The article mentions ASCII Field Separator as a character that was "Never to my knowledge used specially after teletypes.". I can think of one example. The HL7 MLLP (Minimal Lower Level Protocol) uses FS (0x1C) as the default character to indicate the end of a complete record. HL7 (Health Level 7) is a format commonly used in the medical world to transmit events, health records, and perform queries between different systems. ASCII VT (0x0B) was used as the start record indicator.
Of course implementers could agree on other characters for a particular interface, and most software allowed you to configure this, but these values were the defaults in the spec and most interfaces stuck to that. I also recall some of the lesser-used ASCII characters used as separators is ASC X12 formats as well, but can't recall off the top of my head which ones.
We do have worker safety laws. If they're not worded strongly enough they should be improved. (Not implement more unions with all the problems they bring).
Yeah, that's a good idea, maybe workers should form some sort of an organization to lobby congress in opposition to industry for stricter workplace safety regulations. Each employee could contribute a small monthly fee to fund the organization's lobbying activities and administrative costs. Hey, since we've got this thing anyway, maybe we could use it to increase our leverage with management when negotiating for things like benefits and wages.
Ergonomics and on the job injury are dealt with by workers comp, and the company eventually has an incentive to address material issues, especially in California.
Really? So if I'm the guy who got fucked by a life-long injury or chronic pain, I'm supposed to be glad that the company eventually deigned to consider the problem after enough people got screwed? Why is it a bad thing to have someone looking out for me proactively?
Uh, why compare to average union shop and instead compare to the average non-union shops such as Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, etc.
Because if I'm an employee weighing the decision to unionize, then I would like to compare my current conditions to the average conditions in a union shop.
This is more like the road leading to the store being dynamited. Cogent should loose its common carrier status since they are now exerting editorial control over the contents of their network. Let them be liable for all copyright infringement they happen to route.
And what if that email request is coming from China or Russia?
Validating the source of the request is perfectly legitimate. It's a shame that they have to take a step backwards, technology-wise, but their reasoning is sound.
Their reasoning is not sound. FOIA responses are public record. Meaning the person who receives the information can turn around and publish it online or print it in the paper.
Do you think a foreign government would be incapable of recruiting an American citizen to make requests and deliver the responses to them? Of course not. But why would they bother? Anything the USG cares so little about that they don't redact from a FOIA response and has any strategic value whatsoever has already probably long been known by competent intel agencies the world over.
Someone with a clearance and a need to know would not come in through a FOIA request. The claim that the GP made: "Except that due to the nature of classified information the FBI handles on a routine basis, they often actually DO have things to hide, and legitimately so.", is ludicrous on its face as a justification gathering identifying information on requesters. If it's fit to release as a FOIA response, it is fit to print on the front page of the New York Times, end of story.
Not intending to buy such appliances is only an option right now.
We don't know if that option will remain open in the future.
Personally, I think it's good to call out the bullshit now before it gains any momentum.
So don't give 'em your WIFI password. I don't understand the hand wringing here. You're not obligated to use the online features of "smart" devices. I buy non-connected when I can. When I can't I just turn the networking off.
For example, I just bought a new thermostat. I got this particular model because it had the ability to communicate with some non-WIFI 2.4GHz remote temperature sensors I wanted to install. It also happened to have the ability to phone home over WIFI to let me remote control my heating system through the manufacturer's website. Guess what? I just skipped the WIFI portion of the install, and paired the thing with the sensors. Is the sensor interface vulnerable? Probably, but what's the threat model? Some asshole schleps a bunch of specialized radio equipment within 500' of my house and feeds some false readings into my thermostat?
However, I do think we should hold embedded manufacturers liable for any botnets that their devices participate in if the manufacturer doesn't provide some sort of automated update that is kept current with known threats.
Try playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy made for the Wii controller on a PC through an emulator w/ just a keyboard and mouse. Heck, even with a pretty standard controller it's clunky... you really need the Wiimote and IR Bar to play it properly.
Did they drastically alter the input scheme for the Wii re-release or something? The first two were native to the Gamecube and only the last one had a split release on both Wii and GC at launch, IIRC.
I work with dozens of H1B visa holders. I scoured the lands of the US for 1.5 years to fill a vacant position and I couldn't find anyone in the US to do it. I work in NIH funded research and needed a programmer at $45k/yr. I was fine with a new college grad, and I still couldn't find anyone.
You aren't paying nearly enough, which is why you had trouble finding anyone. My first job out of college paid $65k back in 2000 and that was with 0 negotiation. If I put out an ad that said "Electricians wanted, $10/hr!", should I be surprised when no one calls me? Would that justify me importing foreign labor at exploitative rates?
Your story effectively make an argument for limiting the H1B program. You couldn't find any labor at an unreasonable rate, so you imported it, depressing the local labor market.
Trump has already made clear he won't censor them - he is simply shutting them down, any department that has consistently been saying things he doesn't want to be true (like NASA's earth science division) is for the chopping block.
I don't think he's going to be able to doe this across the board. A certain percentage of annual reports, monitoring, and research are required as a matter of statute or regulation. Also some agencies are independent and can't be directly ordered by the president. He can set policy by making key appointments, but changes take a while to make their way down through the ranks.
So yeah, congress could try to spend the next two years just unmaking laws and Trump's administration could spend the next 4 just rewriting 10's of thousands of pages of federal regs, but I think the government is a big ship and it takes a lot longer than Trump has to turn it that much.
Since the software is in effect the operator of the vehicle
That's where your argument breaks down. The human is the operator of the vehicle, regardless of what software it's running.
Right now that's the case because cars aren't really fully autonomous yet. But they will be someday relatively soon. What about when there is no human in the car at all (e.g. you order a car from Uber once it does away with human drivers)?
The situation we have now where the car mostly drives itself, but might precipitously switch over to manual mode is probably the worst of both worlds. Assuming control of a system that was previously operating itself you are not going to have the same situational awareness as if you were operating it manually from the get go. Many plane crashes are caused by just such a situation: the autopilot cuts out due to a sensor failure or some other unhandled condition and the pilots take incorrect action due to the sudden switch in operating modalities.
There is no way I am getting into a car that is mostly operating itself, but for which I assume full liability for.
It is perfectly legal for me to repair my own brakes or steering. People have done so for decades even though a failure while driving could be very bad. The upshot is simple, if you're going to work on safety critical parts of your car, you'll want to make sure you know what you're doing. If you screw up, you might face significant liability.
Self guidance software isn't the same as brakes.
In the future, once the market and regulatory environment has matured, the code that is operating a self-driving vehicle will have been certified to operate safely and within traffic regulations. The code you write yourself, or more likely, the firmware some yahoo downloads from the internet, has not. Since the software is in effect the operator of the vehicle, this is like driving without a license, and yes, should be illegal. Civil liability isn't good enough. It's small compensation to me that my next of kin will be paid out when your buggy code gets me flattened.
At the very least, I would expect that in the future any software that is autonomously operating a vehicle on public roads would be signed by a licensing agency, just as human operators are licensed by the DMV. If you want to put your home grown guidance software through the QA certification process that the commercial software goes through, then I guess I would be OK with it, but something tells be that will be neither cheap nor easy.
Well, the Tesla Model X already seats 7, plus storage space, has over 300 miles of range (which I guarantee you is larger than the bladder capacity of the smallest of those 7 passengers). recharges faster than you can feed the whole family (which you also probably do a few times on your trip). and has a battery warranty of 8 years and unlimited millage.
So basically, your arguments are either already addressed, or artificially created.
How about price? Model X starts at something like $75k and the Malibu hybrid he mentions starts around $30k.
I see a lot of people getting all bent out of shape at the absurdity of the concept of this SBIR topic. I am not a ballistics expert, so I can't comment on that, but please realize that the DoD funds 100s of these grants every year. Most of these, if they are phase I, are very small in scope - $100k - 200k. This is enough to pay a small team working part time to do a feasibility study, create a mock up, or develop a non-working prototype. It's a cheap (for the military) way of bouncing an idea off the wall.
In addition most SBIRs never make it past phase I development. In all likelihood, less will be spent on this program than is spent on a couple of hours of one of the training exercises they are talking about greening up.
You can also usually get the raw hex key if you click on a link that says "manually enter key" or "trouble scanning". You can then write that down and store it in a safe place.
The companies that run the old POTS lines are private businesses as well, and yet we had the right to privacy when communicating using their equipment. The right thing to do is for the courts to rule that Google Facebook et al have risen to such importance in our social fabric that they should be granted common carrier status right alongside the phone companies and ISPs. It still won't stop spy agencies breaking the law nor will it halt the collection of metadata, but it would at least be an additional bulwark against further erosion of our rights.
That seems like extreme laziness on the government's part. Presumably the boat has some sort of VIN and a title could be looked up. That sort of thing shouldn't be legal if the government doesn't make a good faith effort to find the original owner.
Imagine a wrongful death suit against a company like Uber where its software can be analyzed and its mistake pointed out exactly by a lawyer in a court-room. The mountain of evidence, and the big fat bank account will make them prime targets, and so they have a high incentive already to build safe products.
It's small consolation to the person wrongfully killed that their next of kin will get a payout. The permits are in place to make sure that the system has been built to a certain level of safety. These are public roads where the risk of using them are shared by all and Uber's system should have to go through a vetting process just as human operators are required to pass a license test.
If anyone gets hurt out of this Uber execs should go to jail for manslaughter. Not fined, jail.
The bigger question will be if Congress will give the President this new power. Who knows, but if anything is for sure, it's that there will be massive amount of spin from every direction when it finally hits committee.
I have a bit different slant on your question. And I really do not know my civics well enough, but I was wondering....
Are not these Departments (Energy, Education, EPA, etc)...not merely constructs through Executive Dept. decree?
Some yes, and some no. Many of the bigger departments are Independent Agencies. These agencies are regulatory bodies that are created through an act of Congress. While the president may have the power to appoint and remove the heads of these agencies, their power to regulate derives from Congress, and the President has no official power to order their agenda.
Now practically, since the power to enforce the rules and regulations put forward by these agencies falls to the executive through the DOJ, FBI, etc., the president certainly has a great deal of influence.
First...what exactly does the "Department of Energy" do for us in the US?
I honestly don't know and will look it up, but if anyone can enlighten me, I'd be interested in a quick read.
One of the big jobs of the DOE is to be in charge of handling our nuclear security, including running the nuclear weapons program. The DOE also manages, through contractors, many important national labs involved in basic atomic and subatomic research, including Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos, among others.
So no, it's not a department that you want to fuck up with inept cronies and anti-science appointees.
For example, if I'm going to an event in a rural area I'm probably going to have to park in an improvised parking area on an unimproved or only marginally improved surface. I may have to drive down a trail that itself is unimproved or only marginally improved, either following the directions of humans waving at me or else following something like the occasional orange cone or even the tracks of previous vehicles.
Heck, this is pretty common in an urban environment. If there is utility work going on, you'll see a few cones strewn about to vaguely indicate you are to use one of the oncoming lanes, with a cop looking down at his phone waving at you desultorily.
I am actually kind of disappointed that Tesla is throwing their lot in with Solar City. Their sales people positively infest all of the Home Depots around here (Boston, MA). They are extremely pushy and act like you are the asshole for wanting to just shop instead of listen to their sales pitch. Any company that employs those kinds of sales tactics doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me, and I plan to never do business with them. I was planning to consider a Tesla for my next car, but this deal is making me reconsider.
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The article mentions ASCII Field Separator as a character that was "Never to my knowledge used specially after teletypes.". I can think of one example. The HL7 MLLP (Minimal Lower Level Protocol) uses FS (0x1C) as the default character to indicate the end of a complete record. HL7 (Health Level 7) is a format commonly used in the medical world to transmit events, health records, and perform queries between different systems. ASCII VT (0x0B) was used as the start record indicator.
Of course implementers could agree on other characters for a particular interface, and most software allowed you to configure this, but these values were the defaults in the spec and most interfaces stuck to that. I also recall some of the lesser-used ASCII characters used as separators is ASC X12 formats as well, but can't recall off the top of my head which ones.
Why don't they simply add another record ("source") to help make the driver comparison? A typical Microsoft solution I would say.
DLLs and EXEs on windows already have a Company and Product metadata fields.
We do have worker safety laws. If they're not worded strongly enough they should be improved. (Not implement more unions with all the problems they bring).
Yeah, that's a good idea, maybe workers should form some sort of an organization to lobby congress in opposition to industry for stricter workplace safety regulations. Each employee could contribute a small monthly fee to fund the organization's lobbying activities and administrative costs. Hey, since we've got this thing anyway, maybe we could use it to increase our leverage with management when negotiating for things like benefits and wages.
I wonder what we should call such a thing?
Ergonomics and on the job injury are dealt with by workers comp, and the company eventually has an incentive to address material issues, especially in California.
Really? So if I'm the guy who got fucked by a life-long injury or chronic pain, I'm supposed to be glad that the company eventually deigned to consider the problem after enough people got screwed? Why is it a bad thing to have someone looking out for me proactively?
Uh, why compare to average union shop and instead compare to the average non-union shops such as Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, etc.
Because if I'm an employee weighing the decision to unionize, then I would like to compare my current conditions to the average conditions in a union shop.
This is more like the road leading to the store being dynamited. Cogent should loose its common carrier status since they are now exerting editorial control over the contents of their network. Let them be liable for all copyright infringement they happen to route.
DKIM authenticates the originating mail server, not the individual user.
And what if that email request is coming from China or Russia?
Validating the source of the request is perfectly legitimate. It's a shame that they have to take a step backwards, technology-wise, but their reasoning is sound.
Their reasoning is not sound. FOIA responses are public record. Meaning the person who receives the information can turn around and publish it online or print it in the paper.
Do you think a foreign government would be incapable of recruiting an American citizen to make requests and deliver the responses to them? Of course not. But why would they bother? Anything the USG cares so little about that they don't redact from a FOIA response and has any strategic value whatsoever has already probably long been known by competent intel agencies the world over.
Someone with a clearance and a need to know would not come in through a FOIA request. The claim that the GP made: "Except that due to the nature of classified information the FBI handles on a routine basis, they often actually DO have things to hide, and legitimately so.", is ludicrous on its face as a justification gathering identifying information on requesters. If it's fit to release as a FOIA response, it is fit to print on the front page of the New York Times, end of story.
Not intending to buy such appliances is only an option right now.
We don't know if that option will remain open in the future.
Personally, I think it's good to call out the bullshit now before it gains any momentum.
So don't give 'em your WIFI password. I don't understand the hand wringing here. You're not obligated to use the online features of "smart" devices. I buy non-connected when I can. When I can't I just turn the networking off.
For example, I just bought a new thermostat. I got this particular model because it had the ability to communicate with some non-WIFI 2.4GHz remote temperature sensors I wanted to install. It also happened to have the ability to phone home over WIFI to let me remote control my heating system through the manufacturer's website. Guess what? I just skipped the WIFI portion of the install, and paired the thing with the sensors. Is the sensor interface vulnerable? Probably, but what's the threat model? Some asshole schleps a bunch of specialized radio equipment within 500' of my house and feeds some false readings into my thermostat?
However, I do think we should hold embedded manufacturers liable for any botnets that their devices participate in if the manufacturer doesn't provide some sort of automated update that is kept current with known threats.
Try playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy made for the Wii controller on a PC through an emulator w/ just a keyboard and mouse. Heck, even with a pretty standard controller it's clunky... you really need the Wiimote and IR Bar to play it properly.
Did they drastically alter the input scheme for the Wii re-release or something? The first two were native to the Gamecube and only the last one had a split release on both Wii and GC at launch, IIRC.
I work with dozens of H1B visa holders. I scoured the lands of the US for 1.5 years to fill a vacant position and I couldn't find anyone in the US to do it. I work in NIH funded research and needed a programmer at $45k/yr. I was fine with a new college grad, and I still couldn't find anyone.
You aren't paying nearly enough, which is why you had trouble finding anyone. My first job out of college paid $65k back in 2000 and that was with 0 negotiation. If I put out an ad that said "Electricians wanted, $10/hr!", should I be surprised when no one calls me? Would that justify me importing foreign labor at exploitative rates?
Your story effectively make an argument for limiting the H1B program. You couldn't find any labor at an unreasonable rate, so you imported it, depressing the local labor market.
Trump has already made clear he won't censor them - he is simply shutting them down, any department that has consistently been saying things he doesn't want to be true (like NASA's earth science division) is for the chopping block.
I don't think he's going to be able to doe this across the board. A certain percentage of annual reports, monitoring, and research are required as a matter of statute or regulation. Also some agencies are independent and can't be directly ordered by the president. He can set policy by making key appointments, but changes take a while to make their way down through the ranks.
So yeah, congress could try to spend the next two years just unmaking laws and Trump's administration could spend the next 4 just rewriting 10's of thousands of pages of federal regs, but I think the government is a big ship and it takes a lot longer than Trump has to turn it that much.
That's where your argument breaks down. The human is the operator of the vehicle, regardless of what software it's running.
Right now that's the case because cars aren't really fully autonomous yet. But they will be someday relatively soon. What about when there is no human in the car at all (e.g. you order a car from Uber once it does away with human drivers)?
The situation we have now where the car mostly drives itself, but might precipitously switch over to manual mode is probably the worst of both worlds. Assuming control of a system that was previously operating itself you are not going to have the same situational awareness as if you were operating it manually from the get go. Many plane crashes are caused by just such a situation: the autopilot cuts out due to a sensor failure or some other unhandled condition and the pilots take incorrect action due to the sudden switch in operating modalities.
There is no way I am getting into a car that is mostly operating itself, but for which I assume full liability for.
Actually, lets.
It is perfectly legal for me to repair my own brakes or steering. People have done so for decades even though a failure while driving could be very bad. The upshot is simple, if you're going to work on safety critical parts of your car, you'll want to make sure you know what you're doing. If you screw up, you might face significant liability.
Self guidance software isn't the same as brakes.
In the future, once the market and regulatory environment has matured, the code that is operating a self-driving vehicle will have been certified to operate safely and within traffic regulations. The code you write yourself, or more likely, the firmware some yahoo downloads from the internet, has not. Since the software is in effect the operator of the vehicle, this is like driving without a license, and yes, should be illegal. Civil liability isn't good enough. It's small compensation to me that my next of kin will be paid out when your buggy code gets me flattened.
At the very least, I would expect that in the future any software that is autonomously operating a vehicle on public roads would be signed by a licensing agency, just as human operators are licensed by the DMV. If you want to put your home grown guidance software through the QA certification process that the commercial software goes through, then I guess I would be OK with it, but something tells be that will be neither cheap nor easy.
Well, the Tesla Model X already seats 7, plus storage space, has over 300 miles of range (which I guarantee you is larger than the bladder capacity of the smallest of those 7 passengers). recharges faster than you can feed the whole family (which you also probably do a few times on your trip). and has a battery warranty of 8 years and unlimited millage.
So basically, your arguments are either already addressed, or artificially created.
How about price? Model X starts at something like $75k and the Malibu hybrid he mentions starts around $30k.
I see a lot of people getting all bent out of shape at the absurdity of the concept of this SBIR topic. I am not a ballistics expert, so I can't comment on that, but please realize that the DoD funds 100s of these grants every year. Most of these, if they are phase I, are very small in scope - $100k - 200k. This is enough to pay a small team working part time to do a feasibility study, create a mock up, or develop a non-working prototype. It's a cheap (for the military) way of bouncing an idea off the wall.
In addition most SBIRs never make it past phase I development. In all likelihood, less will be spent on this program than is spent on a couple of hours of one of the training exercises they are talking about greening up.
You can also usually get the raw hex key if you click on a link that says "manually enter key" or "trouble scanning". You can then write that down and store it in a safe place.
The companies that run the old POTS lines are private businesses as well, and yet we had the right to privacy when communicating using their equipment. The right thing to do is for the courts to rule that Google Facebook et al have risen to such importance in our social fabric that they should be granted common carrier status right alongside the phone companies and ISPs. It still won't stop spy agencies breaking the law nor will it halt the collection of metadata, but it would at least be an additional bulwark against further erosion of our rights.
That seems like extreme laziness on the government's part. Presumably the boat has some sort of VIN and a title could be looked up. That sort of thing shouldn't be legal if the government doesn't make a good faith effort to find the original owner.
Imagine a wrongful death suit against a company like Uber where its software can be analyzed and its mistake pointed out exactly by a lawyer in a court-room. The mountain of evidence, and the big fat bank account will make them prime targets, and so they have a high incentive already to build safe products.
It's small consolation to the person wrongfully killed that their next of kin will get a payout. The permits are in place to make sure that the system has been built to a certain level of safety. These are public roads where the risk of using them are shared by all and Uber's system should have to go through a vetting process just as human operators are required to pass a license test.
If anyone gets hurt out of this Uber execs should go to jail for manslaughter. Not fined, jail.
I have a bit different slant on your question. And I really do not know my civics well enough, but I was wondering....
Are not these Departments (Energy, Education, EPA, etc)...not merely constructs through Executive Dept. decree?
Some yes, and some no. Many of the bigger departments are Independent Agencies. These agencies are regulatory bodies that are created through an act of Congress. While the president may have the power to appoint and remove the heads of these agencies, their power to regulate derives from Congress, and the President has no official power to order their agenda.
Now practically, since the power to enforce the rules and regulations put forward by these agencies falls to the executive through the DOJ, FBI, etc., the president certainly has a great deal of influence.
First...what exactly does the "Department of Energy" do for us in the US?
I honestly don't know and will look it up, but if anyone can enlighten me, I'd be interested in a quick read.
One of the big jobs of the DOE is to be in charge of handling our nuclear security, including running the nuclear weapons program. The DOE also manages, through contractors, many important national labs involved in basic atomic and subatomic research, including Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos, among others.
So no, it's not a department that you want to fuck up with inept cronies and anti-science appointees.
For example, if I'm going to an event in a rural area I'm probably going to have to park in an improvised parking area on an unimproved or only marginally improved surface. I may have to drive down a trail that itself is unimproved or only marginally improved, either following the directions of humans waving at me or else following something like the occasional orange cone or even the tracks of previous vehicles.
Heck, this is pretty common in an urban environment. If there is utility work going on, you'll see a few cones strewn about to vaguely indicate you are to use one of the oncoming lanes, with a cop looking down at his phone waving at you desultorily.
I am actually kind of disappointed that Tesla is throwing their lot in with Solar City. Their sales people positively infest all of the Home Depots around here (Boston, MA). They are extremely pushy and act like you are the asshole for wanting to just shop instead of listen to their sales pitch. Any company that employs those kinds of sales tactics doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me, and I plan to never do business with them. I was planning to consider a Tesla for my next car, but this deal is making me reconsider.