I assume that the future will hold an increasing amount of law (or what amounts to law) encoded as software. Given that will be the case, I am very happy to hear of legislation which will propose Python as a lingua franca of law. Python is inherently easy to read. Mandatory formatting at first seems a weakness but ultimately creates a standardized "look" for Python source code. This allows the experienced eye to trace Python code with less change of misunderstanding the intent of the code.
I support strongly the introduction of Python as the lingua franca for encoding law into computation models.
That written, I am not convinced that the use of a computational model as part of the representation of an investment would have fore-stalled the current U.S. debacle. Recent news regarding corrupt moves by investment companies would indicate that the U.S. housing credit instrument collapse was in fact inadvertently orchestrated by certain companies creating mortgage instruments which "looked good on paper" but which the investment company believed would fail. For example, the investment company might have looked into additional information on the mortgage holders, determined those mortgage holders who did not get a raise last year, and lumped those mortgages into a 10,000-mortgage bond which was then "insured" with a Credit Default Swap. The information about paycheck could come from examining direct deposit receipts. The relevance of a person not getting a raise is that the person is more likely to be fired within a year.
In light of the type of corruption which led to the credit problem in the U.S., it seems that regulations requiring financial instruments be specified in such-and-such amount of detail don't seem like a remedy. If the investment bank is privy to additional information than specified by the model, it doesn't matter whether the model is expressed as a Python program or a diagram -- the information which is left out of the representation can still be used by the corrupt investment bank, to "structure" the investments to perform other than as predicted.
Some derivative instruments, such as Credit Default Swaps (CDS), gain value only if the instrument they derive from fails. A CDS for a mortgage pays the holder only if the mortgage enters default. In a way, this can be thought of as "insurance" on the original instrument. For simplified example, the holder of a mortgage note (the bank), might buy a CDS for that mortgage, to cover the loss in the event of default. The CDS must be paid for, so a cost is incurred in the event that no default transpires on the original instrument. The "insurance" that AIG was selling, which the U.S. Fed had to pay off on behalf off, were in the form of CDS-like instruments. AIG had sold many-fold more CDS than there were actual mortgages in default -- because 'savvy' investors who had no interest in the actual original instruments, who stood to lose nothing in the event of defaults, purchased CDS on mortgages as an "investment gamble" that certain packages would pay off.
In the recently revealed collusion by an investment bank in the United States, it has been claimed that a prominent bank colluded with a prominent hedge fund manager to created CDS-related instruments (CDOs), which were promoted to succeed, but the investment bank held additional information indicating would fail.
If the same scenario of corrupt investment company and corrupt hedge fund manager recurred under the proposed, Python-specifying, legislation, then the corrupt players would pay someone to write that Python. The Python would make a certain "representation of fact" about the security being sold. That representation would only be as factual as the real players let on to the programmer writing the statement.
In other words, while the choice of Python is excellent, and the attempt to over-specify and codify honest and disclosure is excellent, even Python does not give us the power to force market players to disclose informa
It's amazing to think there could really be only three more space shuttle missions before the retirement of all the orbiter fleet. The current plan is to sell the orbiters to museums as soon as possible.
The United States is suspending manned spaceflight.
I wish that the final shuttle missions would be flown by the extended duration orbiter, Endeavor. I wish that the missions could be extended to even longer or that there were a plan in place to refit and refly the shuttles. But there is no plan to keep flying much less a plan to keep the shuttles flying.
There's no such thing as free. SOMEONE is paying for it.
That's correct.
For example, persons in positions of high pay will be taxed and pay more than others will by virtue of their higher salaries. That tax money will, in part, fund health care for the low-paid people who are just entering the work force. This is a good thing; this is the way stewardship of a government-imposed fiat monetization system is supposed to look. There should be taxes to redistribute wealth acting in opposition to the inherent structural toward concentrating the wealth in the hands of some few.
In terms of making a smart investment for the national future, I think the current legislation missed the mark. So-called "health care" reform really amounts to "health insurance" reform. Where is the money to perform basic research on the mitochondria, on diabetes, on common weaknesses of virus families; where is the money for actual care as opposed to payment?
The answer, my friends, is that there is no money for those things because the congress was not paid by any lobbying group to consider such expenditures.
Meanwhile... Wikileaks claims that our CIA engaged in a non-military illegal killing. Really?
I don't recall either Yoda or Luke wearing hooded garb. Not that the whole basis of this story isn't ridiculous, I'm merely saying it also appears Jediism is inauthentic.
Are most air-data booms attached to the load-bearing super-structure like that? Does the Shuttle's air data boom extend through the Thermal Protection system of the nose -- the hottest are of the TPS during re-entry?
No and no.
I hate to say this since I can't reference them, but in the past there were more photos of X-37 on-line and the boom very clearly is an integral part of the green superstructure, with the mechanism running the entire length of the craft.
Also, if you ask people who work for NASA or the Air Force, what answer would you expect? "Yes, it's a secret ablative re-entry device?"
I realize my claim here is essentially unfalsifiable and non-Popperian, I can only say "trust me" that I have seen other photos of the X-37 and I am pretty sure the attachment is for more than an air data boom.
I also am not suggesting that the device attached in the photos from the air-drop test is a special material spike, nor am I suggesting that pitot instruments were not mounted on it. In fact, I am certain that pitot tubes were mounted on it. Of course there is no reason to attach an actual re-entry boom for the low-altitude drops. The aerodynamic test boom shown in the images I have found is, I am sure, shaped like the boom which will be used in re-entry but not an actual example of such a boom.
However, that does not change my impression that the load-bearing connection to the green structure is tremendously more robust than would be required by any air data probe. The boom itself is much larger in diameter than the air data probe used, e.g., on the F-5E test vehicle for shaped supersonic booms.
Earlier today I tried to find more information using web searches and my impression is that less information is available now than years ago when I was reading about the X-37B's spike. I ran across it because I was a huge fan of the X-40 idea (actually I am still a huge fan of the X-40 ISS return vehicle) before the X-40 was cancelled.
Unfortunately, I don't have any information on the subject further than what I recall from now-missing web articles. If you find anything, let me know!
If you check out the photos on Wikipedia of X-37B underneath the Rutan lift vehicle, you can see what looks like a flagpole sticking out of the nose. This spike is retracted at launch and extended prior to re-entry. The purpose of the spike is to create the leading sonic boom (hypersonic bow wave) and transonic region during re-entry -- well in front of the vehicle itself. The atmosphere reaching the wings and thermal protection surfaces is much slower than the hypersonic bow wave -- thus less heating occurs on the fuselage than on the spike.
The retractable/extensible spike absorbs such an enormous amount of energy and transforms it into heat, yet the spike is not very massive. In order to dissipate the heat without transferring it to the fuselage or melting in an uncontrolled manner, the spike is designed to ablate like many heat shields have (e.g. Apollo). "Ablate" means that the spike flakes apart in a controlled manner which leaves behind useful which continues to be the interface between the craft and the hypersonic flow.
The spike is shown extended in the re-entry test photo because the vehicle was configured for re-entry.
Before GWB scuttled Al Gore's X-38 ISS re-entry vehicle, there had been some talk of incorporating the ablative re-entry spike into ISS return craft. It appeared from the outside (I'm not an insider) that the military community in the US was getting paranoid that revealing the secret ablative spike technology to the foreign competition.
According to the journalism of John Young, famously of cryptome.org, the name NSA used for what we call "public key" cryptography is thare called "non-secret cryptography" meaning that one of the keys is not secret.
John Young's article can be read here: http://cryptome.org/nsa-nse/nsa-nse-01.htm
You may want to calculate whether you are going to be in the "near field" of this antenna, the range where magnetic field dominates and decreases as 1/R^3. The radiation pattern of the electrical field is what transmits the signal. However, if you live inside the near field, currents will be induced in you, and you will become warmer.
Also, inside the near field, devices like microphones and speakers pick up a lot of interference.
Very interesting that I can generate an informative thread with a post that peaks at +2 and then hits 0. It's almost like a horde of MS supporters passed through here.
Ceasing to host the site is one thing, and, yes, they might argue that they were required to do so under DMCA. Locking the domain name registration is a different action that is not required by the DMCA.
Another way to look at this is the Chinese government may have planted highly-trained professional spies inside Google.
Not to group you with the Evil Chinese Communist, but where are you from? You sound overly sympathetic to the non-political interpretation of this, and it's sort of odd to blame the victim. It wouldn't be odd for the Evil Chinese Communist to excuse its own behavior and blame the victim, however. So, despite your 'disarming' final statement, I suspect exactly that -- not due to your criticism of Google, per se, but certainly due to your attempt to minimize the wrong acts of the Chinese government.
Schneier is not primarily a 'blogger,' although that may be how we most frequently encounter him. As the publisher of the renowned book "Applied Cryptography," Schneier is a recognized domain expert in the field of security.
Therefore it is possible, even likely, that Schneier has directly received information pertinent to the attack. Someone assigned to the investigation may have phoned him up to consult his opinion, if nothing else. Given the progressive techno-legal opinion he wrote, I think it is just as possible that someone from the investigation 'leaked' information to Scheneier about the use of the CALEA interface.
By the way, for those who doubt that there is a 'backdoor' to gmail, CALEA is a law which _mandates_ a law enforcement backdoor, either through manual procedures or through computational interface. It sounds like Google has implement a CALEA interface, and China used an IE6 vulnerability to hack first Google, then used the CALEA interface to monitor specific accounts.
The nice thing about using the CALEA interface is that I presume this would not give any clue to the monitored user that the account is being monitored. Logging in with the user's password, as a contrary example, updates the IP usage information displayed by gmail.
Loved this game. Thought it was genius. The gruesome death scenes were down-right though-provoking. Eeeesh.
Did anybody else form the opinion that "Mirror's Edge" refers to powder substances which might accumulate around the edge of the mirror? I noticed in the first scene, after meeting up with your sister and then running -- that Faith runs through a room filled with crystal artwork.;)
Per the Star Trek uniforms, you should all wear red shirts, as your function is primarily engineering. The manager who floated this up the management chain, however, should wear a gold, V-neck, shirt.
Black pants are mandatory. Skip the minis.
(j/k: It sounds like such a terrible idea I had to entertain the Star Trek analogy.)
The chart has a linear regression line fit to it, and it seems like a decent fit line. So we might take the equation for the number of stars at a certain radius (let's call it stars_on_sphere(R) function) would be:
stars_on_sphere(R) = m R + b
From the graph it appears m = 5 / 6 and b = -1. The cumulative total suggested by the graph would then be the integral:
stars_within_distance(R) = Integral( 5 R / 6 - 1 ) = (5/12) R^2 - R
At 80 l.y. that is around 2600 stars within 80 light years.
The 'server' service is a Win32 service which provides sharing of files, printers, and CPU registers on port 139. The best solution, beyond firewalling the port in question, is to disable this service unless it is being used. The service itself consumes resources even when not in use, requires a small amount of time during boot-up, etc.
Most home users do not use windows file-sharing or printer-sharing because they are justifiably concerned with the security risks. These uses should disable the "server" service.
Slashdot Mirror
I assume that the future will hold an increasing amount of law (or what amounts to law) encoded as software. Given that will be the case, I am very happy to hear of legislation which will propose Python as a lingua franca of law. Python is inherently easy to read. Mandatory formatting at first seems a weakness but ultimately creates a standardized "look" for Python source code. This allows the experienced eye to trace Python code with less change of misunderstanding the intent of the code.
I support strongly the introduction of Python as the lingua franca for encoding law into computation models.
That written, I am not convinced that the use of a computational model as part of the representation of an investment would have fore-stalled the current U.S. debacle. Recent news regarding corrupt moves by investment companies would indicate that the U.S. housing credit instrument collapse was in fact inadvertently orchestrated by certain companies creating mortgage instruments which "looked good on paper" but which the investment company believed would fail. For example, the investment company might have looked into additional information on the mortgage holders, determined those mortgage holders who did not get a raise last year, and lumped those mortgages into a 10,000-mortgage bond which was then "insured" with a Credit Default Swap. The information about paycheck could come from examining direct deposit receipts. The relevance of a person not getting a raise is that the person is more likely to be fired within a year.
In light of the type of corruption which led to the credit problem in the U.S., it seems that regulations requiring financial instruments be specified in such-and-such amount of detail don't seem like a remedy. If the investment bank is privy to additional information than specified by the model, it doesn't matter whether the model is expressed as a Python program or a diagram -- the information which is left out of the representation can still be used by the corrupt investment bank, to "structure" the investments to perform other than as predicted.
Some derivative instruments, such as Credit Default Swaps (CDS), gain value only if the instrument they derive from fails. A CDS for a mortgage pays the holder only if the mortgage enters default. In a way, this can be thought of as "insurance" on the original instrument. For simplified example, the holder of a mortgage note (the bank), might buy a CDS for that mortgage, to cover the loss in the event of default. The CDS must be paid for, so a cost is incurred in the event that no default transpires on the original instrument. The "insurance" that AIG was selling, which the U.S. Fed had to pay off on behalf off, were in the form of CDS-like instruments. AIG had sold many-fold more CDS than there were actual mortgages in default -- because 'savvy' investors who had no interest in the actual original instruments, who stood to lose nothing in the event of defaults, purchased CDS on mortgages as an "investment gamble" that certain packages would pay off.
In the recently revealed collusion by an investment bank in the United States, it has been claimed that a prominent bank colluded with a prominent hedge fund manager to created CDS-related instruments (CDOs), which were promoted to succeed, but the investment bank held additional information indicating would fail.
If the same scenario of corrupt investment company and corrupt hedge fund manager recurred under the proposed, Python-specifying, legislation, then the corrupt players would pay someone to write that Python. The Python would make a certain "representation of fact" about the security being sold. That representation would only be as factual as the real players let on to the programmer writing the statement.
In other words, while the choice of Python is excellent, and the attempt to over-specify and codify honest and disclosure is excellent, even Python does not give us the power to force market players to disclose informa
It's amazing to think there could really be only three more space shuttle missions before the retirement of all the orbiter fleet. The current plan is to sell the orbiters to museums as soon as possible.
The United States is suspending manned spaceflight.
I wish that the final shuttle missions would be flown by the extended duration orbiter, Endeavor. I wish that the missions could be extended to even longer or that there were a plan in place to refit and refly the shuttles. But there is no plan to keep flying much less a plan to keep the shuttles flying.
There's no such thing as free. SOMEONE is paying for it.
That's correct.
For example, persons in positions of high pay will be taxed and pay more than others will by virtue of their higher salaries. That tax money will, in part, fund health care for the low-paid people who are just entering the work force. This is a good thing; this is the way stewardship of a government-imposed fiat monetization system is supposed to look. There should be taxes to redistribute wealth acting in opposition to the inherent structural toward concentrating the wealth in the hands of some few.
In terms of making a smart investment for the national future, I think the current legislation missed the mark. So-called "health care" reform really amounts to "health insurance" reform. Where is the money to perform basic research on the mitochondria, on diabetes, on common weaknesses of virus families; where is the money for actual care as opposed to payment?
The answer, my friends, is that there is no money for those things because the congress was not paid by any lobbying group to consider such expenditures.
Meanwhile... Wikileaks claims that our CIA engaged in a non-military illegal killing. Really?
I don't recall either Yoda or Luke wearing hooded garb. Not that the whole basis of this story isn't ridiculous, I'm merely saying it also appears Jediism is inauthentic.
Are most air-data booms attached to the load-bearing super-structure like that?
Does the Shuttle's air data boom extend through the Thermal Protection system of the nose -- the hottest are of the TPS during re-entry?
No and no.
I hate to say this since I can't reference them, but in the past there were more photos of X-37 on-line and the boom very clearly is an integral part of the green superstructure, with the mechanism running the entire length of the craft.
Also, if you ask people who work for NASA or the Air Force, what answer would you expect? "Yes, it's a secret ablative re-entry device?"
I realize my claim here is essentially unfalsifiable and non-Popperian, I can only say "trust me" that I have seen other photos of the X-37 and I am pretty sure the attachment is for more than an air data boom.
I also am not suggesting that the device attached in the photos from the air-drop test is a special material spike, nor am I suggesting that pitot instruments were not mounted on it. In fact, I am certain that pitot tubes were mounted on it. Of course there is no reason to attach an actual re-entry boom for the low-altitude drops. The aerodynamic test boom shown in the images I have found is, I am sure, shaped like the boom which will be used in re-entry but not an actual example of such a boom.
However, that does not change my impression that the load-bearing connection to the green structure is tremendously more robust than would be required by any air data probe. The boom itself is much larger in diameter than the air data probe used, e.g., on the F-5E test vehicle for shaped supersonic booms.
Earlier today I tried to find more information using web searches and my impression is that less information is available now than years ago when I was reading about the X-37B's spike. I ran across it because I was a huge fan of the X-40 idea (actually I am still a huge fan of the X-40 ISS return vehicle) before the X-40 was cancelled.
Unfortunately, I don't have any information on the subject further than what I recall from now-missing web articles. If you find anything, let me know!
Actually, there don't seem to be photos of the spike on Wikipedia. Here is a list of links: .ru site!) of the X-37B hull with the structural opening for the spike. .tw site.
Here is an in-flight photo of the spike.
Here is a photo (on a
Another photo of the composite fuselage and load-bearing structure.
Similar photo on
The X-40A precursor vehicle to X-37B, landing with spike extended.
Photos and drawings which do not show the spike:
This official USAF photo seems to chop the interesting area out of the frame.
A drawing used all over the web, but I'm not sure of the source.
If you check out the photos on Wikipedia of X-37B underneath the Rutan lift vehicle, you can see what looks like a flagpole sticking out of the nose. This spike is retracted at launch and extended prior to re-entry. The purpose of the spike is to create the leading sonic boom (hypersonic bow wave) and transonic region during re-entry -- well in front of the vehicle itself. The atmosphere reaching the wings and thermal protection surfaces is much slower than the hypersonic bow wave -- thus less heating occurs on the fuselage than on the spike.
The retractable/extensible spike absorbs such an enormous amount of energy and transforms it into heat, yet the spike is not very massive. In order to dissipate the heat without transferring it to the fuselage or melting in an uncontrolled manner, the spike is designed to ablate like many heat shields have (e.g. Apollo). "Ablate" means that the spike flakes apart in a controlled manner which leaves behind useful which continues to be the interface between the craft and the hypersonic flow.
The spike is shown extended in the re-entry test photo because the vehicle was configured for re-entry.
Before GWB scuttled Al Gore's X-38 ISS re-entry vehicle, there had been some talk of incorporating the ablative re-entry spike into ISS return craft. It appeared from the outside (I'm not an insider) that the military community in the US was getting paranoid that revealing the secret ablative spike technology to the foreign competition.
According to the journalism of John Young, famously of cryptome.org, the name NSA used for what we call "public key" cryptography is thare called "non-secret cryptography" meaning that one of the keys is not secret. John Young's article can be read here: http://cryptome.org/nsa-nse/nsa-nse-01.htm
You may want to calculate whether you are going to be in the "near field" of this antenna, the range where magnetic field dominates and decreases as 1/R^3. The radiation pattern of the electrical field is what transmits the signal. However, if you live inside the near field, currents will be induced in you, and you will become warmer. Also, inside the near field, devices like microphones and speakers pick up a lot of interference.
Isn't this just going to piss off the government of India even more? They're already holding developer's PP accounts under suspicion.
Do you mean, "Won't the government of India choose to isolate themselves even further?"
Very interesting that I can generate an informative thread with a post that peaks at +2 and then hits 0. It's almost like a horde of MS supporters passed through here.
You are incorrect.
Ceasing to host the site is one thing, and, yes, they might argue that they were required to do so under DMCA. Locking the domain name registration is a different action that is not required by the DMCA.
But thanks.
That Network Solutions, Inc. placed a "legal lock" on his domain name strikes me as NSI appointing themselves sheriff.
We don't need totalitarian internet authorities who "enforce the law" for Microsoft's civil complaints.
I suggest we all boycott Network Solutions, Inc. over their treatment of cryptome.org. I will do so.
This activity smells highly of Microsoft's tactics. Do we really want Microsoft's business goals affecting our foreign policy?
That was the spirit Steve and Woz began with: empower the hacker.
Why is Woz not in charge of his own high-power company? The world is not fair, I suppose.
Another way to look at this is the Chinese government may have planted highly-trained professional spies inside Google.
Not to group you with the Evil Chinese Communist, but where are you from? You sound overly sympathetic to the non-political interpretation of this, and it's sort of odd to blame the victim. It wouldn't be odd for the Evil Chinese Communist to excuse its own behavior and blame the victim, however. So, despite your 'disarming' final statement, I suspect exactly that -- not due to your criticism of Google, per se, but certainly due to your attempt to minimize the wrong acts of the Chinese government.
Schneier is not primarily a 'blogger,' although that may be how we most frequently encounter him. As the publisher of the renowned book "Applied Cryptography," Schneier is a recognized domain expert in the field of security.
Therefore it is possible, even likely, that Schneier has directly received information pertinent to the attack. Someone assigned to the investigation may have phoned him up to consult his opinion, if nothing else. Given the progressive techno-legal opinion he wrote, I think it is just as possible that someone from the investigation 'leaked' information to Scheneier about the use of the CALEA interface.
By the way, for those who doubt that there is a 'backdoor' to gmail, CALEA is a law which _mandates_ a law enforcement backdoor, either through manual procedures or through computational interface. It sounds like Google has implement a CALEA interface, and China used an IE6 vulnerability to hack first Google, then used the CALEA interface to monitor specific accounts.
The nice thing about using the CALEA interface is that I presume this would not give any clue to the monitored user that the account is being monitored. Logging in with the user's password, as a contrary example, updates the IP usage information displayed by gmail.
Loved this game. Thought it was genius. The gruesome death scenes were down-right though-provoking. Eeeesh.
;)
Did anybody else form the opinion that "Mirror's Edge" refers to powder substances which might accumulate around the edge of the mirror? I noticed in the first scene, after meeting up with your sister and then running -- that Faith runs through a room filled with crystal artwork.
Per the Star Trek uniforms, you should all wear red shirts, as your function is primarily engineering. The manager who floated this up the management chain, however, should wear a gold, V-neck, shirt.
Black pants are mandatory. Skip the minis.
(j/k: It sounds like such a terrible idea I had to entertain the Star Trek analogy.)
The chart has a linear regression line fit to it, and it seems like a decent fit line. So we might take the equation for the number of stars at a certain radius (let's call it stars_on_sphere(R) function) would be:
stars_on_sphere(R) = m R + b
From the graph it appears m = 5 / 6 and b = -1. The cumulative total suggested by the graph would then be the integral:
stars_within_distance(R) = Integral( 5 R / 6 - 1 ) = (5/12) R^2 - R
At 80 l.y. that is around 2600 stars within 80 light years.
whoot, 2600!
If and when the Singularity occurs, then sci-fi will finally have finished predicting the future. Afterward, only singular sci-fi will.
"sc config start=disabled server"
The 'server' service is a Win32 service which provides sharing of files, printers, and CPU registers on port 139. The best solution, beyond firewalling the port in question, is to disable this service unless it is being used. The service itself consumes resources even when not in use, requires a small amount of time during boot-up, etc.
Most home users do not use windows file-sharing or printer-sharing because they are justifiably concerned with the security risks. These uses should disable the "server" service.