I'll bite. My personal experience and observations culled from working at many Mac-based offices is that Macs have a much longer lifespan that PCs. As an example, I am still using the 450mhz B/W G3 I bought in 1999 for $1800. My Dad is using a 400mhz B/W G3 he bought the same year. Both machines are running OS X.2 just fine. The only thing that had us teetering on upgrading in the past few years was the prospect of digital video editing with real-time rendering. The G5 has pretty much convinced me it's time to upgrade. Four years later and I've got a computer I can still probably sell for a couple of hundred bucks. That lowers my cost of upgrading to a G5. I think a 1999 intel-based PC will probably cost you money to dispose of through a recycler these days.
I'm not beating the "macs are better" drum here. I'm just comparing the lifespan of the mac to pc.
you might also advocate the use of a browser that has pop-up blocking built in. Mozilla, safari, etc. are great at this.
When I had a job, I remember visiting the desk of a co-worker who was a computer novice. We needed to use her computer to reference some information.. the system had been running since she had arrived at work and she had already been browsing the web for a while. As we clicked about for the info, dozens of popup windows were appearing regardless of what websites we were on.. They were lingering from earlier sites. To her, this is what the internet was--- constant bombardment of windows that needed to be closed.
Please re-read the passage you quoted. The security device utilizes encryption. To simplify, encryption means it is mixing all your data up into an unintelligible mess. The index that makes sense of this mess is your key. As you have surmised, if the key were in bios and you were to discard the key by flashing the BIOS or removing the battery, you have just destroyed the only index to the spaghetti of 1's and 0's. For this product, the key is actually stored on a USB storage device. Any authority could demand the USB key by force, though, and there goes your security. You need to have one of those paper shredders nearby which also shreds USB dongles.
While I think this is a valuable development, I'd prefer to see StegFS get updated. With that, your disk could have all sorts of crazy stuff on it, but to an intruder, it would look like it's just pictures of Barney.
Unless there is some kind of processor on the end of that USB cord, it is pointless to send all the data up and down the USB cord. What's it going to do when it gets to the end? I am betting the USB connection is for storing a private key.
I applaud ABIT for doing this. We've been in need of a good encrypted filesystem for a while. In fact, I was disappointed to find out the StegFS isn't compatible with any type of linux beyond 2.4.x kernel. The thing is, I'm not sure that this ABIT motherboard scheme will work with linux, either.
This seems harmless. Just a tamper-proof mechanism to tie the photo to the passport. Right now, clever counterfitters can cut-n-paste photos on other people's passports. This would seemingly raise the bar above just having an exacto knife. THe photo on the chip is likely to be encrypted and also hashed with your passport ID number.
Hey. That's great info in all these replies. I recognize that eventually a ship needs to be replaced. As you said, it appears we've gotten some good use out of the Constellation. My original comment comes mostly from a taxpayer's perspective of feeling like the military is too eager to spend my taxes on excessively-advanced equipment. From a civilian point of view, it doesn't look like the most sophisticated radar imaginable is going to help our forces where we are getting attacked... Little motorboat-bombs, airplanes crashing into buildings, etc. The ABM system Bush wants to develop and implement is a great example of spending where it doesn't really count. Is the $5 billion ship going to give us leverage against the folks in Iraq picking off our soldiers in the streets day after day? Is it even going to give us leverage against a more developed foe like North Korea moreso than a regular Vietnam-era aircraft carrier would?
Coincidentally, I used to dream about buying an aircraft carrier. There was one up for auction a couple years back and it sold for only $180,000 to be scrapped by an Indian salvage company (it actually was scrapped in Brownsville, TX). Even if it couldn't power itself, it would have been fun as heck to anchor in the Gulf of Mexico (international waters) and have as a retreat. It certainly would have been a vehicle that Bill Gates doesn't own. Then again, I guess he could even afford one of these new $5 billion models...
I fully agree. A $5 billion aircraft carrier is hardly needed when we have other aircraft carriers sitting around mothballed. In fact, the USS Ronald Reagan will take the place of the USS Constellation while that ship will be
mothballed. It's a perfectly-able ship which will likely cost several million dollars a year to maintain while it is not being used. All so the military can use its budget for this year so that it will be able to get the same budget next year. Oh, and the military brass will get to brag about how they now have XYZ whizbang capabilities which are so unneccesary when compared to the capabilities of our potential adversaries. Yes, we need sea-based flight strips. We don't need new ones that cost $4.5 billion, though.
I think you are right on the money. The real effect here is to lull the citizens (perhaps terrorists) into thinking their normal communications via cellphone are secure. After the two days of unencrypted phone calls, people (perhaps terrorists) will possibly begin to be careless with their communications.
I fully agree with you. This does cast a somewhat negative light on the linux crowd.
increase the already massive resentment MS suits feel towards the open source movement.
But something tells me that Microsoft is already as opposed as possible to open source. I don't think even a 9/11-style attack against Redmond would make them hate open source any more than they already do.
What would be a cool solution to this situation, though, would be if Microsoft were to frame this as an environmental / global responsibility issue and promised to release a linux bootloader at the end of the XboX 1.0's product lifecycle. That way, they could say that this hardware can be repurposed in any number of ways once they're done making money off it. Instead of following other dead consoles into the landfill, obsolete xBoX hardware can chug along for a few more years as PVRs, answering machines, ogg vorbis servers, etc. and then be thrown into the landfill.
Whew. We crossed the millenium and I was worried when I didn't see flying cars and silver clothes in the stores. Were the movies of the 1930's over-anticipating the future?
Now that Quark Xpress 6.0 is announced for Mac OS X, I'm regaining my faith that I'll have a robot that can make beer in unlimited quantities.
Not to be a huge cynic here, but if they're charging that for web-based support, that's a little steep if you ask me. Good luck to SuSE on this effort, though. They make a good distro and have a fun mascot. They certainly deserve a stock option package as good as or better than another company that sells an OS for this price.
I think paying the "music" bill will eventually become one of those things people consider as part of their cost of living just like the phone bill or the cable bill (at least for people who could benefit from such a service).
Perhaps you are right. Up front, I balk at the idea of this 'leasing' of audio content. But as you describe, it might convince me to buy in if the selection of content were beyond what I can get elsewhere. For instance, every day I download commercial-free recordings of Howard Stern from the binaries newsgroup. Howard Stern isn't broadcast in my city and is otherwise unavailable. If Stern's radio shows were part of an audio service that I could download and take on my mp3 player when I work out each day, I'd go for that.
Could be a whole additional level of syndication for content.
Your saturday night live example is, I think, the reason why season passes are channel-specific in the current Tivo OS release.
A few years back, I think Tivo OS 1.0 or whatever, if you got a season pass for Saturday Night Live, it would grab it off NBC on saturdays, then completely fill your hard drive with comedy central re-runs. Now when you subscribe to a season pass, there are multiple entries to select for saturday night live. I suppose the tweak they could make to address your complaint would be to have an all-inclusive season pass available. Perhaps if you post this suggestion on the AVS forums, one of the developers will pick up on it and suggest the change to marketing to get the permission to implement it in the product.
FosterKanig,
You are spot-on with the point about competition making both products better. Apple keeps revving the iPod adding new features precisely because companies like Creative are chasing after them.
Good point about Mitnick not stealing money.. Hadn't really thought about that. I made the Frank Abgnale comparison because both of them were skilled primarily in social engineering. Between the two, I think Abgnale is the better example of using those skills for security purposes because he has the endorsement of the FBI and patents on check security mechanisms. So far as yet, Mitnick is still just a guy who served his time.
The thing that might anchor Doom III in this situation is that John Carmack is already unbelievably wealthy. He also seems to be an extremely principled programmer who is dedicated to the best solution of combined hardware and software.
Coding for a console system is letting the console specs dictate your program's use of resources. John Carmack has mostly written his game engines for future specs and not two-year-old hardware like the XboX.
Unfortunately, I don't think John is really the guy calling the shots in iD's business decisions. But if he were, I think it would take an inordinant amount of cash for Microsoft to buy him off like they did with Bungie. We're talking Microsoft would have to cover the expenses of his rocket project and then some.
I don't think Mitnick is such a good representative for this issue. Probably a better example of 'hacker' turned security expert is that guy who the 'Catch me if You Can' movie is based on (
Frank Abgnale). The FBI sprung him from jail in order for him to help them combat check fraud. Apparently, he's now responsible for designing many of the anti-counterfitting mechanisms built into our checks even today.
How are the cops going to see you accessing files on this hidden hard drive? It's a little different in that there is no physical relationship to this device and you. Heck. You could even put it in your neighbor's house...
A more realistic application of your suggestion woul dbe to place this box outside your residence. If you live in an apartment building, you could put it in a hallway or above some ceiling panels somewhere. If it is confiscated, there is no issue of possession to tie it to you. This follows the precedent set by clandestein farmers who grow illegal crops on National Park property.
Your Dad is probably asking for a lot more money than those young, inexperienced people you're describing.
Microsoft has a bunch of young people because those are the most exploitable. Them and HB1s from India.
Slashdot Mirror
troll.
I think you are right on the money. The real effect here is to lull the citizens (perhaps terrorists) into thinking their normal communications via cellphone are secure. After the two days of unencrypted phone calls, people (perhaps terrorists) will possibly begin to be careless with their communications.
Damn, that guy has some money to throw around. Mercedes SUV, Segway, etc.