There was a piracy case involving a state university where the software vendor lost, even though there was evidence of piracy. I think the decision was based on the sovereign immunity of the state, which extends to a state university.
Why is this story posted on slashdot? Is it simply to provide people with a forum to make snide remarks about Microsoft? Aren't there enough legitimate opportunities to do that already?
We posted it just to piss you off. No other reason.
We hired a psychological consultant to draw up a profile of konstant so that we could determine which stories would make him go berserk.
I think many people are suspicious about the claims for global warming because of the politics and agendas of its proponents.
Too many politicians and activists have latched on to it as a means of pushing their pet causes. Does anyone think that Al Gore really is interested in scientific truth?
Another problem is the past history of "environmental crises" that got a lot of press and rhetoric, only to fade away when the disaster failed to materialize.
I like to listen to Wagner on CD. The music flows along for the 3 or 4 CDs of a typical opera. I don't understand German so the lyrics aren't distracting.
I haven't found an MP3 ripper/player that works well with classical/opera music. They all seem to assume that the CD should be chopped up into short segments with audible gaps.
I used DCOM for some client/server projects and it was a disaster. I learned more about registry editing than I ever wanted to know. The projects were rewritten to use vanilla TCP sockets and all of the problems vanished.
The windshield on the Challenger was pitted, not cracked. The crew was in no danger. Now if that had been a bolt instead of a paint chip, they may have had a serious problem.
I've worked on many embedded system software projects. It's a matter of economics as to what hardware and operating system (if any) are used. Most of the projects that used to be designed for single board computers are now done on rack mount PCs with standard operating systems. These are low volume (less than 100 units) systems. Linux is starting to catch on because it is free, reliable and includes source code, software development tools and networking. Memory and processing power are cheap, custom hardware and software are expensive. I could write my own OS kernel, device drivers and IP stack in assembly language or C, but it would be a huge waste of time and money.
Many data transmissions use variable length words, bit stuffing or transmission unit lengths that are not divisible by 8. Take a look at HDLC for an example.
It is much simpler to use bits or symbols when measuring the rate of a channel.
American rates may look wonderful to residents of other countries but that doesn't mean that the telcos aren't ripping off their customers in the USA.
The costs of providing T1 and T3 service have plummeted but the rates have stayed the same or even increased. Rather than price their products at cost plus a reasonable profit margin, the telcos price their products based on their perceived "value". This means that many services are grossly overpriced. It also tends to inhibit the introduction of services and technology that would cannibalize cash cows like T1 lines.
The feds have gotten away with mandating "wiretap friendly" voice networks because of the pressure they can apply to a centralized entity such as a phone or wireless company. This is why none of the digital wireless systems support strong encryption.
This tactic doesn't work when the network transports bits (IP with QoS) and the end users are responsible for encoding/decoding the audio. The end users can use any encoding or encryption scheme they desire without getting permission from the carrier or the government. The carrier doesn't have access to the raw audio, just a constant bit rate data stream.
Skipjack is approved by the NSA for classified data up to the SECRET level. That means that it isn't a total piece of crap. It has some nice features that lend itself to running on simple CPUs with minimal memory.
HPFS is not a journaling filesystem. It was originally written by Microsoft (Gordon Letwin) for OS/2 1.X. Some of the design features seem to have been taken from the BSD FFS while others were new.
NTFS is a new design. There is a book on it but I haven't read it. Its primary flaw is its tendency to fragment files.
It is a real problem. I recently received a security bulletin at work that had new guidelines for selecting "uncrackable" passwords. The only problem is that the guidelines ensure that the password will be difficult to remember. I have to use three different mail systems, several networks and numerous computers. That is a lot of passwords to remember. Plus they are supposed to be unique, not written down and changed regularly.
Re:Axis breaking Allied codes
on
The Code Book
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· Score: 1
The USA had SIGABA, a more complex rotor machine than the Enigma. I've never seen a detailed description of the SIGABA, just general overviews.
The Brits had the Typex, a rotor machine that was similar to the Enigma.
The NSA has pictures of these machines on their web page.
Re:One Time Pads and cypher technology
on
The Code Book
·
· Score: 1
OTPs are popular with diplomats and spys. The Soviet Union switched to OTPs for diplomatic traffic many years ago (before World War II). They screwed up for a period during World War II by issuing duplicate pages to some government organizations. This was probably due to the increased requirement for OTPs caused by the huge increase in traffic during the war. The USA took advantage of this mistake (see Venona project) and cracked many messages that were encrypted with the duplicate pages.
OTPs have never been popular with military users. The level of traffic is too high and key distribution is a major problem. Today the problem is even worse. Not only are text messages being encrypted, but digitized voice and large quantities of computer/image data are traversing military networks.
OTPs are great if you have low volume, high security requirements and a reliable key distribution system such as a diplomatic pouch or trusted courier.
Machine (to include computers) ciphers are used for the vast majority of encrypted communications.
The NTFS filesystem journals metadata (information about files). This ensures that the filesystem is consistent if the system crashes and allows the system to be rebooted quickly. It does not journal file data. That means that the contents of files can be corrupted by a system crash. My guess is that the designers of NTFS were primarily interested in avoiding the common UNIX problem of lengthy fscks after system crashes with large filesystems.
I agree with you. When I read that comment I had an instinctive urge to grab a baseball bat (LART) and hunt down the idiot that thinks a system crash or cache corruption is no big deal.
People have gotten so used to systems that crash on a regular basis that they don't realize that systems could be much more reliable than the crap sold at the local computer store.
The 68000 was a hybrid 16/32 bit chip. It had three 16-bit ALUs. The 68020 was the first true 32-bit chip from Motorola.
The 16032 and Z8000 were buggy chips. They died of self-inflicted wounds.
I don't see how anyone can seriously compete with Intel. Their chip designs may be mediocre, but who else has the process technology and fab capacity to produce millions of high speed chips?
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There was a piracy case involving a state university where the software vendor lost, even though there was evidence of piracy. I think the decision was based on the sovereign immunity of the state, which extends to a state university.
The SPA get a lot of tips from disgruntled employees.
Maybe Microsoft should take advantage of that in their ads instead of the current themes.
I'm not a Microsoft fan but I forward all spam containing "too good to be true" offers for Microsoft software to piracy@microsoft.com.
We posted it just to piss you off. No other reason.
We hired a psychological consultant to draw up a profile of konstant so that we could determine which stories would make him go berserk.
Smile for the camera.
Too many politicians and activists have latched on to it as a means of pushing their pet causes. Does anyone think that Al Gore really is interested in scientific truth?
Another problem is the past history of "environmental crises" that got a lot of press and rhetoric, only to fade away when the disaster failed to materialize.
I haven't found an MP3 ripper/player that works well with classical/opera music. They all seem to assume that the CD should be chopped up into short segments with audible gaps.
I used DCOM for some client/server projects and it was a disaster. I learned more about registry editing than I ever wanted to know. The projects were rewritten to use vanilla TCP sockets and all of the problems vanished.
It isn't nit picking. Patents, trademarks and copyrights are three distinct concepts. You don't have to be an IP lawyer to understand what they are.
The windshield on the Challenger was pitted, not cracked. The crew was in no danger. Now if that had been a bolt instead of a paint chip, they may have had a serious problem.
I've worked on many embedded system software projects. It's a matter of economics as to what hardware and operating system (if any) are used. Most of the projects that used to be designed for single board computers are now done on rack mount PCs with standard operating systems. These are low volume (less than 100 units) systems. Linux is starting to catch on because it is free, reliable and includes source code, software development tools and networking. Memory and processing power are cheap, custom hardware and software are expensive. I could write my own OS kernel, device drivers and IP stack in assembly language or C, but it would be a huge waste of time and money.
An octet is defined as eight bits.
Many data transmissions use variable length words, bit stuffing or transmission unit lengths that are not divisible by 8. Take a look at HDLC for an example.
It is much simpler to use bits or symbols when measuring the rate of a channel.
The costs of providing T1 and T3 service have plummeted but the rates have stayed the same or even increased. Rather than price their products at cost plus a reasonable profit margin, the telcos price their products based on their perceived "value". This means that many services are grossly overpriced. It also tends to inhibit the introduction of services and technology that would cannibalize cash cows like T1 lines.
This tactic doesn't work when the network transports bits (IP with QoS) and the end users are responsible for encoding/decoding the audio. The end users can use any encoding or encryption scheme they desire without getting permission from the carrier or the government. The carrier doesn't have access to the raw audio, just a constant bit rate data stream.
Skipjack is approved by the NSA for classified data up to the SECRET level. That means that it isn't a total piece of crap. It has some nice features that lend itself to running on simple CPUs with minimal memory.
NTFS is a new design. There is a book on it but I haven't read it. Its primary flaw is its tendency to fragment files.
It is a real problem. I recently received a security bulletin at work that had new guidelines for selecting "uncrackable" passwords. The only problem is that the guidelines ensure that the password will be difficult to remember. I have to use three different mail systems, several networks and numerous computers. That is a lot of passwords to remember. Plus they are supposed to be unique, not written down and changed regularly.
The Brits had the Typex, a rotor machine that was similar to the Enigma.
The NSA has pictures of these machines on their web page.
OTPs have never been popular with military users. The level of traffic is too high and key distribution is a major problem. Today the problem is even worse. Not only are text messages being encrypted, but digitized voice and large quantities of computer/image data are traversing military networks.
OTPs are great if you have low volume, high security requirements and a reliable key distribution system such as a diplomatic pouch or trusted courier.
Machine (to include computers) ciphers are used for the vast majority of encrypted communications.
The NTFS filesystem journals metadata (information about files). This ensures that the filesystem is consistent if the system crashes and allows the system to be rebooted quickly. It does not journal file data. That means that the contents of files can be corrupted by a system crash. My guess is that the designers of NTFS were primarily interested in avoiding the common UNIX problem of lengthy fscks after system crashes with large filesystems.
They were "code talkers", not "code walkers".
People have gotten so used to systems that crash on a regular basis that they don't realize that systems could be much more reliable than the crap sold at the local computer store.
I love the "be a nonconformist, buy our overpriced designer crap" ads that they carry.
He didn't support Gay Rights either, the fascist pig.
There are a number of private Internets that are used by various federal agencies.
The problem seems to be that sometimes sensitive but unclassified data gets stored on systems connected to the public Internet.
The 16032 and Z8000 were buggy chips. They died of self-inflicted wounds.
I don't see how anyone can seriously compete with Intel. Their chip designs may be mediocre, but who else has the process technology and fab capacity to produce millions of high speed chips?
AT&T has done a lot of work in this area. See "Software Reliability Engineering" by John Musa.
The problem is that testing takes time, discipline and money.