(record the uptime with a pen+paper if you want to keep a running total)
...That isn't true uptime. The point of uptime being a bragging right isn't that you have an APC, but rather your computer is configured correctly so it doesn't randomly run out of memory and crash, your hardware doesn't overheat after a week of constant usage, etc. Almost -any- computer can work 12 hours and not fail. Finding a computer that will last a year or more without rebooting is hard. Simply adding up the amount the computer has been on is not uptime, not in the least.
In the face of this issue energy-efficient computing has become a hot topic
No. That has, and never was the case. The problem is A) Programs now take a lot more CPU usage (compare CPU usage for the same task in Office 2007 and Office 97) B) CPUs are designed primarily to be faster (needed because of point A) C) Battery technology isn't improving as rapidly as the rest of the components.
Look at the Poqet PC of the '80s, it had very aggressive power management which wouldn't work today. Computers have -always- tried to be energy-efficient in the portable sector. And quite honestly, its about the only sector that needs work on energy-efficiency to gain any benefit.
While the concept of having a full album has been lost, a lot of music is best listened to in album form. For example, while its possible to enjoy Pink Floyd's singles on The Wall album, in order to truly get the message its best to listen to the entire album. A lot of records were made this way before the advent of the CD and now digital singles. Yes, today an album is simply a collection of singles, but once upon a time (and some bands still release them like before) an album was a work as a whole, never meant to be separated.
There is a difference of "We're gonna give you the information" and "We're gonna give you the information with a nice GUI filled with access logs and every little detail easily accessed". If I'm going to have my logs legally given away, I want them to be as unfriendly to anyone attempting to violate privacy, not organized in a nice GUI.
Don't they know there are other hosts that don't use such tactics or resort to ridiculous tv commercials?
Chances are, they don't. For a middle-aged tech-illiterate person, seeing their commercials during a Super Bowl might be enough to make them wonder if they should have a website. And I don't see eNom, or Network Solutions making any prime-time ads.
Due to the relatively low cost of GoDaddy domains and plans at least to the average person, there seems to be no need for them to search around. Mix that with plans to appeal to the average person and you have a situation where no one really wants to shop around.
Because it shows that "law" enforcement officers are basically able to use whatever records they want from Microsoft, not only via a textdump from a server somewhere, but with a nice GUI and little concern of user's privacy. Myself, I'd want to use an e-mail provider that first off didn't keep logs, but if they did, they wouldn't provide a nice GUI for "law" enforcement and that they would make it quite hard for them to reduce privacy. This document shows Microsoft is exactly the opposite.
Seriously, its like they should make a LiveJournal or something to whine about it. Yeah, -some- of Wikileak's patrons may be reporters who have spare cash to donate, but the rest of us are simply citizens who want to make informed decisions rather than rely on third-party sources. Yeah, I've donated, no I can't donate the $500 they think that all of their readers are obligated to donate.
Of course. The same thing is true for every legally dubious act. Look at how many businesses will settle out of court, look at how many people choose to settle out of court against the RIAA who uses questionable tactics.
Really, what we need here is a torrent feed with all the latest stuff.
The thing is, you still need a reliable person to go through it. That is what WikiLeaks was doing before they started begging for money for the past 3 months. There is still always the weak link, and that is the humans need to verify the leaks. Torrents may solve the distribution problem, but lacks absolute security and anonymity.
Why are a whole lot of people making big bucks hocking malware?
They are not making big bucks selling malware they are making big bucks selling spam, botnets and ads.
But the day you go to start selling your new wizz-bang botnet buildin' super crackin' gizmo-ware that you just spent the last 6 months putting together and 3 hours later all your potential customers have it for free.
They aren't selling the programs, they are selling the botnets themselves. No one is wanting to buy Conficker, there are probably a few who would want the botnet running it though.
The only malware programs sold are those used by script kiddies and they make up a small amount of financial trades for Black Hats.
So your answer is what? Continue with the losing proposition that is the status quo? lol. That isn't any answer at all.
I don't have the answer, if I did I might be a millionaire. My point wasn't to prove that I had the answers but rather to show that your answer didn't quite work the way you thought it would.
My point is there is good money being made by people making the tools that the crooks use. Take that money out of the hands of those people. Its not going to solve the problem but sooner or later everyone has to realize that there IS no "better" solution. At least it mitigates a part of the problem.
But its such a minor problem that it wouldn't really solve anything.
If I -really- want 500 credit card numbers, would I A) Buy the software to collect the 500 credit card numbers or B) Buy the numbers directly from some Russian hacker? The only real buyers of script kiddie software is script kiddies which, although annoying aren't the real threat. All that releasing script kiddie software would do would be to increase the number of script kiddies. If you think it through, the ability to DDoS a site isn't going to happen because of script kiddie software but rather by purchasing a botnet which is a real threat. Yeah, selling software to script kiddies might make a hacker $500, but when compared to the income made through spam, botnets or adware, it is just a small drop in the bucket. Your proposal would do much more harm than good. I mean, we already have all the good hacker tools released for free, all script kiddie tools would do would be to increase the number of more script kiddies which is not a good thing even if it does take a few thousand away from black hat crackers.
You can educate them but they won't care. Look at how hard it is for a lot of these type of people to even browse the internet, something that is designed to be really easy to use. Even with education you run the risk of them remembering only misinformation and making them paranoid. Look at the '90s and people thinking ZOMG COOKIES ARE VIRUSES!!!11!111!1! and rather than doing sane things, they just kept up the paranoia. The last thing we need is people scared to go to a generic site because its not secured with HTTPS even though it doesn't need to be.
Paranoia is almost worse than being ignorant, especially in a business. Being ignorant -may- cost the company money, being paranoid -will- cost the company money.
We should just give away copies of all the best hack tools.
Most pentest software is already available for free (nmap, Cain and Abel, John the Ripper, etc)
What will this do? Simple. It removes the monetary incentive to write good hacking tools
No it won't. Like I said before, there are a lot of -good- hacking tools out there, the problem is, they are made for someone who knows about computers to use them, what script kiddies need is something with a GUI, with simple options and the ability to run on the OS they use (mostly Windows)
These don't make them good hacking tools. All they do is make it easier to do one task. Most, if not all hacking tools used by script kiddies can be replicated using good tools that pentesters use.
On top of that when you have every idiot out there using the best tools vendors WILL be forced to deal with the flaws a lot more quickly and release higher quality code to start with.
Have you not looked at the security bulletins for most proprietary (and some poorly-maintained OSS) programs? Adobe, Microsoft and others have a -long- list of vulnerabilities some critical that have not been patched in -years- and are easily exploitable by someone who knows what they are doing.
but we can suck some of the wind out of the blackhats sails.
Not really, software sales is a minor part of black hat cracking, most of the big problems come from A) Spam B) Botnets C) Malware and all of those aren't going to be created by the average script kiddie even with the easiest tools.
The problem is, for a lot of these people, having an SMS wouldn't work because they don't have texting (not uncommon in the US). Look at "Bob" in the example in TFA, he represents a large number of Americans with A) Access to technology B) Experience with strange security policies that don't make sense and C) A machine running an insecure OS. Using an SMS wouldn't work for one main reason:
It would have to be turned off by default (not everyone wants a $.10+ additional text message charged on their cell phone bill and there are a -lot- of people who don't know how to check voicemail, let alone read a SMS) and this would mean that most people (such as Bob) would never activate it and it would simply fall apart. Most of these scams aren't targeting the average/.er or even someone who knows just a bit about technology but rather the large technologically-illiterate older middle class.
Sure, but its a -lot- easier to prove that John Smith working at the bank got your PIN and made a withdraw of $XXX on X day. Its quite hard to get money from Vladimir Hacker who lives in Russia. While it might be easy to trace an IP, if it is outside of the US jurisdiction, theres not that much you can do. Yeah, you -might- be able to get the money back, but Vladimir Hacker can still do the same thing to someone else and no doubt it will require a lot of paperwork to get your money back.
Not sure if it is really relevant, but 2600 (the hacker magazine) sells lifetime subscriptions that work.
Lifetime subscription
We'll keep sending you copies of 2600 until either you or we cease to exist. This offer also includes copies of the first three years of 2600: 1984-1986.
and they've been pretty faithful in them since the '80s when they started.
As opposed to the brilliant solutions offered by Motorola/LG/Samsung/Dell/Microsoft/HP/Asus/Sony/Nokia/etc right? The only reason why it is so evident on Apple products is because Apple has a -tiny- product line. Apple has what, 3 phones out? How many does Nokia have? A lot and a lot of them use radically different designs, a flaw in the Nokia 5070 is unlikely to be in the Nokia 6133. Compare this to Apple's 3 phones of similar to identical designs. Same thing with computers, look at how many different models of computer Dell has out right now, several different tower configurations, some low-profile desktops, some laptops, a netbook, an ultra-portable, etc. Compare this to Apple which has the Macbook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini and iMac line which rarely change when compared to other vendors.
I'm not saying Apple is great, I'm simply saying that when you have a high marketshare, few different designs and a slow upgrade rate problems come out quicker. And every technology vendor does exactly what you say, that is what keeps them from going bankrupt at the first user complaint that a fan might possibly be loud.
If Apple gave half a crap about their users, they'd spring for the penny it would cost to shoot the insides with a bit of waterproofing spray rather than warranty void excuses before welding the back on.
The problem isn't that the phone will break from these it is the fact that it will trip the sensors. The problem is, these indicator things are terrible indicators of a problem. While I can see the point in reducing claims from someone who went swimming with their iPhone, someone who got their iPhone slightly damp months ago and comes in with a different problem still can't use their warranty.
Because the average person can tell between HD and SD on a projector? Its easy to tell between HD and SD on an HD set, or after watching a program in HD and then watching it in SD, but for something you have never seen before its really, really hard to tell between the two.
Most of that is because of A) The fact that we have a bunch of students who shouldn't be in education in education and B) Deadlines are nearly unlimited.
Or you know.... you could get a laptop and emulators;) and you can get a lot more games and systems.
Re:I'd love to see...
on
The Wii Laptop
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The thing is, with Ben Heck all he has to do is attract the attention of one or two people with some cash about it and he has made a pretty good profit on it. They aren't mass produced items that have to appeal to most of the population but rather rare, specialty items that if he finds even one buyer he has made money.
While there are few examples in this current decade (after all its hardly 2 months old) you only need to look back to see 2 noticable examples of software vaporware.
So, let me get this right. You could more or less get a list of addresses, and they would accept commands without question if you just typed in the commands and the right address? Sounds like the worst security system ever.
Slashdot Mirror
(record the uptime with a pen+paper if you want to keep a running total)
In the face of this issue energy-efficient computing has become a hot topic
No. That has, and never was the case. The problem is A) Programs now take a lot more CPU usage (compare CPU usage for the same task in Office 2007 and Office 97) B) CPUs are designed primarily to be faster (needed because of point A) C) Battery technology isn't improving as rapidly as the rest of the components.
Look at the Poqet PC of the '80s, it had very aggressive power management which wouldn't work today. Computers have -always- tried to be energy-efficient in the portable sector. And quite honestly, its about the only sector that needs work on energy-efficiency to gain any benefit.
While the concept of having a full album has been lost, a lot of music is best listened to in album form. For example, while its possible to enjoy Pink Floyd's singles on The Wall album, in order to truly get the message its best to listen to the entire album. A lot of records were made this way before the advent of the CD and now digital singles. Yes, today an album is simply a collection of singles, but once upon a time (and some bands still release them like before) an album was a work as a whole, never meant to be separated.
There is a difference of "We're gonna give you the information" and "We're gonna give you the information with a nice GUI filled with access logs and every little detail easily accessed". If I'm going to have my logs legally given away, I want them to be as unfriendly to anyone attempting to violate privacy, not organized in a nice GUI.
Don't they know there are other hosts that don't use such tactics or resort to ridiculous tv commercials?
Chances are, they don't. For a middle-aged tech-illiterate person, seeing their commercials during a Super Bowl might be enough to make them wonder if they should have a website. And I don't see eNom, or Network Solutions making any prime-time ads.
Due to the relatively low cost of GoDaddy domains and plans at least to the average person, there seems to be no need for them to search around. Mix that with plans to appeal to the average person and you have a situation where no one really wants to shop around.
Because it shows that "law" enforcement officers are basically able to use whatever records they want from Microsoft, not only via a textdump from a server somewhere, but with a nice GUI and little concern of user's privacy. Myself, I'd want to use an e-mail provider that first off didn't keep logs, but if they did, they wouldn't provide a nice GUI for "law" enforcement and that they would make it quite hard for them to reduce privacy. This document shows Microsoft is exactly the opposite.
Mod parent up.
Seriously, its like they should make a LiveJournal or something to whine about it. Yeah, -some- of Wikileak's patrons may be reporters who have spare cash to donate, but the rest of us are simply citizens who want to make informed decisions rather than rely on third-party sources. Yeah, I've donated, no I can't donate the $500 they think that all of their readers are obligated to donate.
The smaller they are the easier they fall
Of course. The same thing is true for every legally dubious act. Look at how many businesses will settle out of court, look at how many people choose to settle out of court against the RIAA who uses questionable tactics.
Really, what we need here is a torrent feed with all the latest stuff.
The thing is, you still need a reliable person to go through it. That is what WikiLeaks was doing before they started begging for money for the past 3 months. There is still always the weak link, and that is the humans need to verify the leaks. Torrents may solve the distribution problem, but lacks absolute security and anonymity.
Why are a whole lot of people making big bucks hocking malware?
They are not making big bucks selling malware they are making big bucks selling spam, botnets and ads.
But the day you go to start selling your new wizz-bang botnet buildin' super crackin' gizmo-ware that you just spent the last 6 months putting together and 3 hours later all your potential customers have it for free.
They aren't selling the programs, they are selling the botnets themselves. No one is wanting to buy Conficker, there are probably a few who would want the botnet running it though.
The only malware programs sold are those used by script kiddies and they make up a small amount of financial trades for Black Hats.
So your answer is what? Continue with the losing proposition that is the status quo? lol. That isn't any answer at all.
I don't have the answer, if I did I might be a millionaire. My point wasn't to prove that I had the answers but rather to show that your answer didn't quite work the way you thought it would.
My point is there is good money being made by people making the tools that the crooks use. Take that money out of the hands of those people. Its not going to solve the problem but sooner or later everyone has to realize that there IS no "better" solution. At least it mitigates a part of the problem.
But its such a minor problem that it wouldn't really solve anything.
If I -really- want 500 credit card numbers, would I A) Buy the software to collect the 500 credit card numbers or B) Buy the numbers directly from some Russian hacker? The only real buyers of script kiddie software is script kiddies which, although annoying aren't the real threat. All that releasing script kiddie software would do would be to increase the number of script kiddies. If you think it through, the ability to DDoS a site isn't going to happen because of script kiddie software but rather by purchasing a botnet which is a real threat. Yeah, selling software to script kiddies might make a hacker $500, but when compared to the income made through spam, botnets or adware, it is just a small drop in the bucket. Your proposal would do much more harm than good. I mean, we already have all the good hacker tools released for free, all script kiddie tools would do would be to increase the number of more script kiddies which is not a good thing even if it does take a few thousand away from black hat crackers.
The issue is, as always, EDUCATE THEM.
You can educate them but they won't care. Look at how hard it is for a lot of these type of people to even browse the internet, something that is designed to be really easy to use. Even with education you run the risk of them remembering only misinformation and making them paranoid. Look at the '90s and people thinking ZOMG COOKIES ARE VIRUSES!!!11!111!1! and rather than doing sane things, they just kept up the paranoia. The last thing we need is people scared to go to a generic site because its not secured with HTTPS even though it doesn't need to be.
Paranoia is almost worse than being ignorant, especially in a business. Being ignorant -may- cost the company money, being paranoid -will- cost the company money.
We should just give away copies of all the best hack tools.
Most pentest software is already available for free (nmap, Cain and Abel, John the Ripper, etc)
What will this do? Simple. It removes the monetary incentive to write good hacking tools
No it won't. Like I said before, there are a lot of -good- hacking tools out there, the problem is, they are made for someone who knows about computers to use them, what script kiddies need is something with a GUI, with simple options and the ability to run on the OS they use (mostly Windows)
These don't make them good hacking tools. All they do is make it easier to do one task. Most, if not all hacking tools used by script kiddies can be replicated using good tools that pentesters use.
On top of that when you have every idiot out there using the best tools vendors WILL be forced to deal with the flaws a lot more quickly and release higher quality code to start with.
Have you not looked at the security bulletins for most proprietary (and some poorly-maintained OSS) programs? Adobe, Microsoft and others have a -long- list of vulnerabilities some critical that have not been patched in -years- and are easily exploitable by someone who knows what they are doing.
but we can suck some of the wind out of the blackhats sails.
Not really, software sales is a minor part of black hat cracking, most of the big problems come from A) Spam B) Botnets C) Malware and all of those aren't going to be created by the average script kiddie even with the easiest tools.
The problem is, for a lot of these people, having an SMS wouldn't work because they don't have texting (not uncommon in the US). Look at "Bob" in the example in TFA, he represents a large number of Americans with A) Access to technology B) Experience with strange security policies that don't make sense and C) A machine running an insecure OS. Using an SMS wouldn't work for one main reason:
/.er or even someone who knows just a bit about technology but rather the large technologically-illiterate older middle class.
It would have to be turned off by default (not everyone wants a $.10+ additional text message charged on their cell phone bill and there are a -lot- of people who don't know how to check voicemail, let alone read a SMS) and this would mean that most people (such as Bob) would never activate it and it would simply fall apart. Most of these scams aren't targeting the average
Sure, but its a -lot- easier to prove that John Smith working at the bank got your PIN and made a withdraw of $XXX on X day. Its quite hard to get money from Vladimir Hacker who lives in Russia. While it might be easy to trace an IP, if it is outside of the US jurisdiction, theres not that much you can do. Yeah, you -might- be able to get the money back, but Vladimir Hacker can still do the same thing to someone else and no doubt it will require a lot of paperwork to get your money back.
Wait, you mean there are other ways you can host your site other than using Freewebs, Angelfire and Tripod?
Lifetime subscription We'll keep sending you copies of 2600 until either you or we cease to exist. This offer also includes copies of the first three years of 2600: 1984-1986.
and they've been pretty faithful in them since the '80s when they started.
As opposed to the brilliant solutions offered by Motorola/LG/Samsung/Dell/Microsoft/HP/Asus/Sony/Nokia/etc right? The only reason why it is so evident on Apple products is because Apple has a -tiny- product line. Apple has what, 3 phones out? How many does Nokia have? A lot and a lot of them use radically different designs, a flaw in the Nokia 5070 is unlikely to be in the Nokia 6133. Compare this to Apple's 3 phones of similar to identical designs. Same thing with computers, look at how many different models of computer Dell has out right now, several different tower configurations, some low-profile desktops, some laptops, a netbook, an ultra-portable, etc. Compare this to Apple which has the Macbook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini and iMac line which rarely change when compared to other vendors.
I'm not saying Apple is great, I'm simply saying that when you have a high marketshare, few different designs and a slow upgrade rate problems come out quicker. And every technology vendor does exactly what you say, that is what keeps them from going bankrupt at the first user complaint that a fan might possibly be loud.
If Apple gave half a crap about their users, they'd spring for the penny it would cost to shoot the insides with a bit of waterproofing spray rather than warranty void excuses before welding the back on.
The problem isn't that the phone will break from these it is the fact that it will trip the sensors. The problem is, these indicator things are terrible indicators of a problem. While I can see the point in reducing claims from someone who went swimming with their iPhone, someone who got their iPhone slightly damp months ago and comes in with a different problem still can't use their warranty.
Because the average person can tell between HD and SD on a projector? Its easy to tell between HD and SD on an HD set, or after watching a program in HD and then watching it in SD, but for something you have never seen before its really, really hard to tell between the two.
Most of that is because of A) The fact that we have a bunch of students who shouldn't be in education in education and B) Deadlines are nearly unlimited.
Or you know.... you could get a laptop and emulators ;) and you can get a lot more games and systems.
The thing is, with Ben Heck all he has to do is attract the attention of one or two people with some cash about it and he has made a pretty good profit on it. They aren't mass produced items that have to appeal to most of the population but rather rare, specialty items that if he finds even one buyer he has made money.
While there are few examples in this current decade (after all its hardly 2 months old) you only need to look back to see 2 noticable examples of software vaporware.
A) WinFS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS )
and also
B) Longhorn, no Vista doesn't count but the pre-2004 version before they scrapped it and restarted
So, let me get this right. You could more or less get a list of addresses, and they would accept commands without question if you just typed in the commands and the right address? Sounds like the worst security system ever.