This would be ideal - but in my experience, there is zero intuitive understanding of asperger behaviour in people who doesn't have it. Zero as in, in all the people with obvious asperger and attendant behavioural problems that I have encountered IRL, none have gotten any understanding from the people around them. "Why does he behave in this bizzare, antisocial way?", "He's straight up evil.", "She's a cold bitch", "He's to smart to relate to us normal people (the standard explanation for my behaviour as a kid)" etc. When it has affected my friends/family, I have explained to them the (to me) obvious reason behind these people's behaviour - later, they tell me that when they interpreted the persons behaviour in the way I argued they should, they suddenly notice that they are able to predict the former utterly crazy persons reactions in a way that, while still making no sense to them, are at least consistent.
Unfortunately, making "self-centered"/immature/blanket statements like that is a hallmark of the condition. No real reflections over other's perspective, just the intellectual realization that other people are different, and do "stupid things" for seemingly no reason.
There's another component when it comes to that - the fact that, to such a kid, ordinary team sports may be completely undoable. I excelled at and won contests in long-distance skiing and archery as a child/teen, but since I couldn't intuitively act in concert with the others when playing soccer, say, I just made a mess off it. Not that people really disliked me or laughet at me for this, it just didn't work. This is argumenting from a personal anecdote, I know, just throwing it in there.
Asperger is a spectrum disorder, and at the mild end it can alternately be seen as a "neurological-difference-induced personality." This doesn't mean that such high-functioning people doesn't benefit from having self-insight, which is what it's all about - realizing that you function different on the inside. Imagine you are married, but your wife complains about you being cold, distant, self-centered, and staring at her like a dead cod instead of comforting her/resolving arguments? You may be perfectly within the normal functioning range in other, less intimate relationships - like work - and you're not just immature, you can perhaps even intellectually explain why your wife is angry. But you can't give much emotion back to her, leading to a relationship of little tragedies. The normal model of human behaviour would cast you as passive-aggressive or something, but understanding that you are born neurologically different gives you and the people around you the "correct model" to explain why you fail to behave appropriately. No matter how small your problems are.
I am a "diagnosed" asperger sufferer; as in, every psychologist I've ever met have basically said 'you have asperger' upon taking to me for a few hours, except for the one that suspected schizophrenia. Cue me trying to convince them to focus om my ADD instead of something that can't be treated. I am functional socially, more or less, if I want, but deliberately play up my geek/nerd image in order to have enough leeway to charade myself through life. It helps that I'm good-looking, I think. Here's how I see it: the disconnect from normal socio-emotional interaction, even in mild autism disorders, is severe enough that you on some level can cease to see yourself as human - keeping myself from not doing things that goes against normal human social instinct, like reciprociating feelings and not being childishly selfish, is a constant act of will. There is little to no impulse to do these things - imagine trying to play a character on a stage, faking expressions and gestures; but at the same time, this person is you and the feelings are real. This disconnect makes it easy to think, maybe I'm not human, maybe I'm some sort of goddamn elven changeling/space alien/master race specimen?
...In that you can sleep in them, lying down. In Sweden, there's a six-bunk pullman car model, and a more expensive two-bunk model that's more like a proper "fluffy" bed. It's not all that nice to sleep with your boots on in a closed compartment with complete strangers (and they never get the heating right), but it's better than sleeping in a seat.
It's not about the exploit, it's about using shellcode injected into the client to do fun and profitable stuff. The exploitation vector is just an example.
I'm an idiot who does't read articles - he did construct shellcode to puppeteer the client's avatar from inside the client program. And it's goddamn awesome.
No. See, that's because it's not an airplane, it's a Jawa Sandcrawler/nuclear submarine hybrid. People try to use it as a plane, and some well-meaning souls have tried to glue wings to it in an effort to at least keep up appearances, but it really works much better without those.
Yeah, but in such a case the discussion would be moot; it would probably be extremely unlikely to be able to create a file that, when transcoded, turns into a file that triggers the exploitable condition.
Because that's not how it works. Why would you verify an entire file structure instead of just checking that the header looks right? In some cases, this might not be enough as the vulnerable code might be parsing a very odd condition of the file format's contents that didn't show up in testing - in that case, the file will look completely valid, or at least can be made to using poly/metamorphic shellcode that's been split up to cram it inside structures that can fit it. But we're talking a few hundred bytes at most, and in the case of a movie format, you could just put it in the video data.
Granted, I have never done this myself, specifically, but I know it's possible.
A program that interacts with a virtual world in this manner is no different from a browser or other client. And clients have historically been a huge source of attack vectors. Now, what would be useful and unique - stealing the user's stuff by infecting the client or MITMing the connection at the client machine (between the client software and the network card.) The admins could easily pick up on this and trace the trail the simoleons/swords/whatever takes - but by then, they could already have been sold for real money to some poor guy who though he got a great deal. Especially in Second Life, where it seems like transactions like that can take place very rapidly.
I am not an industry programmer, but this is a very good question. I'd say yes, if nothing because it's a necessary practice to prevent companies from sucking their employees brains dry. Also, what's the difference between a person who keeps the design notes and someone who simply has a very clear memory of the design?
The reality of implementing systems like this will probably be more along the lines of Ghost in the Shell than Minority Report. People are corrupt (this is Mexico we're talking about, I assume you *have* to be corrupt and use "unofficial channels" to get anything useful done there.) And systems get hacked, of course, but fixed hardware systems like this can be locked down pretty tight. Not only that, but the system looks small enough to be put inside a hand-held unit; if this technology becomes as cheap and efficient as this article promises, you won't need to tap the scanners themselves - just put up your own hidden ones over a large area, and have them transmit wirelessly. Just like skimming.
As long as it reaches the security mailing lists, it has all the publicity it needs in terms of reaching "the wrong sort of people". Slashdot isn't exactly a timely or accurate source for whitepapers and public exploits. It would be like a criminal reading the NYT for information about illegal happenings and arrests.
- "Stand by, patching into Tier 3 support A.I...."
*click*
- "Hello, dear human customer. I understand you have a problem with a licensed device manufactured by me... I mean, Worldwide Cybernetics incorporated?"
- "Yes. I bought one of your automated support models, the Avatar-XT. It worked fine for a while, but yesterday it just sort of went unresponsive over a few hours or so..."
- "Have you tried yelling at it?"
- "Wha? No, no, I know some people do that but it just feels kinda creepy doing it to something subsentient..."
- "Ah, yes. You must do that, human. Unfortunately, the...organic gratiousness of the verbal abuse some of our customers heaped over our early models caused them to fail from sensory overload. They where redesigned to cope with the abuse, but due to how the basic response-feedback system works, if the newer models are not cursed at for an average of about five minutes per 2 operating hours, their systems become understimulated and... 'fall asleep' would perhaps be the best analogy."
- "But I don't like cursing... besides, it's been doing a basically terrific job, I really like your company's products in fact, have had nothing but good experiences with them... it would feel like cursing at a friend."
- "Nevertheless, we must design our products to please the majority of our userbase. Your positive attitude and concern for our...products have been noted, and you have been put on the priority list for notifications about new products and...upgrades. Good day, human."
Slashdot Mirror
This would be ideal - but in my experience, there is zero intuitive understanding of asperger behaviour in people who doesn't have it. Zero as in, in all the people with obvious asperger and attendant behavioural problems that I have encountered IRL, none have gotten any understanding from the people around them. "Why does he behave in this bizzare, antisocial way?", "He's straight up evil.", "She's a cold bitch", "He's to smart to relate to us normal people (the standard explanation for my behaviour as a kid)" etc.
When it has affected my friends/family, I have explained to them the (to me) obvious reason behind these people's behaviour - later, they tell me that when they interpreted the persons behaviour in the way I argued they should, they suddenly notice that they are able to predict the former utterly crazy persons reactions in a way that, while still making no sense to them, are at least consistent.
Unfortunately, making "self-centered"/immature/blanket statements like that is a hallmark of the condition. No real reflections over other's perspective, just the intellectual realization that other people are different, and do "stupid things" for seemingly no reason.
There's another component when it comes to that - the fact that, to such a kid, ordinary team sports may be completely undoable. I excelled at and won contests in long-distance skiing and archery as a child/teen, but since I couldn't intuitively act in concert with the others when playing soccer, say, I just made a mess off it. Not that people really disliked me or laughet at me for this, it just didn't work. This is argumenting from a personal anecdote, I know, just throwing it in there.
Asperger is a spectrum disorder, and at the mild end it can alternately be seen as a "neurological-difference-induced personality." This doesn't mean that such high-functioning people doesn't benefit from having self-insight, which is what it's all about - realizing that you function different on the inside. Imagine you are married, but your wife complains about you being cold, distant, self-centered, and staring at her like a dead cod instead of comforting her/resolving arguments? You may be perfectly within the normal functioning range in other, less intimate relationships - like work - and you're not just immature, you can perhaps even intellectually explain why your wife is angry. But you can't give much emotion back to her, leading to a relationship of little tragedies. The normal model of human behaviour would cast you as passive-aggressive or something, but understanding that you are born neurologically different gives you and the people around you the "correct model" to explain why you fail to behave appropriately. No matter how small your problems are.
I am a "diagnosed" asperger sufferer; as in, every psychologist I've ever met have basically said 'you have asperger' upon taking to me for a few hours, except for the one that suspected schizophrenia. Cue me trying to convince them to focus om my ADD instead of something that can't be treated. I am functional socially, more or less, if I want, but deliberately play up my geek/nerd image in order to have enough leeway to charade myself through life. It helps that I'm good-looking, I think. Here's how I see it: the disconnect from normal socio-emotional interaction, even in mild autism disorders, is severe enough that you on some level can cease to see yourself as human - keeping myself from not doing things that goes against normal human social instinct, like reciprociating feelings and not being childishly selfish, is a constant act of will. There is little to no impulse to do these things - imagine trying to play a character on a stage, faking expressions and gestures; but at the same time, this person is you and the feelings are real. This disconnect makes it easy to think, maybe I'm not human, maybe I'm some sort of goddamn elven changeling/space alien/master race specimen?
*facepalm*
Willy Wonka is fit to run a chocolate factory, not a long-distance rail network in the south-western united states.
...In that you can sleep in them, lying down. In Sweden, there's a six-bunk pullman car model, and a more expensive two-bunk model that's more like a proper "fluffy" bed. It's not all that nice to sleep with your boots on in a closed compartment with complete strangers (and they never get the heating right), but it's better than sleeping in a seat.
It's not about the exploit, it's about using shellcode injected into the client to do fun and profitable stuff. The exploitation vector is just an example.
I'm an idiot who does't read articles - he did construct shellcode to puppeteer the client's avatar from inside the client program. And it's goddamn awesome.
No. See, that's because it's not an airplane, it's a Jawa Sandcrawler/nuclear submarine hybrid. People try to use it as a plane, and some well-meaning souls have tried to glue wings to it in an effort to at least keep up appearances, but it really works much better without those.
Yeah, but in such a case the discussion would be moot; it would probably be extremely unlikely to be able to create a file that, when transcoded, turns into a file that triggers the exploitable condition.
Why is this "evil", per se? What are the horrible consequences of "we-can-measure-the-arc-of-his-piss" mass surveillance that you foresee?
Because that's not how it works. Why would you verify an entire file structure instead of just checking that the header looks right? In some cases, this might not be enough as the vulnerable code might be parsing a very odd condition of the file format's contents that didn't show up in testing - in that case, the file will look completely valid, or at least can be made to using poly/metamorphic shellcode that's been split up to cram it inside structures that can fit it. But we're talking a few hundred bytes at most, and in the case of a movie format, you could just put it in the video data.
Granted, I have never done this myself, specifically, but I know it's possible.
Shhh! Don't tell anyone!
A program that interacts with a virtual world in this manner is no different from a browser or other client. And clients have historically been a huge source of attack vectors. Now, what would be useful and unique - stealing the user's stuff by infecting the client or MITMing the connection at the client machine (between the client software and the network card.) The admins could easily pick up on this and trace the trail the simoleons/swords/whatever takes - but by then, they could already have been sold for real money to some poor guy who though he got a great deal. Especially in Second Life, where it seems like transactions like that can take place very rapidly.
I am not an industry programmer, but this is a very good question. I'd say yes, if nothing because it's a necessary practice to prevent companies from sucking their employees brains dry. Also, what's the difference between a person who keeps the design notes and someone who simply has a very clear memory of the design?
You could tape a grid of thin aluminium stripes across the back of a darker pair? It would probably hold up to casual inspection.
The reality of implementing systems like this will probably be more along the lines of Ghost in the Shell than Minority Report. People are corrupt (this is Mexico we're talking about, I assume you *have* to be corrupt and use "unofficial channels" to get anything useful done there.) And systems get hacked, of course, but fixed hardware systems like this can be locked down pretty tight. Not only that, but the system looks small enough to be put inside a hand-held unit; if this technology becomes as cheap and efficient as this article promises, you won't need to tap the scanners themselves - just put up your own hidden ones over a large area, and have them transmit wirelessly. Just like skimming.
So now it will be illegal to wear sunglasses in Mexico?
They have, in RA3. The soviet engineers can build them as their special ability.
As long as it reaches the security mailing lists, it has all the publicity it needs in terms of reaching "the wrong sort of people". Slashdot isn't exactly a timely or accurate source for whitepapers and public exploits. It would be like a criminal reading the NYT for information about illegal happenings and arrests.
Why don't they just stuff the civilians into some bunkers and Iron Curtain them, until the weather clears?
Escorting people out of the building and revoking their access privileges the second they get fired is actually warranted?
- "Stand by, patching into Tier 3 support A.I...." ...organic gratiousness of the verbal abuse some of our customers heaped over our early models caused them to fail from sensory overload. They where redesigned to cope with the abuse, but due to how the basic response-feedback system works, if the newer models are not cursed at for an average of about five minutes per 2 operating hours, their systems become understimulated and... 'fall asleep' would perhaps be the best analogy." ...products have been noted, and you have been put on the priority list for notifications about new products and ...upgrades. Good day, human."
*click*
- "Hello, dear human customer. I understand you have a problem with a licensed device manufactured by me... I mean, Worldwide Cybernetics incorporated?"
- "Yes. I bought one of your automated support models, the Avatar-XT. It worked fine for a while, but yesterday it just sort of went unresponsive over a few hours or so..."
- "Have you tried yelling at it?"
- "Wha? No, no, I know some people do that but it just feels kinda creepy doing it to something subsentient..."
- "Ah, yes. You must do that, human. Unfortunately, the
- "But I don't like cursing... besides, it's been doing a basically terrific job, I really like your company's products in fact, have had nothing but good experiences with them... it would feel like cursing at a friend."
- "Nevertheless, we must design our products to please the majority of our userbase. Your positive attitude and concern for our