There's no fundamental, logical reason why the simplist solution
should be the correct one
It's called entropy, son. Occam's Razor just has happened to be a good, fast explanation of the well-supported theory that the simplest solution (defined in terms of energy expended) is the one that happens.
Why would we even think of
constructing devices to enhance our senses unless we had every reason to think that things exist beyond our perception?
Planets. We first saw planets as stars that moved quickly, and then did little loop-de-loops in otherwise stable paths in the night sky. Lives were spent creating extravagant models to explain these movements in a geocentric model.
Various bright fellows (Galileo, Aristotle) had different ideas. They saw the patterns generated, and created a new models that placed Earth as another object wandering the heavens around a central body (the sun...), and the incredibly complex models of circles within circles within circles all revolving about changed into very simple ellipses.
This model repeats itself. We notice objects burning in the abscense of measurable heat. We ponder the situation. is God extending His Wrath? No, it's gamma radiation.
So far, we've found very solid reasons for phenomena within the physical realm. There is no apparant change in this happening.
I'd wager most atheists would change their mind on seeing angels sweeping down from on high, priests raising the dead or Wiccans effecting measurable and objective changes through magick, all in cases where other explanations don't fly.
I'd hope that most Christians would change their mind, given the chance, after they died and didn't turn into spirits. I.E., given irrefutable evidence, one is likely to change the tune being sung.
He's not saying he absolutely disbelieves in alternate beliefs, but that his own belief is one of atheism. Chill.
Yes, I'm terribly limited by not using pink unicorns to explain the existence of swiss cheese. The logic that the atheist (I'm one) limits him/herself by not exploring mystical channels is, frankly, BS.
It's generally called Occam's Razor when you go with the simplest explanation...
I walked in to RS, asked if they had any, the guy threw one down on the counter, I picked it up, and left. I agreed to no restrictions, signed no documents, did not even give them my name. The packaging required to get through to open the cutcat hardware had no licenses or references to licenses. I broke no seals beyond ordinary packaging (plastic bag). The hardware component itself has no reference to licensing, beyond, "For home or office use" and the fact that it is patent pending.
Even moreso, it was manufactured by Tandy, NOT Digital Convergence. it was manufacuted under some agreement.
The instruction booklet has no license agreement or mention thereof.
It says the:cue:cat "reads any product code and isntantly transports you to the corresponding website"
I have not opened the CRQ Software package, and cannot be held to licenses within it.
I'd love to see Digital Convergence try to take it back and not get charged with theft.
This would be the PERFECT application of the Freenet project (freenet.sourceforge.net)--it offers anonymity to its nodes, and--even better for this--will cache oft-requested data near the requesting parties--no slashdot effects, because if it's retrieved once, it's already one hop away next time it's requested.
By the time the Olympics are active, so should freenet be--this would be a wonderful PR stunt for the project (hear that Ian??), not to mention a demonstration of its applicability.
Professor [Thomas] Ray [U of Delaware, at the time a field ecologist] had guessed that there might be some possibility that a program with as few as 76 instructions could evolve, but he said he was "floored" to find when he returned the next morning that Tierra [the environment] had evolved an organism only 22 instructions long that could replicate six times faster than the ancestor. More astounding still was that a veritable menagerie of other unexpected digital organisms had evolved, which exhibited novel interactions and surprising functional diversity. Some large organisms arose, including with with 23,000 instructions, but these could not compete against the smaller and faster onces and became extinct. Some programs could not replicate on their own but could do so parasitically making use of the code of a host. Hosts then evolved that were "immune" to the parasite, and later new parasites arose that overcame that acquired resistance. "Hyperparasites" evolved with an innovation that allowed them to steal compute-time... from the normal parasites. Moreover, after driving the normal parasites to extinction the hyperparasites formed mutualistic groups with each other that allowed them to cooperate in copying each other--but then a "cheater" evolved that could invade their groups. One organism evolved a way to execute three isntructions in a row instead of the standard one. Ray didn't understand what was going on in this case, but computer scientists recognized it as a programming trick called "unrolling the loop" that increases efficiency. Remember, Ray defined no explicit fitness function for the programs that emerged--there were no preset "targets" in the system. Programs running in the environment would simply compete with each other in the sense that they do better or worse at acquirinbg compute-time and computer memory... The novel properties that arose had done so without any prior design or any directive instructions by a human operator.
The Tower of Babel, Pennock, pgs 106-7, ISBN 0-262-16180-X
The original program was an 80instruction set that did NOTHING BUT copied itself. The Tierra environment had two features--random mutation by switching bits (0 to 1, or vice versa) and a reaper feature that killed off and reased programs executing errors.
It is instructive that the computer vastly improved on his code--in once case almost taking it down to a fourth of the original command set, and that an entire ecology was generated and evolved--OVERNIGHT.
What would be a better fireworks display at the (real) end of the century of the atom bomb and the Internet, and the millennium at large, than the iridium satellites burning through the atmosphere?
Y'know, first thing I thought reading that was that rfp/rainforestpuppy was going to do the review, and boggled over apparent sanity for a second before I realized it was not the case.
UT's been working on this technology for years to enhance the performance of the UT football team so we can rule college football even more than we already do. (everything at UT revolves around football, naturally)
Goldstein makes some very good points about what is to come with the DCMA, HDTV, and various future technologies and extreme consumer rights violations.
What confuses me is that the judge's ruling is directly at odds with both other caselaw (namely, the Bernstein/PGP ruling) and supreme court cases such as flag burning.
I located a copy of the Bernstein v Dept of State ruling (http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Crypto_export/Bern stein_case/Legal/960415.decision), which among other things states this:
"For the purposes of First Amendment analysis, this court finds that source code is speech."
Let's say I wouldn't be surprised if they implemented a hampered SSL solution. Provided they don't kill java, hushmail could still be used for one-offs (set up a series of hushmail accounts from a trusted install of a browser offsite) hushmail uses a client-side java applet for the message encryption, which, really, is the only way to go. SSL encryption alone for web-based email is, well, humorous. Again, the hushmail accounts would be good/reliable for one use only (unless their implementation of authentication is a lot cooler than I'm aware of)
If the kiosks allow people to setup SMTP email, and allow carnivore to intercept them, then all tohse clear-text passwords sent over SMTP get dropped off with the rest of the mail at some Schmoe's desk at the FBI.
OK, so the shutting-down-the-internet article was bit off base, but if there is any accuracy to this at all, then this is a real issue on privacy expectations.
Paranoia's just a fun hobby until you start reading your website's logfiles.
PBS's Rob Cringely wrote about the web kiosks at the olympics being intercepted by a carnivore-on-steroids that can choose to bounce emails--not ever deliver them.
Right. must reduce my caffeine intake before jumping three steps in/. discussion.
OK, so they're kiosks and whatnot. That's a bummer, because they're likely not to allow floppy disk access or installation. But people can still use web-based (semi)secure email like hushmail (I think the password is sent over SSL, so it might only be good for one-offs...
Of course, the kiosks might have java disabled...
But seriously, this is weak. There is a need for safety, but what stupid ass nutcase is going to email people about their terrorist act from the location? Are they seriously thinking that they'll intercept some message alerting them to someone placing a bomb somewhere?
Now that the monitoring is becoming public knowledge, is there any chance that they won't be jammed with prank messages ("I saw a guy leaving an unmarked duffel bag under the bleachers! I hope it's not a BOMB!", or, "Dear Osamu, I left your package where you asked, hope your friend finds it!")
If they are really expecting reliable results, I want some of what they;re smoking. But really, I want to know what's really going on. Test-run of a new carnivore product?
No, it can't, because in the quantum crypto model, you're not actually sending the OTP, you're sending data allowing both parties to agree on a OTP--which requires the recipient to reply with a filtered version of the info sent. I wish I understood at a deeper level such that I could explain it better.
Will this be the first real-world slashdot effect? Will the highways get clogged? Will the party run out of temporary storage space and have to refuse entry?
Will the fire(wall)marshall be at the door limiting entry for safety purposes?
The problem is the tech curve. There is no way in hell that we'll have desktop end-to-end quantum crypto devices before spooks and other nefarious types get decently strong qubit computers to ravage all current encryption.
This would explain the lowering of export requirements for traditional encryption...
Quantum crypto-cracking (given, say, a 40qubit system) makes cracking traditional crypto insanely easy. IIRC from the defcon quantum crypto talk, it is SQRT(Original keypsace) in difficulty to crack, instead of (Original keyspace).
This means, longer keys, and eventually quantum computing to enable OTPs (One-Time Pads -- yes, with Quantum computing they're possible, and, better yet, functional!)
And, in fact, has had a working 7qubit computer since March (2000)...
This article is an easy read with a GREAT summary of the history, applications, and iswsues in quantum computing: http://www.techreview.com/articles/may00/waldrop.h tm
That's amusing--I'd seen it on the WSJ this morning and immediately searched the usual official mirrors of it looking for a more public access to it (seems WSJ got wise to cyberpunk/cyberpunk finally!) and didn't find anything, so huffed and went on about my day.
On topic, I'd wager that the FBI has a preexisting relationship with this university, having been named so quickly.
The WSJ ran an article this morning that had a less happy veneer. The high points were that the FBI was claiming Carnivore was classified information, and that thoguh they'd submit it for evaluation, it would not become public knowledge in any form whatsoever. The article is here at http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB965861735609 205665.htm
And here are relevant excerpts:
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to give to Congress details of its Carnivore Internet surveillance system, telling a member of a House oversight committee that some of the documents he requested include classified information and others are the subject of a pending lawsuit seeking their release"
"...the bureau wrote that it is "not presently in a position" to provide documents he requested. "There remains substantial public misunderstanding and misinformation about the system," wrote John Collingwood, assistant director for public affairs."
"...the Justice Department has been negotiating such a review with the University of California at San Diego's Supercomputing Center, said Tom Perrine, the center's manager of security technologies."
and my favorite:
"Mr. Perrine said that part of the FBI's challenge using Carnivore is conducting Internet wiretaps under U.S. laws that predate the Internet. "Carnivore is probably the best program and the most privacy-protective program that [the FBI] could have written given the lack of guidance in law from Congress," he said."
But also, most large ISPs (RoadRunner, for example) also reserve the right and probably do log a lot of their text traffic. I wasn't saying at all that Carnivore isn't 'useful' for the FBI, but rather that 25-100 cases involved it in 1999, and that'll be a very low extent to the amount of email that the FBI had access to and used in cases due to the fact that carnivore isn't often installed on larger ISPs.
Slashdot Mirror
There's no fundamental, logical reason why the simplist solution
should be the correct one
It's called entropy, son. Occam's Razor just has happened to be a good, fast explanation of the well-supported theory that the simplest solution (defined in terms of energy expended) is the one that happens.
Geeze you guys are picky.
Why would we even think of
constructing devices to enhance our senses unless we had every reason to think that things exist beyond our perception?
Planets. We first saw planets as stars that moved quickly, and then did little loop-de-loops in otherwise stable paths in the night sky. Lives were spent creating extravagant models to explain these movements in a geocentric model.
Various bright fellows (Galileo, Aristotle) had different ideas. They saw the patterns generated, and created a new models that placed Earth as another object wandering the heavens around a central body (the sun...), and the incredibly complex models of circles within circles within circles all revolving about changed into very simple ellipses.
This model repeats itself. We notice objects burning in the abscense of measurable heat. We ponder the situation. is God extending His Wrath? No, it's gamma radiation.
So far, we've found very solid reasons for phenomena within the physical realm. There is no apparant change in this happening.
I'd wager most atheists would change their mind on seeing angels sweeping down from on high, priests raising the dead or Wiccans effecting measurable and objective changes through magick, all in cases where other explanations don't fly.
I'd hope that most Christians would change their mind, given the chance, after they died and didn't turn into spirits. I.E., given irrefutable evidence, one is likely to change the tune being sung.
He's not saying he absolutely disbelieves in alternate beliefs, but that his own belief is one of atheism. Chill.
Yes, I'm terribly limited by not using pink unicorns to explain the existence of swiss cheese. The logic that the atheist (I'm one) limits him/herself by not exploring mystical channels is, frankly, BS.
It's generally called Occam's Razor when you go with the simplest explanation...
According to the Home Redording Rights Coalition homepage (the 'defendants' in the case) at HRRC.org, the case number is 00-67, ""
.sig!
This link should take you to the Electronic Comment File Submission for 00-67 where you type your complaint.
The HRRC has provided a form letter here Please remember to add a personalized
Get even more educated! read A summary on fair use w/r/t this case, and A PDF of the HRRC comments on the issue.
I walked in to RS, asked if they had any, the guy threw one down on the counter, I picked it up, and left. I agreed to no restrictions, signed no documents, did not even give them my name. The packaging required to get through to open the cutcat hardware had no licenses or references to licenses. I broke no seals beyond ordinary packaging (plastic bag). The hardware component itself has no reference to licensing, beyond, "For home or office use" and the fact that it is patent pending.
:cue:cat "reads any product code and isntantly transports you to the corresponding website"
Even moreso, it was manufactured by Tandy, NOT Digital Convergence. it was manufacuted under some agreement.
The instruction booklet has no license agreement or mention thereof.
It says the
I have not opened the CRQ Software package, and cannot be held to licenses within it.
I'd love to see Digital Convergence try to take it back and not get charged with theft.
(What's the PC term for "indian giver"?
This would be the PERFECT application of the Freenet project (freenet.sourceforge.net)--it offers anonymity to its nodes, and--even better for this--will cache oft-requested data near the requesting parties--no slashdot effects, because if it's retrieved once, it's already one hop away next time it's requested.
By the time the Olympics are active, so should freenet be--this would be a wonderful PR stunt for the project (hear that Ian??), not to mention a demonstration of its applicability.
The original program was an 80instruction set that did NOTHING BUT copied itself. The Tierra environment had two features--random mutation by switching bits (0 to 1, or vice versa) and a reaper feature that killed off and reased programs executing errors.
It is instructive that the computer vastly improved on his code--in once case almost taking it down to a fourth of the original command set, and that an entire ecology was generated and evolved--OVERNIGHT.
--From Tower of Babel, by Robert Pennock
What would be a better fireworks display at the (real) end of the century of the atom bomb and the Internet, and the millennium at large, than the iridium satellites burning through the atmosphere?
Ironic, AND beautiful. It'd be perfect!
Is that the clockspeed as reported by the chip isn't 1.13, but 1.12999999999999.
(Ah, now I feel all nostalgic about the old Pentium I humor, "Quality is job 0.9", etc.)
Y'know, first thing I thought reading that was that rfp/rainforestpuppy was going to do the review, and boggled over apparent sanity for a second before I realized it was not the case.
Alas.
UT's been working on this technology for years to enhance the performance of the UT football team so we can rule college football even more than we already do. (everything at UT revolves around football, naturally)
It's being secretly tested on pigskin, as well.
Hook 'em.
Goldstein makes some very good points about what is to come with the DCMA, HDTV, and various future technologies and extreme consumer rights violations.
n stein_case/Legal/960415.decision), which among other things states this:
What confuses me is that the judge's ruling is directly at odds with both other caselaw (namely, the Bernstein/PGP ruling) and supreme court cases such as flag burning.
I located a copy of the Bernstein v Dept of State ruling (http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Crypto_export/Ber
"For the purposes of First Amendment analysis, this court finds that source code is speech."
I first read that topic and throught, "whoa--Internet Security Systems is getting reallllly serious about proactive security..."
I'm too deep in this all.
Let's say I wouldn't be surprised if they implemented a hampered SSL solution. Provided they don't kill java, hushmail could still be used for one-offs (set up a series of hushmail accounts from a trusted install of a browser offsite) hushmail uses a client-side java applet for the message encryption, which, really, is the only way to go. SSL encryption alone for web-based email is, well, humorous. Again, the hushmail accounts would be good/reliable for one use only (unless their implementation of authentication is a lot cooler than I'm aware of)
If the kiosks allow people to setup SMTP email, and allow carnivore to intercept them, then all tohse clear-text passwords sent over SMTP get dropped off with the rest of the mail at some Schmoe's desk at the FBI.
OK, so the shutting-down-the-internet article was bit off base, but if there is any accuracy to this at all, then this is a real issue on privacy expectations.
Paranoia's just a fun hobby until you start reading your website's logfiles.
PBS's Rob Cringely wrote about the web kiosks at the olympics being intercepted by a carnivore-on-steroids that can choose to bounce emails--not ever deliver them.
/. discussion.
Right. must reduce my caffeine intake before jumping three steps in
OK, so they're kiosks and whatnot. That's a bummer, because they're likely not to allow floppy disk access or installation. But people can still use web-based (semi)secure email like hushmail (I think the password is sent over SSL, so it might only be good for one-offs...
Of course, the kiosks might have java disabled...
But seriously, this is weak. There is a need for safety, but what stupid ass nutcase is going to email people about their terrorist act from the location? Are they seriously thinking that they'll intercept some message alerting them to someone placing a bomb somewhere?
Now that the monitoring is becoming public knowledge, is there any chance that they won't be jammed with prank messages ("I saw a guy leaving an unmarked duffel bag under the bleachers! I hope it's not a BOMB!", or, "Dear Osamu, I left your package where you asked, hope your friend finds it!")
If they are really expecting reliable results, I want some of what they;re smoking. But really, I want to know what's really going on. Test-run of a new carnivore product?
No, it can't, because in the quantum crypto model, you're not actually sending the OTP, you're sending data allowing both parties to agree on a OTP--which requires the recipient to reply with a filtered version of the info sent. I wish I understood at a deeper level such that I could explain it better.
Will this be the first real-world slashdot effect? Will the highways get clogged? Will the party run out of temporary storage space and have to refuse entry?
Will the fire(wall)marshall be at the door limiting entry for safety purposes?
This is true--and is the OTP effect.
The problem is the tech curve. There is no way in hell that we'll have desktop end-to-end quantum crypto devices before spooks and other nefarious types get decently strong qubit computers to ravage all current encryption.
This would explain the lowering of export requirements for traditional encryption...
Quantum crypto-cracking (given, say, a 40qubit system) makes cracking traditional crypto insanely easy. IIRC from the defcon quantum crypto talk, it is SQRT(Original keypsace) in difficulty to crack, instead of (Original keyspace).
This means, longer keys, and eventually quantum computing to enable OTPs (One-Time Pads -- yes, with Quantum computing they're possible, and, better yet, functional!)
And, in fact, has had a working 7qubit computer since March (2000)...
h tm
This article is an easy read with a GREAT summary of the history, applications, and iswsues in quantum computing: http://www.techreview.com/articles/may00/waldrop.
That's amusing--I'd seen it on the WSJ this morning and immediately searched the usual official mirrors of it looking for a more public access to it (seems WSJ got wise to cyberpunk/cyberpunk finally!) and didn't find anything, so huffed and went on about my day.
On topic, I'd wager that the FBI has a preexisting relationship with this university, having been named so quickly.
The WSJ ran an article this morning that had a less happy veneer. The high points were that the FBI was claiming Carnivore was classified information, and that thoguh they'd submit it for evaluation, it would not become public knowledge in any form whatsoever. The article is here at http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB965861735609 205665.htm
And here are relevant excerpts:
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to give to Congress details of its Carnivore Internet surveillance system, telling a member of a House oversight committee that some of the documents he requested include classified information and others are the subject of a pending lawsuit seeking their release"
"...the bureau wrote that it is "not presently in a position" to provide documents he requested. "There remains substantial public misunderstanding and misinformation about the system," wrote John Collingwood, assistant director for public affairs."
"...the Justice Department has been negotiating such a review with the University of California at San Diego's Supercomputing Center, said Tom Perrine, the center's manager of security technologies."
and my favorite:
"Mr. Perrine said that part of the FBI's challenge using Carnivore is conducting Internet wiretaps under U.S. laws that predate the Internet. "Carnivore is probably the best program and the most privacy-protective program that [the FBI] could have written given the lack of guidance in law from Congress," he said."
But also, most large ISPs (RoadRunner, for example) also reserve the right and probably do log a lot of their text traffic. I wasn't saying at all that Carnivore isn't 'useful' for the FBI, but rather that 25-100 cases involved it in 1999, and that'll be a very low extent to the amount of email that the FBI had access to and used in cases due to the fact that carnivore isn't often installed on larger ISPs.