The number RSA-768 was taken from the now obsolete RSA Challenge list as a representative 768-bit RSA modulus.
In fact, the challenge list is defunct, the challenge having been canceled by RSA. The challenges are still scientifically interesting, so to call them obsolete is factually inaccurate.
Just to tag on to your comment, in the 10 years I have been using PDFs I have used exactly zero online submitable PDF forms. Zero. Not for taxes, not for the DMV, not for college applications, not for anything. Why would I use it? I have HTTP for that.
However, I have picked up a trojan horse virus infection from a PDF.
A government agency can't pay for something that is not really going to be provided. That is, if the $1000 is going to get them no support, then someone is going to raise a red flag.
That Tom's hardware study you link to is pretty conclusive. We're looking at much greater than 40 watts -- we're looking at greater than 70 watts, most likely.
Fine narrative on why there would be extra power use. Where is the study with the numbers? Where does the number 40 come from, exactly? It sounds like you made it up, frankly.
Plug your computer into the wall through a power meter and you'll notice the difference between idle and heavy CPU use being easily over the 40 W the GP used.
Let's assume I don't have a Kill a watt, which I don't -- can you link me to some study defending your point?
Is it really likely that the computers weren't on anyway? If not, then surely someone would have noticed the fact that the computers were running all night for no reason sometime in the past 10 years...
"Niesluchowski's wife, Susan, insisted her husband is a good man and great father who did nothing wrong. She said the software was authorized by a previous administration..."
However, since he was fired, it's not likely that he was able to present proof of authorization to the school board. For the record, I can't imagine how they came up with $1M for damages. If the computers were running all night and day regardless of whether SETI@home was running or not, you're looking at component wear and tear and additionally power consumption of virtually zero.
So basically Apple is saying "wait a few months, and we're releasing a netbook" ?
I too can really only explain it that way. At this point Apple is not in the market for netbooks, save, perhaps, for the iPod touches that serve as nearly full-featured netbooks in their own right (IMHO!). Given that, these makers of generally high-end computers have nothing to gain by failing to serve the Atom PC market. If they were in this market, such a move would be in their interest...
But tell me this -- if Apple were to build a netbook, why would they eliminate Atom capability since that processor could serve as the basis for a ultra small, low-power mac?
The parent poster asserted that OS virtualization made apps portable. This is false.
It may be true that OS virtualization does not itself make apps portable. However, the parent (VoidEngineer) does not assert what you suggest he does. Here's what he said:
Virtualization is indispensable for QA testing. Being able to run a virtual network on a personal PC lets me design, debug, and do proof-of-concepts without requiring the investment in actual equipment. Virtualization isn't just about hardware consolidation: it's also about application portability. Small companies have just as much need for QA testing
He is using virtualization to simulate platforms on which the software he is developing runs. By doing this, he makes the application portable by ensuring that it works on all platforms. His point is that virtualization makes un-necessary all the costly hardware that traditionally was required to perform platform-portability testing. For a small operation, virtualization in this regard is clearly an enabler of portability.
Your app should work on all supported operating systems regardless of the underlying hardware anyway.
The point is to make operating systems supported in the first place. That's what virtualization is helping the developer to ensure.
Here's the a quote from the article of a user who found that Windows 7 asked that the user uninstall iTunes:
...and I reinstalled iTunes which worked fine without any configuration, my library and apps were all there.
While I agree it is suspicious that iTunes and the Google Toolbar were the only applications that Windows 7 ask that particular user to uninstall, it should be made clear that Windows 7 did not impede the user from using that software or foist a MS application on him.
I will note that many users had significant difficulties with using non-Apple software after upgrading to Snow Leopard.
I myself have had significant difficulties using already installed software after upgrading various shared libraries via ports on FreeBSD.
I would suggest that these issues are along the lines of what Microsoft was doing when it asked the user to uninstall iTunes and the Google Toolbar.
Any way you look at those numbers the momentum is huge, lop 50% off, hell lop 75% off and it is still a massive number for a portal/collaboration product.
You make a great point about how large the user base for sharepoint is. However, if the numbers are so great, why would they need to inflate them? If the article above is correct, the vendor's sales and marketing experts believe that the sales boon to be had from making the the user base appear larger than it is overrides the embarrassment of making up the figures.
This would contrast with the scenario that you sketch out where sharepoint has really penetrated to such a degree that no lying on momentum is required.
This is like arguing over how many copies of MS Paint are used on a daily basis. It hardly matters. Microsoft sold it, and pocketed the income, which is cash that most likely WONT go to a SharePoint competitor, whether SharePoint gets used or not.
The story isn't merely to begrudge MS its sales. The point here is that even perceived momentum will push more users into Sharepoint on the assumption that a large user base is using it, which will be interpretted as Sharepoint being a system that will be any easy sell:
Executives already know what it is
No user training required
Easy to find experience sysadmins
Such a marketing approach will mis-lead IT departments away from knowledge management systems that really solve the problems that Sharepoint does not by appealing to the corporate desires laid-out in the bullets above.
Your analogy to MS Paint is wholly faulty because the business for software like paint is absolutely tiny. The market for knowledge management systems is huge. I.e. No one gives a shit about the market for computerized paint software but everyone wants to manage knowledge with a web-based approach.
If so, the rate reflects the governments rate which it will pay out, and other fees that might not be recovered, in the event of a default.
That is just patently untrue. That rate reflects whatever banks can get away with charging people and still keep loan volume at a preferred level -- that is, price versus quantity or supply and demand.
Exactly- the tax benefits for mortgage interest is substantially more generous than for student loan interest. I really don't understand this. It seems like it should be the other way around.
I have to agree. Why is it that home ownership should be so subsidized while encouragement toward the pursuit of education is so stingy?
Robert Seagall of NPR did a report on the student loans' non-dischargability. The guy he interviews suggests that there is very limited evidence of students' intentionally running up student loan debt in preparation for bankruptcy -- it just doesn't happen.
If you could program them yourselves suddenly all those "approved" calculators aren't so trustworthy not to solve the exam for students.... although honestly if a calculator can solve the exam then probably the exam isn't testing much...
I never really understood why my high school and college math instructors insisted on writing exams that required me to work to a result such that a calculator was required. A well-written exam that tests knowledge of evaluating the arithmetic or calculus properties of a given function would obviate the whole issue of the trustworthiness of a calculator. It would also save students from what I always found to be frustrating, stressful, and easy-to-make data-entry errors.
The only reason to write tests requiring calculator use below linear algebra and diff eq, in my opinion, is to evaluate detail-orientedness, a word of even whose spelling I am not aware.
Lawsuits are a convenient way of getting the law changed or at least ruining it for those that abuse it. If one can prove the point that the law is unacceptable by demonstrating it using this case, then the law is unenforceable from that point forward.
What would you have people do? Write desperate missives to their congressmen imploring on them how ridiculous this law is in theory using hypotheticals? How far do you think that has ever gotten anyone?
No, "high temperature" superconductors cannot be used in magnets.
Are you suggesting then that work in high temperature superconductors will have few applications? That is, this work is intended to further theoretical progress to develop an understanding of the underlying reason that substances superconduct at all?
Some cursory research suggests the following applications:
-- electric motors, possibly for vehicle propulsion -- maglev devices -- magnetic refrigeration
It sounds to me like the primary application of superconductivity is in devices that incorporate magnets. Medical imaging devices like MRIs may also be affected by this discovery.
I am having difficulty imagining what an enjoyable advertisement in a game would be. Sure, a realistic video game Times Square would have ads. You wouldn't recognize Times Square without ads.
However, how many games really take place in a realistic environment where ads would be natural? After all, Times Square is really in a class of few in its placing of ads at the heart of the place.
Seriously, what kind of sense does it make to have a billboard advertising computer processors in the middle of a contested desert occupied by two villages, two air bases, a refinery, a gas station, two security check points, and some oil derricks? Ads just aren't going to be able to enhance these kinds of environments...
Slashdot Mirror
The number RSA-768 was taken from the now obsolete RSA Challenge list as a representative 768-bit RSA modulus.
In fact, the challenge list is defunct, the challenge having been canceled by RSA. The challenges are still scientifically interesting, so to call them obsolete is factually inaccurate.
Just to tag on to your comment, in the 10 years I have been using PDFs I have used exactly zero online submitable PDF forms. Zero. Not for taxes, not for the DMV, not for college applications, not for anything. Why would I use it? I have HTTP for that.
However, I have picked up a trojan horse virus infection from a PDF.
At a repair shop, however, the technicians have to be licensed.
Umm. Yeah, that's not true at all. There is no state car licensing authority and the state does not require that anyone be ASE certified.
What kind of argument is this? You're suggesting that because the government wastes some money it should have license to waste more? Come on...
That's fine, but that's not what parent said:
None; it's a donation that's put through as a support contract for legal reasons
A government agency can't pay for something that is not really going to be provided. That is, if the $1000 is going to get them no support, then someone is going to raise a red flag.
That Tom's hardware study you link to is pretty conclusive. We're looking at much greater than 40 watts -- we're looking at greater than 70 watts, most likely.
Fine narrative on why there would be extra power use. Where is the study with the numbers? Where does the number 40 come from, exactly? It sounds like you made it up, frankly.
Plug your computer into the wall through a power meter and you'll notice the difference between idle and heavy CPU use being easily over the 40 W the GP used.
Let's assume I don't have a Kill a watt, which I don't -- can you link me to some study defending your point?
Is it really likely that the computers weren't on anyway? If not, then surely someone would have noticed the fact that the computers were running all night for no reason sometime in the past 10 years...
The article has the following quote:
"Niesluchowski's wife, Susan, insisted her husband is a good man and great father who did nothing wrong. She said the software was authorized by a previous administration..."
However, since he was fired, it's not likely that he was able to present proof of authorization to the school board. For the record, I can't imagine how they came up with $1M for damages. If the computers were running all night and day regardless of whether SETI@home was running or not, you're looking at component wear and tear and additionally power consumption of virtually zero.
So basically Apple is saying "wait a few months, and we're releasing a netbook" ?
I too can really only explain it that way. At this point Apple is not in the market for netbooks, save, perhaps, for the iPod touches that serve as nearly full-featured netbooks in their own right (IMHO!). Given that, these makers of generally high-end computers have nothing to gain by failing to serve the Atom PC market. If they were in this market, such a move would be in their interest...
But tell me this -- if Apple were to build a netbook, why would they eliminate Atom capability since that processor could serve as the basis for a ultra small, low-power mac?
The parent poster asserted that OS virtualization made apps portable. This is false.
It may be true that OS virtualization does not itself make apps portable. However, the parent (VoidEngineer) does not assert what you suggest he does. Here's what he said:
Virtualization is indispensable for QA testing. Being able to run a virtual network on a personal PC lets me design, debug, and do proof-of-concepts without requiring the investment in actual equipment. Virtualization isn't just about hardware consolidation: it's also about application portability. Small companies have just as much need for QA testing
He is using virtualization to simulate platforms on which the software he is developing runs. By doing this, he makes the application portable by ensuring that it works on all platforms. His point is that virtualization makes un-necessary all the costly hardware that traditionally was required to perform platform-portability testing. For a small operation, virtualization in this regard is clearly an enabler of portability.
Your app should work on all supported operating systems regardless of the underlying hardware anyway.
The point is to make operating systems supported in the first place. That's what virtualization is helping the developer to ensure.
You missed the point.
iTunes got reinstalled. Google Toolbar didn't. That's the real story here.
You make a good point. iTunes must have some utility that google toolbar didn't. Perhaps this utility is that it is the best-known interface between a computer and the number 1 best selling line of portable digital music plaayers in the world.
Here's the a quote from the article of a user who found that Windows 7 asked that the user uninstall iTunes:
...and I reinstalled iTunes which worked fine without any configuration, my library and apps were all there.
While I agree it is suspicious that iTunes and the Google Toolbar were the only applications that Windows 7 ask that particular user to uninstall, it should be made clear that Windows 7 did not impede the user from using that software or foist a MS application on him.
I will note that many users had significant difficulties with using non-Apple software after upgrading to Snow Leopard.
I myself have had significant difficulties using already installed software after upgrading various shared libraries via ports on FreeBSD.
I would suggest that these issues are along the lines of what Microsoft was doing when it asked the user to uninstall iTunes and the Google Toolbar.
Any way you look at those numbers the momentum is huge, lop 50% off, hell lop 75% off and it is still a massive number for a portal/collaboration product.
You make a great point about how large the user base for sharepoint is. However, if the numbers are so great, why would they need to inflate them? If the article above is correct, the vendor's sales and marketing experts believe that the sales boon to be had from making the the user base appear larger than it is overrides the embarrassment of making up the figures.
This would contrast with the scenario that you sketch out where sharepoint has really penetrated to such a degree that no lying on momentum is required.
This is like arguing over how many copies of MS Paint are used on a daily basis. It hardly matters. Microsoft sold it, and pocketed the income, which is cash that most likely WONT go to a SharePoint competitor, whether SharePoint gets used or not.
The story isn't merely to begrudge MS its sales. The point here is that even perceived momentum will push more users into Sharepoint on the assumption that a large user base is using it, which will be interpretted as Sharepoint being a system that will be any easy sell:
Such a marketing approach will mis-lead IT departments away from knowledge management systems that really solve the problems that Sharepoint does not by appealing to the corporate desires laid-out in the bullets above.
Your analogy to MS Paint is wholly faulty because the business for software like paint is absolutely tiny. The market for knowledge management systems is huge. I.e. No one gives a shit about the market for computerized paint software but everyone wants to manage knowledge with a web-based approach.
If so, the rate reflects the governments rate which it will pay out, and other fees that might not be recovered, in the event of a default.
That is just patently untrue. That rate reflects whatever banks can get away with charging people and still keep loan volume at a preferred level -- that is, price versus quantity or supply and demand.
Exactly- the tax benefits for mortgage interest is substantially more generous than for student loan interest. I really don't understand this. It seems like it should be the other way around.
I have to agree. Why is it that home ownership should be so subsidized while encouragement toward the pursuit of education is so stingy?
Robert Seagall of NPR did a report on the student loans' non-dischargability. The guy he interviews suggests that there is very limited evidence of students' intentionally running up student loan debt in preparation for bankruptcy -- it just doesn't happen.
If you could program them yourselves suddenly all those "approved" calculators aren't so trustworthy not to solve the exam for students.... although honestly if a calculator can solve the exam then probably the exam isn't testing much...
I never really understood why my high school and college math instructors insisted on writing exams that required me to work to a result such that a calculator was required. A well-written exam that tests knowledge of evaluating the arithmetic or calculus properties of a given function would obviate the whole issue of the trustworthiness of a calculator. It would also save students from what I always found to be frustrating, stressful, and easy-to-make data-entry errors.
The only reason to write tests requiring calculator use below linear algebra and diff eq, in my opinion, is to evaluate detail-orientedness, a word of even whose spelling I am not aware.
Lawsuits are a convenient way of getting the law changed or at least ruining it for those that abuse it. If one can prove the point that the law is unacceptable by demonstrating it using this case, then the law is unenforceable from that point forward.
What would you have people do? Write desperate missives to their congressmen imploring on them how ridiculous this law is in theory using hypotheticals? How far do you think that has ever gotten anyone?
No, "high temperature" superconductors cannot be used in magnets.
Are you suggesting then that work in high temperature superconductors will have few applications? That is, this work is intended to further theoretical progress to develop an understanding of the underlying reason that substances superconduct at all?
Some cursory research suggests the following applications:
-- electric motors, possibly for vehicle propulsion
-- maglev devices
-- magnetic refrigeration
It sounds to me like the primary application of superconductivity is in devices that incorporate magnets. Medical imaging devices like MRIs may also be affected by this discovery.
All of this is due to the fact that superdoncuting magnets produce stronger magnetic fields than conventional electromagnets and are cheaper to operate
I am having difficulty imagining what an enjoyable advertisement in a game would be. Sure, a realistic video game Times Square would have ads. You wouldn't recognize Times Square without ads.
However, how many games really take place in a realistic environment where ads would be natural? After all, Times Square is really in a class of few in its placing of ads at the heart of the place.
The only ad I've ever seen in a video game is billboards advertising Intel Core2 processors in the Highway Tampa map for Battlefield2.
Seriously, what kind of sense does it make to have a billboard advertising computer processors in the middle of a contested desert occupied by two villages, two air bases, a refinery, a gas station, two security check points, and some oil derricks? Ads just aren't going to be able to enhance these kinds of environments...