You can triangulate a signal from a cell phone. By its strength to the masts picking it up. This is what you are referring to. But the article is taliking about another use for the signals. Read the article again this is not picking up people who have cell phones it is using the masts signal as radar to track anything moving in the area covered by the masts. You don't need a cell phone to be picked up by the unit. You just need mass.
That is why I did not attribute the quote to anyone. Since it is either computer legend, a misquote or a denied quote I left as a phrase not made by me commonly understood by people, but owned by no one.
And what if we do both? That would be better also.
I think this type of thinking is needed in the current climate of technology. We need to look at core components and processes and find ways of enhancing and optimising them.
"640K should be enough for anybody" legacy designs will come back and haunt you sometimes.
Well below is an example of one company ditching Microsoft because the new EULA is too expensive. The support for Windows NT 4 ends in June, I believe. Large IT companies will have to upgrade. When you have 24k plus machines, as in the company I work for, and invest time in build images and internal support but have to balance that over equipment upgrades, security patches and inhouse developement, the microsoft support option is nice to get extended technical data and review. When the support goes you have to move to the new product or an alternative product.
We have some products that are out of support that are non microsoft and getting the skill set in employment to support them gets harder as time goes on, especially on in house developement packages. NT4 to Windows 2000 and XP is a big deal because of the EULA and the fact that NT4 is working. Also when the support goes so usually does the patches which would be fatal with the current virus outbreaks. I don't think these considerations for companies to upgrade are en-vogue or hip it is crucial to either update or as the below example, move on.
here is an example http://www.managementconsultancy.co.uk/Ne ws/113081 5
There are more but this is 30k machines on order because of the end of support on NT4.
Yes most people but institutions with limit funds can benefit from this. And I have seen some people in the council estate that can't get to the internet cafe's or afford computers. With the educational leaning of the UK, with emphasis on computers and a move to offer government forms on the internet. An iniative like this would be good for the low income people. In fact when I was living in the states I knew many people that would benefit from this because they couldn't afford a new computer, or live anywhere near a cyber cafe but could afford an ISP. So a cheap recycled computer was ideal. The closing of the system and optimising for the hardware are important. I am sure we have all built or helped a friend build a machine and the headaches of the stupid installs, and bad user management that they had, always insisting you take a look at it. This will obviously happen here so preparing for it can help minimise the head ache.
Some of the network appliance software can be modified to use in closed systems. If you can download the software for the ThinkNic computers. This is basically a scaled back machine for internet browsing. You can use this as a model for scaling back services. Or you can get a distro like Gentoo, install the base system and include the services you want. Set up a user account and don't give the root password. This should lock the system enough that you can fix problems as root if needed but limits the users ability to install.
I would take the Gentoo option so that you compile optimised for the refurb machines you are using. This will help in performance over a generic installation. Then I would add the x servers and desktop, web browser, email, news client, and maybe open office, depending on your aims. Set up the user accounts. Give them access to those programs and space to save their documents in. Create xinit scripts to log them directly into x windows and they should be happy. If you focus on the process to do that you can make it an install procedure instead of a distribution and your machines will be optimised and the setup time in the end will be about the same.
Well the games that come with Microsoft where meant to be instructions on how to use the interface. I remember using this tidbit of information to help a customer at the ISP I worked for. He got very confused about double-click, right click, single click and such. I told him that the game pack in Windows was there so you can learn to double click, single click, right click and drag and drop. You play minesweeper to get the left and right click ability. Solitaire for double click, drag and drop. I got him setup and called him back a week later to see how he was going and he was still scared of the thing a bit, but was openning and closing the things he needed, mainly email and games. Though some of the generalisations in this thread about older computer users boogles my mind. I was lucky my grandfather was a programmer. My mum did data entry. I have had a computer in the house since personal computers have been available. So it wasn't until helping other people outside my family that I understood the stereotype, yet funny enough there is an exception around every other corner. This is probably why I hate generalisations and stereo types but that is another story.
About the article there is a point about interface design and tyrants. But a focussed comitte can by as good as a tyrant. I think the ability to control forks on a complex project can help the project from sinking under its own weight. Linux is at a strange crossroads right now. I think the future will be good, if we can retain our community while adding a product that is more channelled to the 'end user'. RedHat is leaning that way but I don't know if they can pull it off. I think the oppurtunity for someone to sit down and create a small distribution with minimal software, and a focus on configuration, file structure layout, and gui controls can make headway onto the desktop. But,and this is where the open community is great for the technical users but daunting for the 'end user', this needs to be done with very little forking and more focus.
All said and done I am in a sick of computers mood. Too much workload this week. And it is just Monday. So maybe my thoughts on this article will be different in a day or two. But as things go he does have a valid point in just the user interface portion of the argument. The state of computers I think backs him up fairly well. The question is though what can we as community learn from that and where can we take that information, if we want to.
My thought on this I can't quite articulate the best I can say is in The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy when the mice were researching humans. They learned about humans by the tests humans ran on them to learn more about themselves. Models have a psychology to them that explain about the individual or culture of the individual designing them. So the parallel between disease spreading in humans and the structure of the net. The question from this is; is the internet mimicking human social organisations because it is a human social organisation?
There will always be parallels in the two. The model is focussing on threat based responses but what about growth and discovery or self control. In human social organisation the biggest combat of std's was change of behaviour, so in another human social organisation the internet the combat against computer viruses is change of behaviour.
Sex education to stop stds Computer education to stop computer viruses
Face it focusing on key routers will probably stop the current viral model but what will the next viral payload do or look like and how will it take this into account.
I think the idea of BBC snippets like this is that if you are an average reader, no knowldege of Linux or maybe computers in general, it gives you a brief characterisation on people you might have heard those silly IT guys talking about at work.
All and all the bbc is a fairly good organisation with its respect to Linux and open software.
From what I have read on the virus it does more than the cnn article goes into quotes from the symantec faq on the virus. We have two machines isolated at work now that I have to check on Monday for this. Off network and turned off waiting for me to get through my weekend. It is a pretty interesting read on what it does. It seems to be a klez variant with some extra functionality. So like klez it trys to disable antivirus software and it has added more processes to kill read symantec read on it. Though I believe sometimes symantec overstates virus threats, this one seems to do a lot in a little package.
The keyboard logging and the open port 80 makes it very interesting to see if it is waiting for a cracker to come along or if it is waiting for other payload from another infected machine or from a variant.
"Because the worm does not properly handle the network resource types, it may flood shared printer resources, which causes them to print garbage or disrupt their normal functionality.
It is written in the Microsoft Visual C++ 6 programming language and is compressed with UPX v0.76.1-1.22."
"The third thread that the worm creates is a backdoor routine. It opens port 36794 and listens for commands from the hacker. The commands permit the worm to perform the following actions:
Delete files. Terminate processes. List processes and deliver the list to the hacker. Copy files. Start processes. List files and deliver the list to the hacker. Deliver intercepted keystrokes to the hacker (in an encrypted form). This may release confidential information that typed on a computer (passwords, login details, and so on). Deliver the system information to the hacker in the following form:
User: Processor: Windows version: Memory information: Local drives, their types (e.g., fixed/removable/RAM disk/CD-ROM/remote), and their physical characteristics
List network resourses and their types, and deliver the list to the hacker.
If the operating system is Windows 95/98/Me, the worm attempts to obtain access to the password cache on the local computer. The cached passwords include modem and dial-up passwords, URL passwords, share passwords, and others. This is done using an officially undocumented function-- WNetEnumCachedPasswords--that exists only in Windows95/98/Me versions of the Mpr.dll file.
One of the commands permits the Trojan component to deliver data using HTTP port 80. The results of the backdoor activity may be represented in the form of HTML pages. This gives a hacker a convienient way to browse the compromised computer resources.
The fourth worm thread replicates across the network. To do this, the worm lists all of the resources in the network. If it locates open administrator shares, it attempts to copy itself to the Startup folder of the remote computer. This leads to the infection of the compromised network computers as soon as they are restarted.
Because the worm does not properly handle the network resource types, it may flood shared printer resources, which causes them to print garbage or disrupt their normal functionality."
I remember reading about 3d Gui design a little while back and this device seems perfect for it. With the proper Gui the gestures would become common place.
http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~gl/research/HCC/in te ract97.html
http://www.lsi.usp.br/~jecel/gui.html
I think this is a case where the device on existing gui models would seem pointless (some pun intended). But by changing the interface to match the concepts it could be as major as they shift from keyboard to mouse was.
Though personally I like the idea of the virtual reality interface from Lawnmower man. When are we going to get one of those, or will that violate the copyright from the film.
I saw a report on the global warming flash points within earth.
Basically the idea traced the carbon output of rainforests. Geologically global warming was gradual but intensived at certain time periods. These time periods were centered around forest fires in the rain forest areas.
The general map is this.
Rain forests can only act as a carbon sink for so much carbon before the dead material created by the forest begins to add to carbon output instead of the plants breath cycle decreasing it. In natural historic global warming (without man made intervention) the increase of life on earth slowly moved carbon distribtion until the atmosphere warmed this slow warm hyper excelerated in the last phases. This caused quick changes in temperature followed by a dramatic cold period.
The key was the current rain forest model. It appears rain forests hold more carbon than predicted. In tracing this carbon it was found that dead organic material was carried by the rivers and decayed producing methane. But instead of the gas being released in the atmosphere this material was pushed into the sea depths and froze. Methan ice packs have been hit by oil drilling before and than come up a boil. The theory is that this extra carbon sink accounts for the rapid period of global warming in the geological evidence. Slow global warming slowly raises the rates of forest fires releasing more carbon from the forests when temperatures hit a point of affectin sea temperatures the methane in the ocean becomes gas. These large storages are dumped almost instantly creating a dramatic and quick rise in temperature which melts the ice caps and glaciers. This changes the saline levels of the ocean changing the heat distribution of the currents and flipping into a cold period.
So it is best to not bring up these carbon sinks but to leave them untouched. Again the drive should be to move away from carbon based fuel.
Related links
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/12 18_earthbelch.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01k.htm l http://www.hydrogen.co.uk/h2_now/journal/articles/ 3_Methane.htm http://superstringtheory.com/forum/warmboard/messa ges2/116.html
Slashdot Mirror
You can triangulate a signal from a cell phone. By its strength to the masts picking it up. This is what you are referring to. But the article is taliking about another use for the signals. Read the article again this is not picking up people who have cell phones it is using the masts signal as radar to track anything moving in the area covered by the masts. You don't need a cell phone to be picked up by the unit. You just need mass.
That is why I did not attribute the quote to anyone. Since it is either computer legend, a misquote or a denied quote I left as a phrase not made by me commonly understood by people, but owned by no one.
And what if we do both?
That would be better also.
I think this type of thinking is needed in the current climate of technology. We need to look at core components and processes and find ways of enhancing and optimising them.
"640K should be enough for anybody" legacy designs will come back and haunt you sometimes.
Ouch that hurt,
haven't had to poke or peek in a while.
I miss the 6502 and 6510.
Well below is an example of one company ditching Microsoft because the new EULA is too expensive. The support for Windows NT 4 ends in June, I believe. Large IT companies will have to upgrade. When you have 24k plus machines, as in the company I work for, and invest time in build images and internal support but have to balance that over equipment upgrades, security patches and inhouse developement, the microsoft support option is nice to get extended technical data and review. When the support goes you have to move to the new product or an alternative product.
e ws/113081 5
We have some products that are out of support that are non microsoft and getting the skill set in employment to support them gets harder as time goes on, especially on in house developement packages. NT4 to Windows 2000 and XP is a big deal because of the EULA and the fact that NT4 is working. Also when the support goes so usually does the patches which would be fatal with the current virus outbreaks. I don't think these considerations for companies to upgrade are en-vogue or hip it is crucial to either update or as the below example, move on.
here is an example
http://www.managementconsultancy.co.uk/N
There are more but this is 30k machines on order because of the end of support on NT4.
All apologies for the typos in the above. I clicked submit instead of preview. User error, making user look silly. Though I am good at that.
Yes most people but institutions with limit funds can benefit from this. And I have seen some people in the council estate that can't get to the internet cafe's or afford computers. With the educational leaning of the UK, with emphasis on computers and a move to offer government forms on the internet. An iniative like this would be good for the low income people. In fact when I was living in the states I knew many people that would benefit from this because they couldn't afford a new computer, or live anywhere near a cyber cafe but could afford an ISP. So a cheap recycled computer was ideal. The closing of the system and optimising for the hardware are important. I am sure we have all built or helped a friend build a machine and the headaches of the stupid installs, and bad user management that they had, always insisting you take a look at it. This will obviously happen here so preparing for it can help minimise the head ache.
Some of the network appliance software can be modified to use in closed systems.
If you can download the software for the ThinkNic computers. This is basically a scaled back machine for internet browsing. You can use this as a model for scaling back services. Or you can get a distro like Gentoo, install the base system and include the services you want. Set up a user account and don't give the root password. This should lock the system enough that you can fix problems as root if needed but limits the users ability to install.
I would take the Gentoo option so that you compile optimised for the refurb machines you are using. This will help in performance over a generic installation. Then I would add the x servers and desktop, web browser, email, news client, and maybe open office, depending on your aims. Set up the user accounts. Give them access to those programs and space to save their documents in. Create xinit scripts to log them directly into x windows and they should be happy. If you focus on the process to do that you can make it an install procedure instead of a distribution and your machines will be optimised and the setup time in the end will be about the same.
Well the games that come with Microsoft where meant to be instructions on how to use the interface. I remember using this tidbit of information to help a customer at the ISP I worked for. He got very confused about double-click, right click, single click and such. I told him that the game pack in Windows was there so you can learn to double click, single click, right click and drag and drop. You play minesweeper to get the left and right click ability. Solitaire for double click, drag and drop. I got him setup and called him back a week later to see how he was going and he was still scared of the thing a bit, but was openning and closing the things he needed, mainly email and games.
,and this is where the open community is great for the technical users but daunting for the 'end user', this needs to be done with very little forking and more focus.
Though some of the generalisations in this thread about older computer users boogles my mind. I was lucky my grandfather was a programmer. My mum did data entry. I have had a computer in the house since personal computers have been available. So it wasn't until helping other people outside my family that I understood the stereotype, yet funny enough there is an exception around every other corner. This is probably why I hate generalisations and stereo types but that is another story.
About the article there is a point about interface design and tyrants. But a focussed comitte can by as good as a tyrant. I think the ability to control forks on a complex project can help the project from sinking under its own weight. Linux is at a strange crossroads right now. I think the future will be good, if we can retain our community while adding a product that is more channelled to the 'end user'. RedHat is leaning that way but I don't know if they can pull it off. I think the oppurtunity for someone to sit down and create a small distribution with minimal software, and a focus on configuration, file structure layout, and gui controls can make headway onto the desktop. But
All said and done I am in a sick of computers mood. Too much workload this week. And it is just Monday. So maybe my thoughts on this article will be different in a day or two. But as things go he does have a valid point in just the user interface portion of the argument. The state of computers I think backs him up fairly well. The question is though what can we as community learn from that and where can we take that information, if we want to.
My thought on this I can't quite articulate the best I can say is in The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy when the mice were researching humans. They learned about humans by the tests humans ran on them to learn more about themselves. Models have a psychology to them that explain about the individual or culture of the individual designing them. So the parallel between disease spreading in humans and the structure of the net. The question from this is; is the internet mimicking human social organisations because it is a human social organisation?
There will always be parallels in the two. The model is focussing on threat based responses but what about growth and discovery or self control. In human social organisation the biggest combat of std's was change of behaviour, so in another human social organisation the internet the combat against computer viruses is change of behaviour.
Sex education to stop stds
Computer education to stop computer viruses
Face it focusing on key routers will probably stop the current viral model but what will the next viral payload do or look like and how will it take this into account.
I think the idea of BBC snippets like this is that if you are an average reader, no knowldege of Linux or maybe computers in general, it gives you a brief characterisation on people you might have heard those silly IT guys talking about at work.
1 17 6/1/
All and all the bbc is a fairly good organisation with its respect to Linux and open software.
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/
From what I have read on the virus it does more than the cnn article goes into quotes from the symantec faq on the virus. We have two machines isolated at work now that I have to check on Monday for this. Off network and turned off waiting for me to get through my weekend. It is a pretty interesting read on what it does. It seems to be a klez variant with some extra functionality. So like klez it trys to disable antivirus software and it has added more processes to kill read symantec read on it. Though I believe sometimes symantec overstates virus threats, this one seems to do a lot in a little package.
e nc /data/w32.bugbear@mm.html
The keyboard logging and the open port 80 makes it very interesting to see if it is waiting for a cracker to come along or if it is waiting for other payload from another infected machine or from a variant.
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/v
"Because the worm does not properly handle the network resource types, it may flood shared printer resources, which causes them to print garbage or disrupt their normal functionality.
It is written in the Microsoft Visual C++ 6 programming language and is compressed with UPX v0.76.1-1.22."
"The third thread that the worm creates is a backdoor routine. It opens port 36794 and listens for commands from the hacker. The commands permit the worm to perform the following actions:
Delete files.
Terminate processes.
List processes and deliver the list to the hacker.
Copy files.
Start processes.
List files and deliver the list to the hacker.
Deliver intercepted keystrokes to the hacker (in an encrypted form). This may release confidential information that typed on a computer (passwords, login details, and so on).
Deliver the system information to the hacker in the following form:
User:
Processor:
Windows version:
Memory information:
Local drives, their types (e.g., fixed/removable/RAM disk/CD-ROM/remote), and their physical characteristics
List network resourses and their types, and deliver the list to the hacker.
If the operating system is Windows 95/98/Me, the worm attempts to obtain access to the password cache on the local computer. The cached passwords include modem and dial-up passwords, URL passwords, share passwords, and others. This is done using an officially undocumented function-- WNetEnumCachedPasswords--that exists only in Windows95/98/Me versions of the Mpr.dll file.
One of the commands permits the Trojan component to deliver data using HTTP port 80. The results of the backdoor activity may be represented in the form of HTML pages. This gives a hacker a convienient way to browse the compromised computer resources.
The fourth worm thread replicates across the network. To do this, the worm lists all of the resources in the network. If it locates open administrator shares, it attempts to copy itself to the Startup folder of the remote computer. This leads to the infection of the compromised network computers as soon as they are restarted.
Because the worm does not properly handle the network resource types, it may flood shared printer resources, which causes them to print garbage or disrupt their normal functionality."
I remember reading about 3d Gui design a little while back and this device seems perfect for it. With the proper Gui the gestures would become common place.
n te ract97.html
http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~gl/research/HCC/i
http://www.lsi.usp.br/~jecel/gui.html
I think this is a case where the device on existing gui models would seem pointless (some pun intended). But by changing the interface to match the concepts it could be as major as they shift from keyboard to mouse was.
Though personally I like the idea of the virtual reality interface from Lawnmower man. When are we going to get one of those, or will that violate the copyright from the film.
yes I did.
Though it isn't a problem with spelling as it is more a problem with typing and poor proof reading.
I will try harder to have less errors in my next posts. Thank you.
When speaking to Europeans the phrase is you do the maths.
Mathmematics is "plural but singular in construction so"(Websters) in the Queen's English the shortened form is maths.
A yank living over the waters I am but I have to agree with the Queen's English on that because it is just logical.
I saw a report on the global warming flash points within earth. Basically the idea traced the carbon output of rainforests. Geologically global warming was gradual but intensived at certain time periods. These time periods were centered around forest fires in the rain forest areas. The general map is this. Rain forests can only act as a carbon sink for so much carbon before the dead material created by the forest begins to add to carbon output instead of the plants breath cycle decreasing it. In natural historic global warming (without man made intervention) the increase of life on earth slowly moved carbon distribtion until the atmosphere warmed this slow warm hyper excelerated in the last phases. This caused quick changes in temperature followed by a dramatic cold period. The key was the current rain forest model. It appears rain forests hold more carbon than predicted. In tracing this carbon it was found that dead organic material was carried by the rivers and decayed producing methane. But instead of the gas being released in the atmosphere this material was pushed into the sea depths and froze. Methan ice packs have been hit by oil drilling before and than come up a boil. The theory is that this extra carbon sink accounts for the rapid period of global warming in the geological evidence. Slow global warming slowly raises the rates of forest fires releasing more carbon from the forests when temperatures hit a point of affectin sea temperatures the methane in the ocean becomes gas. These large storages are dumped almost instantly creating a dramatic and quick rise in temperature which melts the ice caps and glaciers. This changes the saline levels of the ocean changing the heat distribution of the currents and flipping into a cold period. So it is best to not bring up these carbon sinks but to leave them untouched. Again the drive should be to move away from carbon based fuel. Related links2 18_earthbelch.html
m l
/ 3_Methane.htm
a ges2/116.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01k.ht
http://www.hydrogen.co.uk/h2_now/journal/articles
http://superstringtheory.com/forum/warmboard/mess