If the user is too ignorant to do a task, they probably don't want to do the task and don't care about it being done.
The expectation that a system "just works" without involving the user in preventive measures (installing, configuring, updating PF and AV, updating the OS) is not idiocy.
You can say ignoring password advice (using primitive passwords is idiotic). In some scenarios this is justified as a result of a compromise, e.g. I don't use a password on my laptop (boots into the desktop), because my security measure is to ensure that no one has physical access to it.
You say IE is easily replaced, but also say that users are not competent enough to install another browser.
Microsoft has an OS monopoly, that is not an opinion. Browsers are an non-optional part of todays computers (maybe even more than office software). The examples you mention are not.
The company got convicted several times for leveraging and extending their monopoly to other software products (browsers), which skews competition. This measure is to restore competition.
The scheme is currently voluntary for the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as there is no law to force them to use it. How does the filtering work?
1. A list of banned sites and their internet addresses is maintained by the Department of Internal Affairs.
2. The DIA then use a routing protocol to tell the participating ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that the ‘best’ way to the internet address of the banned site’s web server is through the DIA’s filtering server.
3. When a person tries to access a site (banned or not) on one of the filtered addresses, their ISP knows to divert the request to the DIA’s server.
4. The DIA’s filtering server then looks at the request. If it is to a banned site, the request is refused and a message is sent back to the person. If it is to a non-banned site, the DIA’s filtering server passes the request on to the real server through the DIA’s internet connection.
Does the filtering work with HTTPS (secure HTTP)?
HTTPS (secure HTTP) is used for security on sites that need it for services such as internet banking and online shopping.
HTTPS requests can’t be examined by the filter server (because they use encryption for the security). This means that all HTTPS traffic to an internet address that has any banned content (possibly for a completely different website) will be passed through the filter.
Does the internet filter only apply to web browsing or does it apply to other traffic as well?
All traffic (web, email, P2P, etc) for a filtered internet address will be forwarded to the DIA’s server.
All non-web Internet traffic will be forwarded through the filter to the destination site.
What type of material is censored?
The trial scheme was used to filter child pornography including video, photos, and text articles. Other illegal material (as defined by New Zealand law) is not filtered.
Can other types of material be censored in the future?
There is no technical reason why the same technology could not be extended to block websites with other types of content.
Apparently the NetClean software is contractually restricted to only being used to block child pornography.
So far, so good.
But these are bad:
Is it possible to check whether a website is on the filtered list?
The only way to check whether the website is filtered is by attempting to access it. If a website is filtered is it possible to find out why?
Analyzing traffic without a warrant is a privacy violation. You can't allege users that they download/upload copyrighted content based on that they use a lot of bandwidth. Also, downloading copyrighted for private use is not necessarily illegal, when there is no uploading (unlike bittorrent).
Bittorrent makes users demand more bandwidth, which is good for ISPs I guess, someone has to pay for the network improvements. So ISPs should solve equal or fair speed distribution among users (so that bittorrent users don't block others), rather than hunt the clients that use the service to its full extent.
It'd be awesome to live on a saturn, especially if you have a view of Saturn (how large would it be on the sky?)... would be pretty dark though, especially if the hot spot is on the south pole.
Btw. it was the Cassini spacecraft that made the flyby.
The vast majority of space debris consists of small particles, from microns up to 1 centimetre (0.39 in). Although there are an estimated 100 million such particles in orbit, they represent a tiny fraction of the total mass of human-made objects in space: perhaps 1%. On impact, these particles cause damage similar to that from a micrometeorite and the widespread use of Whipple shields is effective against the damage they would otherwise cause. Many parts of spacecraft, however, cannot be protected with Whipple shields and are subject to constant wear and tear.
As these sorts of smaller debris represent the minority of the mass, and cause little damage, much of the focus on space debris risks centres on larger debris. The exact definition of "larger" generally means "the size that can be tracked using current technology" and thus changes as tracking technologies improve. In general, these objects are on the order of 10 centimetres (3.9 in) or larger and mass from about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) and up. Collision with a fragment of this size at the average speed of 10 kilometres per second (6.2 mi/s) would be catastrophic. As a result, space missions have to consider a number of operational factors and risk mitigation strategies.
Launch a couple satellites with solid state lasers. Heat up the side of the space junk facing earth and let the laser push it into the atmosphere.
Plus if you have a few dozen up there you could perhaps deflect larger objects, yet they would be useless if you wanted to shoot a target on the surface of the Earth.
There has to be a reason that there has been next to no attempt to control the space junk issue, I guess getting funding to clean up orbits is hard to come by.
How are you going to "push" objects that cross your orbit with 10 km/s?
They have some solutions on wikipedia:
[edit] Self-removal
It is already an ITU requirement that geostationary satellites be able to remove themselves to a "graveyard orbit" at the end of their lives. It has been demonstrated that the selected orbital areas do not sufficiently protect GEO lanes from debris, although a response has not yet been formulated.[47]
Rocket boosters and some satellites retain enough fuel to allow them to power themselves into a decaying orbit. In cases when a direct (and controlled) de-orbit would require too much fuel, a satellite can also be brought to an orbit where atmospheric drag would cause it to de-orbit after some years. Such a maneuver was successfully performed with the French Spot-1 satellite, bringing its time to atmospheric re-entry down from a projected 200 years to about 15 years by lowering its perigee from 830 km (516 mi) to about 550 km (342 mi).[111]
Another proposed solution is to attach an electrodynamic tether to the spacecraft on launch. At the end of their lifetime it is rolled out and slows down the spacecraft.[112] Although tethers of up to 30 km have been successfully deployed in orbit the technology has not yet reached maturity.[33] It has also been proposed that booster stages include a sail-like attachment to the same end.[113] [edit] External removal
The vast majority of space debris, especially smaller debris, cannot be removed under its own power. A variety of proposals have been made to directly remove such material from orbit. One of the most widely discussed solutions is the laser broom, which uses a powerful ground-based laser to ablate the front surface off known debris and thereby produce a working mass that slows the debris in orbit. With a continued application of such thrust, the debris will eventually spiral down into a low orbit and become subject to atmospheric drag.[114]
The US Air Force worked on a ground-based design under the name "Project Orion".[115] Although a testbed device was slated to launch on a 2003 Space Shuttle, numerous
a) Build the perfect system. Complicated to do. Users will not understand it and still be vulnerable to scams.
b) Build a simple system and use trust. For example, you can revert transactions from your bank account that you didn't authorize within 14 days.
Everyone that works in a bank today knows that stuff isn't secure. But it doesn't really matter because damages are small, and the profits cover mistakes quite easily.
Programming Languages: LL language parsing & rules authoring.
I would say they miss the understanding of logic oriented programming languages (such as Prolog/Datalog) and functional programming languages (such as Haskell).
These approaches and ways of thinking can be very useful even if you program in a OOP language. Newer scripting languages also have a lot of features that cross the borders (such as lambda).
The Egyptians, Plato asserted, described Atlantis as an island comprising mostly mountains in the northern portions and along the shore, and encompassing a great plain of an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 555 km; 345 mi], but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia [about 370 km; 230 mi]." Fifty stadia [9 km; 6 mi] from the coast was a mountain that was low on all sides...broke it off all round about[6]... the central island itself was five stades in diameter [about 0.92 km; 0.57 mi].[7]
Should read, "another muslim terror clown ignites himself in attempt to bomb airplane." Why isn't the TSA strip searching muslim males coming into the US?
Because that would violate the human rights twice. Terrorists and suspected Terrorists are humans.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-28-2009/bruce-bueno-de-mesquita
Same in Austria.
If the user is too ignorant to do a task, they probably don't want to do the task and don't care about it being done.
The expectation that a system "just works" without involving the user in preventive measures (installing, configuring, updating PF and AV, updating the OS) is not idiocy.
You can say ignoring password advice (using primitive passwords is idiotic). In some scenarios this is justified as a result of a compromise, e.g. I don't use a password on my laptop (boots into the desktop), because my security measure is to ensure that no one has physical access to it.
You say IE is easily replaced, but also say that users are not competent enough to install another browser.
Microsoft has an OS monopoly, that is not an opinion. Browsers are an non-optional part of todays computers (maybe even more than office software). The examples you mention are not.
The company got convicted several times for leveraging and extending their monopoly to other software products (browsers), which skews competition. This measure is to restore competition.
If I came up with an alternative browser, and it gets popular (say 1-2%), will the ballot be updated at some point?
If yes, then this is the time for creating useful browsers.
The OpenBSD also contribute back rewrites and fixes of insecure/buggy open software projects. For example in X.
Everyone should read this.
So far, so good.
But these are bad:
Just find a open WLAN and use that ...
http://start.freifunk.net/
http://www.hotspot-locations.com/modules.php?name=HotSpots&op=hotspot_query&hsl_countryhs=2DE&hs_state=&hs_city=&hs_operator=&hsl_type=&hs_access_box=on&search=Search
The update is also delivered to existing installations.
Analyzing traffic without a warrant is a privacy violation. You can't allege users that they download/upload copyrighted content based on that they use a lot of bandwidth. Also, downloading copyrighted for private use is not necessarily illegal, when there is no uploading (unlike bittorrent).
Bittorrent makes users demand more bandwidth, which is good for ISPs I guess, someone has to pay for the network improvements.
So ISPs should solve equal or fair speed distribution among users (so that bittorrent users don't block others), rather than hunt the clients that use the service to its full extent.
usb converters won't make the serial line faster ...
Another aspect about the nature of time is whether it can be divided into infinitely small timeslots, or if there is granularity, e.g. Planck time.
Because it's in slow motion, doh
90% of the usage of ubiquity can be solved by copy/paste and bookmark keywords (e.g. "maps" -> http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%25s).
NASA article: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20090624.html :-)
picture: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06191.html
Video: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/flash/Enceladus/enceladus.html <-- no reading
It'd be awesome to live on a saturn, especially if you have a view of Saturn (how large would it be on the sky?) ... would be pretty dark though, especially if the hot spot is on the south pole.
Btw. it was the Cassini spacecraft that made the flyby.
Linux is for the desktop, Solaris is for servers. You can't use Linux on servers, because it has too many bugs.
At least that's what this NASA administrator said in 2006: http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid39_gci1157924,00.html
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_junk)
Launch a couple satellites with solid state lasers. Heat up the side of the space junk facing earth and let the laser push it into the atmosphere.
Plus if you have a few dozen up there you could perhaps deflect larger objects, yet they would be useless if you wanted to shoot a target on the surface of the Earth.
There has to be a reason that there has been next to no attempt to control the space junk issue, I guess getting funding to clean up orbits is hard to come by.
How are you going to "push" objects that cross your orbit with 10 km/s?
They have some solutions on wikipedia:
There are two choices:
a) Build the perfect system. Complicated to do. Users will not understand it and still be vulnerable to scams.
b) Build a simple system and use trust. For example, you can revert transactions from your bank account that you didn't authorize within 14 days.
Everyone that works in a bank today knows that stuff isn't secure. But it doesn't really matter because damages are small, and the profits cover mistakes quite easily.
Programming Languages: LL language parsing & rules authoring.
I would say they miss the understanding of logic oriented programming languages (such as Prolog/Datalog) and functional programming languages (such as Haskell).
These approaches and ways of thinking can be very useful even if you program in a OOP language. Newer scripting languages also have a lot of features that cross the borders (such as lambda).
is it DIY?
The Egyptians, Plato asserted, described Atlantis as an island comprising mostly mountains in the northern portions and along the shore, and encompassing a great plain of an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 555 km; 345 mi], but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia [about 370 km; 230 mi]." Fifty stadia [9 km; 6 mi] from the coast was a mountain that was low on all sides...broke it off all round about[6]... the central island itself was five stades in diameter [about 0.92 km; 0.57 mi].[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis#Plato.27s_account
I think Plato wasn't "BSing us", but just describing a vision of a perfect city.
So their rules are even stricter than the English version?
Yes, they enforce rule 34.
That was how the first reports were like. That it has no Al'Kaeda connection, and that he just claimed that.
Now the White House confirmed that it was a terror incident, but I'm not sure what new evidence they base that on.
Should read, "another muslim terror clown ignites himself in attempt to bomb airplane." Why isn't the TSA strip searching muslim males coming into the US?
Because that would violate the human rights twice. Terrorists and suspected Terrorists are humans.