IEEE 754 floating point numbers have +/- infinity built in, and N / 0 = infinity. This is hardly a new discovery.
So, why do computers still complain when we divide by zero, instead of just returning infinity? Because we want them to! Dividing by zero almost always represents a logic error in your program, or invalid input from a user, and it's far better to produce a meaningful error in those cases than to continue happily along with nonsense data.
It's not entirely true that script kiddies with credit card number generators can't hurt online companies. You are right that cards are verified in real time online, but that verification costs money for the merchant.
I was the (spare time, volunteer) treasurer for a very small ( $6000/year revenues) nonprofit a couple of years back, when we began to offer our services online through credit card payments. To pay by credit card, you had to submit the billing address for the card, which would be verified realtime, blah blah blah. At the time, the average fee for verifying a credit card request received through our web site was about 40 cents. Not a big deal for legitimate transactions, but... After being up for a couple of months, we had a script kiddie attack from a block of IP's in Indonesia somewhere. Within a matter of hours, we had run up several hundred dollars worth of fees just for rejecting all the requests. The kiddie never managed to charge any money to any cards, but he drove that web page off the net anyway. We never did find a solution to the problem and eventually switched to paypal and passed the cost on to them. Of course, they don't take credit cards from all the countries we wanted anyway...
Don't forget that writing history papers is not the only application for physical handwriting on a piece of paper. As far as I'm aware, there still aren't good computer-based solutions for all the diagrams and symbols used for math and science. Yes, I know that there are hundreds of equation editors and plotters and publishing tools so forth, but that's just not suitable for scratch work, for just sitting down and figuring stuff out. Can you imagine taking notes for math class using LaTeX? I know that my ability to study math and science would have been seriously impaired if I had not been proficient in writing with a physical pencil on physical paper.
I second the recommendation of Grand Theft Auto 3. I play a lot of games, and IMO this is one of very few games in the last few years that you really should not miss.
The part that scares me about this article isn't the charges themselves, but the fact that it's Granholm behind them. Jennifer Granholm's record with regards to the internet is not exactly spectacular. I'm thinking in particular of Michigan Public Act 33, Michigan's attempt at keeping porn away from kids. It was, of course, so ridiculously broad as to be obviously unconstitutional, and the ACLU got a preliminary injunction. (Incidentally, Arbornet was one of the plaintiffs in that case.) Granholm was, I understand, one of the proponents of that law. I'm not entirely sure this is the kind of person I want going after "hackers".
Slashdot Mirror
IEEE 754 floating point numbers have +/- infinity built in, and N / 0 = infinity. This is hardly a new discovery.
So, why do computers still complain when we divide by zero, instead of just returning infinity? Because we want them to! Dividing by zero almost always represents a logic error in your program, or invalid input from a user, and it's far better to produce a meaningful error in those cases than to continue happily along with nonsense data.
(better late than never...)
It's not entirely true that script kiddies with credit card number generators can't hurt online companies. You are right that cards are verified in real time online, but that verification costs money for the merchant.
I was the (spare time, volunteer) treasurer for a very small ( $6000/year revenues) nonprofit a couple of years back, when we began to offer our services online through credit card payments. To pay by credit card, you had to submit the billing address for the card, which would be verified realtime, blah blah blah. At the time, the average fee for verifying a credit card request received through our web site was about 40 cents. Not a big deal for legitimate transactions, but... After being up for a couple of months, we had a script kiddie attack from a block of IP's in Indonesia somewhere. Within a matter of hours, we had run up several hundred dollars worth of fees just for rejecting all the requests. The kiddie never managed to charge any money to any cards, but he drove that web page off the net anyway. We never did find a solution to the problem and eventually switched to paypal and passed the cost on to them. Of course, they don't take credit cards from all the countries we wanted anyway...
Don't forget that writing history papers is not the only application for physical handwriting on a piece of paper. As far as I'm aware, there still aren't good computer-based solutions for all the diagrams and symbols used for math and science. Yes, I know that there are hundreds of equation editors and plotters and publishing tools so forth, but that's just not suitable for scratch work, for just sitting down and figuring stuff out. Can you imagine taking notes for math class using LaTeX? I know that my ability to study math and science would have been seriously impaired if I had not been proficient in writing with a physical pencil on physical paper.
...build your walls from RAM...
/drool
I second the recommendation of Grand Theft Auto 3. I play a lot of games, and IMO this is one of very few games in the last few years that you really should not miss.
The part that scares me about this article isn't the charges themselves, but the fact that it's Granholm behind them. Jennifer Granholm's record with regards to the internet is not exactly spectacular. I'm thinking in particular of Michigan Public Act 33, Michigan's attempt at keeping porn away from kids. It was, of course, so ridiculously broad as to be obviously unconstitutional, and the ACLU got a preliminary injunction. (Incidentally, Arbornet was one of the plaintiffs in that case.) Granholm was, I understand, one of the proponents of that law. I'm not entirely sure this is the kind of person I want going after "hackers".