The essay was absolutely amazing. The surreal description is perfect, reminding me of apocalyptic movies of the 80's and describing what I imagined the world looking like in the RPG Gamma World. Abandoned buildings as people left them, houses falling apart, yet seeing scenes of prezwalski looking horses crossing a stream.
Stop karma whoring by bashing Microsoft with stupid crap. If you're going to bash them for security holes, pick a real exploit.
Hey, I use some Microsoft products (Office for OS X is actually pretty nice in many respects) and I am not bashing them where they do not deserve some feedback. But please tell us why this is not a security exploit? The user who created this document obviously did not intend for that information to get out! Therefore, just like any security issue, there is a component of end user responsibility. However, if I were dealing with sensitive information and was concerned about its inadvertent disclosure, I would not use.doc and I would not let my employees who had access to that information to use.doc for the dissemination of information.
So, this to me seems like another example of security breaches that can get companies, organizations and governments into trouble because of their use of Microsoft products.
So, last time I heard, certain agencies are prohibiting the use of.doc formats for certain information transactions and instead relying on standard ascii text encoded files.
Hey, I'm not saying that I don't want to make more money. Are you out of your mind?:-) Now, I am not letting financial things go by the wayside. I have been investing in the stock market for years. What I am saying is that you have to look at priorities and then realize where our society places its value. We pay some of our best and brightest fairly nominal wages for post-doctoral salary and junior faculty salary, yet our sports stars are making multi-million dollar contracts.
So, what I am saying is be realistic. There are easier ways to make money than science, so if making money is what you value most, then do something else.
A molecular biologist with a PhD at University of Birmingham, in the UK, quits his lab position to become a plumber, since a plumber apparently earns twice what he currently makes (~US$42K).
Hopefully if you are in science, you are doing what you do for reasons other than financial gain. Ideally, one should be doing what they are doing in science to make a difference . Really, because there are a ton of things people can do that are much easier that writing papers, doing good science and applying for grants that make much more money than do your typical scientist. Take for instance the auto mechanic who works on my neighbors BMW. That dude (mechanic) clears six figures easy. Another set of examples: Before I went to graduate school, one of my jobs was a mechanic for old Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. That was not too bad in terms of income and certainly covered the cost of tuition. The carpenter we paid to make our couch makes some pretty good money. The dudes that replaced our sewer line and driveway cleaned up to the tune of $4000 or so. So, if you are just in it for the money, go get an MBA or a plumbing license or something.
Just out of curiousity, how much does a 17" powerbook with 1G of ram cost?
About $2900 from Apple, but here is another bit.....You can get them with 2GB of RAM! which is very important for those of us doing scientific computing or video/audio editing and such. In addition you get a DVD/CD reader/writer, 802.11g wireless networking, built in Bluetooth, one of the nicest backlit (auto sensing) keyboards you have ever typed on, all of this in less than 7 lbs.
So, the problem with extracting energy from this is still sustainability combined with total output right? The amount of energy invested in the system will have to be exceeded by the energy produced or else it is for naught. The things about traditional plasma fusion is that energy output is extensive, but the reaction cannot be sustained. Bubble fusion appears to be sustainable, but likely does not produce significant caloric heat......
iXMicro had a wireless gyroscopic mouse, what, about seven or eight years ago? It was called the Gyropoint and was absolutely perfect for presentations on my Powerbook. Unfortunately it ran about $200 as I recall, but was well worth it if you presented often allowing one to stand away from the laptop. It also had the additional benefit of working out well for RSI issues, but ate batteries too quick to use it routinely. However, this version doubling as an optical mouse is pretty cool. So, why has it taken so long to get these out to a wider audience?
Utah has given the tech world many advances, Novell, WordPerfect, Altiris etc.
So, despite the drawbacks of living in Utah, it turns out that Utah is actually one of those stealth components to technology. The University of Utah in particular has been a powerhouse in computer graphics and has produced doctorates from such folks as John Warnock (founder of Adobe), David Evans and Ivan Sutherland (Evans & Sutherland), Tom Stockham who created the field of digital recording, Alan Kay (Xerox PARC and developer of the GUI), now a fellow at Apple computer, Alan Ashton (founder of Wordperfect), Henri Gourard (creator of Gourard shading), Ed Catmul (co founder of Pixar), Jim Clark (co founder founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape).
I have been quite surprised at the depth of the CS program here and we are working with a number of folks on projects that have great interdisciplinary potential. And it turns out that Utah is a pretty good place to live if you like the outdoors and such.
Meh.......The last statement in the article: "If you want more secure software, upgrade." pretty much sums up Microsoft's position. With this kind of logic, it's a wonder that any coding gets done at all there. So, by extension, if everybody were to leave their doors open and unlocked at night, there would be no crime?:-) Seriously though, if you actually read the article, what it says describes reverse engineering of patches to explore and exploit vulnerabilities. So, the statement if confused might be technically correct, but that does not mean that the security vulnerabilities are not there in the first place. What happens mostly is that the lazy are exploiting the patches, whereas the more experienced (perhaps more dangerous) hackers will do their own work. Furthermore, the more experienced hacker might not be as likely to release their attack into the wild promiscuously. Rather they are doing what they do for a likely monetary payoff.
The real question though is: If the patch can be exploited, is it a patch? Yes, I know that they are analyzing the patch to attack unpatched machines, but to claim that vulnerabilities are not present before patches are released is circular logic.
Yeah so this is the problem with folks who don't ask questions. A quick examination of the forged image reveals differing light angles. However, other than that, the forgery (based upon an interpretation of the low resolution image from the link) is pretty decent. The cut lines are well concealed, and the brightness has been rather nicely matched. Of course the highlights in her hair have been darkened to match the background of trees and such, but here is(are) my question(s)..... 1) Who would be stupid enough to obtain a copyrighted image in a forgery attempt? 2) Unless this is an attempt by a right wing organization to discredit Kerry, why waste your time? Especially when you are lying?
This is exactly why these companies went belly up. You barely have a product in an ill defined niche with no real defined revenue stream. Yet, the company is able to build all sorts of cool little baubles, model rocket ships, framed guitars, high end ass buckets, Hummer automobiles, work out equipment etc...etc...etc... from start up capital.
This is exactly why I want to see first hand any startup company that I am interested in investing in. Field trips aren't just for grade schoolers.
I'm all for hating on Lucas, but Warwick Davis was playing a role that, at the time, would have been a very big deal. Remember how aniticipated Jedi was?
And let's all just be honest here: If you were offered a role in a Star Wars installment, would not you jump at the chance? Your damned right I would.
Actually, that somewhat dorky statement about feeling guilty was relentlessly added into my post as though I said it. I would never say something that dorky.
Yep. Sorry about that and not getting back to you until now. (its been a very busy day) I was not entirely serious about my statement, and re-reading the post, I guess I see how that statement was mis-interpreted and was actually posted by Pudge, being funny.
I would certainly expect the G4 to be around for at least a little while in portables (perhaps even a dual G4 in the 17in Powerbook), but there is a decided pressure to put the G5 in a portable. When I moved from a dual 1Ghz G4 to a dual G5 at 2.0 Ghz, the difference in performance was striking. For those users who are constantly pushing the limits of their hardware with compiling code or are heavy users of scientific code or even Photoshop, the G5 is a must have. And even though PurdueGraphicsMan would feel guilty, I would not, knowing that my research could go even faster than before.
The real beauty of the G5 is that not only do we get the raw power, but that power is coupled with an OS that is the easiest to use for both the basic user (undergrads or grad students coming into our labs to learn science and the research process) and the advanced user (computer science faculty we are collaborating with to build custom tools for data visualization and processing).
"Powerhouse software vendor Microsoft and the venerable Sendmail, have formed an alliance to launch a sender authentication plug-in which is hoped will combat email fraud and spam. The plug-in lets organisations verify a message's source before accepting it by automatically checking to see if an email came from where it claims it did. Could this be a sign of the beginning of the end of spam?"
Wow......this really sounds like it was written by a marketing director. A Slashdotter could have just as easily interpreted this as "The 800 lb gorilla of the software industry, Microsoft has coerced the long suffering Sendmail to provide Microsoft with a software patch that fixes security holes inherent in Microsoft products that allow for email fraud and spam to run rampant. Another side benefit is that Microsoft can exert their market dominance to further entrench the Microsoft monopoly by refusing email not conforming to Microsoft "standards".
The current Apache and (much older) Cobra Z revs. can do what the Army will be tasked to do over the next little while given the demise of the Soviet Union and the war on terrorism. So, why spend another 2 billion on a program that *cough*cough* B-2 bomber* cough*, no longer has a mission?
So, for EM images, we have been using the Photomerge feature of Photoshop which works pretty well, but the cutlines leave something to be desired (try it out though as it may meet your needs perfectly). The best solution we have decided to get perfect montages, is to get a computer science grad student on the project to write some custom code for us.
greasy, dirty or peeling skin on the finger can easily distort fingerprint-recognition, a factor that plays no role in the case of iris-recognition.
So, does this mean that folks with melanomas of the iris, cataracts, macular degeneration (which is common and can manifest initially through pigment changes in the iris), etc... will have to go through a bigger hassle than the other passengers when traveling?
Also, since the iris does change throughout life, I would guess that one would have to renew their iris scan on their passport from time to time.
Wouldn't this only be a problem if you use these devices every day directly in contact with your skull?
Well, you might be surprised as how easily magnetic waves can propagate through materials. How do you think 802.11 works through walls? Or cell phones? etc.... I guess you could think of it as being constantly bathed in electromagnetic radiation of all types and wavelengths.
Hmmmm. Let's see: Electric shaver in the morning, RF access through security to my labs, Bluetooth synching, 802.11b & g for my internet access and music streaming, television, radio, microwave oven, cell phone..........Oh man, I'm screwed.:-)
But at least I got rid of most of the CRTs in my life.
Griffith's thesis research is actually on "programmable self-assembly, how to make things automatically make things," he said.
This is the really interesting scientific angle of his work, and based on this, I would say that this small $30k prize is only the beginning for this guy. This approach demonstrates a unique perspective to problem solving that shows how innovative folks like Saul are. But perhaps more importantly for the future of science, science education, and the overall good, he has a social conscience that allowed him to identify a problem that affects people worldwide and has found an innovative solution that does what we all should aspire to do: Make a difference.
And he also makes the rest of us scientists look good.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
The essay was absolutely amazing. The surreal description is perfect, reminding me of apocalyptic movies of the 80's and describing what I imagined the world looking like in the RPG Gamma World. Abandoned buildings as people left them, houses falling apart, yet seeing scenes of prezwalski looking horses crossing a stream.
Stop karma whoring by bashing Microsoft with stupid crap. If you're going to bash them for security holes, pick a real exploit.
.doc and I would not let my employees who had access to that information to use .doc for the dissemination of information.
Hey, I use some Microsoft products (Office for OS X is actually pretty nice in many respects) and I am not bashing them where they do not deserve some feedback. But please tell us why this is not a security exploit? The user who created this document obviously did not intend for that information to get out! Therefore, just like any security issue, there is a component of end user responsibility. However, if I were dealing with sensitive information and was concerned about its inadvertent disclosure, I would not use
So, this to me seems like another example of security breaches that can get companies, organizations and governments into trouble because of their use of Microsoft products.
.doc formats for certain information transactions and instead relying on standard ascii text encoded files.
So, last time I heard, certain agencies are prohibiting the use of
Hey, I'm not saying that I don't want to make more money. Are you out of your mind? :-) Now, I am not letting financial things go by the wayside. I have been investing in the stock market for years. What I am saying is that you have to look at priorities and then realize where our society places its value. We pay some of our best and brightest fairly nominal wages for post-doctoral salary and junior faculty salary, yet our sports stars are making multi-million dollar contracts.
So, what I am saying is be realistic. There are easier ways to make money than science, so if making money is what you value most, then do something else.
A molecular biologist with a PhD at University of Birmingham, in the UK, quits his lab position to become a plumber, since a plumber apparently earns twice what he currently makes (~US$42K).
Hopefully if you are in science, you are doing what you do for reasons other than financial gain. Ideally, one should be doing what they are doing in science to make a difference . Really, because there are a ton of things people can do that are much easier that writing papers, doing good science and applying for grants that make much more money than do your typical scientist. Take for instance the auto mechanic who works on my neighbors BMW. That dude (mechanic) clears six figures easy. Another set of examples: Before I went to graduate school, one of my jobs was a mechanic for old Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. That was not too bad in terms of income and certainly covered the cost of tuition. The carpenter we paid to make our couch makes some pretty good money. The dudes that replaced our sewer line and driveway cleaned up to the tune of $4000 or so. So, if you are just in it for the money, go get an MBA or a plumbing license or something.
Just out of curiousity, how much does a 17" powerbook with 1G of ram cost?
About $2900 from Apple, but here is another bit.....You can get them with 2GB of RAM! which is very important for those of us doing scientific computing or video/audio editing and such. In addition you get a DVD/CD reader/writer, 802.11g wireless networking, built in Bluetooth, one of the nicest backlit (auto sensing) keyboards you have ever typed on, all of this in less than 7 lbs.
So, the problem with extracting energy from this is still sustainability combined with total output right? The amount of energy invested in the system will have to be exceeded by the energy produced or else it is for naught. The things about traditional plasma fusion is that energy output is extensive, but the reaction cannot be sustained. Bubble fusion appears to be sustainable, but likely does not produce significant caloric heat......
iXMicro had a wireless gyroscopic mouse, what, about seven or eight years ago? It was called the Gyropoint and was absolutely perfect for presentations on my Powerbook. Unfortunately it ran about $200 as I recall, but was well worth it if you presented often allowing one to stand away from the laptop. It also had the additional benefit of working out well for RSI issues, but ate batteries too quick to use it routinely. However, this version doubling as an optical mouse is pretty cool. So, why has it taken so long to get these out to a wider audience?
Utah has given the tech world many advances, Novell, WordPerfect, Altiris etc.
So, despite the drawbacks of living in Utah, it turns out that Utah is actually one of those stealth components to technology. The University of Utah in particular has been a powerhouse in computer graphics and has produced doctorates from such folks as John Warnock (founder of Adobe), David Evans and Ivan Sutherland (Evans & Sutherland), Tom Stockham who created the field of digital recording, Alan Kay (Xerox PARC and developer of the GUI), now a fellow at Apple computer, Alan Ashton (founder of Wordperfect), Henri Gourard (creator of Gourard shading), Ed Catmul (co founder of Pixar), Jim Clark (co founder founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape).
I have been quite surprised at the depth of the CS program here and we are working with a number of folks on projects that have great interdisciplinary potential. And it turns out that Utah is a pretty good place to live if you like the outdoors and such.
Meh.......The last statement in the article: "If you want more secure software, upgrade." pretty much sums up Microsoft's position. With this kind of logic, it's a wonder that any coding gets done at all there. So, by extension, if everybody were to leave their doors open and unlocked at night, there would be no crime? :-) Seriously though, if you actually read the article, what it says describes reverse engineering of patches to explore and exploit vulnerabilities. So, the statement if confused might be technically correct, but that does not mean that the security vulnerabilities are not there in the first place. What happens mostly is that the lazy are exploiting the patches, whereas the more experienced (perhaps more dangerous) hackers will do their own work. Furthermore, the more experienced hacker might not be as likely to release their attack into the wild promiscuously. Rather they are doing what they do for a likely monetary payoff.
The real question though is: If the patch can be exploited, is it a patch? Yes, I know that they are analyzing the patch to attack unpatched machines, but to claim that vulnerabilities are not present before patches are released is circular logic.
the first thing I noticed was a blur on his cheek and collar
Yeah, I agree. I saw that just after I pressed the "submit" button and was trying to write up some text when the screen refreshed with your post.
Low and behold, it was, it was used to remove the watermark.
Exactly. You superimpose the images and the blur registers perfectly with the watermark.
Yeah so this is the problem with folks who don't ask questions. A quick examination of the forged image reveals differing light angles. However, other than that, the forgery (based upon an interpretation of the low resolution image from the link) is pretty decent. The cut lines are well concealed, and the brightness has been rather nicely matched. Of course the highlights in her hair have been darkened to match the background of trees and such, but here is(are) my question(s)..... 1) Who would be stupid enough to obtain a copyrighted image in a forgery attempt? 2) Unless this is an attempt by a right wing organization to discredit Kerry, why waste your time? Especially when you are lying?
This is exactly why these companies went belly up. You barely have a product in an ill defined niche with no real defined revenue stream. Yet, the company is able to build all sorts of cool little baubles, model rocket ships, framed guitars, high end ass buckets, Hummer automobiles, work out equipment etc...etc...etc... from start up capital.
This is exactly why I want to see first hand any startup company that I am interested in investing in. Field trips aren't just for grade schoolers.
I'm all for hating on Lucas, but Warwick Davis was playing a role that, at the time, would have been a very big deal. Remember how aniticipated Jedi was?
And let's all just be honest here: If you were offered a role in a Star Wars installment, would not you jump at the chance? Your damned right I would.
Actually, that somewhat dorky statement about feeling guilty was relentlessly added into my post as though I said it. I would never say something that dorky.
Yep. Sorry about that and not getting back to you until now. (its been a very busy day) I was not entirely serious about my statement, and re-reading the post, I guess I see how that statement was mis-interpreted and was actually posted by Pudge, being funny.
Best,
I would certainly expect the G4 to be around for at least a little while in portables (perhaps even a dual G4 in the 17in Powerbook), but there is a decided pressure to put the G5 in a portable. When I moved from a dual 1Ghz G4 to a dual G5 at 2.0 Ghz, the difference in performance was striking. For those users who are constantly pushing the limits of their hardware with compiling code or are heavy users of scientific code or even Photoshop, the G5 is a must have. And even though PurdueGraphicsMan would feel guilty, I would not, knowing that my research could go even faster than before.
The real beauty of the G5 is that not only do we get the raw power, but that power is coupled with an OS that is the easiest to use for both the basic user (undergrads or grad students coming into our labs to learn science and the research process) and the advanced user (computer science faculty we are collaborating with to build custom tools for data visualization and processing).
"Powerhouse software vendor Microsoft and the venerable Sendmail, have formed an alliance to launch a sender authentication plug-in which is hoped will combat email fraud and spam. The plug-in lets organisations verify a message's source before accepting it by automatically checking to see if an email came from where it claims it did. Could this be a sign of the beginning of the end of spam?"
:-)
Wow......this really sounds like it was written by a marketing director. A Slashdotter could have just as easily interpreted this as "The 800 lb gorilla of the software industry, Microsoft has coerced the long suffering Sendmail to provide Microsoft with a software patch that fixes security holes inherent in Microsoft products that allow for email fraud and spam to run rampant. Another side benefit is that Microsoft can exert their market dominance to further entrench the Microsoft monopoly by refusing email not conforming to Microsoft "standards".
Laugh, it's intended to be funny.
Erm... The AH-1Z was just approved last year.
Yes and the 1Z revs are just now beginning flight tests/acceptance tests, but the Cobra airframe design itself goes way back to the late 1960's.
The current Apache and (much older) Cobra Z revs. can do what the Army will be tasked to do over the next little while given the demise of the Soviet Union and the war on terrorism. So, why spend another 2 billion on a program that *cough*cough* B-2 bomber* cough*, no longer has a mission?
So, for EM images, we have been using the Photomerge feature of Photoshop which works pretty well, but the cutlines leave something to be desired (try it out though as it may meet your needs perfectly). The best solution we have decided to get perfect montages, is to get a computer science grad student on the project to write some custom code for us.
but the iris never changes from the eighth month of gestation until death.
This is absolutely wrong. Especially with pathological changes.
And yes, I am a vision scientist.
greasy, dirty or peeling skin on the finger can easily distort fingerprint-recognition, a factor that plays no role in the case of iris-recognition.
So, does this mean that folks with melanomas of the iris, cataracts, macular degeneration (which is common and can manifest initially through pigment changes in the iris), etc... will have to go through a bigger hassle than the other passengers when traveling?
Also, since the iris does change throughout life, I would guess that one would have to renew their iris scan on their passport from time to time.
Wouldn't this only be a problem if you use these devices every day directly in contact with your skull?
Well, you might be surprised as how easily magnetic waves can propagate through materials. How do you think 802.11 works through walls? Or cell phones? etc.... I guess you could think of it as being constantly bathed in electromagnetic radiation of all types and wavelengths.
Hmmmm. Let's see: Electric shaver in the morning, RF access through security to my labs, Bluetooth synching, 802.11b & g for my internet access and music streaming, television, radio, microwave oven, cell phone..........Oh man, I'm screwed. :-)
But at least I got rid of most of the CRTs in my life.
Griffith's thesis research is actually on "programmable self-assembly, how to make things automatically make things," he said.
:-)
This is the really interesting scientific angle of his work, and based on this, I would say that this small $30k prize is only the beginning for this guy. This approach demonstrates a unique perspective to problem solving that shows how innovative folks like Saul are. But perhaps more importantly for the future of science, science education, and the overall good, he has a social conscience that allowed him to identify a problem that affects people worldwide and has found an innovative solution that does what we all should aspire to do: Make a difference.
And he also makes the rest of us scientists look good.
Good on you Saul.