The Bush administration is systematically perverting the American Constitution.
I swear I would vote for anyone that said they would restore and enforce the Constitution, who would prosecute those who have subverted and raped it, and who would roll back the stoled powers of the Executive branch.
Even better, if they would turn the current system of campaign contributions by corporations into treasonous acts and punish all involved in the harshest possible manner.
We have the finest government money can buy. And that sucks.
I also miss Fry's. I used to live in Portland and there is one just south of there. Huge store. Sold just about everything electronic - including 603 surface mount resistors. Take that, Radio Shack. The place had everything and great deals too. But I moved away and now just remember when someone else mentions them. Sigh...
Well, except for My Pet Goat. Apparently nothing can tear him away from that one.
Yep - not even being told that the United States is under attack -- without knowing by whom, what cities, how many were dead, by what methods, whether counterforces were being mobilized --- nothing.
Under no circumstances could he terminate the photo-op and scare the kiddies with an excuse as scary as "sorry, but I have urgent president things to attend to and promise I'll come back and finish the story when I can...".
The founding fathers are old and dead. They had a view of what democracy would be like, and I suppose it worked for a while. However, now times have changed. Their model simply doesn't fit any more. It main weakness is that it often blocks economic growth of the US, or security measures that the public want. This gradual shift from the constitution being the most important set of laws is the natural reaction to its slide into irrelevancy.
Dubya? Is that you posting as an anonymous coward?
And as I will be moving into a new home and setting up high-speed service, there is no way in hell I'm going with Comcast. I just downloaded the new OpenSuse images using BitTorrent over Comcast and it was slow as a pig. I can personally attest to the fact that something was throttling my packets and these latest revelations fit.
I will be going back to DSL with Qwest. Maybe the peak speeds aren't quite as high as cable, but at least they are consistently high. I never noticed any monkey business with my data before. While I wait for the house to finsh, though, I'm connecting through Comcast. Thankfully it isn't my connection.
I will be happy to get my DSL and satellite back. Cable stinks - or at least Comcast stinks.
Funny! But also a good question. On my x86 boxes, I run Linux. All free. I have a dual-boot box that does have XP on it but it will never be upgraded to Vista. I hardly boot into Windows any more. One day, I will just reclaim the space with another Linux partition.;-)
I think "Dubya's" problem is that his rostral anterior cingulate and amygdala are extremely overdeveloped. That's why the idiot thought he could invade two countries without having a single American killed. It's how he could think the mission was accomplished long before an additional 2500 or so Americans would give their lives. It's how he can look some 10,000 maimed Americans in the eye (if he would ever bother to visit them) and tell them their permanent disfigurement is really because they were fightin' "terra" instead of protecting Iraq's oil fields.
Nope, the chimp isn't downing Jagermeister. He may be hopped up on antidepressants though. What White House physicians prescribe is not for public view. But anyone who could preside over such a fiasco as the Iraq war, have many world leaders publicly make jokes about how stupid he is, and have most of his own country (save Faux News) and his own party constantly rip him to shreds for what he has done to this country, has to be relying on some kind of artificial courage. Or maybe he is just gulping Jager...
Flamebait? "Kill -9" is hilariously perfect! Please mod High Hat funny. It's not flamebait at all.
I know these people are dead, and maybe that is sad, but the whole concept of an automated killbot going nuts and wiping out its makers is also funny. It's right out of the movies. And it just goes to show that no untested system with the potential to do great damage should ever be operated without major safeguards and interlocks.
Oh yeah - and Verizon and AT&T both handed over their call records to the NSA without blinking an eye. Qwest refused and was the subject of cancelled government contracts for doing it. But I dropped my cell phone service with Verizon immediately, told them why, switched to Qwest, and told them why as well.
There are many ways the NSA could abuse the information - one is by building contact lists of who calls who. This is precisely what they want to do in the name of fighting terror, but they get the same lists of people in various political parties, with ties to groups that expose various embarassing things about political leaders, have viewpoints that differ from their own or those in power (i.e. that the Iraq war is a total clusterf#ck waste of money and lives), whatever.
From there it is easy to decide who to focus on more closely to try to find anything else they want for use now or in the future.
You do remember that the Nixon administration had its famous "enemies list" that it used to target people for various forms of harassment - IRS audits, FBI investigations, etc. So don't tell me it can't happen. It already has. And I can guarantee you that an administration that implemented NSA spying - AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION OF THE USA - 7 months BEFORE 9/11 - would be more than happy to misuse that information.
Go ahead and say it's tinfoil hat time, but this administration (they ARE the ones pushing the NSA to help fight terra') has done more to spy on the American public wholesale than any other. Bar none. They have done more that is contrary to the Constitution and have by many Constitutional scholar's violated more than any other administration in history.
One day, you might realize that this administration is not a democracy and doesn't really want a democracy. They just want power to run their games.
And there are apparently quite a few Windows immigrants. More how-to and helping them get their Linux-legs is a good thing. And they will need all levels of articles too.
It's referenced in the summary. I hadn't heard about Bussard or the polywell. It sounds promising. Navy-funded research too. I'm sorry this person died before he could see it through to demonstration. Hopefully this really works.
I don't mean this as flamebait. I managed to get my hands on a Wii last February and I love it. I have bought a few games, though, and pretty much every one of them has been lame. The one exception is Zelda. And Rayman is OK. But all in all, I think the game publishers are shooting themselves in the foot. I can tell you now that I am much slower to buy any games and will be renting them first just to weed out the bad ones.
Game publishers shrugged off the Wii for the 360 and PS3 only to see the Wii go nuts while the 360 and PS3 mired. So too many of them have been rushing titles to market that aren't well designed, aren't fun, are nearly just demos, don't play well, etc. (See Smooth Moves, Brunswick Bowling, Sonic & Secret Rings, etc. if you don't believe me).
I think in general that the better games aren't yet on the market. As the Wii finds its audience and the game publishers learn how to actually use a Wiimote as an input device, and get stung with a few titles that just sit on the shelves, we'll see some better games. Until then, I'll just keep playing bowling - it's one of the best games on any platform in my opinion.
Microsoft recently pushed out a stealth update to XP that reportedly breaks repairing the OS. Does anyone know if SP3 will install after Microsoft pushed out that last non-optional and hidden update?
And I'm with the other folks - service packs are supposed to fix things. Not that I don't mind new features, but where I run XP, I'd like to have it be a two step process.
It looks like Microsoft has finally owned up to the Vista fiasco. I can't help but think this would not be hitting the streets if Vista wasn't the dog it has turned out to be.
Change a single bit in a single file, or add any file anywhere, and you will notice it.
Not true. Tripwire only looks where you configure it to look. Even the out of box configuration doesn't look at everything. Certainly you can make it look at everything but just saying if anything changes anywhere it will spot it is not correct.
It actually does. Not much, but some. NAT uses non-routable address space which might protect from holes in your firewall. It basically provides a free extra layer of protection. It provides the same level of protection as stateful packet inspection in that communications not initiated within your local network don't know how to find a computer with the translated addresses. But the combination is an extra layer that someone has to make it through if they are to try to brute-force anything.
The down side is that NAT uses up ports if you want to run something like a web server. Only one box can get packets on port 80. But you can have other boxes respond on different ports. Most who run simple NAT don't have more than one webserver (or whatever server) on their local network.
Hard for me to say. But if you want to clean up the simple things, turn off every service you aren't actually using. If using sshd, edit/etc/ssh/sshd_config to disallow root logins, only allow protocol 2, and set allow users to just whoever needs access. The post above about using a different port for ssh is also a good idea. Security through obscurity is still security for some attacks.
Use strong passwords. Make sure all other users use strong passwords. With some exploits just needing a user account, if someone can't get in as a user, it blocks that path.
There are blacklist websites that when you are browsing allow you to redirect any accesses to them to go to 127.0.0.1 instead. Makes pages load faster and reduces exposure to web-based ad exploits. But there are also blacklist website lists that you can use to deny all traffic from into your machine regardless. Speaking of, make sure you have your firewall up and running. Make sure your gateway to your ISP is running a firewall and since you have more than one box, you are probably running with NAT. If not, set it up.
That's the short list. You already say you keep up with patches. That's also very important. Good luck!
Fortunately, each user has their own account, so i can easily check which user owns any malicious processes or files that appear on the system.
For anyone running 64-bit, there is a recently-publicized exploit that allows users to grab root. If you haven't been keeping your kernel patched, you could be vulnerable. If someone gets root then you won't be able to spot intrusions by user-owned processes.
CNN news stories frequently are mangled too. The recent PowerPoint presentation on recruiting and the Navy also had a number of glaring problems. And then there is my all-time favorite - confusing "your" and "you're". That one in particular really bothers me when people don't even know the difference between a possessive and a contraction for "you are".
Slashdot Mirror
And the penalties for it.
The Bush administration has shit all over the Constitution and this country. They have committed treason.
God, will it ever get here?
The Bush administration is systematically perverting the American Constitution.
I swear I would vote for anyone that said they would restore and enforce the Constitution, who would prosecute those who have subverted and raped it, and who would roll back the stoled powers of the Executive branch.
Even better, if they would turn the current system of campaign contributions by corporations into treasonous acts and punish all involved in the harshest possible manner.
We have the finest government money can buy. And that sucks.
I also miss Fry's. I used to live in Portland and there is one just south of there. Huge store. Sold just about everything electronic - including 603 surface mount resistors. Take that, Radio Shack. The place had everything and great deals too. But I moved away and now just remember when someone else mentions them. Sigh...
Well, except for My Pet Goat. Apparently nothing can tear him away from that one.
Yep - not even being told that the United States is under attack -- without knowing by whom, what cities, how many were dead, by what methods, whether counterforces were being mobilized --- nothing.
Under no circumstances could he terminate the photo-op and scare the kiddies with an excuse as scary as "sorry, but I have urgent president things to attend to and promise I'll come back and finish the story when I can...".
The founding fathers are old and dead. They had a view of what democracy would be like, and I suppose it worked for a while. However, now times have changed. Their model simply doesn't fit any more. It main weakness is that it often blocks economic growth of the US, or security measures that the public want. This gradual shift from the constitution being the most important set of laws is the natural reaction to its slide into irrelevancy.
Dubya? Is that you posting as an anonymous coward?
And as I will be moving into a new home and setting up high-speed service, there is no way in hell I'm going with Comcast. I just downloaded the new OpenSuse images using BitTorrent over Comcast and it was slow as a pig. I can personally attest to the fact that something was throttling my packets and these latest revelations fit.
I will be going back to DSL with Qwest. Maybe the peak speeds aren't quite as high as cable, but at least they are consistently high. I never noticed any monkey business with my data before. While I wait for the house to finsh, though, I'm connecting through Comcast. Thankfully it isn't my connection.
I will be happy to get my DSL and satellite back. Cable stinks - or at least Comcast stinks.
Funny! But also a good question. On my x86 boxes, I run Linux. All free. I have a dual-boot box that does have XP on it but it will never be upgraded to Vista. I hardly boot into Windows any more. One day, I will just reclaim the space with another Linux partition. ;-)
Sorry all you Bill fanbois...
I think "Dubya's" problem is that his rostral anterior cingulate and amygdala are extremely overdeveloped. That's why the idiot thought he could invade two countries without having a single American killed. It's how he could think the mission was accomplished long before an additional 2500 or so Americans would give their lives. It's how he can look some 10,000 maimed Americans in the eye (if he would ever bother to visit them) and tell them their permanent disfigurement is really because they were fightin' "terra" instead of protecting Iraq's oil fields.
Nope, the chimp isn't downing Jagermeister. He may be hopped up on antidepressants though. What White House physicians prescribe is not for public view. But anyone who could preside over such a fiasco as the Iraq war, have many world leaders publicly make jokes about how stupid he is, and have most of his own country (save Faux News) and his own party constantly rip him to shreds for what he has done to this country, has to be relying on some kind of artificial courage. Or maybe he is just gulping Jager...
Flamebait? "Kill -9" is hilariously perfect! Please mod High Hat funny. It's not flamebait at all.
I know these people are dead, and maybe that is sad, but the whole concept of an automated killbot going nuts and wiping out its makers is also funny. It's right out of the movies. And it just goes to show that no untested system with the potential to do great damage should ever be operated without major safeguards and interlocks.
But I still think this whole thing is hilarious.
"Citizen, back away from the car..."
Oh yeah - and Verizon and AT&T both handed over their call records to the NSA without blinking an eye. Qwest refused and was the subject of cancelled government contracts for doing it. But I dropped my cell phone service with Verizon immediately, told them why, switched to Qwest, and told them why as well.
There are many ways the NSA could abuse the information - one is by building contact lists of who calls who. This is precisely what they want to do in the name of fighting terror, but they get the same lists of people in various political parties, with ties to groups that expose various embarassing things about political leaders, have viewpoints that differ from their own or those in power (i.e. that the Iraq war is a total clusterf#ck waste of money and lives), whatever.
From there it is easy to decide who to focus on more closely to try to find anything else they want for use now or in the future.
You do remember that the Nixon administration had its famous "enemies list" that it used to target people for various forms of harassment - IRS audits, FBI investigations, etc. So don't tell me it can't happen. It already has. And I can guarantee you that an administration that implemented NSA spying - AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION OF THE USA - 7 months BEFORE 9/11 - would be more than happy to misuse that information.
Go ahead and say it's tinfoil hat time, but this administration (they ARE the ones pushing the NSA to help fight terra') has done more to spy on the American public wholesale than any other. Bar none. They have done more that is contrary to the Constitution and have by many Constitutional scholar's violated more than any other administration in history.
One day, you might realize that this administration is not a democracy and doesn't really want a democracy. They just want power to run their games.
Just curious - with load averages in the 2.xx range, are you running something like BOINC that keeps it that busy?
;-)
And 152 days of uptime is nice. Winows folks would love to have that kind of reliability
And there are apparently quite a few Windows immigrants. More how-to and helping them get their Linux-legs is a good thing. And they will need all levels of articles too.
Or sarcastic?
It's referenced in the summary. I hadn't heard about Bussard or the polywell. It sounds promising. Navy-funded research too. I'm sorry this person died before he could see it through to demonstration. Hopefully this really works.
I don't mean this as flamebait. I managed to get my hands on a Wii last February and I love it. I have bought a few games, though, and pretty much every one of them has been lame. The one exception is Zelda. And Rayman is OK. But all in all, I think the game publishers are shooting themselves in the foot. I can tell you now that I am much slower to buy any games and will be renting them first just to weed out the bad ones.
Game publishers shrugged off the Wii for the 360 and PS3 only to see the Wii go nuts while the 360 and PS3 mired. So too many of them have been rushing titles to market that aren't well designed, aren't fun, are nearly just demos, don't play well, etc. (See Smooth Moves, Brunswick Bowling, Sonic & Secret Rings, etc. if you don't believe me).
I think in general that the better games aren't yet on the market. As the Wii finds its audience and the game publishers learn how to actually use a Wiimote as an input device, and get stung with a few titles that just sit on the shelves, we'll see some better games. Until then, I'll just keep playing bowling - it's one of the best games on any platform in my opinion.
Microsoft recently pushed out a stealth update to XP that reportedly breaks repairing the OS. Does anyone know if SP3 will install after Microsoft pushed out that last non-optional and hidden update?
And I'm with the other folks - service packs are supposed to fix things. Not that I don't mind new features, but where I run XP, I'd like to have it be a two step process.
It looks like Microsoft has finally owned up to the Vista fiasco. I can't help but think this would not be hitting the streets if Vista wasn't the dog it has turned out to be.
Change a single bit in a single file, or add any file anywhere, and you will notice it.
Not true. Tripwire only looks where you configure it to look. Even the out of box configuration doesn't look at everything. Certainly you can make it look at everything but just saying if anything changes anywhere it will spot it is not correct.
but since they didn't attempt (or attempted and failed at) some local privilege escalation exploit
There *is* another option - they succeeded in getting root and covered their tracks.
It actually does. Not much, but some. NAT uses non-routable address space which might protect from holes in your firewall. It basically provides a free extra layer of protection. It provides the same level of protection as stateful packet inspection in that communications not initiated within your local network don't know how to find a computer with the translated addresses. But the combination is an extra layer that someone has to make it through if they are to try to brute-force anything.
The down side is that NAT uses up ports if you want to run something like a web server. Only one box can get packets on port 80. But you can have other boxes respond on different ports. Most who run simple NAT don't have more than one webserver (or whatever server) on their local network.
Hard for me to say. But if you want to clean up the simple things, turn off every service you aren't actually using. If using sshd, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config to disallow root logins, only allow protocol 2, and set allow users to just whoever needs access. The post above about using a different port for ssh is also a good idea. Security through obscurity is still security for some attacks.
Use strong passwords. Make sure all other users use strong passwords. With some exploits just needing a user account, if someone can't get in as a user, it blocks that path.
There are blacklist websites that when you are browsing allow you to redirect any accesses to them to go to 127.0.0.1 instead. Makes pages load faster and reduces exposure to web-based ad exploits. But there are also blacklist website lists that you can use to deny all traffic from into your machine regardless. Speaking of, make sure you have your firewall up and running. Make sure your gateway to your ISP is running a firewall and since you have more than one box, you are probably running with NAT. If not, set it up.
That's the short list. You already say you keep up with patches. That's also very important. Good luck!
Fortunately, each user has their own account, so i can easily check which user owns any malicious processes or files that appear on the system.
For anyone running 64-bit, there is a recently-publicized exploit that allows users to grab root. If you haven't been keeping your kernel patched, you could be vulnerable. If someone gets root then you won't be able to spot intrusions by user-owned processes.
CNN news stories frequently are mangled too. The recent PowerPoint presentation on recruiting and the Navy also had a number of glaring problems. And then there is my all-time favorite - confusing "your" and "you're". That one in particular really bothers me when people don't even know the difference between a possessive and a contraction for "you are".