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User: wvmarle

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  1. Re:Bad design on Man Convicted For Helping Thousands Steal Internet Access · · Score: 1

    The network should be able to detect this. The end user too.

    Why I say so: let's say the thief, T, tries to go online. One way or another T intercepts the authentication codes of user U. Well maybe several users over time. Then when T wants to go online, he uses U's authentication codes to authenticate his modem to the ISP. So now T is online with U's authentication.

    Some time later, T still connected, and U wants to connect her modem to the Internet. Now there are suddenly two modems with the same authentication trying to connect - this should not be possible. One or the other will have to be kicked off. The ISP now has an authentication request, and a request for an IP address (assume DHCP), for a user that has logged on already. This in itself should raise a red flag: something is wrong on the network.

    The same for the end user. U may experience problems logging in to the network, as her account is connected already - two modems fighting over the same connection. Resulting in calls to the help desk, and an investigation should be able detect strange entries in the connection logs.

    Even if the network allows the same user account to log in twice at the same time, and get two connections (and two IP addresses), this still is easily detectable: every end user is supposed to have only one modem, and having the same modem logged on twice, on two different connections (same network segment, presumably) should set off a warning.

    Now detecting where (physical location) the offending modem is connected, that's probably going to be a different matter.

  2. Re:Make your own fork on Ask Slashdot: Life After Firefox 3.6.x? · · Score: 1

    My office machine is running Ubuntu 10.4LTS and some months ago Firefox was updated by the update manager to version 8 or so (and by now it's on 10). Until then it was indeed on 3.6. Ubuntu obiously had a change of mind there.

  3. Re:Get over it already on Ask Slashdot: Life After Firefox 3.6.x? · · Score: 1

    I know. It's as insane as expecting to run software that has actually had proper quality control, or that has had any serious thought going into security issues at design time, etc. No we're just expected to run something that mostly works, and that when problems turn up that everyone just wastes more time by getting an update.

  4. Re:Not very anonymous on Anonymous, Decentralized and Uncensored File-Sharing Is Booming · · Score: 1

    So basically it is about as anonymous (or not) as TOR. Every single node knows exactly who they are connected to, and who they are sending data to and where that data comes from (i.e. the next node).

    All data can be tracked all the way from source to destination by enquiring all en-route nodes one by one. And the anonymity and untrackability is basically provided by this enquiring being in practice virtually impossible to carry out due to practical and/or legal reasons.

  5. Re:What a surprise on Anonymous, Decentralized and Uncensored File-Sharing Is Booming · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One possible strength is also an obvious weakness: everything hinges on trusted friends - i.e. if you do not have any trusted friends that use this RetroShare then you can not join the network, unless you are willing to join through a non-trusted friend. A side effect is that the amount of content available on this network is highly limited.

    This works until critical mass is reached, which very well may just have happened. Enough people in the network that most of the rest of the world has a friend that is connected already, and increased word-of-mouth advertising, and more content which in turn attracts more users. Closure of megaupload and some other legal wins against torrent sites will surely have helped them too. But without critical mass it's still not a viable option for many bittorrent/megaupload refugees.

  6. Re:PC's on Why Didn't the Internet Take Off In 1983? · · Score: 2

    Look at internet-connected smart TVs today. A recent study says that 50% of them are never connected to the internet. I think it's because people don't want to "do things" with their TVs. They just want to sit back and watch.

    Amen. Mine was connected long enough to discover that navigating the thing was so cumbersome it was faster to walk to the study, start my machine, grab the Youtube content and stick it on my MythTV box. Or get the weather, or flight times, or play games, or ...

    Your comment actually contradicts the original statement, it doesn't confirm it. You imply that you DO want to do things on your TV, other than watch TV programming on it. The reason for you not to use it for Internet is that the TV is simply not up to the task - primarily due to a poor user interface. And that's a totally different reason than what GP suggested.

  7. Re:Budget on Suggestions For Music Hosting? · · Score: 1

    My office has a business connection, fibre, 20 Mbps (up and down), fixed IP, unlimited data (at least no limits that I know of!) for about USD 50 a month. OK it's not a co-lo location, just an industrial building, and no service uptime guarantee, but have yet to have an outage. The last one was a few years ago when the power in the building went down a day (on a Sunday) for maintenance - and that was announced a week or two in advance.

    And if worried about the downtime get a second line from another company and you're quite sure to have at least one of them working unless the building burns down or so.

  8. Re:So how are they powered? on After US v. Jones, FBI Turns Off 3,000 GPS Tracking Devices · · Score: 1

    How often do you look under your car? Not often I'd guess. You can hide pretty large items there with the owner none the wiser. Only when the car breaks down and is taken to a garage (breakdowns don't happen much with modern cars) the underside of the car may be inspected. But usually not, if the fault doesn't require this.

  9. Re:Just an idea... on After US v. Jones, FBI Turns Off 3,000 GPS Tracking Devices · · Score: 1

    And have your car taken to a bomb disposal range and having it blown up? No thanks. I'd probably just remove it and toss it in the trash. Or if really sure what it is attach it to another vehicle or so. A train or a bus would be fun to mess with them.

  10. Re:A much better idea on After US v. Jones, FBI Turns Off 3,000 GPS Tracking Devices · · Score: 1

    Personally, I'm wondering about any convictions made on cases where there were warrantless GPS trackers installed. Wouldn't this give their attorneys grounds for immediate appeal/instant overturning the conviction?

    If so, the defense lawyer did a poor job: if warrantless tracking data was part of the evidence he should have tackled that issue already.

    More likely such convicts don't know the tracking was used. They kept track of his whereabouts, and used that information to collect further evidence, without mentioning such tracking was done at all.

  11. Re:This is unacceptable! on 4 UK Urban Explorers Face Orders Not To Talk With Each Other For 10 Years · · Score: 1

    Better yet, call them "terrorists" and the public will immediately see how bad and wrong they are.

    Wrong. Sure you should call them terrorists for starters, but the main reason is that terrorists you can simply toss them in jail for an extended period of time, without having to come up with any real charges - just calling them terrorist is more than enough. And no worries about the law getting in the way, because that's how current laws stipulate the handling of terrorists!

  12. Re:Serious addicts who "decide to use" it? on Vaccine Could Cut Heroin Addiction · · Score: 1

    methadone feels in many ways like a more powerful drug and it is indeed more addictive than heroin itself.

    That I have heard more. At least as addictive, if not more addictive, but then I've also been told that methadone doesn't give anything near as good a high as heroin does, and as a result many junks that are on methadone treatment still also use heroin.

    In a way I think it's a pity that they had to make heroin illegal, and not morphine and methadone, so heroin can not be used medically. As I understand it's a better pain killer than morphine - and about as addictive - so for severe cases it may have good medical uses. It remaining a controlled substance is not bad as such (after all tobacco and alcohol are also controlled substance - and so are methadone and morphine).

  13. Re:Vaccine on Vaccine Could Cut Heroin Addiction · · Score: 2

    FTA:

    The vaccine, which has been patented in the US, makes the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoked or injected it.

    So yes it seems to be a vaccine, to be administered once (or at long intervals maybe). Not a medication that has to be taken all the time and that loses effectiveness in hours or days.

  14. Re:Serious addicts who "decide to use" it? on Vaccine Could Cut Heroin Addiction · · Score: 1

    I am quite positive - considering the fact that there are people voluntarily entering rehab - that many drug addicts have moments where they are quite sober, and actually want to quit. Those moments probably last only until their bodies start to demand more: heroin is largely notorious for the strong physical addiction. This of course in combination with the fantastic high an addict experiences, the reason they use it to begin with of course.

    Physical withdrawal is a major issue. Methadone is given as replacement, I'm not sure whether it's really less physically destructive but at least it's provided free/legal so an addict has a way out of the criminal world. Methadone is typical for people so addicted that cold turkey would kill them, that's at least pretty much what I've been told. Getting them clean is the best of course. Heroin is simply nasty.

    This withdrawal effect is what TFA does not address. Does it lessen the effects? Make it easier to go through it? We probably will only know following human trials.

    Getting the person "immune" to the effects is of course a good start, when (not if) they try again after coming out clean they don't have the rush, so the psychological part is cut off at least.

    The next question (assuming it's tested and found safe) is going to be: will we vaccinate the whole population? Make it part of children's vaccination schedule? Now that could help in winning the "war on drugs". Take away the market!

  15. Re:Unintended consequences on Vaccine Could Cut Heroin Addiction · · Score: 1

    TFA mentions that it is currently not known whether it works on heroin only, and not on other opiates. So this is indeed an issue that needs further research.

  16. Re:Still using a CD/DVD player? on Comparing Today's Computers To 1995's · · Score: 1

    Basically you have to include a CD burner for the one time you have to make a recovery disk.

    Something that, for most laptops, should indeed be just that one time. Or maybe one or two times more just to restore your OS. A bit expensive, don't you think? And all that extra weight you have to lug around...

    I'm still wondering what it is about Windows that it still can not use a USB thumb drive for that, like all Linux distributions do. Or why that software is still not sold over the Internet (and then I mean as download - not as mail order).

  17. Re:A bit outdated on Comparing Today's Computers To 1995's · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I do recall that CRT monitors were for a very long time much cheaper than LCD/TFT screens. And for an even longer time faster (especially in refresh rates). Also CRT never really came down in price - stayed more or less the same, as materials/manufacturing/transportation are the bulk of their cost.

    Indeed back in the days 17" was not expensive, back in 1995 I was using 15" already. I got a cheap second-hand one, a few years old, excellent condition. And early 2000s switched to a flat screen one.

    A 24" CRT is still massive. Never ceased to be massive. I mean, ever tried to lift such a beast? You may have had to reinforce your desk before putting one of those on it! That huge chunk of glass just won't get any lighter, no matter what.

  18. Still using a CD/DVD player? on Comparing Today's Computers To 1995's · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I noted the article still thinks a CD/DVD/BluRay player is normal. Aren't they obsolete already?

    It's been five years or more since I had a working DVD player in any of my PCs. Except my iBook which has one built in, and that's also some six years old now, and the DVD player in it has barely been used in that time.

    I used to burn CDs with photos and so - still have some, from many years ago, and really should copy them to a USB stick or so before I really don't have a CD drive any more. I used to burn CDs for Linux installation; now that's done from USB stick. I used to burn CDs as archive as my hard disk got full. Modern hard disks are so big, they don't fill up. And if they do, the capacity of a CD-R or even DVD-R doesn't do much to solve that problem. A bigger hard disk is the only reasonable solution.

    And monitor - well I still use 15". It's good enough, and my desk isn't that big. Those also didn't come down in price as drastically as the other components did.

    What I also noticed is that in the US just 85% of adults have a mobile phone, and 90% live in a household with at least one mobile phone. I think that's a really low number. Where I live there's close to a 200% (yes, that's two phones per person, not only per adult - many people have indeed multiple mobile numbers, and many are used by regular visitors) penetration of mobile phones.

  19. Re:Must be missing something... on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    I think the smell issue may be implied as has to be solved too.

    And those existing waterless urinals then still need some kind of liquid (I guess an oil), so won't be suitable for this use. It all indicates how hard the problem really is, and why no-one yet has found a good solution.

  20. Re:Must be missing something... on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    It specifically states "to build and maintain" so maintenance is included. Disposal of the waste presumably not, though.

  21. Re:Must be missing something... on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    The same way they do this now. With the difference that then they have something like a toilet to begin with.

  22. Re:Must be missing something... on Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets · · Score: 1

    FTA:

    Come up with a toilet alternative that doesn't need plumbed water, a sewer system, electricity and will cost 5 cents or less per user daily to build and maintain.

    This are the requirements, and the toilet you mention seems to fulfill them easily. The main objection may be capacity, as composting is a fairly slow process so you need a relatively large volume, especially when there are many users using it for their daily needs, and not a remote-highway-stop type of service.

    Actually solutions mentioned in the article include microwaves, mechanical rollers and other powered parts. This needs electricity. The cost is also going to be an issue, though the microwaves produce CO and H2 and the system may be able to produce its own energy that way.

    The proposed solutions also sound really high-tech at first glance. Not suitable for the application, imho. It should be easy to maintain, and low-maintenance, with easy to obtain parts.

  23. Re:Must be honest on The webOS Features Other OSes Should Steal · · Score: 1

    I've heard about it before.

    May be interesting to play with.

    But how can I play with it? It's a mobile OS, so can't install it on a normal PC (or at least: it won't be able to shine - no touch screen for starters). Can it be installed on an Android-based phone, maybe? I'm at the moment considering to replace my phone (the "back" button is broken - will have to root it to reassign the "search" button as "back" button at least). But maybe can try to install WebOS on it.

  24. Re:Would be great... if it worked on How Google Is Remapping Public Transportation · · Score: 2

    Living in a city that lives and falls with it's public transport system (Hong Kong - the public transport sytem here is considered one of the best in the world, if not simply the best), I had never heard of this whole Google attempt. I just tried it and it seems to work, the route that I tried I got several known-good connections.

    Before I have seen bus stops appear, and bus routes. But this just doesn't work well: you can click a bus stop, see which routes call there, and see the routes on the map. A typical bus stop has easily five routes, many have 10 or more routes. Good luck figuring out which route will get you where you want to be!

    Departure times and so are not an issue. There are very few buses that have a published schedule anyway: that are the few routes that run on a 15-minute or longer interval. And most ferry services have actual time tables. Several bus routes are running on a 3-minute or less interval, this means at rush hour the bus leaves the stop when the next one arrives. Literally. Boarding continues non-stop at major stops, and when the next bus arrives the first simply stops letting passengers on and leaves. You can get from most points to most other points with no more than one change, in case no direct route exists. And of course there's the train system (the busiest route has 13-coach trains running on a 2-minute interval, and barely being able to cope at rush hour), and all the minibuses serving less busy routes.

    Google's route planner works well at a first glance, but doesn't provide price info. And that's also important as different solutions can easily have double price.

  25. Re:Article is BS. on School Sends Child's Lunch Home After Determining it Unhealthy · · Score: 1

    Everything in moderation. Fat is important, sugars too - both are bad for you in excess. Particularly animal fats.