There are an infinite number of ways to generate clean energy. The number of ways which can do so economically, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
There are an infinite number of ways to cure cancer. The number of ways which can do so without killing the patient, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
There are an infinite number of ways to store data. The number of ways which can do so usefully, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
Slashdot needs an "impractical tech idea" category for corralling all the all the grad students working on generating papers about their useless-but-interesting areas of research.
Tax revenues are lower at the moment due to the recession. Spending is higher at the moment due to stimulus spending due to the recession.
Cutting a few hundred billion in wasted military expense does not balance the budget this year, but it does once revenues and expense return to non-recession levels.
This isn't "we," it's "he." He is funding this research with his own money. You don't have a say in it.
Furthermore, "we" know how to reduce carbon emissions. But doing so has a tremendous economic cost--one so high it won't ever happen under democratic rule.
If we cut our war budget from six times the next-biggest country to three times the next-biggest country, our budget would balance and our economy would grow. And we would still be far and away the best-defended nation.
Food doesn't pay a yield, so it's silly to call it an investment. Businesses earn profits and pay yields, so buying their stock really is an investment.
To add to my own post: please read the AC post below this one. It seems to be by HDM or someone knowledgeable about the project, and the poster attributes the changes technical reasons.
Well, apologies if I mistakenly attributed to the Rapid7 purchase what was actually a technical decision. From an outsider viewpoint, the project was acquired, then the GUI support was dropped, then a commercial GUI (Metasploit Express) was offered for purchase; so it certainly seemed like these things were related.
You deserve to make money from your great project--thanks for creating it. I do, of course, hope that the project isn't forced to compromise because of the new financial interests.
HDM ended support for the GTK and web interfaces when he was purchased. Now, you need to purchase Metasploit Express ( http://www.metasploit.com/express/ ) to get a graphical interface for Metasploit.
Metasploit used to have nice GUI and web-based interfaces. Once it was purchased, they were immediately dropped.
Also, a project like Metasploit can't live without community contributions, and we have yet to see if these are sustained. When contributing to a noncommercial open source project, the feel is one of peers collaborating. When contributing to a commercial product, the feel is more like working without a paycheck...
Wait a second... window manager buttons and colors are all user-configurable. If you find minor configurations like that to be daunting, how did you ever manage to summon the skill to install an OS in the first place?
You're either trolling or you're retarded. Wait: "by Anonymous Coward" usually means "trolling," right?
That's the stupidest justification I've ever heard. You could say that any time someone doesn't do exactly as you recommend, "you've just hurt healthcare for a 500 bed hospital." It's total political bullshit, and I'm sure you milk it for all it's worth. What a great excuse for laziness, incompetence, or anything else you like.
Running outdated insecure software hurts people. Motivating users to motivate app developers to keep there shit up to date helps health care for a 500 bed hospital. Keeping software current to prevent security and usability problems on the whole helps health care for a 500 bed hospital.
I guess by your own admission you fight against the healthcare of a 500 bed hospital... Nice....
You are wrong. This is not "the only way." Another way to get off of IE6 is to create a "legacy application terminal server" which contains shit that you can't get rid of but don't want to have widely-deployed. Such a system should have tight security controls and should be very difficult to use (to encourage people to upgrade their apps).
Are you sure? Perhaps you aren't aware that The Church elected an Inquisitor to be the Pope. And you may not have noticed that The Church opposes secular government, and also takes actions which encourage the spread of AIDS...
So... molestation, spreading AIDS, challenging your civil rights... what does it take to get on your bad side?
When datacenters retire old systems, they typically give their hardware to a company that destroys the data and salvages what they can afterward, actually.
Furthermore, you are again forgetting key management. Servers must be able to boot without manual intervention. Think about Patch Tuesday if you need an example.
So, someone in possession of an old computer could merely turn it on and watch it decrypt itself.
Listen, kid, since you apparently didn't read my post last time, I'll repeat: disk encryption protects against physical theft. Servers aren't stolen. They're hacked. Therefore, disk encryption is pointless for servers. QED.
It concerns me that you [work in IT security]
Your ignorance of security is rather sad. Your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired. But you're hiding behind a name on the internet, so continue to spew nonsense. You are a great example of the Internet giving every clueless idiot a voice.
Encryption in transit is great. Encryption of backup tapes is great. Encryption of end-user systems which store the data is great.
But encryption of live servers and databases is a farce. Encryption without key management is itself a farce, and a servers which require keys to operate necessarily lack key management. Furthermore, server encryption is absurd because it can only protects against physical theft of the servers, not against hacking.
The only case in which server encryption would do a bit of good is if the datacenter has no physical security, and every time a system boots, someone has to walk over to it and type a 20+ character random password.
Yes, I work in IT security. Yes, I think encryption is great, but NOT ON SERVERS.
Let anyone say anything. HOWEVER, the media should be required to state clear disclaimers before reporting "facts" which they have not attempted to verify.
Slashdot Mirror
There are an infinite number of ways to generate clean energy. The number of ways which can do so economically, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
There are an infinite number of ways to cure cancer. The number of ways which can do so without killing the patient, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
There are an infinite number of ways to store data. The number of ways which can do so usefully, however, is something like (infinity - very few).
Slashdot needs an "impractical tech idea" category for corralling all the all the grad students working on generating papers about their useless-but-interesting areas of research.
Tax revenues are lower at the moment due to the recession. Spending is higher at the moment due to stimulus spending due to the recession.
Cutting a few hundred billion in wasted military expense does not balance the budget this year, but it does once revenues and expense return to non-recession levels.
This isn't "we," it's "he." He is funding this research with his own money. You don't have a say in it.
Furthermore, "we" know how to reduce carbon emissions. But doing so has a tremendous economic cost--one so high it won't ever happen under democratic rule.
I hope it at least took you out to dinner first.
A sense of proportion? Here's some proportion for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
If we cut our war budget from six times the next-biggest country to three times the next-biggest country, our budget would balance and our economy would grow. And we would still be far and away the best-defended nation.
The Linux "system of limiting privilege" is less effective than the windows version. Linux merely isn't targeted as much.
It is tricky for malware to make itself auto-start on Windows without being an admin. On Linux? Simple! Every user has cron, ~/.rc files, etc..
Sorry kids, malware doesn't need root to work on linux. All this pride in protecting root is horribly misguided.
Food doesn't pay a yield, so it's silly to call it an investment. Businesses earn profits and pay yields, so buying their stock really is an investment.
Bad analogies are why I keep coming back to slashdot. Thanks for carrying the torch!
To add to my own post: please read the AC post below this one. It seems to be by HDM or someone knowledgeable about the project, and the poster attributes the changes technical reasons.
Well, apologies if I mistakenly attributed to the Rapid7 purchase what was actually a technical decision. From an outsider viewpoint, the project was acquired, then the GUI support was dropped, then a commercial GUI (Metasploit Express) was offered for purchase; so it certainly seemed like these things were related.
You deserve to make money from your great project--thanks for creating it. I do, of course, hope that the project isn't forced to compromise because of the new financial interests.
HDM ended support for the GTK and web interfaces when he was purchased. Now, you need to purchase Metasploit Express ( http://www.metasploit.com/express/ ) to get a graphical interface for Metasploit.
Metasploit used to have nice GUI and web-based interfaces. Once it was purchased, they were immediately dropped.
Also, a project like Metasploit can't live without community contributions, and we have yet to see if these are sustained. When contributing to a noncommercial open source project, the feel is one of peers collaborating. When contributing to a commercial product, the feel is more like working without a paycheck...
Arin is supposed to be a benevolent communist dictator. Any free market of address space is a black market, just like any free market in the USSR was.
I want my data backed up offsite and available to me from anywhere. No hackers care about my vacation photos or video game save-files.
But I also want the option of keeping some of that data encrypted.
There is no reason why cloud services could not offer both options.
The overall unemployment rate is 9.7%, not 20%. Furthermore, the unemployment rate for educated professionals is much lower than even that.
Please attempt to get your facts straight next time. Your statements are grossly wrong.
Anonymous Cowards should never be given the benefit of the doubt.
Wait a second... window manager buttons and colors are all user-configurable. If you find minor configurations like that to be daunting, how did you ever manage to summon the skill to install an OS in the first place?
You're either trolling or you're retarded. Wait: "by Anonymous Coward" usually means "trolling," right?
That's the stupidest justification I've ever heard. You could say that any time someone doesn't do exactly as you recommend, "you've just hurt healthcare for a 500 bed hospital." It's total political bullshit, and I'm sure you milk it for all it's worth. What a great excuse for laziness, incompetence, or anything else you like.
Running outdated insecure software hurts people. Motivating users to motivate app developers to keep there shit up to date helps health care for a 500 bed hospital. Keeping software current to prevent security and usability problems on the whole helps health care for a 500 bed hospital.
I guess by your own admission you fight against the healthcare of a 500 bed hospital... Nice....
You are wrong. This is not "the only way." Another way to get off of IE6 is to create a "legacy application terminal server" which contains shit that you can't get rid of but don't want to have widely-deployed. Such a system should have tight security controls and should be very difficult to use (to encourage people to upgrade their apps).
Are you sure? Perhaps you aren't aware that The Church elected an Inquisitor to be the Pope. And you may not have noticed that The Church opposes secular government, and also takes actions which encourage the spread of AIDS...
So... molestation, spreading AIDS, challenging your civil rights... what does it take to get on your bad side?
When datacenters retire old systems, they typically give their hardware to a company that destroys the data and salvages what they can afterward, actually.
Furthermore, you are again forgetting key management. Servers must be able to boot without manual intervention. Think about Patch Tuesday if you need an example.
So, someone in possession of an old computer could merely turn it on and watch it decrypt itself.
KEY MANAGEMENT.
Wow, that's a stupid comment.
Listen, kid, since you apparently didn't read my post last time, I'll repeat: disk encryption protects against physical theft. Servers aren't stolen. They're hacked. Therefore, disk encryption is pointless for servers. QED.
Your ignorance of security is rather sad. Your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired. But you're hiding behind a name on the internet, so continue to spew nonsense. You are a great example of the Internet giving every clueless idiot a voice.
That is not a solution. Where is the key management? How does the server access the information?
Yeah, that's what I thought...
Encryption in transit is great. Encryption of backup tapes is great. Encryption of end-user systems which store the data is great.
But encryption of live servers and databases is a farce. Encryption without key management is itself a farce, and a servers which require keys to operate necessarily lack key management. Furthermore, server encryption is absurd because it can only protects against physical theft of the servers, not against hacking.
The only case in which server encryption would do a bit of good is if the datacenter has no physical security, and every time a system boots, someone has to walk over to it and type a 20+ character random password.
Yes, I work in IT security. Yes, I think encryption is great, but NOT ON SERVERS.
Let anyone say anything. HOWEVER, the media should be required to state clear disclaimers before reporting "facts" which they have not attempted to verify.