Ok, so the procedure can produce a piece of paper that can act like an LCD screen. This sounds really great, but why didn't they mention it can be used to replace TVs, or even screens.
According to their values quoted (270,000 pixels on a 6.3cm screen) it works out to about 64 pixels per square millimeter. Now that sounds like much better than TV quality, and sounds to me like its Screen quality.
So why haven't they mentioned this ability? What is wrong with the technology that it can be used as a screen for your computer. They mentioned using it in Wireless Internet applications, but never once as a replacement for your TV.
So what did I miss? Either I missed something, or they have really sucky marketing. (People don't care *THAT* much about their cellphones screen quality, but tell them you can make their TV screen as thin as a piece of paper, and much much better technology, and they'll come in the droves if you have the product made).
Its a damn nice product, but I want to know why I can't use it as a replacement for my TV.
If the binary (virus) isn't executed by the OS/software/user, then the most it can do is sit there and waste space. Ethier the OS/Software/User must execute the binary. Afaik the PalmOS doesn't execute code received via the IR port automagically, so its a non deal(see below).
However, it can be a deal, most virii/worms/trojans require some manual interaction, (eg the user clicking on an attachment, downloading an infected program, etc). On the other hard, due to various software bugs (or inherint design flaws), it is possible for some worm/virii to travel without user intervention util the bug is fixed.
There are two ways to make a virus/worm travel, make it likely the user will run your code (hotpic.jpg.vs or, in the good 'ol viruses, attach to every executable in the system), or to exploit a bug in a piece of software that will make it automatically run your binary.
Back on topic, Palm virii. I suppose (assuming there is no exploitable bug) a virus could just be uploaded, and wait for the user to click it. As is the case with the current trend of viruses. As we know from past experience, users will run almost anything given to them. (Even to the point of downloading a file like hotpic.jpg.vs from gnutella (which doesn't hide the extensions) and then go find it on their HD, and then double click on it!).
So if a virus can transmit itself in the form of an exe/script via email and still be considered a threat, then yup prepare for the media hype this time, as "thousands of business executives at trade shows, conferences, or even just walking down the street are at threat from this new highly dangerous virus" (ugh!).
The easiest defense against email viruses is to filter.exe's, screensavers, and various other scripts at your local mail server. The only ones that can get through after that are document macros, and I'm looking (read: someone write this for me, I don't have the time) for a linux program that can strip macros from word/excel documents. (Oh wouldn't that be nice!).
Esentialy I can create DNet packets that say that I have tried these key-blocks, and they don't work, and the result was 0x12345678 The problem is I can lie, and say I've done them when I haven't. There are a two main ways to combat this.
Redundancy - Give each key-block to a number of clients, and if one says the result was a different number than the others, then that one may be cheating. The problem is if a LOT of clients are cheating, you start running into higher ratios, and have difficulty determining what the right answer is.
Block Processing analysis. If someone is going through 10 billion keys a second, they are either the NSA, or are cheating. This is the primary way to detect cheaters, however its not always accurate, and as people get smarter, they'll start submitting their keys slower, and from different IP addresses, and use different email addresses.
Another way would be to make the result the client sends computationaly difficult to find, but easy to verify. (Hmm, sounds like encryption to me). I'm not totaly sure what result the client sends back, but if something like this was possible, then the server could always verify if the key indeed has been checked.
If i recall, the DNet system involves giving each client a block of keys, some cipher text, and some clear text, and telling the client to try the key and see if it gets clear text.
From my quick read of the article, it appears that although the data is copied onto numerous servers, there is still some list of central servers.
If, like the gnutella system, it can be total distributed, and no central server(s) (to attack), then it is a good thing(tm). However if like napster or IRC servers, there are a specific list of central servers, which doesn't change often, then there can be points of attack (legal attacks I'm meaning).
Freenet is (afiak) totaly distributed, and the data is spread accross many many servers (run by clients, like gnutella), which in my opinion is a good thing(tm). Each server can only see that a client is downloading some random chunk, and never sees the entire file. So I can download mp3s without any of the servers I'm getting them from knowing what I'm getting.
I'm not sure if the content on freenet servers are encrypted at all, so it might be obivous if you have a chunk of a file on your server that has an MP3 header in it, that people getting that chunk are getting an mp3.
If this system works like freenet, but offers encryption of the content, then that would be a very very good thing(tm).
The sort of system I'd be looking for is something where:
Files are split in small chunks, and the chunks are distributed to many servers, with many duplicates (eg serverA and M may host the same chunk of the same file).
Files stored on the server are encrypted. The key is stored in part with the server. (eg to get the whole key, you need to get the whole file, from different servers
Its impossible to tell what the name/url of the chunks you have on your server are.
Totaly distributed (like gnutella), with enough redundancy that almost all files are available online right now.
May be a pretty difficult system, but as I said, AFIAK, FreeNet is something close to this.
The blackhole itself is not actually emmitting the "bubbles". The "bubbles" occur as a result of gas being sucked into the singularity. Some of the gas, rather than spiraling into the singularity shoots off in another direction, and, well, read the article to get a basic understanding of it.
Yes Stephen Hawking has predicted black holes could emmit radiation (Hawking radiation), however it wouldn't be of such a large and sizable ammount.
When I went to the states on a holiday I was stunned to hear that a cellphone owner pays for incoming calls!
In New Zealand, normally it costs the caller, and only with some special services (eg 0800 numbers (equiv 1800)) does it cost the other party. With most pagers, the pager owner pays a monthly fee, and the caller pays some really cheap (like 10c) fee to send a page. However, in New Zealand, pagers and cellphone numbers start with 021-nnn-nnnn or 025-nnn-nnnn.
However, we do have the same sort of system that you are getting, a once off connection fee, and the caller pays (more) for paging.
One interesting feature we are getting is the ability to receive internet emails via digital cellphones. However there is a problem with this, the cellphone owner pays for each email sent to their phone, wether they want it or not. So if I know your cellphone email address, and I sent a 1000 emails to it (mailbomb), well...
However, back to the cellphones, Its really neat that caller pays, I have a cellphone with me all the time, and since I don't pay when someone calls me, its really handy for business. I usually make calls on a land-line whenever available so I have a low monthly fee.
If it wasn't for the fact that I need a landline for my ISP connection, I could feasibly get rid of my landline. $35/month for landline (flat rate, no per minute charges), vs anywhere between $0 (for prepay phones) or $20+ (for monthly fee phones) for cellphones per month, with call charges.
First thing I did was use Debian, imho it has a better packaging system. But I don't think that will solve your problems. Though debian does come with a resonable base system (~50megs I think). And if you setup your partitions right, you can install your base system, then mount/usr readonly, but have/usr/local read-write. So the base system can't be touched (excluding confs in/etc), but you can still add new apps yourself.
However, I don't do that, I just use debian, and when I want to compile something from source, I usually create a/usr/local/ for it, and compile destined for there: eg:./configure --prefix=/usr/local/kde2
I also do it totally non root, so that there is no chance of me writting over anything else.
The problem comes if you want to install a package that depends on something you compilied yourself. The packaging system doesn't know you have it. When that comes along, I usually just compile the desired program from source, and it finds the libs it needs.
In the end, if you want to use package management, you really need to use it all of the time, or hassels will develop.
One point though. "Alien" is really handy. Its an app that converts between binary tarballs, rpms, and debs. I use it to convert RPMs to Debs all the time. It seems to work okay.
One quote I like is this:.... the other case aims to prevent people from using DeCSS, a program that can unscramble encrypted digital video disks (DVD) and let people copy them.
"The principle occupation [of the MPAA] is to make sure that American movies move freely and unhobbled around the world,".... says Valenti, defending the cases.
Wouldn't the best way to make movies move freely and unhobbled around the world be to unencrypt the movie, or atleast allow others to? That way they can be copied and distributed to everyone.
a New Jersey senator introduced legislation Thursday that would forbid Web sites from gathering personally identifiable information from Web surfers without getting their permission first. (Emphasis added)
The phrase personally identifiable information concerns me, what exactly is it. From what I can tell, its any information that may be able to be used to identify a person. So, obviously, your slashdot userid. Thats ok, since slashdot basically asks your permission anyway. (you need to sign up first).
But what about Apaches mod_usertrack, which issues cookies automagically to the browser so the admin can follow the user around their website. (This is a good thing, since it allows webmasters to see where things could be improved). Would this be disallowed, you see, from these cookies, I can identify you when you return to the website.
The sane definition of personnaly identifable information would be information that relates to you. (eg name, address, phone, email, age, sex, etc). However, doesn't that mean that bannerad companies can still track you, so long as they don't make any attempt to identify you?.
In my opinion, this is a good thing. I don't mind seeing only techo ads, because I visit lots of tech sites, and seeing techo ads even when I visit search engines. However, lets say the Company Evil Intentions Inc., with your permission, got your name and email. Then went to doubleclick, and said, right, this user here, whats his browsing habits like? Doubleclick won't have done anything wrong, since the information they collected can't be used to identify you, but now Evil Intentions Inc now know all about those "other" sites you went to.
And of course, if we say that bannerad companies can't track you, then that should, in all fairness, go for website admins using mod_usertrack.
What about if Doubleclick picks up shop and moves to a country where it CAN gather personally identifiable information?. We are back to square one.
In my opinion, the legislation is a good one, and I'd like to see it go through. However, there is a simplier way to deal with this. Stop bannerad companies tracking you. Easy enough, disable cookies in images. That will stop doubletrack mostly, the only other way I can think is if they use layers. I haven't done html development in awhile, so I'm not sure if you can have "remote" layers, where the layer is retrieved seperate from the page. But again, just disable cookies in that.
That will stop most bannerads tracking you. I'd like to see this change in Mozilla. (Don't tell me to code it myself, I will, but only after Mozilla is stable).
So in the end, yes this legislation is good, but it won't solve the problem.
like you need rysnc. From what little I know of it, it basically maintains a mirror of directories. I think its normaly used one way (as in, mirroring from a central server), but I can't see why you couldn't use it both ways. Run rsync in a cron job, say every 10 mins, and that should be fine. I would definatly take a close look at rsync if I were you.
Taking a very quick look at the documentation myself, I see that you'd probably have a rsync server running on each site, and then have a cronjob run on each site that mirrors every other site. If all 3 sites do this, it should mirror pretty well. The lag time will probably be something like 2T, where T is the time between cronjob runs.
In regards to your specific what-if questions, I think the best way to answer those will be to try it out yourself.:) Hope that helps
I'm not sure what the copyright/ownership of the images you request are, I've only just started looking through the site. I'm not also sure of what the cost is, but never-the-less, all these ideas that ppl have. (Geek Compound, Source Code printed on fields, Area51 etc, etc) would all be great, but make sure you give it out. Post it on your site. It'd be nice to have some kind of board where shots ppl have had taken are posted, or atleast the URLs to them are posted, and others can have a look. Perhaps use slashdot. Say on this board.
I think that'd be neat. Cause if I could afford to, I'd snapshot the geek compound.. Taco/Hermos, whats your GPS coords?
Update - Just found some prices... mmm, very expensive, will have to explore more to get a better idea. If someone figures the prices out clearly, post them please.
Speaking as a developer of a few Open Source and Closed projects, I can say that there are some utilities out there that are a Godsend to developement projects.
The most obvious and commonly used development tool (other than the compiler!) is the Makefile. Thats the first step at intergrating things, and I don't think there are many out there that think the Makefile shouldn't be used. There are also many utils which are used commonly without realizing sometimes. Patch, diff, grep, awk, etc.
the most useful utility I use is CVS. I use it for my personal projects, aswell as group projects. It is amazingly handy. With my personal single-person projects, I use it because I develop and test on many machines, and I need a central storage of my project. In the group situation, the biggest problem I've encountered is keeping all the changes together, and coordinatly work. I think almost any multi+person development project would greatly benifit from some sort of Revision Control System.
Bug tracking systems are useful, but I find only worthwhile with larger projects that have a userbase. I've found a need sometimes for a smaller PostIt(tm) Note style system for development of non-public multideveloper projects would be very useful. Somewhere you can post a note saying; Check if their is a race-condition in xyz.
Other systems like automatic build systems can be useful for very large projects. But one of the biggest things is setting all these things up. Setting up CVS is relativly easy, it takes about a day to get things all sorted, and procedures outlined and tested. But setting up BugTracking or Build Systems takes longer. Sometimes its just better to get on with the code, than to try and work with systems that may or may not be useful to your project.
I think there is a BIG opening for some kind of intergrated multideveloper system (IMDS), that has CVS, bug tracking, automatic build systems, PostIt(tm) notes, central TODO lists, etc, etc all into one easy to install, easy to setup, easy to use system. It must be something that can be setup relativly painlessly (read: package it up in.debs and.rpms), and it should be client/server based, with little required on the client side. (cvs is good, I can tell someone to install the package, and type one command to get access. The important thing is simplicity. Developers want to say, "right, lets get things sorted, I'll just go spend 5 minutes installing this IDS, and then we can get back to work." Another important thing as I mentioned is little on the client side. Developers don't want to have to change their coding style/method to work with a new system. There are already a number of Intergrated Development Enviorments (IDEs) to code and build projects with. But bug tracking systems, cvs, etc, are all seperate.
One way to describe the system would be something that you get a few coders, give them the client system, and tell them to code, and they will be able to do so and intergrate/coordinate their efforts.
I know that there is something called the "Twiddler" that is basically a one handed keyboard. Anything else on the horizon that might work?
Theres something I'm interested in, but haven't had a chance to use for real (I've used the demo java applets). Quickwrite. Its very good for limited space input devices. I'd estimate the min space for it would be around 1"x1". (but that might be a bit difficult to use). Its not really good for long winded input. One handed, and can be used by left or right handed. Pretty fast too. It relies on the movement of a "pen" from the center, to a side/corner(s), and back to the center. eg center->left->center is 'T' (I think). and center->up&left->center is 'H' (I think). Basically, check out the site. If i ever get myself a PDA (personal digital assistant), I'll use that interface.
Right, now, all those with cable modems who are currently hearing it, start streaming it from your computer too. Post your ip here. *grin*. All others, bugger off so I can get on.
Seriously though, mp3-2.thesync.com resolves to only one IP address. Surely slashdot of all people would have figured we are gonna need more than one server. Never-the-less, TheSync set it up, so slashdot probably didn't have much control over it. Its a great idea, I just wish I could listen to it too!:)
Most people who debate in the matter of "Consoles" replacing desktops than I've talked to tend to miss a couple of things.
There is a reason why Linux isn't currently running on the desktop of CEOs of fortune 500 companies. What that reason is, isn't the matter here, its the fact that it exists. Can you *really* see Microsoft dumping desktop/servers. They could port their software to consols, but Microsofts attempts at porting tend to be less than sucesful.
Another point that is mentioned more, but not enough is viewing device. 17" monitors may be small compared to your 28" at home. But just try *reading* that 28". So it looks like for now, the legacy monitor will remain (Till something else with sharp clarity comes along (read: LCD, Plastic that glows, etc).
I suspect that Consoles won't replace PCs, and PCs won't replace consoles. PCs will on the whole get smaller, however, there is a possibility of having many small devices, like consoles, that do different things. A Games computer, an Office tools computer, Development computer, an Internet Computer. However, that won't happen till each device can communicate perfectly with every other device, preferably wireless. And the protocol and standards for such devices are open.
I suspect if the console was more Open, and you could play the same game on many different machines without having to go buy another copy, it could begin to replace the PC. But thats sounding more and more like a PC. One reason why they won't be more open is consoles can do such cool stuff because they are specifically designed to do it, and the games and specifically designed to work on one console, and the hardware is generally known at the time of game creation.
As far as I can tell, in the near future (say 5-10 years), consoles will remain primarily games only device.
In recent news, distributed.net has announced a new challege. The US government has sponsored the Crack Kevins Porn, errr, Disk Drive compitition.:)
Btw - I agree with Robs rant on advertising. I wish I could do that too.:)
Oh, and I run Junkbuster, and yup, I enable Ads for slashdot, and a few other sites.
The length of this broadcast was good. Not too short, umm, still not long enough, I'd prefer 24hr slashdot radio, but I'm just strange. But seriously I'd love to have broadcasts more often.
---
Re:Benefits of station & moon
on
On to Mars
·
· Score: 2
The trouble is, I dont think that the shuttle is capable of landing on the moon.
Aye, it can't land on the moon. Or atleast, if it tried, it'd make a big mess. And even if it did manage to land perfectly intact. It wouldn't be leaving in a hurry.
The least expensive (in the long run) method of earth-moon travel would be a craft designed to go from earth to orbit, and then another craft designed to go from earths orbit to the moon. Its a whole different ball game landing on the moon.
One thing that would be interesting would be an "elevator" to orbit. We recently discovered a material that was light enough, but strong enough to do such a thing. However the problem would be finding enough resources to build the damn thing.
The problem with releasing a website's code under the GPL is that it's entirely possible for someone to use the code without distributing it -- what's distributed is the content generated by the code, not the code itself (or binaries thereof). This is the same problem with GPLing optimizing compilers, and it hasn't prevented anyone from releasing plenty of compilers, but it is an application where the GPL might not be ideal.
True, but look at it from slashdots point of view. I doubt they will intergrate many features created by the public into their codebase. I've talked to Malda a number of times about new ideas and most of the time hes said that he isn't interested in putting xyz into slashdot.
The only thing they will loose if someone takes slashdot, and uses it on their own site, but doesn't distribute it, is any changes this person made, and any bug fixes.
Esentially here, slashdot (unless they've had a change of heart), don't want the community developing it for slashdot. (Yes, they don't mind the community developing the slashcode for themselves, but its unlikely they will incorperate many ideas into slashdot).
There are some really neat features that I'm sure the slashdot crew will incorperate, but I suspect they don't care that much if someone comes up with a new slashdot mod but doesn't distribute the modification.
If I were CmdrTaco, and last time I checked I'm not, I'd release it under the GPL, then fork the code. Have the pure slashdot code that I maintain, and let someone else maintain the public slashcode, that gets all the neat features added in. And if i saw a feature I liked, get a patch and add it to my slashdot.
How close, other than the mentioned slashboxes, is this to the real thing(tm).
I suppose you could sum it up two ways:
Is it bug for bug the same?
If we come up with a new amazing idea that is so amazing CmdrTaco instantly wants to put it in, will our patch to the Slash v0.9 go straight onto the real site, or is Slash v0.9 a total rewrite from the current running slashdot on slashdot.org?
Sounds to me like you just need a database backend with your own custom frontend. For the backend, I'd say go with one of the open source databases, (eg MySql, Postgress, etc). But you could probably go with whatever you want.
In regards to your concern of if one user were to update a record, the next time another user accesses that patient--on a different terminal--the correct information must be displayed. That is no troubles, you'd have to go out of your way to have that as a problem. (eg write special caching in the client or something).
As for your concerns on speed, etc. Let the backend deal with that. If you really feel a desire to help it along, you could access the database on a ramdrive, and do regular copies to a physical disk. (You don't want to loose a days changes if the server crashes).
I seriously doubt you'd need to use a ramdisk, as you mentioned it would be run on serveral terminals, which means "not hundreds". And even if 10 users were pounding out records every few secounds, I suspect even a slow server could handle the writes
For the frontend, you can do basically whatever you like, from a Command Line interface, to ncurses, to a webinterface. (if you do a webinterface, I recommend a Apache+php3+MySql combo).
Have fun, and remember to do lots of input checks, and don't forget to escape the input string before parsing it to the database. (eg " becomes \")
First off, you cannot turnoff downloads from your machice when you are connected, you MUST by design allow people to download. The best you can do is allow 1 download connection at a time.
You can, atleast in the latest version, limit the # of uploads per user to 0.
However, I'm not particularly happy with the program myself, for similar reasons, and another one being that when you hit close, it doesn't actually. You have to hit exit.:)
Oh, and to those who say, if you don't like it, write your own. Its a closed protocol atm. And looking at the packet analysis, its a strange one.
Filtering this program out shouldn't be hard. However, if the author wants to, allowing the clients to bypass the filters should be easy too.
The fight between the filterers, and the author, would be interesting.
I was watching some documentary on Air Force One (can't remember the channel, but it was probably Discovery), and the way it goes is this: whatever (air?) craft the prez is on, becomes One. So, if he were on an Army craft, it'd be called "Army One"...and so on. I think there was even a special designation if it's a commercial plane, but I can't remember what it is. Just FYI.
Yes, this is the case, thats why the Marine helicopter he uses to go from the Whitehouse to the plane is called Marine One when he's on board.
The plane commonly refered to as Air Force One is only called that when POTUS (President Of The United States) is onboard. Otherwise I think its known as VC1, but I'm not sure on that one, I'd have to check.
I don't recall ever, atleast in recent times, where the POTUS has ever been on a commercial jet, so I'm not sure what the designation would be.
Well, I don't know about Kerberos, but SSH is used a lot at places I contract to. OpenSSH is a free version of the Secure Shell suite. It uses public/private key encryption, aswell as symetric encryption.
Its availible to non-us citizens too. Lots of info on it can be found at the url above, but basically, its a good thing(tm).
How can society cope with a world where seeing can not equal believing?
Listen to what your mother said; Don't believe everything you see on TV. And the same goes with photos.
The only way in todays world to believe what you see, if you are an extreme skeptic, is to see and touch it yourself. I recently went to Madam Tusades(sp) and realized that seeing alone isn't enough:). But even seeing and touching may not be enough. (Fakes of famous pieces of art for example) Actually, its pretty much impossible to be 100% completly sure of something if you are an extreme enough of a skeptic.
To adapt a quote "Reality is in the eye of the beholder".
The biggest country in the world stating Linux (or more specifically Redhat Linux) is better than Windows 2000. And stating it in such a way that non-techos will listen, by banning the competition.
Its the biggest communist country in the world, now before you moderate me down as flamebate, just hear me out... so there is unlikely to be much in the way of backlash from their citizens. (I mean nothing like if the US decided to ban an Operating system (ANY Operating system)). And now they will have the medias eye.
Esentially this could be bad for linux, for all the negative conitations China brings with it. (Ah, before we go any further, I am speaking generally. That particular view isn't one I share. I don't have anything against ANY culture or country (well, except Microsoft;))).
However, it could be good, it definatly gives us some public relations stunts we can play with.
The largest country in the world runs on Linux, shouldn't you?
Linux doesn't scale well? ha! It serves 3 billion people well
Entire countries are adopting linux, is your business is being left behind?
The Chinese government doesn't trust Windows 2000. Why should you?
etc... etc... etc... (I realize some of these are half-truths, or worse, but what advertising isn't?. These are just examples)..
This could have negative sideeffects in respect to DOJ vs MS. MS has a bit more fodder now.
I think the best thing that will come out of this entire deal is better support for Chinese in Linux. You gotta admit, nothing like 3 billion customers to get you moving:) I can't think of a better OS to support foriegn large alphabets, with complete access to the source code, theres nothing you can't change.
Anyway, don't take this thing to extremes, its just news:)
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, so the procedure can produce a piece of paper that can act like an LCD screen. This sounds really great, but why didn't they mention it can be used to replace TVs, or even screens.
According to their values quoted (270,000 pixels on a 6.3cm screen) it works out to about 64 pixels per square millimeter. Now that sounds like much better than TV quality, and sounds to me like its Screen quality.
So why haven't they mentioned this ability? What is wrong with the technology that it can be used as a screen for your computer. They mentioned using it in Wireless Internet applications, but never once as a replacement for your TV.
So what did I miss? Either I missed something, or they have really sucky marketing. (People don't care *THAT* much about their cellphones screen quality, but tell them you can make their TV screen as thin as a piece of paper, and much much better technology, and they'll come in the droves if you have the product made).
Its a damn nice product, but I want to know why I can't use it as a replacement for my TV.
---
If the binary (virus) isn't executed by the OS/software/user, then the most it can do is sit there and waste space. Ethier the OS/Software/User must execute the binary. Afaik the PalmOS doesn't execute code received via the IR port automagically, so its a non deal(see below).
However, it can be a deal, most virii/worms/trojans require some manual interaction, (eg the user clicking on an attachment, downloading an infected program, etc). On the other hard, due to various software bugs (or inherint design flaws), it is possible for some worm/virii to travel without user intervention util the bug is fixed.
There are two ways to make a virus/worm travel, make it likely the user will run your code (hotpic.jpg.vs or, in the good 'ol viruses, attach to every executable in the system), or to exploit a bug in a piece of software that will make it automatically run your binary.
Back on topic, Palm virii. I suppose (assuming there is no exploitable bug) a virus could just be uploaded, and wait for the user to click it. As is the case with the current trend of viruses. As we know from past experience, users will run almost anything given to them. (Even to the point of downloading a file like hotpic.jpg.vs from gnutella (which doesn't hide the extensions) and then go find it on their HD, and then double click on it!).
So if a virus can transmit itself in the form of an exe/script via email and still be considered a threat, then yup prepare for the media hype this time, as "thousands of business executives at trade shows, conferences, or even just walking down the street are at threat from this new highly dangerous virus" (ugh!).
The easiest defense against email viruses is to filter .exe's, screensavers, and various other scripts at your local mail server. The only ones that can get through after that are document macros, and I'm looking (read: someone write this for me, I don't have the time) for a linux program that can strip macros from word/excel documents. (Oh wouldn't that be nice!).
---
Redundancy - Give each key-block to a number of clients, and if one says the result was a different number than the others, then that one may be cheating. The problem is if a LOT of clients are cheating, you start running into higher ratios, and have difficulty determining what the right answer is.
Block Processing analysis. If someone is going through 10 billion keys a second, they are either the NSA, or are cheating. This is the primary way to detect cheaters, however its not always accurate, and as people get smarter, they'll start submitting their keys slower, and from different IP addresses, and use different email addresses.
Another way would be to make the result the client sends computationaly difficult to find, but easy to verify. (Hmm, sounds like encryption to me). I'm not totaly sure what result the client sends back, but if something like this was possible, then the server could always verify if the key indeed has been checked.
If i recall, the DNet system involves giving each client a block of keys, some cipher text, and some clear text, and telling the client to try the key and see if it gets clear text.
---
From my quick read of the article, it appears that although the data is copied onto numerous servers, there is still some list of central servers.
If, like the gnutella system, it can be total distributed, and no central server(s) (to attack), then it is a good thing(tm). However if like napster or IRC servers, there are a specific list of central servers, which doesn't change often, then there can be points of attack (legal attacks I'm meaning).
Freenet is (afiak) totaly distributed, and the data is spread accross many many servers (run by clients, like gnutella), which in my opinion is a good thing(tm). Each server can only see that a client is downloading some random chunk, and never sees the entire file. So I can download mp3s without any of the servers I'm getting them from knowing what I'm getting.
I'm not sure if the content on freenet servers are encrypted at all, so it might be obivous if you have a chunk of a file on your server that has an MP3 header in it, that people getting that chunk are getting an mp3.
If this system works like freenet, but offers encryption of the content, then that would be a very very good thing(tm).
The sort of system I'd be looking for is something where:
Files are split in small chunks, and the chunks are distributed to many servers, with many duplicates (eg serverA and M may host the same chunk of the same file).
Files stored on the server are encrypted. The key is stored in part with the server. (eg to get the whole key, you need to get the whole file, from different servers
Its impossible to tell what the name/url of the chunks you have on your server are.
Totaly distributed (like gnutella), with enough redundancy that almost all files are available online right now.
May be a pretty difficult system, but as I said, AFIAK, FreeNet is something close to this.
---
Yes Stephen Hawking has predicted black holes could emmit radiation (Hawking radiation), however it wouldn't be of such a large and sizable ammount.
---
In New Zealand, normally it costs the caller, and only with some special services (eg 0800 numbers (equiv 1800)) does it cost the other party. With most pagers, the pager owner pays a monthly fee, and the caller pays some really cheap (like 10c) fee to send a page. However, in New Zealand, pagers and cellphone numbers start with 021-nnn-nnnn or 025-nnn-nnnn.
However, we do have the same sort of system that you are getting, a once off connection fee, and the caller pays (more) for paging.
One interesting feature we are getting is the ability to receive internet emails via digital cellphones. However there is a problem with this, the cellphone owner pays for each email sent to their phone, wether they want it or not. So if I know your cellphone email address, and I sent a 1000 emails to it (mailbomb), well...
However, back to the cellphones, Its really neat that caller pays, I have a cellphone with me all the time, and since I don't pay when someone calls me, its really handy for business. I usually make calls on a land-line whenever available so I have a low monthly fee.
If it wasn't for the fact that I need a landline for my ISP connection, I could feasibly get rid of my landline. $35/month for landline (flat rate, no per minute charges), vs anywhere between $0 (for prepay phones) or $20+ (for monthly fee phones) for cellphones per month, with call charges.
---
First thing I did was use Debian, imho it has a better packaging system. But I don't think that will solve your problems.
Though debian does come with a resonable base system (~50megs I think). And if you setup your partitions right, you can install your base system, then mount
However, I don't do that, I just use debian, and when I want to compile something from source, I usually create a
eg:
I also do it totally non root, so that there is no chance of me writting over anything else.
The problem comes if you want to install a package that depends on something you compilied yourself. The packaging system doesn't know you have it. When that comes along, I usually just compile the desired program from source, and it finds the libs it needs.
In the end, if you want to use package management, you really need to use it all of the time, or hassels will develop.
One point though. "Alien" is really handy. Its an app that converts between binary tarballs, rpms, and debs. I use it to convert RPMs to Debs all the time. It seems to work okay.
---
"The principle occupation [of the MPAA] is to make sure that American movies move freely and unhobbled around the world," .... says Valenti, defending the cases.
Wouldn't the best way to make movies move freely and unhobbled around the world be to unencrypt the movie, or atleast allow others to? That way they can be copied and distributed to everyone.
Note: I'm joking, but you can see my point.
---
a New Jersey senator introduced legislation Thursday that would forbid Web sites from gathering personally identifiable information from Web surfers without getting their permission first. (Emphasis added)
The phrase personally identifiable information concerns me, what exactly is it. From what I can tell, its any information that may be able to be used to identify a person. So, obviously, your slashdot userid. Thats ok, since slashdot basically asks your permission anyway. (you need to sign up first).
But what about Apaches mod_usertrack, which issues cookies automagically to the browser so the admin can follow the user around their website. (This is a good thing, since it allows webmasters to see where things could be improved). Would this be disallowed, you see, from these cookies, I can identify you when you return to the website.
The sane definition of personnaly identifable information would be information that relates to you. (eg name, address, phone, email, age, sex, etc). However, doesn't that mean that bannerad companies can still track you, so long as they don't make any attempt to identify you?.
In my opinion, this is a good thing. I don't mind seeing only techo ads, because I visit lots of tech sites, and seeing techo ads even when I visit search engines. However, lets say the Company Evil Intentions Inc., with your permission, got your name and email. Then went to doubleclick, and said, right, this user here, whats his browsing habits like? Doubleclick won't have done anything wrong, since the information they collected can't be used to identify you, but now Evil Intentions Inc now know all about those "other" sites you went to.
And of course, if we say that bannerad companies can't track you, then that should, in all fairness, go for website admins using mod_usertrack.
What about if Doubleclick picks up shop and moves to a country where it CAN gather personally identifiable information?. We are back to square one.
In my opinion, the legislation is a good one, and I'd like to see it go through. However, there is a simplier way to deal with this. Stop bannerad companies tracking you. Easy enough, disable cookies in images. That will stop doubletrack mostly, the only other way I can think is if they use layers. I haven't done html development in awhile, so I'm not sure if you can have "remote" layers, where the layer is retrieved seperate from the page. But again, just disable cookies in that.
That will stop most bannerads tracking you. I'd like to see this change in Mozilla. (Don't tell me to code it myself, I will, but only after Mozilla is stable).
So in the end, yes this legislation is good, but it won't solve the problem.
---
Taking a very quick look at the documentation myself, I see that you'd probably have a rsync server running on each site, and then have a cronjob run on each site that mirrors every other site. If all 3 sites do this, it should mirror pretty well. The lag time will probably be something like 2T, where T is the time between cronjob runs.
In regards to your specific what-if questions, I think the best way to answer those will be to try it out yourself. :) Hope that helps
---
I think that'd be neat. Cause if I could afford to, I'd snapshot the geek compound.. Taco/Hermos, whats your GPS coords?
Update - Just found some prices... mmm, very expensive, will have to explore more to get a better idea. If someone figures the prices out clearly, post them please.
---
The most obvious and commonly used development tool (other than the compiler!) is the Makefile. Thats the first step at intergrating things, and I don't think there are many out there that think the Makefile shouldn't be used. There are also many utils which are used commonly without realizing sometimes. Patch, diff, grep, awk, etc.
the most useful utility I use is CVS. I use it for my personal projects, aswell as group projects. It is amazingly handy. With my personal single-person projects, I use it because I develop and test on many machines, and I need a central storage of my project. In the group situation, the biggest problem I've encountered is keeping all the changes together, and coordinatly work. I think almost any multi+person development project would greatly benifit from some sort of Revision Control System.
Bug tracking systems are useful, but I find only worthwhile with larger projects that have a userbase. I've found a need sometimes for a smaller PostIt(tm) Note style system for development of non-public multideveloper projects would be very useful. Somewhere you can post a note saying; Check if their is a race-condition in xyz.
Other systems like automatic build systems can be useful for very large projects. But one of the biggest things is setting all these things up. Setting up CVS is relativly easy, it takes about a day to get things all sorted, and procedures outlined and tested. But setting up BugTracking or Build Systems takes longer. Sometimes its just better to get on with the code, than to try and work with systems that may or may not be useful to your project.
I think there is a BIG opening for some kind of intergrated multideveloper system (IMDS), that has CVS, bug tracking, automatic build systems, PostIt(tm) notes, central TODO lists, etc, etc all into one easy to install, easy to setup, easy to use system. It must be something that can be setup relativly painlessly (read: package it up in .debs and .rpms), and it should be client/server based, with little required on the client side. (cvs is good, I can tell someone to install the package, and type one command to get access. The important thing is simplicity. Developers want to say, "right, lets get things sorted, I'll just go spend 5 minutes installing this IDS, and then we can get back to work." Another important thing as I mentioned is little on the client side. Developers don't want to have to change their coding style/method to work with a new system. There are already a number of Intergrated Development Enviorments (IDEs) to code and build projects with. But bug tracking systems, cvs, etc, are all seperate.
One way to describe the system would be something that you get a few coders, give them the client system, and tell them to code, and they will be able to do so and intergrate/coordinate their efforts.
---
Theres something I'm interested in, but haven't had a chance to use for real (I've used the demo java applets). Quickwrite. Its very good for limited space input devices. I'd estimate the min space for it would be around 1"x1". (but that might be a bit difficult to use). Its not really good for long winded input. One handed, and can be used by left or right handed. Pretty fast too. It relies on the movement of a "pen" from the center, to a side/corner(s), and back to the center. eg center->left->center is 'T' (I think). and center->up&left->center is 'H' (I think). Basically, check out the site. If i ever get myself a PDA (personal digital assistant), I'll use that interface.
---
Right, now, all those with cable modems who are currently hearing it, start streaming it from your computer too. Post your ip here. *grin*. All others, bugger off so I can get on.
Seriously though, mp3-2.thesync.com resolves to only one IP address. Surely slashdot of all people would have figured we are gonna need more than one server. Never-the-less, TheSync set it up, so slashdot probably didn't have much control over it. Its a great idea, I just wish I could listen to it too! :)
---
Most people who debate in the matter of "Consoles" replacing desktops than I've talked to tend to miss a couple of things.
There is a reason why Linux isn't currently running on the desktop of CEOs of fortune 500 companies. What that reason is, isn't the matter here, its the fact that it exists. Can you *really* see Microsoft dumping desktop/servers. They could port their software to consols, but Microsofts attempts at porting tend to be less than sucesful.
Another point that is mentioned more, but not enough is viewing device. 17" monitors may be small compared to your 28" at home. But just try *reading* that 28". So it looks like for now, the legacy monitor will remain (Till something else with sharp clarity comes along (read: LCD, Plastic that glows, etc).
I suspect that Consoles won't replace PCs, and PCs won't replace consoles. PCs will on the whole get smaller, however, there is a possibility of having many small devices, like consoles, that do different things. A Games computer, an Office tools computer, Development computer, an Internet Computer. However, that won't happen till each device can communicate perfectly with every other device, preferably wireless. And the protocol and standards for such devices are open.
I suspect if the console was more Open, and you could play the same game on many different machines without having to go buy another copy, it could begin to replace the PC. But thats sounding more and more like a PC. One reason why they won't be more open is consoles can do such cool stuff because they are specifically designed to do it, and the games and specifically designed to work on one console, and the hardware is generally known at the time of game creation.
As far as I can tell, in the near future (say 5-10 years), consoles will remain primarily games only device.
---
In recent news, distributed.net has announced a new challege. The US government has sponsored the Crack Kevins Porn, errr, Disk Drive compitition. :)
Btw - I agree with Robs rant on advertising. I wish I could do that too. :)
Oh, and I run Junkbuster, and yup, I enable Ads for slashdot, and a few other sites.
The length of this broadcast was good. Not too short, umm, still not long enough, I'd prefer 24hr slashdot radio, but I'm just strange. But seriously I'd love to have broadcasts more often.
---
Aye, it can't land on the moon. Or atleast, if it tried, it'd make a big mess. And even if it did manage to land perfectly intact. It wouldn't be leaving in a hurry.
The least expensive (in the long run) method of earth-moon travel would be a craft designed to go from earth to orbit, and then another craft designed to go from earths orbit to the moon. Its a whole different ball game landing on the moon.
One thing that would be interesting would be an "elevator" to orbit. We recently discovered a material that was light enough, but strong enough to do such a thing. However the problem would be finding enough resources to build the damn thing.
---
True, but look at it from slashdots point of view. I doubt they will intergrate many features created by the public into their codebase. I've talked to Malda a number of times about new ideas and most of the time hes said that he isn't interested in putting xyz into slashdot.
The only thing they will loose if someone takes slashdot, and uses it on their own site, but doesn't distribute it, is any changes this person made, and any bug fixes.
Esentially here, slashdot (unless they've had a change of heart), don't want the community developing it for slashdot. (Yes, they don't mind the community developing the slashcode for themselves, but its unlikely they will incorperate many ideas into slashdot).
There are some really neat features that I'm sure the slashdot crew will incorperate, but I suspect they don't care that much if someone comes up with a new slashdot mod but doesn't distribute the modification.
If I were CmdrTaco, and last time I checked I'm not, I'd release it under the GPL, then fork the code. Have the pure slashdot code that I maintain, and let someone else maintain the public slashcode, that gets all the neat features added in. And if i saw a feature I liked, get a patch and add it to my slashdot.
---
How close, other than the mentioned slashboxes, is this to the real thing(tm).
I suppose you could sum it up two ways:
Is it bug for bug the same?
If we come up with a new amazing idea that is so amazing CmdrTaco instantly wants to put it in, will our patch to the Slash v0.9 go straight onto the real site, or is Slash v0.9 a total rewrite from the current running slashdot on slashdot.org?
---
Sounds to me like you just need a database backend with your own custom frontend. For the backend, I'd say go with one of the open source databases, (eg MySql, Postgress, etc). But you could probably go with whatever you want.
In regards to your concern of if one user were to update a record, the next time another user accesses that patient--on a different terminal--the correct information must be displayed. That is no troubles, you'd have to go out of your way to have that as a problem. (eg write special caching in the client or something).
As for your concerns on speed, etc. Let the backend deal with that. If you really feel a desire to help it along, you could access the database on a ramdrive, and do regular copies to a physical disk. (You don't want to loose a days changes if the server crashes).
I seriously doubt you'd need to use a ramdisk, as you mentioned it would be run on serveral terminals, which means "not hundreds". And even if 10 users were pounding out records every few secounds, I suspect even a slow server could handle the writes
For the frontend, you can do basically whatever you like, from a Command Line interface, to ncurses, to a webinterface. (if you do a webinterface, I recommend a Apache+php3+MySql combo).
Have fun, and remember to do lots of input checks, and don't forget to escape the input string before parsing it to the database. (eg " becomes \")
First off, you cannot turnoff downloads from your machice when you are connected, you MUST by design allow people to download. The best you can do is allow 1 download connection at a time.
You can, atleast in the latest version, limit the # of uploads per user to 0.
However, I'm not particularly happy with the program myself, for similar reasons, and another one being that when you hit close, it doesn't actually. You have to hit exit. :)
Oh, and to those who say, if you don't like it, write your own. Its a closed protocol atm. And looking at the packet analysis, its a strange one.
Filtering this program out shouldn't be hard. However, if the author wants to, allowing the clients to bypass the filters should be easy too.
The fight between the filterers, and the author, would be interesting.
Yes, this is the case, thats why the Marine helicopter he uses to go from the Whitehouse to the plane is called Marine One when he's on board.
The plane commonly refered to as Air Force One is only called that when POTUS (President Of The United States) is onboard. Otherwise I think its known as VC1, but I'm not sure on that one, I'd have to check.
I don't recall ever, atleast in recent times, where the POTUS has ever been on a commercial jet, so I'm not sure what the designation would be.
Its availible to non-us citizens too. Lots of info on it can be found at the url above, but basically, its a good thing(tm).
Listen to what your mother said; Don't believe everything you see on TV. And the same goes with photos.
The only way in todays world to believe what you see, if you are an extreme skeptic, is to see and touch it yourself. I recently went to Madam Tusades(sp) and realized that seeing alone isn't enough :). But even seeing and touching may not be enough. (Fakes of famous pieces of art for example) Actually, its pretty much impossible to be 100% completly sure of something if you are an extreme enough of a skeptic.
To adapt a quote "Reality is in the eye of the beholder".
Its the biggest communist country in the world, now before you moderate me down as flamebate, just hear me out... so there is unlikely to be much in the way of backlash from their citizens. (I mean nothing like if the US decided to ban an Operating system (ANY Operating system)). And now they will have the medias eye.
Esentially this could be bad for linux, for all the negative conitations China brings with it. (Ah, before we go any further, I am speaking generally. That particular view isn't one I share. I don't have anything against ANY culture or country (well, except Microsoft ;))).
However, it could be good, it definatly gives us some public relations stunts we can play with.
The largest country in the world runs on Linux, shouldn't you?
Linux doesn't scale well? ha! It serves 3 billion people well
Entire countries are adopting linux, is your business is being left behind?
The Chinese government doesn't trust Windows 2000. Why should you?
etc... etc... etc... (I realize some of these are half-truths, or worse, but what advertising isn't?. These are just examples)..
This could have negative sideeffects in respect to DOJ vs MS. MS has a bit more fodder now.
I think the best thing that will come out of this entire deal is better support for Chinese in Linux. You gotta admit, nothing like 3 billion customers to get you moving :) I can't think of a better OS to support foriegn large alphabets, with complete access to the source code, theres nothing you can't change.
Anyway, don't take this thing to extremes, its just news :)