volume, regardless of whether you have hidden additional data or not.
Is nuclear fusion grouped under the renewable energy category? Technically it's not renewable, but politically it's probably a difference that makes no difference. Still, I don't think lack of funding is what is keeping us from attaining a net-gain fusion reaction.
I applaud your effort to personally correct every claim that California's rolling blackouts were because of lack of generation capabilities. Alas, I have no mod points to give you.
As has already been mentioned, free at-work recharging won't last long, even for the 0.001% of people who have access to an electric outlet where they part. Day-time charging won't be an issue.
Also, as mentioned below, solar is an option here, especially in parking lots and garages. It doesn't have to be steady enough to power lights or office equipment, or feed the grid, just power some outlets for people's cars. The new Prius already includes a solar-powered vent fan, why not have it trickle-charge the battery with whatever it can produce? My car sits out in the hot, hot (did I mention hot?) Florida sun all day, that's got to get me a couple hours of drive-time.
I know I shouldn't feed the troll, but Brazil and Germany have very high rates of Linux adoption, far beyond what we see in North America and most of Europe. I'd be surprised if any large number of those Brazilian sales were replaced with Windows.
Probably these submissions have been waiting on approval for a while, and the decision was finally made at a high-enough level that releasing them under the GPL is acceptable.
Giving children all around the world laptops is the more important goal than spreading FOSS
Neither of those was the goal of the OLPC project. The goal was to provide locally sustainable access to information and education. Providing them with Windows would not have met that goal.
Well, it does make it slightly less "outdated". If this box wasn't top of the line when you built/bought it, it could be 3 years old or newer, not 5 years old or older as you were implying.
Slashdot Mirror
You think $40 is financially lucrative?
The contest is a farce, there is no way for contestants to verify the parameters, thus no way for contestants to know the contest is winnable. Even if there was, nobody is going to do it for $40. Even if someone would, the challenge requests the recovery of the file metadata, not the actual data of the file, which is usually the more difficult (and least important in the real world). Even then, the challenge requires a "reproducible manner", when data recovery is never advertised as being 100% reliable.
So, if the point is that data cannot be 100% recovered from a zeroed drive, then I'll agree. If the point is that any data recovery on a zeroes drive would be prohibitively expensive in all practical situations, then I'll agree. But, your claim is that recovery (implicitly *any* recovery) is impossible, well there you are wrong.
No, gparted only changes the partition and filesystem tables, it doesn't change the parts of the disk where your files were stored. It's akin to ripping the table of contents out of a book, the data in the pages is still there, you just don't have a map of what is where.
Not all x.04 releases are LTS. Ubuntu plans on an LTS release every 2 years, there was 6.06 and now 8.04. 10.04 is the next scheduled LTS. 7.04 and 9.04 were normal (not "cutting edge", just normal) releases.
TrueCrypt will over-write the hidden data. It explicitly warns you about this.
The hidden partition isn't for "precious data", it's for "secret data". It's better for a secret to be lost, than for it to be disclosed.
Okay, I was thinking of SXW, which was XML-based, predated ODF,and was used by OpenOffice.org 1.0 (I'm not sure if StarOffice ever supported this format).
So yes, I was wrong on that particular.
The CIA doesn't want fusion, the world economy would crash if there were free energy. They'll even level several Chicago city blocks in a hydrogen explosion and kidnap or kill scientists to prevent it from getting out.
I was thinking more along the lines of the electro-magnetic force being freakin strong.
Anyway, if you are compelled to turn over any key, then it's established that the cops have a "reasonable belief" that you possess that data.
The police have a "reasonable belief" that you possessed some data, have proven that you have an encrypted file/volume, and that you are can produce the key to decrypt it.
However, they can't prove that the unallocated space on that encrypted file/volume contains any hidden encrypted data, therefore they can't show "reasonable belief" that you can produce a key to decrypt it, since they can't even show that such a key would exists.
The cops have to plausibly prove that the item in question exists, before they can put you in jail for not giving it to them.
When encrypting a volume, the entire content is encrypted, and unallocated space is usually filled with random data. Since a good cipher text is indistinguishable from random data, you can hide additional encrypted data in the space no used by data stored by the main encryption. When given the main encryption key, the authorities will see the decrypted data, and random data in the unallocated part accounting for the total size of the volume, regardless of whether you have hidden additional data or not.
Okay, maybe that far back they weren't. But I seem to remember them being XML when I started using it, back before Sun bought them.
But I'm pretty sure the original StarOffice documents were still based on XML.
Is nuclear fusion grouped under the renewable energy category? Technically it's not renewable, but politically it's probably a difference that makes no difference. Still, I don't think lack of funding is what is keeping us from attaining a net-gain fusion reaction.
I applaud your effort to personally correct every claim that California's rolling blackouts were because of lack of generation capabilities. Alas, I have no mod points to give you.
As has already been mentioned, free at-work recharging won't last long, even for the 0.001% of people who have access to an electric outlet where they part. Day-time charging won't be an issue.
Also, as mentioned below, solar is an option here, especially in parking lots and garages. It doesn't have to be steady enough to power lights or office equipment, or feed the grid, just power some outlets for people's cars. The new Prius already includes a solar-powered vent fan, why not have it trickle-charge the battery with whatever it can produce? My car sits out in the hot, hot (did I mention hot?) Florida sun all day, that's got to get me a couple hours of drive-time.
If someone wants Windows tech support from me, it's gonna be via Remote Desktop or a VNC viewer.
Good luck with that.
1. What if their problem is that they can't connect to the internet?
2. VNC isn't installed by default, and Remote Desktop isn't enabled by default.
3. Most people are behind NAT enabled routers these days, so even if the above was available you couldn't connect through to their computer.
I sure wish the ARM devices would hit the market ASAP
They're on their way:
http://blogs.arm.com/smart-mobile-devices/first-taste-of-an-arm-powered-netbook-and-its-good/
I know I shouldn't feed the troll, but Brazil and Germany have very high rates of Linux adoption, far beyond what we see in North America and most of Europe. I'd be surprised if any large number of those Brazilian sales were replaced with Windows.
Probably these submissions have been waiting on approval for a while, and the decision was finally made at a high-enough level that releasing them under the GPL is acceptable.
Giving children all around the world laptops is the more important goal than spreading FOSS
Neither of those was the goal of the OLPC project. The goal was to provide locally sustainable access to information and education. Providing them with Windows would not have met that goal.
Then you're still using Linux!
Well, it does make it slightly less "outdated". If this box wasn't top of the line when you built/bought it, it could be 3 years old or newer, not 5 years old or older as you were implying.
I think he was acting as the fake expert, not implying that you were.
So, why can I run it just fine on a pc last upgraded in 2004, except for the HD (only because the old one died)?
1gb ddr ram, amd athlon 3800+ x2, a8v mb, geforce 5700 graphics.
The first 3800+ X2 chips weren't released until April 2005.
You must not be including all of J2EE and J2ME.
By that definition, both produce surprisingly lean executables.