As I see it is that technologicly, the CueCat could have been made secure (from use by other than DC) by encrypting the barcode using a public key built into the CueCat.
Yes, that would have increased the price somewhat, but I would guess that thing thing costs atleast $20 anyways, waiting a couple of months before they released it, and using RSA would have saved them from having to worry about other systems using their expensive hardware.
I would imagine that the internet would survive more or less intact. However, I would think that many inter-country internet links would become saturated to the point of unuseiblity for some time. I belive this for two reasons:
1) Most of the most popular internet sites are located in the US. This content would have to be substituted with content from other countries. Thus much more intra-nonus traffic.
2) Much of the internet conections between two given foriegn countries will be routed though the US. This can largely be attributed to the fact that, one, the US was first, and two, the US is largely in the middle of the highly industrialized nations where internet use prodomites. ie the best route from england to japan may often be through the US.
The other day I got a phone call that said something lake:
"Hi, this is (some generic name) with (some survey company), we are taking a random survey about (some boring subject), the results will be reported to newspapers, radio, and TV. Please press 1 to start the survey."
At this point I hung up. If whoever was calling didn't care enough about my opinion to have a real person call... well too bad.
It really concerns me though that surveys like this could be sold as true random dial surveys. It would seem to me that any such survey is omiting a large percentage of the sample space that is inteligent enough to be insulted by a survey like this (IQ>75?;-)). Polling is a trickey enough matter that you shouldn't try to alienate most of your sample.
I strongly disagree with this. 1.) I believe that there is no imperative to follow unjust laws. 2.) Some of the most visable reversals of unjust laws we the immediate effect of their being broken. (eg Rosa Parks) 3.) For laws such as the DMCA, which are probably unconstitutional, the courts make an excelent venue to chalenge them. 3a.) By breaking the law, 2600 has caused the whole situation to come to head. Because of this it may be possible for the Supreme Court to be hearing the case in another year or so. 3b.) I belive that all parties in this case have an extreeme interest in seeing this case settled as quickly as possible. 2600 would like to be able to speak freely as soon as possible, while the MPAA would like ruling in their favor as soon as possible so that they can better suppress DeCSS 4) On the other hand, if this was being fought through a strict constitutional chalenge, the MPAA would have no motivation to see this case though quickly, as they obviously prefer the status que.
5) Overall, however 2600's actions are irrelivent. If 2600 had not posted DeCSS, the MPAA would have sued the next juiciest target. 2600 simply has an "evil hacker" image which makes them the best target.
No... This technology is widely used for 3D movies and slide shows. The Science Museum of MN has a 3D show that combines Slides and laser light. They just have two slide projectors covered with polarizers. The lasers a naturally polarized. The effect is very cool if somewhat cheezy.
Note: If you were going to do this with video projectors, You would need to use either DLP projectors, or LCD projectors with natural polarization seperated by 90 degrees. (LCDs are polarized by their very design.
While I would agree that environmental games by Boeing and others had much to do with the Concord never being more widely deployed, I belive that simple economics have more to do with the reason the Concord never took off. I also belive that before this supersonic underwater travel is widely adopted, that it will face at least the same or worse enviromental Impact Assessments.
Most people that I know simply could not afford to pay 13 times as much, just to get to their destination 4? times as fast.
A round trip (London to NY)on the concord is $6500. A round trip on some normal jet is less than $500.
I am not sure about the value of blocking specific merchants. 1) It would seem that few merchants would accept future charges from a customer who had disputed charges. 2) Most bad merchants will be fined heavily and probably lose their merchant acounts. 3) It would seem to create oportunities to rip off legitamate merchants. Forinstance merchants who verified credit cards at purchase but didn't bill them until the product shipped. (a bad customer could simply ban the merchant between the two acount accesses)
IMHO a system which banned most merchants in problem catagories but allowed specific merchants to be quickly unbaned
I would propose a system as follows: 1) Allow banning of certain types of business (or all busniess) (Porn, Ebusiness, Mail order, 1-800 number, ALL, etc.) 1a) require a one day waiting period for this to prevent scam in (3) above 2) Allow banning of merchants who you had contested charges with instantly. 3) Allow banning of other specific merchants with a 7 day waiting period to help prevent problem 3.
4) Allow instant unbanning of any merchant or catagory by calling an 800 number or by going to a website and entering a password. 5) Allow a customer to set a price threshold below which authoriztion is not required (in some or all catagories).
This article would seem to suggest that: 1) This tech. will allow us to go faster than the Concord. 2) That this would be a viable intercontinental transport system.
It would seem to me that there are many forms of (air) transport faster than the Concord (SR-71 Blackbird, rocket powered vehicals.) However we don't use these for transportation. I seriously doubt that a rocket powered craft is going to cost less to fuel than even the SR-71, much less the Concord. Considering the small number of people that can even afford to fly the Concord, I doubt that this plan will have much viability outside the military.
Actualy the thermodynamics explantation in Applied Crypto is incorrect. Check the errata at http://www.counterpane.com/ac2errv30.html Specifically: * Page 157: The section on "Thermodynamic Limitations" is not quite correct. It requires kT energy to set or clear a single bit because these are irreversible operations. However, complementing a bit is reversible and hence has no minimum required energy. It turns out that it is theoretically possible to do any computation in a reversible manner except for copying out the answer. At this theoretical level, energy requirements for exhaustive cryptanalysis are therefore linear in the key length, not exponential.
Actually 3M couldn't come out with a new scotch tape for the sole purpose of Data Storage. They have have a no-compete agreement with Imation. (a 3M spinoff which makes storage products.)
Slashdot Mirror
As I see it is that technologicly, the CueCat could have been made secure (from use by other than DC) by encrypting the barcode using a public key built into the CueCat.
Yes, that would have increased the price somewhat, but I would guess that thing thing costs atleast $20 anyways, waiting a couple of months before they released it, and using RSA would have saved them from having to worry about other systems using their expensive hardware.
Actually, _she_ seems to be a professor at UIUC.
http://drl.cs.uiuc.edu/people/Winslett.html
But... on the other hand, UIUC could be a part of some big scam too, you can never be too paranoid!
I would imagine that the internet would survive more or less intact. However, I would think that many inter-country internet links would become saturated to the point of unuseiblity for some time. I belive this for two reasons:
1) Most of the most popular internet sites are located in the US. This content would have to be substituted with content from other countries. Thus much more intra-nonus traffic.
2) Much of the internet conections between two given foriegn countries will be routed though the US. This can largely be attributed to the fact that, one, the US was first, and two, the US is largely in the middle of the highly industrialized nations where internet use prodomites. ie the best route from england to japan may often be through the US.
The other day I got a phone call that said something lake:
;-)). Polling is a trickey enough matter that you shouldn't try to alienate most of your sample.
"Hi, this is (some generic name) with (some survey company), we are taking a random survey about (some boring subject), the results will be reported to newspapers, radio, and TV. Please press 1 to start the survey."
At this point I hung up. If whoever was calling didn't care enough about my opinion to have a real person call... well too bad.
It really concerns me though that surveys like this could be sold as true random dial surveys. It would seem to me that any such survey is omiting a large percentage of the sample space that is inteligent enough to be insulted by a survey like this (IQ>75?
They aren't as hard to hang up on. For this reason, I suspect that they are less likey to sell the product which they are trying to sell anyways.
I strongly disagree with this.
1.) I believe that there is no imperative to follow unjust laws.
2.) Some of the most visable reversals of unjust laws we the immediate effect of their being broken. (eg Rosa Parks)
3.) For laws such as the DMCA, which are probably unconstitutional, the courts make an excelent venue to chalenge them.
3a.) By breaking the law, 2600 has caused the whole situation to come to head. Because of this it may be possible for the Supreme Court to be hearing the case in another year or so.
3b.) I belive that all parties in this case have an extreeme interest in seeing this case settled as quickly as possible. 2600 would like to be able to speak freely as soon as possible, while the MPAA would like ruling in their favor as soon as possible so that they can better suppress DeCSS
4) On the other hand, if this was being fought through a strict constitutional chalenge, the MPAA would have no motivation to see this case though quickly, as they obviously prefer the status que.
5) Overall, however 2600's actions are irrelivent. If 2600 had not posted DeCSS, the MPAA would have sued the next juiciest target. 2600 simply has an "evil hacker" image which makes them the best target.
No... This technology is widely used for 3D movies and slide shows.
The Science Museum of MN has a 3D show that combines Slides and laser light. They just have two slide projectors covered with polarizers. The lasers a naturally polarized. The effect is very cool if somewhat cheezy.
Note:
If you were going to do this with video projectors, You would need to use either DLP projectors, or LCD projectors with natural polarization seperated by 90 degrees. (LCDs are polarized by their very design.
2 1024x768 Projection displays.
Add polarizers to both of them and behold a wallsized stereooptic display.
Behold the benifits of a nonshuttered 3d display which alows a good range of head motion (just no tilting)
While I would agree that environmental games by Boeing and others had much to do with the Concord never being more widely deployed, I belive that simple economics have more to do with the reason the Concord never took off. I also belive that before this supersonic underwater travel is widely adopted, that it will face at least the same or worse enviromental Impact Assessments.
/ spoffers.shtml
Most people that I know simply could not afford to pay 13 times as much, just to get to their destination 4? times as fast.
A round trip (London to NY)on the concord is $6500.
A round trip on some normal jet is less than $500.
http://www.britishairways.com/regional/usa/docs
I am not sure about the value of blocking specific merchants.
1) It would seem that few merchants would accept future charges from a customer who had disputed charges.
2) Most bad merchants will be fined heavily and probably lose their merchant acounts.
3) It would seem to create oportunities to rip off legitamate merchants. Forinstance merchants who verified credit cards at purchase but didn't bill them until the product shipped. (a bad customer could simply ban the merchant between the two acount accesses)
IMHO a system which banned most merchants in problem catagories but allowed specific merchants to be quickly unbaned
I would propose a system as follows:
1) Allow banning of certain types of business (or all busniess) (Porn, Ebusiness, Mail order, 1-800 number, ALL, etc.)
1a) require a one day waiting period for this to prevent scam in (3) above
2) Allow banning of merchants who you had contested charges with instantly.
3) Allow banning of other specific merchants with a 7 day waiting period to help prevent problem 3.
4) Allow instant unbanning of any merchant or catagory by calling an 800 number or by going to a website and entering a password.
5) Allow a customer to set a price threshold below which authoriztion is not required (in some or all catagories).
This article would seem to suggest that:
1) This tech. will allow us to go faster than the Concord.
2) That this would be a viable intercontinental transport system.
It would seem to me that there are many forms of (air) transport faster than the Concord (SR-71 Blackbird, rocket powered vehicals.) However we don't use these for transportation. I seriously doubt that a rocket powered craft is going to cost less to fuel than even the SR-71, much less the Concord.
Considering the small number of people that can even afford to fly the Concord, I doubt that this plan will have much viability outside the military.
Hm... I just saw this add on slashdot... looks an awfull lot like doubleclick to me.
n er2.gif
I needed to reload the page ~10 times to see it.
Slashdot also seems to use ads from akaimatech.
http://m.doubleclick.net/viewad/448249-suse_ban
Actualy the thermodynamics explantation in Applied Crypto is incorrect. Check the errata at http://www.counterpane.com/ac2errv30.html Specifically: * Page 157: The section on "Thermodynamic Limitations" is not quite correct. It requires kT energy to set or clear a single bit because these are irreversible operations. However, complementing a bit is reversible and hence has no minimum required energy. It turns out that it is theoretically possible to do any computation in a reversible manner except for copying out the answer. At this theoretical level, energy requirements for exhaustive cryptanalysis are therefore linear in the key length, not exponential.
Actually 3M couldn't come out with a new scotch tape for the sole purpose of Data Storage. They have have a no-compete agreement with Imation. (a 3M spinoff which makes storage products.)