Not that I don't believe something like this will eventually happen, but I think whatever "mark" it is, will come in a much more pervasive and subtle form - definitely embedded into your body though. Perhaps your own DNA is already enough information for this sort of thing...
The fundamental potential for abuse is that since some institution now has a unique ID linked to you, somebody with access to the back-end databases will be able to know as much as the databases recorded.
Since the article doesn't say anything about expiry of said RFID tag, all hospitals and other institutions that want to use this technology will need to share your unique ID number amongst everybody, creating a meta-network of information all tracable to YOU.
I think that trying to educate the general public about computer security is as much of a lost cause as trying to promote defensive driving on the roads.
As new technologies become commoditised into everyday use, one would expect society to adapt to cope. Taking the automotive example further:
(1) We now have insurance companies that thrive with the consequences of misuse, and (2) As cars become more complicated and less user-serviceable, mechanics and electricians (with diagnostic equipment) appear in greater quantities.
I, for one, welcome our new computer-equivalent-of-MIDAS computer servicing overlords.
Another movie will probably take too long to render before that renderfarm is needed again for one of Weta's own jobs. Hence hiring out CPU hours while it's sitting still doing very little (and helps pay the rent too, I suppose)
Missle trajectories: supercomputers can help design accurate missle systems, and missle defense systems. See 1 for why this should be restricted.
Missile trajectories? All you need to calculate that stuff is a Playstation2... Quick! We need to keep these "supercomputers" inside honest nations too;)
The fact that it requires at least a few servers in its chain would mean that there are central points of failure.
Any good encryption system is difficult to be snooped, but it's often easier just to deny access to it (the internet equivalent of air superiority). For example, an "arms race" of blocking IPs and new chains of nodes (for totalitarian nation-states), or even just DDoS attacks.
However I think the bare minimum needed for anybody contemplating a change of OS would be a functional-equivalent list of applications for both platforms, listed by file type.
Once the patents are sucessfully filed, the onus would be on to the challenger(s) to prove there is prior art. A patent holder with as much cash as Microsoft obviously has the fiscal endurance to survive many bouts of litigation...
As the core business of MS is slowly but surely shrinking they are just diversifying to other avenues of income.
Overall this sounds like a virtual version of a typical real estate land grab - buy all the "land" (in this case "ways to do things") then anybody who wants to "build" something with it will need to pay their "rent" or "buy" the right to use the land.
With a GPU centric shell, any video driver or hardware problem (eg. from overclocking) would be a lot harder to solve - how would they display the error messages properly without resorting to a text-mode bluescreen?
Conceptually this is all good, just like the Windows NT security model. How they actually pull it off is another thing altogether.
Stored Procs and triggers make can make the code simpler and more efficient, but spread out the workings of the application and unless properly documented, more difficult to understand.
As a developer I've found otherwise. The reason being that when you're examining a bit of code with embedded SQL you often lose context of what table structures it is trying to refer to.
Of course my DBA is very good in helping out and training the developers in SP usage, so YMMV.
...as to why France Telecom is interested in Jabber.com
From the press release: "With Orange and Wanadoo, France Telecom is Europe's Number 2 for Wirefree business and Internet Services"
Now Orange provides GSM cellphone services. Since nobody is quite sure where GSM technology is heading towards, FT probably wants some form of infrastructure for interoperability purposes when the standards war really begins...
Interesting, and the US is already doing it - but it hasn't and won't go too far.
Unlike Cuba, ostracizing China presents a much higher opportunity cost that will eventually have a measurable impact in cold, hard US currency (or the lack thereof).
Slashdot Mirror
First it was UPC barcodes. Now RFID...
Not that I don't believe something like this will eventually happen, but I think whatever "mark" it is, will come in a much more pervasive and subtle form - definitely embedded into your body though. Perhaps your own DNA is already enough information for this sort of thing...
The fundamental potential for abuse is that since some institution now has a unique ID linked to you, somebody with access to the back-end databases will be able to know as much as the databases recorded.
Since the article doesn't say anything about expiry of said RFID tag, all hospitals and other institutions that want to use this technology will need to share your unique ID number amongst everybody, creating a meta-network of information all tracable to YOU.
With enough publicity the average Joe User will learn safe IMing habits...
It's just a matter of how much damage is done before that happens, though.
Is this piece of news yet another subtle form of advertisment?
/ 1539238&tid=98&tid=10
:)
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/10
Nothing to see here, move right along already
I, for one, welcome our new musical space alien overlords...
I think that trying to educate the general public about computer security is as much of a lost cause as trying to promote defensive driving on the roads.
As new technologies become commoditised into everyday use, one would expect society to adapt to cope. Taking the automotive example further:
(1) We now have insurance companies that thrive with the consequences of misuse, and
(2) As cars become more complicated and less user-serviceable, mechanics and electricians (with diagnostic equipment) appear in greater quantities.
I, for one, welcome our new computer-equivalent-of-MIDAS computer servicing overlords.
Another movie will probably take too long to render before that renderfarm is needed again for one of Weta's own jobs. Hence hiring out CPU hours while it's sitting still doing very little (and helps pay the rent too, I suppose)
Missle trajectories: supercomputers can help design accurate missle systems, and missle defense systems. See 1 for why this should be restricted.
;)
Missile trajectories? All you need to calculate that stuff is a Playstation2... Quick! We need to keep these "supercomputers" inside honest nations too
The format would probably contain enough memory space to address terabytes of pr0n, umm, I mean data.
:p
How they actually pull it off would be interesting... beowulf clusters anybody?
My only objection with solid state memory like this is how many rewrites can the media sustain before failure?
I use my USB drive + MP3 player a lot but sometimes wonder how long the gadget would last...
Are there any existing tests available for perusal?
Anybody with a basic grasp of accounting would have the right understanding in order to debug this problem. (See a parent post)
:p
For once the bean counters win
Wouldn't that depend on what is actually written on the card? After all doesn't a magstrip simply serves a generic storage role like a floppy disk?
;-)
IANAL but if the content is encrypted or even just a checksum added, then trying to make sense of it would become a crime.
And if it's a simple enough scheme and the judge orders the destruction of the circumvention appartus, it might be lobotomy time
The fact that it requires at least a few servers in its chain would mean that there are central points of failure.
Any good encryption system is difficult to be snooped, but it's often easier just to deny access to it (the internet equivalent of air superiority). For example, an "arms race" of blocking IPs and new chains of nodes (for totalitarian nation-states), or even just DDoS attacks.
That is one very true ideal!
However I think the bare minimum needed for anybody contemplating a change of OS would be a functional-equivalent list of applications for both platforms, listed by file type.
Once the patents are sucessfully filed, the onus would be on to the challenger(s) to prove there is prior art. A patent holder with as much cash as Microsoft obviously has the fiscal endurance to survive many bouts of litigation...
As the core business of MS is slowly but surely shrinking they are just diversifying to other avenues of income.
Overall this sounds like a virtual version of a typical real estate land grab - buy all the "land" (in this case "ways to do things") then anybody who wants to "build" something with it will need to pay their "rent" or "buy" the right to use the land.
I'm using Mozilla 1.7, and the link in the parent doesn't work ;)
"Sorry, links to Bugzilla from Slashdot are disabled."
I would put $5 with Google in a Google vs Skynet bout.
...not if Google grabbed all the patents it needed first :)
Not that The Big G will ever do that, but the parent does raise an interesting issue.
The French, of course ;)
You'd be surprised by the number of Peugeots running in Tanzania...
It helps a lot if you're using it for 3D rendering (eg. Mental Ray) or running a local copy of SQL Server...
Otherwise, not too helpful on a day-to-day basis.
With a GPU centric shell, any video driver or hardware problem (eg. from overclocking) would be a lot harder to solve - how would they display the error messages properly without resorting to a text-mode bluescreen?
Conceptually this is all good, just like the Windows NT security model. How they actually pull it off is another thing altogether.
Stored Procs and triggers make can make the code simpler and more efficient, but spread out the workings of the application and unless properly documented, more difficult to understand.
As a developer I've found otherwise. The reason being that when you're examining a bit of code with embedded SQL you often lose context of what table structures it is trying to refer to.
Of course my DBA is very good in helping out and training the developers in SP usage, so YMMV.
Very funny Scotty - now beam me back my clothes!
...as to why France Telecom is interested in Jabber.com
From the press release:
"With Orange and Wanadoo, France Telecom is Europe's Number 2 for Wirefree business and Internet Services"
Now Orange provides GSM cellphone services. Since nobody is quite sure where GSM technology is heading towards, FT probably wants some form of infrastructure for interoperability purposes when the standards war really begins...
Interesting, and the US is already doing it - but it hasn't and won't go too far.
Unlike Cuba, ostracizing China presents a much higher opportunity cost that will eventually have a measurable impact in cold, hard US currency (or the lack thereof).