Ok, so even after 10 over-writes, there's still a chance that information can be recovered.
What if you layered the security approach? Encrypt the filesystem with a very good cypher and encrypt the entire filesystem!
Then, when you format the hard drive, overwrite 10x with dd (and random bit patterns, in a randomized write pattern), the black hats would have to
1) Read through 10x overwrites,
2) Read through the format,
3) Decrypt the final result, protected with a strong cypher.
As with all things security related, you provide multiple layers of defense!
Dvorack complains about the 20Kbps streams he's getting.
What if the DSL bandwidth provider used their LOCAL bandwidth to provide content? $3 to stream a movie at full bandwidth, for instance?
Given that the cost of distribution would be VERY low the only real cost would be that of putting together a content server (now cheap and getting cheaper) and licensing from the RIAA... (fill in various expletives)
Maybe for the extra $30 (from $20 for dialup) a DSL customer outta get a few moview streamed for free?
Betcha people would sign up like mad for something like this, and would also be much happier with the service they're paying extra for!
-Ben
Given the past history of Universal, expect the massive libraries of MP3s to disappear VERY QUICKLY.
If you like listening to all the alternative music, DOWNLOAD YOUR FAVORITE LISTS NOW! (while you still can) Don't forget Napster, now a mere remnant of its past glory...
If you are a Linux user, remember that XMMS has some real neat options for saving streams to disk.
I have two instances of xmms (in different logins) streaming stuff to disk as I write this, burning probably 100k/sec...
Just set the audio output of the program to be to trash file (EG "/dev/null") and then in the option for the MPEG player plugin, specify to save the stream to a directory.
The file names are even preserved! Bring up a big playlist of your favorite genres, and stream away...
It's a shame, tho, that such a good quality service will be (most likely) lost forever... My tastes in music have expanded so dramatically (well beyond the manufactured pop churned out by the RIAA) thanks to this site!
My primary occupation is to build ASP applications in PHP - and the 32 bit timestamp is a decided limiting factor.
So we move to a 64-bit epoch - I don't see any particular problem doing so NOW... but in 37 years it just might be a REAL PROBLEM.
Why isn't this done? Why don't the kernel developers for Linux just do this, using a slightly different system call? (xtime() instead of time() or whatever)
A compatability function could SO EASILY be added now, and then software can be written that takes advantage of the extended API...
Why is it OK to bash Linux over its GUIs and whine about easy of use, but it's selfish to
complain about GUI bloat and Linux losing its roots? Isn't that a double standard? You can
call us selfish, but there are a lot of us who have the same view.
Linux is going downhill IMHO because practically all development effort has been redirected to building bloated desktop environments to attract new users. Linux has lost its community spirit. Simplicity is being replaced by bloat. Traditional UNIX paradigms for user interaction and software development are being replaced by MS and Mac paradigms.
Everybody is trying to exorcise the "UNIX-ness" out of Linux so that it appeals to a different class of user. Well, what about those of us who LIKE the UNIX experience? I'm pretty tired
of listening to a lot of Linux newcomers bitch because
WOW! What a steaming pile!
I use Linux. I love it. I can hardly STAND using Windows - for the simple reason that if something goes wrong, it REALLY GOES WRONG and you have to start all over again. (reboot, reload, etc)
But, just because I know what insmod does, and have no problem playing with ipchains (For work, I code in PHP/SQL) doesn't mean that having a color display causes me great pain.
KDE 2.1 is AWESOME!
Having read about OSX on Macinslosh, I'd seriously consider a migration.
The idea of putting a top-rate GUI on top of a *nix chassis just gives me shits and giggles!
Then, I'd want to compare it to KDE 2.1, which ROCKS BIG TIME!
This kinda reminds me of Broderbund's spyware - dssagent.
If you haven't read the above link, you should. I discovered it shortly after setting up a firewall on a linux gateway - kept getting all these "packet denied" messages that just did not make sense.
Jury is still out on what it did - but here's more proof that it never hurts to be AWARE of what that $1,000 piece of cheap plastic and tin under your desk is really doing!
The idea that my kids are being spied on just makes my blood boil...
Yeah, we could prolly just screw him and tell him that we're going to use OpenSSH as the name from now on - but really!
This is the guy that wrote the original product that OpenSSH is built on! And rather than revere him, and afford him the respect that this esteemed position deserves, we make him out to be a money-grubbing, selfish demon, because of the inconvenience of typing "fresh" instead of "ssh".
Come on. This guy has helped us all.
Change the name to something else and step out of his way.
I've started to see traffic lights using LEDs instead of light bulbs.
Traffic lights use a funky 69-watt bulb that's designed for longevity, not efficiency. LED traffic lights use just a watt or two, and have a burning life of 20+ years. (Also, since they use a string of LEDs instead of a single bulb, one burning out would have almost no effect on usability)
Multiply THAT by all the street intersections in California...
But wait a minute! What about those Z900 (S/390) servers that run X*1000 copies of Linux?
How many AIXs can you run on an S/390?
Support for the features you mention are very specialized - and Linux's development so far has been very generalized. How much sense does it make to have hot-swappable hard drives in your mobile phone?
Remember the 80/20-to-50/50 rule. You pay 50%, get the first 80% of usability. Pay another 50% to get the last 20% of usability/features.
Compared to other eunices, Linux follows this 80/20 to 50/50 rule quite well.
If you aren't already familiar with wiki - do so. Comments posted there generally have *ALOT* more relevance than most of the whiney, dumb-ass trolls you see all too often around here!
It can sometimes be difficult to navigate, and sometimes the concepts flow as smoothly as a pile of boulders - but it's definitely something to check out if you haven't already...
If you were trying to do something constructive, and put honest effort into it, you'd expect SOME reward for doing so.
At least, you'd expect nobody to fault you for your creative efforts.
But what if, while you were going about your stuff, you had a large crowd of people standing around you, shouting insults, throwing beer cans at you, and pointedly making the case that despite the fact that you are TRYING to get something done, you can't possibly do the job as well as THEY, even though THEY aren't doing it?
Wouldn't that just piss you off? Would you want to keep going?
So we have a bunch of snooty, nose-in-the-air types who just can't seem to accept being belittled to the level of (gasp!) TUCOWS, who also work with (HEH!) WINDOWS SOFTWARE!, who've spoiled an ally in their cause, and halted a nice effort.
I wonder how many of these intensely critical remarks came from people who just figured out how to boot BSD?
Way to go, guys! Hope you're proud!
Let this be a lesson: You'll catch a HELL of alot more bees with honey than with vinegar...
Concentrate on what the people want and get it to them fast.
A good example of a.gov site I like is fcc.gov. I find whatever I want within a few clicks! Also, search is very important. Excite has a freebie they put out called EWS (Excite for Web Servers) which is both FREE and EXCELLENT at providing search capability thru text files.
Use hit counters everywhere, just hide them if they get in the way of page layout. They provide the information you need to find out what people want. Pages that get hit alot should be made prominent.
Provide a site map! Since every site's navigation is different and this can be confusing, a site map, laid out like a table of contents, is often the best way for a user to get what he/she needs.
Scratch the hideous, boring, and frustrating flash animations, high-frame-count.gifs, etc. FLASHy sites might impress pin-headed bosses and site designers, but as a user, they just get in the way. (See www.usaf.gov - they have now made the "cool intro" optional, but it didn't use to be)
Wouldn't that do the trick? (assuming you have a Linux firewall) Better yet, put the -l (log) tag at the end, so if you DO decide to sue, you at least can prove the "hack attempts" made against your machine...
cat/var/log/messages >/dev/lp0
I have a Pacific Bell static DSL and while the servers they provide crash constantly, making me use my firewall box for most of my services, (DNS, E-mail, etc) I've had NO TROUBLE AT ALL with stuff like this. They really and truly DON'T SEEM TO CARE what I do! (and if they did, they'd lose my business in a flat second because their services are so horrible)
(But don't bother trying to call them with a problem - hold times > 2 hours!)
Like most, I get attacks daily - Netbios 139 being the most frequent, it seems. Since I started dropping ALL icmp packets to/from my public interface, port scans have all but ceased.
You have to look past the 2-dimensional characterizations, the continuous string of orgies, the fascination with clones and artificial life. You have to get past the idea that women just love to do whatever their (shared) man wants when he snaps his fingers, and you have to look beyond the simple (~ 5th grade) vocabulary typically used.
Slashdot Mirror
There's pictures, audio clips, the whole nine yards - and he got farther than "rocket boy" prolly will....
The Transparent Society
Ok, so even after 10 over-writes, there's still a chance that information can be recovered.
What if you layered the security approach? Encrypt the filesystem with a very good cypher and encrypt the entire filesystem!
Then, when you format the hard drive, overwrite 10x with dd (and random bit patterns, in a randomized write pattern), the black hats would have to
1) Read through 10x overwrites,
2) Read through the format,
3) Decrypt the final result, protected with a strong cypher.
As with all things security related, you provide multiple layers of defense!
Dvorack complains about the 20Kbps streams he's getting. What if the DSL bandwidth provider used their LOCAL bandwidth to provide content? $3 to stream a movie at full bandwidth, for instance? Given that the cost of distribution would be VERY low the only real cost would be that of putting together a content server (now cheap and getting cheaper) and licensing from the RIAA... (fill in various expletives) Maybe for the extra $30 (from $20 for dialup) a DSL customer outta get a few moview streamed for free? Betcha people would sign up like mad for something like this, and would also be much happier with the service they're paying extra for! -Ben
It's normal for me to keep a packet log up and preview it every so often just to see that nothing "funny" is going on.
The number of attacks (port scans, etc) dropped thru the floor the moment I set net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all=1 in sysctl.conf. (Red Hat system)
Probably 1/20th of the previous level.
-Ben
Read this, and it will all start to make sense...
(No, this isn't goatse.cx, either)
Given the past history of Universal, expect the massive libraries of MP3s to disappear VERY QUICKLY.
If you like listening to all the alternative music, DOWNLOAD YOUR FAVORITE LISTS NOW! (while you still can) Don't forget Napster, now a mere remnant of its past glory...
If you are a Linux user, remember that XMMS has some real neat options for saving streams to disk.
I have two instances of xmms (in different logins) streaming stuff to disk as I write this, burning probably 100k/sec...
Just set the audio output of the program to be to trash file (EG "/dev/null") and then in the option for the MPEG player plugin, specify to save the stream to a directory.
The file names are even preserved! Bring up a big playlist of your favorite genres, and stream away...
It's a shame, tho, that such a good quality service will be (most likely) lost forever... My tastes in music have expanded so dramatically (well beyond the manufactured pop churned out by the RIAA) thanks to this site!
-Ben
Why don't we move to a 64 bit timestamp?
My primary occupation is to build ASP applications in PHP - and the 32 bit timestamp is a decided limiting factor.
So we move to a 64-bit epoch - I don't see any particular problem doing so NOW... but in 37 years it just might be a REAL PROBLEM.
Why isn't this done? Why don't the kernel developers for Linux just do this, using a slightly different system call? (xtime() instead of time() or whatever)
A compatability function could SO EASILY be added now, and then software can be written that takes advantage of the extended API...
It's small, fast, light, flexible, and, in about a year of using it, 100% stable!
Apache is wonderfully powerful, (and I love it) but do you ALWAYS need a 600 pound gorilla?
[/plug]
Yes. CGI scripts will run from anywhere on the RAQ III server.
You really, really, REALLY need to get a load of this.
It's downright FUNNY....
-
Does that mean, that you'd have foursight?
Why is it OK to bash Linux over its GUIs and whine about easy of use, but it's selfish to complain about GUI bloat and Linux losing its roots? Isn't that a double standard? You can call us selfish, but there are a lot of us who have the same view.
Linux is going downhill IMHO because practically all development effort has been redirected to building bloated desktop environments to attract new users. Linux has lost its community spirit. Simplicity is being replaced by bloat. Traditional UNIX paradigms for user interaction and software development are being replaced by MS and Mac paradigms.
Everybody is trying to exorcise the "UNIX-ness" out of Linux so that it appeals to a different class of user. Well, what about those of us who LIKE the UNIX experience? I'm pretty tired of listening to a lot of Linux newcomers bitch because
WOW! What a steaming pile!
I use Linux. I love it. I can hardly STAND using Windows - for the simple reason that if something goes wrong, it REALLY GOES WRONG and you have to start all over again. (reboot, reload, etc)
But, just because I know what insmod does, and have no problem playing with ipchains (For work, I code in PHP/SQL) doesn't mean that having a color display causes me great pain.
KDE 2.1 is AWESOME!
Having read about OSX on Macinslosh, I'd seriously consider a migration.
The idea of putting a top-rate GUI on top of a *nix chassis just gives me shits and giggles!
Then, I'd want to compare it to KDE 2.1, which ROCKS BIG TIME!
My $0.02...
This kinda reminds me of Broderbund's spyware - dssagent.
If you haven't read the above link, you should. I discovered it shortly after setting up a firewall on a linux gateway - kept getting all these "packet denied" messages that just did not make sense.
Jury is still out on what it did - but here's more proof that it never hurts to be AWARE of what that $1,000 piece of cheap plastic and tin under your desk is really doing!
The idea that my kids are being spied on just makes my blood boil...
-Ben
Yeah, we could prolly just screw him and tell him that we're going to use OpenSSH as the name from now on - but really!
This is the guy that wrote the original product that OpenSSH is built on! And rather than revere him, and afford him the respect that this esteemed position deserves, we make him out to be a money-grubbing, selfish demon, because of the inconvenience of typing "fresh" instead of "ssh".
Come on. This guy has helped us all.
Change the name to something else and step out of his way.
-Ben
Duh!
Can you say 'yard sale'?
I have a buddy with an impressive self-studio with real high-quality gear, put together entirely with yard-sale stuff!
Alot of H/K, Altec Lansing, boom / directional / cardioid mics - the whole shootin' match, replete with 4 track mini-studio!
I doubt he's spent over $1000 on all of it... (in fact, he's often sold a guitar or two at a significant profit!)
But, yer right - a $12 PC 'boom mic' isn't ever going to sound like anything but tin and plastic..
-Ben
I've started to see traffic lights using LEDs instead of light bulbs.
Traffic lights use a funky 69-watt bulb that's designed for longevity, not efficiency. LED traffic lights use just a watt or two, and have a burning life of 20+ years. (Also, since they use a string of LEDs instead of a single bulb, one burning out would have almost no effect on usability)
Multiply THAT by all the street intersections in California...
Oh...
But wait a minute! What about those Z900 (S/390) servers that run X*1000 copies of Linux?
How many AIXs can you run on an S/390?
Support for the features you mention are very specialized - and Linux's development so far has been very generalized. How much sense does it make to have hot-swappable hard drives in your mobile phone?
Remember the 80/20-to-50/50 rule. You pay 50%, get the first 80% of usability. Pay another 50% to get the last 20% of usability/features.
Compared to other eunices, Linux follows this 80/20 to 50/50 rule quite well.
There is *ALOT* of discussion on Extreme Programming over at wiki...
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki
If you aren't already familiar with wiki - do so. Comments posted there generally have *ALOT* more relevance than most of the whiney, dumb-ass trolls you see all too often around here!
It can sometimes be difficult to navigate, and sometimes the concepts flow as smoothly as a pile of boulders - but it's definitely something to check out if you haven't already...
If you were trying to do something constructive, and put honest effort into it, you'd expect SOME reward for doing so.
At least, you'd expect nobody to fault you for your creative efforts.
But what if, while you were going about your stuff, you had a large crowd of people standing around you, shouting insults, throwing beer cans at you, and pointedly making the case that despite the fact that you are TRYING to get something done, you can't possibly do the job as well as THEY, even though THEY aren't doing it?
Wouldn't that just piss you off? Would you want to keep going?
So we have a bunch of snooty, nose-in-the-air types who just can't seem to accept being belittled to the level of (gasp!) TUCOWS, who also work with (HEH!) WINDOWS SOFTWARE!, who've spoiled an ally in their cause, and halted a nice effort.
I wonder how many of these intensely critical remarks came from people who just figured out how to boot BSD?
Way to go, guys! Hope you're proud!
Let this be a lesson: You'll catch a HELL of alot more bees with honey than with vinegar...
-Ben
I don't get it.
"compiled on the fly" - have any of you ever worked with PHP?
It's "compiled on the fly" - so when you want to change a program, you change it, then point your browser at it.
But then, these compilations are CACHED - making an insanely fast programming environment with all the advantages of an interpreted system!
If this fella is smart, THAT'S WHAT HE'S DOING...
(talk about way cool!)
-Ben
It may not be what you are looking for, but I have a cheap (and I mean CHEAP!) Riva TNT2 Vanta video card that has been perfect.
(tho I haven't upgraded to XFree 4.x; I'll wait untill RH 7.1 to do that)
It's reliable, performance is good, and the price just can't be beat. 16 MB AGP level 4 on an AMD 450 MB/chip. Perfect.
I have another one in a Windoze box and it plays 3D games pretty nice, too.
(40 bucks NEW on Ebay!)
-Ben
Concentrate on what the people want and get it to them fast.
.gov site I like is fcc.gov. I find whatever I want within a few clicks! Also, search is very important. Excite has a freebie they put out called EWS (Excite for Web Servers) which is both FREE and EXCELLENT at providing search capability thru text files.
.gifs, etc. FLASHy sites might impress pin-headed bosses and site designers, but as a user, they just get in the way. (See www.usaf.gov - they have now made the "cool intro" optional, but it didn't use to be)
A good example of a
Use hit counters everywhere, just hide them if they get in the way of page layout. They provide the information you need to find out what people want. Pages that get hit alot should be made prominent.
Provide a site map! Since every site's navigation is different and this can be confusing, a site map, laid out like a table of contents, is often the best way for a user to get what he/she needs.
Scratch the hideous, boring, and frustrating flash animations, high-frame-count
scanner=[ip for @home scanner computers];
/var/log/messages > /dev/lp0
ipaddress=[YOUR IP HERE];
ipchains -s $scanner -p tcp -d $ipaddress 4000:6000 -j DENY
Wouldn't that do the trick? (assuming you have a Linux firewall) Better yet, put the -l (log) tag at the end, so if you DO decide to sue, you at least can prove the "hack attempts" made against your machine...
cat
I have a Pacific Bell static DSL and while the servers they provide crash constantly, making me use my firewall box for most of my services, (DNS, E-mail, etc) I've had NO TROUBLE AT ALL with stuff like this. They really and truly DON'T SEEM TO CARE what I do! (and if they did, they'd lose my business in a flat second because their services are so horrible)
(But don't bother trying to call them with a problem - hold times > 2 hours!)
Like most, I get attacks daily - Netbios 139 being the most frequent, it seems. Since I started dropping ALL icmp packets to/from my public interface, port scans have all but ceased.
-Ben
for my.chicken.coop!
To enjoy Heinlein takes a particular mind-set...
You have to look past the 2-dimensional characterizations, the continuous string of orgies, the fascination with clones and artificial life. You have to get past the idea that women just love to do whatever their (shared) man wants when he snaps his fingers, and you have to look beyond the simple (~ 5th grade) vocabulary typically used.
It's the punctuation, stupid!
-Ben