The added time it would take for a script to TCP connect scan every single port on an entire netblock or selection of random IP addresses does give you security.
No, it gives you obscurity.
There are many different ways of scanning for vulnerable machines, and actively connecting to different ports on each machine is only one of them.
Instead of just monitoring let's modify the system so that we can turn circuits on and off remotely as well as being able to monitor usage.
You've clearly never tried to do this, because it is massively difficult.
Nobody would ever suggest doing this for a private home, because the huge cost, time, hassle, and minor savings aren't worth it. (A large office building is a different case.)
If you want to save energy, use (good) fluorescent light bulbs instead. They use as little as 1/10th as much power, and lights are usually the single biggest power drain in a home.
Beyond that, just train the people in your home to start shutting off the lights when they leave the room. It works far better than any automated system could.
as well as calling the Police or Fire Dept. in case of an emergency.
This is an incredibly bad idea. One faulty smoke detector and you could be paying several hundred dollars to the emergency services.
This only works for alarm systems because you have a phone-bank of waiting personell to read what the automated system is saying, sanity-check the results, call-back the occupants of the home to verify the issue, and only then call the emergency services.
Very nice... I was going to mention the Kill-A-Watt here if nobody else did.
I only have one ($30) and it's all I've ever needed. Plug it in to a device for a day/week/month and it will tell you exactly how much power it has used over that period of time, the power factor, the average voltage level, etc.
Until you've used a power meter, your guesses as to how much power each device uses will be very far off the mark.
I've learned all sorts of interesting things. Like how newer northbridges are using as much as 30watts more power than than older northbridges driving the same CPU/RAM. How that single issue causes newer motherboards (for 32bit AMD CPUs) with S2K/Bus Disconnect support to actually use up more power AT IDLE than older motherboards without S2K support. Of course, the meter is also how I got involved in S2K support in the first place, realizing that the power difference in an AMD system at IDLE/LOAD was nominal (eg. 5WATTS on a 90WATT system).
I also learned that, despite people saying how much lower-power swamp coolers are, that a medium-sized swamp-cooler will still use about 40% as much power as a small air conditioner, that will cool the same area. Perhaps this is an issue of people having old or ineffecient air conditioners that need to be recharged? Never the less, urban legends about power usage abound.
I was equally amazed that my new (fairly large) energy effecient refridgerator is using up an average of about 500watts continually, more than all my computers would if left running constantly (about half are usually off).
And finally, lightbulbs were a surprise. One fluorescent screw-type bulb can use 4Xs as much power as a different brand. The worst (cheapest) fluorescent bulbs use about 1/2rd as much power as equivalent incandescent bulbs.
If you really want to be protected, use a firewall for NAT only, and do not map any ports back to your inside box.
What do you mean about "NAT only"?
NAT provides NO protection at all, just a slight bit of obscurity that anyone with basic networking know-how can get around.
Whether you use NAT or have globally unique IP addresses for each of your boxes, there is no difference in the level of security at all.
In either case, use only a stateful firewall, and don't allow any incomming connections unless they are part of a connection initated from the local network.
The second and third movies are so pathetic, that it's obvious to anyone who has seen the movies that they weren't written by the same people.
You know something, I could say that about Jurassic Park as well. Or Star Wars. But that doesn't make it the correct assumption. People like to believe someone who has done good movies will never do bad ones, but that's really not how it works. The best creative minds in the world write crap sometimes, and the worst can still occasionally come up with something good.
It's entirely possible the Wachowskis had one good idea for a movie (the original), and simply couldn't come up with another.
I'm not saying Sophia Stewart is lying, but I'd want a lot more evidence than just the fact that the sequals were lowsy.
Wrong. Instant creation of new big business is what happens. Not negation.
Wrong. Cable and Satellite require a big business to pay for the infrastructure. Internet broadcasting doesn't require a lot of money, or the backing of a big company. Even if a big company sets up 1,000 channels, which you can purchase, there is nothing they can do to stop Fred from setting up his own $5/month channel, and delivering to you.
IPTV is something that big companies can't lock small companies (or individuals) out of. And big companies only thrive when they CAN lock small companies out, and charge whatever insane fees then want to, due to the lack of competition.
I'm sure a few high-enders like Playboy and such will come out with solid HDTV releases, but most of the industry don't want to.
Are you kidding? Playboy is the connoisseur of the airbrush.
That said, all this about HDTV allowing you to see more is idiotic. The vertical resolution is only twice as good, AT MOST. Pull the camera further away from the subjects, and you're right back to the same resolution.
Current HDTV cameras have extremely high resolutions, which sucks no matter what the subject is. It's like watching 1970s live basketball games again, where the color is terribly screwed up. If the porn industry is the force behind new cameras that make people look harfway human, more power to them.
That's one of the biggest things that tempts me to build a Linux media center to replace my current DVD player: mplayer lets me skip all that crap at the start of the disc.
Tempts you? Hell, I did it years ago.
Then you just add-in a capture card, and you've got a DVR.
Less money up-front than a Tivo, and it can do far, far, far more. Edit out commercials, convert to any format you want, burn to DVD, CD, SVCD, etc.
Once you've got a remote hooked-up and configured, a computer is easier to use than a typical DVD-player.
It's nothing fancy, but I say a big advantage of HD DVD is that I CAN ALREADY MAKE THEM!
What are you talking about? You don't have an HD-DVD burner, I'm sure. If you're just talking about making the HD-DVD image, well hell, anybody can make an image for any format once the specs are out. The codecs are all standard stuff that's been around for a couple years.
Everything was proceeding nicely when, suddenly, my firewall started going nuts with dozens of incoming probes to ports commonly used by sql server, oracle, various license managers, and so on.
I don't know about you, but my firewall doesn't go "nuts". It just blocks all the unwanted incomming connections, and keeps on routing packets.
the plot was taken straight out of several Kurosawa movies
I've heard this a lot. Lucas even said Star Wars was based on The Hidden Fortress. After watching several Kurosawa movies, guess what? I don't see much resemblance. Lucas said Hidden Fortress, and except for having a "Princess", there's almost no similarity. And even there, it's vastly different. In Hidden Fortress, she's actually a princess. What was Leia princess of again?
Also, to correct your original reply, this mandate isn't for HDTV, its for DTV.
That is a TRIVIAL difference. DTV implies HDTV, and vice versa. There's no such thing as analog HDTV, so it's pretty trite and banal to make that an issue.
By 2009, all ANALOG signals will be phased out. If you are still using services or devices which accept analog signals, you will need a converter or new equipment.
Gee, thanks... </SARCASM>
I obviously know a lot more about the issue than you do. For one thing, it only applies to OVER-THE-AIR BROADCASTS. Cable and Satellite TV subscribers will NOT be affected in the slightest by the deadline. In addition, it's patently riddiculous to believe your DVD-player is going to stop working with your TV in 2009, or that the DVDs Netflix sends you in 2009 will somehow not work in your DVD-player.
I choose not to pay all of those costs to upgrade my equipment, just so I can still see the same programming on the same set (or a new set), with no added benefit.
First of all, YOUR CABLE SUBSCRIPTION WILL STILL WORK WITH YOUR SAME EQUIPMENT. NO UPGRADE!
Why would I care to see my favorite shows like Law & Order or CSI in DTV, when they work perfectly fine right now?
I don't know how you can think that's a logical argument.
There is no reason to upgrade, there is no benefit,
First off, YOU DON'T HAVE TO UPGRADE ANYTHING. Second, THERE ARE NUMEROUS BENEFITS TO DTV.
and I'm going to be saving lots of money by simply cancelling our services instead,
Of course, the question any rational person would ask is: Then why aren't you cancelling your services now? You don't have to wait until 2009, you can cancel your Cable TV and Netflix subscription right now, and save all that money over the next 3.5 years. Why would you wait until 2009 to cancel them, if saving money is the idea?
Its not a matter of effort, its a matter of the DVD itself disabling the 'Menu', 'Chapter', 'Forward', and other buttons on 5 players we have here,
Yes, the DVD jumps out of the drive-tray and super-glues those buttons...
The restrictions have NOTHING to do with the disc, and everything to do with your player.
I haven't found a portable player yet that ignores these instructions,
It's all a matter of the firmware on the device... It's VERY EASY to find improved firmware for most DVD players, that doesn't have such stupid restrictions.
If you're not willing to put the tiniest bit of effort into fixing your DVD player, then enjoy the commercials.
Now I know exactly when to throw out the old TV, cancel our cable television service and drop the NetFlix subscription...
Your Netflix subscription will continue to work fine on your TV. Your cable TV will most likely not change in the slightest.
OTA will be the only thing to change, and a $50 box (which the Fed may be buying you) is all that you need if you want OTA programming.
With the broadcast flag being fully entrenched by that time (whether passed via a rider on some unrelated bill or otherwise)
Even if you're that paranoid, you still have a nice grace period. Buy a digital reciever now, and you can get it without any broadcast flag restrictions.
We can't even skip past the commercials on DVDs now.
Really? I can. It's not difficult at all if you put the slightest effort into it.
The best HD reality shows lie right outside my front door.
People that want to rant about how much they dislike TV are just loving the HDTV switchover. Anywhere else this would just be an idiotic off-topic tinfoil-hat rant. But on HDTV, you get enough people with mod points that don't understand how it works, that just might fall for your bullshit.
so I need some creative ideas as to what I should do with them.
I suggest walking into an Apple store with them, and sticking them on all the new Intel-based Macs.
That should make them a good reminder as to how much Apple has been lying to everyone over the years. Everyone should remember the PPC ads when their next generation of advertising comes out.
3) These lamps must be crammed into a small space, so metal-halide lamps are used over halogen, as they have a much higher luminous output for a lower power dissipation. Hence the >$10 bulb costs. This does sacrifice some color accuracy, but you gotta do what you gotta do when price and size are factors.
That makes it a good idea if size is a serious issue, and price is not an issue at all, which is completely wrong. I dare say, most purchasers of projectors would be happy to buy a unit that cost significantly less, uses a much cheaper bulb, etc, that was double the size. In fact, I'm rather sure, as old LCD projectors are at least double the size of the current projectors.
Even a cheap Infocus X1 has a 150W lamp in it. It's metal-halide, too, so it requires a constant-current DC supply that is also capable of supplying 6kV peaks to strike the arc.
Haha. Well, there goes the whole low-power thing you were talking about... They're probably wasting 50% power, so it's a lot closer to those cheap 600watt bulbs already.
And yes, you could easily add some electronics to get very consistent AC current. There's absolutely no need for a DC adapter and bulb.
I still think CRT's rule, though...
Yeah, when price is no object. When I'm paying for it, I'll stick with $300 LCDs.
What's going to happen when they open the spectrum up? Are they going to sell it at ENORMOUS COST to companies that will just hold it in check for safe keeping like they did with plenty of other parts of the spectrum?
If so, then the companies will have paid for all those $50 converter boxes, and you don't need to fucking complain about the government wasting your tax dollars...
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No, it gives you obscurity.
There are many different ways of scanning for vulnerable machines, and actively connecting to different ports on each machine is only one of them.
You've clearly never tried to do this, because it is massively difficult.
Nobody would ever suggest doing this for a private home, because the huge cost, time, hassle, and minor savings aren't worth it. (A large office building is a different case.)
If you want to save energy, use (good) fluorescent light bulbs instead. They use as little as 1/10th as much power, and lights are usually the single biggest power drain in a home.
Beyond that, just train the people in your home to start shutting off the lights when they leave the room. It works far better than any automated system could.
This is an incredibly bad idea. One faulty smoke detector and you could be paying several hundred dollars to the emergency services.
This only works for alarm systems because you have a phone-bank of waiting personell to read what the automated system is saying, sanity-check the results, call-back the occupants of the home to verify the issue, and only then call the emergency services.
Very nice... I was going to mention the Kill-A-Watt here if nobody else did.
I only have one ($30) and it's all I've ever needed. Plug it in to a device for a day/week/month and it will tell you exactly how much power it has used over that period of time, the power factor, the average voltage level, etc.
Until you've used a power meter, your guesses as to how much power each device uses will be very far off the mark.
I've learned all sorts of interesting things. Like how newer northbridges are using as much as 30watts more power than than older northbridges driving the same CPU/RAM. How that single issue causes newer motherboards (for 32bit AMD CPUs) with S2K/Bus Disconnect support to actually use up more power AT IDLE than older motherboards without S2K support. Of course, the meter is also how I got involved in S2K support in the first place, realizing that the power difference in an AMD system at IDLE/LOAD was nominal (eg. 5WATTS on a 90WATT system).
I also learned that, despite people saying how much lower-power swamp coolers are, that a medium-sized swamp-cooler will still use about 40% as much power as a small air conditioner, that will cool the same area. Perhaps this is an issue of people having old or ineffecient air conditioners that need to be recharged? Never the less, urban legends about power usage abound.
I was equally amazed that my new (fairly large) energy effecient refridgerator is using up an average of about 500watts continually, more than all my computers would if left running constantly (about half are usually off).
And finally, lightbulbs were a surprise. One fluorescent screw-type bulb can use 4Xs as much power as a different brand. The worst (cheapest) fluorescent bulbs use about 1/2rd as much power as equivalent incandescent bulbs.
It wasn't a joke, but it went WAY over your head...
Anyony using non-standard ports is just lulling themselves into a false sense of security.
What do you mean about "NAT only"?
NAT provides NO protection at all, just a slight bit of obscurity that anyone with basic networking know-how can get around.
Whether you use NAT or have globally unique IP addresses for each of your boxes, there is no difference in the level of security at all.
In either case, use only a stateful firewall, and don't allow any incomming connections unless they are part of a connection initated from the local network.
*slaps forehead*
It doesn't matter if it opens a port for RDP or not if RDP is disabled anyhow. All that matters is if it opens up a port when RDP is running.
Of course, this is a stupid discussion anyhow. If the firewall blocked RDP, you couldn't make use of it, so what's the point?
You know something, I could say that about Jurassic Park as well. Or Star Wars. But that doesn't make it the correct assumption. People like to believe someone who has done good movies will never do bad ones, but that's really not how it works. The best creative minds in the world write crap sometimes, and the worst can still occasionally come up with something good.
It's entirely possible the Wachowskis had one good idea for a movie (the original), and simply couldn't come up with another.
I'm not saying Sophia Stewart is lying, but I'd want a lot more evidence than just the fact that the sequals were lowsy.
Wrong. Cable and Satellite require a big business to pay for the infrastructure. Internet broadcasting doesn't require a lot of money, or the backing of a big company. Even if a big company sets up 1,000 channels, which you can purchase, there is nothing they can do to stop Fred from setting up his own $5/month channel, and delivering to you.
IPTV is something that big companies can't lock small companies (or individuals) out of. And big companies only thrive when they CAN lock small companies out, and charge whatever insane fees then want to, due to the lack of competition.
Are you kidding? Playboy is the connoisseur of the airbrush.
That said, all this about HDTV allowing you to see more is idiotic. The vertical resolution is only twice as good, AT MOST. Pull the camera further away from the subjects, and you're right back to the same resolution.
Current HDTV cameras have extremely high resolutions, which sucks no matter what the subject is. It's like watching 1970s live basketball games again, where the color is terribly screwed up. If the porn industry is the force behind new cameras that make people look harfway human, more power to them.
Tempts you? Hell, I did it years ago.
Then you just add-in a capture card, and you've got a DVR.
Less money up-front than a Tivo, and it can do far, far, far more. Edit out commercials, convert to any format you want, burn to DVD, CD, SVCD, etc.
Once you've got a remote hooked-up and configured, a computer is easier to use than a typical DVD-player.
But this time around, it's ALSO higher capacity than the competition.
It's open and a standard, so the fees and totalitarian rule of Sony won't be a problem this time around.
Actually, I think they're both doomed (look at VHS vs LaserDisc).
What are you talking about? You don't have an HD-DVD burner, I'm sure. If you're just talking about making the HD-DVD image, well hell, anybody can make an image for any format once the specs are out. The codecs are all standard stuff that's been around for a couple years.
In other words ZERO advantage. 100% bullshit.
I don't know about you, but my firewall doesn't go "nuts". It just blocks all the unwanted incomming connections, and keeps on routing packets.
I feel so terribly inadequate right now.
I've heard this a lot. Lucas even said Star Wars was based on The Hidden Fortress. After watching several Kurosawa movies, guess what? I don't see much resemblance. Lucas said Hidden Fortress, and except for having a "Princess", there's almost no similarity. And even there, it's vastly different.
In Hidden Fortress, she's actually a princess. What was Leia princess of again?
Nice. It's a shame slashdot doesn't have editors.
That is a TRIVIAL difference. DTV implies HDTV, and vice versa. There's no such thing as analog HDTV, so it's pretty trite and banal to make that an issue.
Gee, thanks... </SARCASM>
I obviously know a lot more about the issue than you do. For one thing, it only applies to OVER-THE-AIR BROADCASTS. Cable and Satellite TV subscribers will NOT be affected in the slightest by the deadline. In addition, it's patently riddiculous to believe your DVD-player is going to stop working with your TV in 2009, or that the DVDs Netflix sends you in 2009 will somehow not work in your DVD-player.
First of all, YOUR CABLE SUBSCRIPTION WILL STILL WORK WITH YOUR SAME EQUIPMENT. NO UPGRADE!
I don't know how you can think that's a logical argument.
First off, YOU DON'T HAVE TO UPGRADE ANYTHING. Second, THERE ARE NUMEROUS BENEFITS TO DTV.
Of course, the question any rational person would ask is: Then why aren't you cancelling your services now? You don't have to wait until 2009, you can cancel your Cable TV and Netflix subscription right now, and save all that money over the next 3.5 years. Why would you wait until 2009 to cancel them, if saving money is the idea?
Yes, that specific ad was about G3 vs PII. However, the ad compaign against Pentiums has continued to this day. G4s vs. P3s. G5s vs. P4s. Etc.
No, of course not. You're just imagining this page on Apple.com:
http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/
Yes, that's exactly what I think whenever I read one of your posts...
ACTUALLY, I CAN.
Yes, the DVD jumps out of the drive-tray and super-glues those buttons...
The restrictions have NOTHING to do with the disc, and everything to do with your player.
It's all a matter of the firmware on the device... It's VERY EASY to find improved firmware for most DVD players, that doesn't have such stupid restrictions.
If you're not willing to put the tiniest bit of effort into fixing your DVD player, then enjoy the commercials.
Your Netflix subscription will continue to work fine on your TV. Your cable TV will most likely not change in the slightest.
OTA will be the only thing to change, and a $50 box (which the Fed may be buying you) is all that you need if you want OTA programming.
Even if you're that paranoid, you still have a nice grace period. Buy a digital reciever now, and you can get it without any broadcast flag restrictions.
Really? I can. It's not difficult at all if you put the slightest effort into it.
People that want to rant about how much they dislike TV are just loving the HDTV switchover. Anywhere else this would just be an idiotic off-topic tinfoil-hat rant. But on HDTV, you get enough people with mod points that don't understand how it works, that just might fall for your bullshit.
I suggest walking into an Apple store with them, and sticking them on all the new Intel-based Macs.
That should make them a good reminder as to how much Apple has been lying to everyone over the years. Everyone should remember the PPC ads when their next generation of advertising comes out.
That makes it a good idea if size is a serious issue, and price is not an issue at all, which is completely wrong. I dare say, most purchasers of projectors would be happy to buy a unit that cost significantly less, uses a much cheaper bulb, etc, that was double the size. In fact, I'm rather sure, as old LCD projectors are at least double the size of the current projectors.
Haha. Well, there goes the whole low-power thing you were talking about... They're probably wasting 50% power, so it's a lot closer to those cheap 600watt bulbs already.
And yes, you could easily add some electronics to get very consistent AC current. There's absolutely no need for a DC adapter and bulb.
Yeah, when price is no object. When I'm paying for it, I'll stick with $300 LCDs.
If so, then the companies will have paid for all those $50 converter boxes, and you don't need to fucking complain about the government wasting your tax dollars...
Well Canada, you don't seem to have much idea what's going on here. Analog sets are going to be dark.
The 2009 deadline IS THE MANDATED DATE TO ELIMINATE ANALOG SIGNALS.