I am a fan, but one of my beefs with the movies is Paul looks so old when he comes to Arrakis. In the book he is 15 (maybe 16) and is soon thereafter thrown in to exile with the Freman due to the Harkonnen/Corrino betrayal.
He is also trained as a mentat, which the movies don't really make clear. I think it is important to the story to understand that, and compare him to the other Mentants portrayed in the film and books. He is Mentant and Bene Gesserit, thus making his 'godlike' existence have more of a twist - being a master of both domains.
General time-line: 10175 A.G. - Paul born. 10190-91 A.G. - Goes to dune and is betrayed. 10193 A.G. - Paul takes over as Emperor (at 18!).
He is 32 when he wanders in to the desert.
The author seems to have put a lot of thought in to the timing of these events, and it is a shame the movies haven't taken equal pains.
Mainframes would be a great example of using technology like this. Current mainframes are amazingly capable (and expensive) devices. There is a reason they still sell them.
With the ability to take that 2TB of RAM, all hot-swappable, and run it in mirror-redundancy (1TB usable), you would have a very reliable and fast system.
Why not try to pass other non-enforcable laws too. Try these ones on:
"Tim Couch bans gravity in the state of Kentucky." "Tim Couch raises speed limit for light." "Tim Couch bans beer in all counties." "Tim Couch raises smoking age from 18 to 64."
Why don't you actually pass a useful law that helps to reduce racisim, which is rampant in your state and is the core issue around much of the 'bullying' problem?
A 'superstar' programmer will find the job he wants with the salary he desires and get that job. A local company is well known for finding top flight programmers. They held a $10,000 programming deathmatch challenge. The winner got the cash prize, and a job offer. Guess what, they were extreamly successful.
It is no coincidence that SGI purchased lnxi. After Bo joined lnxi, he hired many current and ex-SGI people. An insider tells that many of the Bo cronies were offered jobs after the closing. It is also rumored that after Bo left lnxi, he knew the customer base of lnxi and would often try to sell to these customers. I heard the same thing. What a rotten way to run a business. Our local LUG has a small thread on the subject: http://www.sllug.org/pipermail/sllug-members/2008-February/010039.html
Oops. Helps if I quote the right part:
Prior to SGI, Bo was Chairman and CEO of Linux Networx, Inc. Earlier, Bo served as President of Human Resource Solutions of Ceridian Corporation; CEO of Scale Eight, Inc, a high performance network-clustered storage company; and President and CEO of E-Stamp.
The CEO of SGI used to be the CEO of Linux Networx:
Robert "Bo" Ewald Chief Executive Officer
Bo Ewald joins SGI as CEO with over 25 years of relevant industry experience in the high performance computing markets. He is a seasoned industry veteran with a successful track record as a CEO. Rather interesting, don't you think?
I see lots of jokes. Some of them are awesome. However, what would it take to make a real 'serious' attempt at this? My thoughts:
First off, you need total cooperation with the CIA or other covert espionage capabilities. You aren't going to be able to do much damage to 's critical infrastructure from thousands of miles away. Sure, a few systems will have access via public channels, but it would be a lot more effective if you have a resource on the ground. Such assets would physically locate assets you have identified virtually, and provide other support mechanisms.
Second, you need access to the systems you are going to attack well before you launch an attack. This could be done carefully from a remote location. What would be better is to have the above covert operations guys steal the actual gear you are going to be attacking, or otherwise duplicate it (plans, technical documentation, etc).
Third, you need devices and techniques that can give you access to closed networks from thousands of miles away. That means you need to have covert ops people with extensive technical training who are going to gain access to restricted areas on networks that are very closed, and install covert devices on those networks that give you remote access. In particular, you need your own local network that is very secure and has as low latency as you can get. That network would live inside that country and needs to remain undetected, with stop gaps to protect itself if part of it is discovered.
Fourth, you need to develop the right tactics. You have to attack inside out if taking out an entire nations infrastructure quickly. What you do NOT want to do is cut the cables or shut down 'net access first thing. Doing so could cut off your ability to attack them or locate other methods they are using to attack you. If you've ever examined several rooted boxes you will see that the non-script kiddies - the ones who are doing this hardcore - are staying hidden. They might live on your box for months carefully manipulating the box without your knowledge. In some cases it has taken them many months just to gain access, they aren't about to blow it by being found.
These are just some of the things I think would be needed to be truly successful. The hardest part, of course, is getting those covert assets in the right places in the countries you might be attacking well in advance of actually attacking them. Strategies would have to be changed constantly so you don't develop a pattern the enemy could detect. And, you have to accept the fact that the most critical targets would be the most defended. The smart 'cyber-warrior' (gross) will know that those systems aren't important if you can take out the softer supporting systems. I could think of several attacks that could be effective. Most of them would involve some form of in-country asset. The trick is having the technical knowledge to know what to blow up, and where it a system is likely weak.
I've got some other ideas too, but I ain't sharing them while wearing combat boots. I'll tell ya that right now. And that is the second hardest part - attracting the people who are really capable of causing accurate and total destruction of a nations command and control infrastructure (both commercial and military). And that is why we are all laughing.:)
What they will get is people who can fool the commander in to thinking they are qualified. Probably some guy with a stack full of 'certifications' that 'prove' he is an expert. Those same people will moan and complain when they can't attack anything by the local library becuase those dawg on Chinese hackers are just too powerful. Of course, they will come up with their false victories to justify their large paychecks. Having the military handle this is a good idea, but only when you combine those assets with the tools to destroy specific targets quickly. And that means as a geek you need to be okay helping the military kill other geeks in a time of war. Geeks you might know. Even geeks you might respect. You aren't just shutting down computers here, you are going to tell them which buildings and targets to drop bombs on. If that isn't what this group does, then they will be totally ineffective.
Is it reasonable to assume that a large scale space war using high-explosive satellite killing missiles could cause a cascade failure of not just spy sats - but all sats (or a large portion of them)? The ISS is apparently the most heavily shileded spacecraft in orbit, and it can only handle hypervelocity impacts of 1cm in size or smaller. A bunch of spy satellite bits whizzing around might be kind of hard to manuver away from. I imagine it might take weeks or years for the full effects of a massive sat war to become realized. Worst case, could a bunch of space junk flying around in every usable orbit at high speeds essentially shut down space? Something as small as a paint chip can have devastating effects.
By his own example, splicing action scenes together could create value. What if they are action scenes of one particular type - showing how the same 'move' is applied in different films. Or, what if the action scenes create their own kind of poetry when put in to the right order. Maybe it shows how a genre has changed over time to reflect current morality. At the end of the day you end up with the same argument - what's fair use any way? If value is the only determining factor - then how do you measure value? To me, you end up at the same stopping point.
This is a wonderful idea, until some moron with a jackhammer knocks out the heat to your building. Or worse, the pipes all freeze up due to a "computer monitoring glitch" - rendering all roads with this technology useless as the asphalt buckles and cracks due to the expanding water in the pipes.
It is time consuming enough when the local DOT decides to start digging up roads. Imagine if they had to lay miles of pipe under it too! Please put this in the recycle bin and move on to the next idea. This one has so many flaws I'm surprised it even made it past the bar napkin it was apparently designed on. One too many drinks for that engineer.
I personally think the NetFlix envelopes are horrid. I've had them come in various stages of destruction to my home. Ripped edges, torn open, etc. Nearly every envelope we get looks like it was jammed in some sort of machinery... that is until about three weeks ago. It looks like the postal service changed tactics and is manually sorting NetFlix envelopes to keep their equipment running smoothly. I've had no problems with torn envelopes since then. Perhaps the postal service is simply wanting to be paid for the problems NetFlix envelopes cause.
Other than that, I'm a huge NetFlix fan and hope they can work this out. The last thing they should want to do is make their delivery channel angry. Their business depends on it. I had naively imagined the problem was solved because NetFlix was working with the USPS. Let's hope the NetFlix managers figure out they need to be nice to the postal works. You DO NOT want to make your mail man angry! TRUST ME!
All she is doing is trying to raise two kids! You are putting her out on the street! How dare anyone out there make fun of Britney. You are STEALING her music! All she asks is $15 for one of her CDs. That's nothing to you! She only has several million dollars, no thanks to you pirates out there! So leave Britney alone, okay?!?
A local nuclear physicist in our area recently commented about the current detection systems in use. He regarded them as so easily thwarted they are basically worthless. He even described how to do it on a local news broadcast (sorry, I couldn't find a link). It basically involved very low cost (common) materials. He indicated the type of technology talked about in this article is really the only meaningful method for detecting nuclear material. He further stated that the organizations responsible for detecting this material know what they are using is worthless, but are unwilling to spend the additional money needed for the correct technology. He was upset that they were more interested in putting on a 'show' of force, rather than offering real protection.
Let's hope that isn't true, and places like Sandia are working on making nuetron detection less expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
But I will be the last! And, if I have the last laugh, Comcast can't have it!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
I am a fan, but one of my beefs with the movies is Paul looks so old when he comes to Arrakis. In the book he is 15 (maybe 16) and is soon thereafter thrown in to exile with the Freman due to the Harkonnen/Corrino betrayal.
He is also trained as a mentat, which the movies don't really make clear. I think it is important to the story to understand that, and compare him to the other Mentants portrayed in the film and books. He is Mentant and Bene Gesserit, thus making his 'godlike' existence have more of a twist - being a master of both domains.
General time-line:
10175 A.G. - Paul born.
10190-91 A.G. - Goes to dune and is betrayed.
10193 A.G. - Paul takes over as Emperor (at 18!).
He is 32 when he wanders in to the desert.
The author seems to have put a lot of thought in to the timing of these events, and it is a shame the movies haven't taken equal pains.
This 'law' is designed to catch those who simply attempt to access it. Let's use some other common situations to ferret out if this makes any sense:
I put my foot on the gas and attempt to break the speed limit, but a car in front of me prevents me from exceending the limit.
I walk in to a bank with the intention to rob it, but chicken out and go home.
At the store I put something in my pocket with the idea of stealing it, but go to the cash registers and pay for it any way.
A pre-cog sees a vision of me murduring someone in the future, but Tom Cruise and a team of jet-pack powered cops stop me.
10 years jail time for you buddy. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.
Here are the details:
http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/scalableservers/superdome/specifications.html With up to 128 CPUs, 2 TB of memory, 16 hard partitions and 32 GB/s of I/O bandwidth... I did an evaluation recently with the sx2000 chipset, very cool stuff - but in my opinion Linux isn't quite there yet.
With the ability to take that 2TB of RAM, all hot-swappable, and run it in mirror-redundancy (1TB usable), you would have a very reliable and fast system.
Hey Tim Couch,
Why not try to pass other non-enforcable laws too. Try these ones on:
"Tim Couch bans gravity in the state of Kentucky."
"Tim Couch raises speed limit for light."
"Tim Couch bans beer in all counties."
"Tim Couch raises smoking age from 18 to 64."
Why don't you actually pass a useful law that helps to reduce racisim, which is rampant in your state and is the core issue around much of the 'bullying' problem?
I would do more than that. I would take it home and introduce it to my power screwdriver, then return the box of parts back to the owner.
A 'superstar' programmer will find the job he wants with the salary he desires and get that job. A local company is well known for finding top flight programmers. They held a $10,000 programming deathmatch challenge. The winner got the cash prize, and a job offer. Guess what, they were extreamly successful.
http://mozy.com/contest
What you have to be prepared for is the unexpected winner:
http://uphpu.org/pipermail/uphpu/2006-November/005608.html
It was so succesful they did a second take, check here for sample questions:
http://mozy.com/contest
I would place my wager on this happening first...
http://www.endofworld.net/
http://www.sllug.org/pipermail/sllug-members/2008-February/010039.html
Chief Executive Officer
Bo Ewald joins SGI as CEO with over 25 years of relevant industry experience in the high performance computing markets. He is a seasoned industry veteran with a successful track record as a CEO. Rather interesting, don't you think?
I see lots of jokes. Some of them are awesome. However, what would it take to make a real 'serious' attempt at this? My thoughts:
:)
First off, you need total cooperation with the CIA or other covert espionage capabilities. You aren't going to be able to do much damage to 's critical infrastructure from thousands of miles away. Sure, a few systems will have access via public channels, but it would be a lot more effective if you have a resource on the ground. Such assets would physically locate assets you have identified virtually, and provide other support mechanisms.
Second, you need access to the systems you are going to attack well before you launch an attack. This could be done carefully from a remote location. What would be better is to have the above covert operations guys steal the actual gear you are going to be attacking, or otherwise duplicate it (plans, technical documentation, etc).
Third, you need devices and techniques that can give you access to closed networks from thousands of miles away. That means you need to have covert ops people with extensive technical training who are going to gain access to restricted areas on networks that are very closed, and install covert devices on those networks that give you remote access. In particular, you need your own local network that is very secure and has as low latency as you can get. That network would live inside that country and needs to remain undetected, with stop gaps to protect itself if part of it is discovered.
Fourth, you need to develop the right tactics. You have to attack inside out if taking out an entire nations infrastructure quickly. What you do NOT want to do is cut the cables or shut down 'net access first thing. Doing so could cut off your ability to attack them or locate other methods they are using to attack you. If you've ever examined several rooted boxes you will see that the non-script kiddies - the ones who are doing this hardcore - are staying hidden. They might live on your box for months carefully manipulating the box without your knowledge. In some cases it has taken them many months just to gain access, they aren't about to blow it by being found.
These are just some of the things I think would be needed to be truly successful. The hardest part, of course, is getting those covert assets in the right places in the countries you might be attacking well in advance of actually attacking them. Strategies would have to be changed constantly so you don't develop a pattern the enemy could detect. And, you have to accept the fact that the most critical targets would be the most defended. The smart 'cyber-warrior' (gross) will know that those systems aren't important if you can take out the softer supporting systems. I could think of several attacks that could be effective. Most of them would involve some form of in-country asset. The trick is having the technical knowledge to know what to blow up, and where it a system is likely weak.
I've got some other ideas too, but I ain't sharing them while wearing combat boots. I'll tell ya that right now. And that is the second hardest part - attracting the people who are really capable of causing accurate and total destruction of a nations command and control infrastructure (both commercial and military). And that is why we are all laughing.
What they will get is people who can fool the commander in to thinking they are qualified. Probably some guy with a stack full of 'certifications' that 'prove' he is an expert. Those same people will moan and complain when they can't attack anything by the local library becuase those dawg on Chinese hackers are just too powerful. Of course, they will come up with their false victories to justify their large paychecks. Having the military handle this is a good idea, but only when you combine those assets with the tools to destroy specific targets quickly. And that means as a geek you need to be okay helping the military kill other geeks in a time of war. Geeks you might know. Even geeks you might respect. You aren't just shutting down computers here, you are going to tell them which buildings and targets to drop bombs on. If that isn't what this group does, then they will be totally ineffective.
Is it reasonable to assume that a large scale space war using high-explosive satellite killing missiles could cause a cascade failure of not just spy sats - but all sats (or a large portion of them)? The ISS is apparently the most heavily shileded spacecraft in orbit, and it can only handle hypervelocity impacts of 1cm in size or smaller. A bunch of spy satellite bits whizzing around might be kind of hard to manuver away from. I imagine it might take weeks or years for the full effects of a massive sat war to become realized. Worst case, could a bunch of space junk flying around in every usable orbit at high speeds essentially shut down space? Something as small as a paint chip can have devastating effects.
http://www.wstf.nasa.gov/Hazard/Hyper/debris.htm
I multi-task very well:
1 + 1 = 2
P. I. G. spells pig.
Do Re Me Fa
*rub tummy*
*pat head*
*spin in circles*
Okay, I guess I do look a little stupid.
You know it's bad when not even the script kiddies wanna get their paws on it.
By his own example, splicing action scenes together could create value. What if they are action scenes of one particular type - showing how the same 'move' is applied in different films. Or, what if the action scenes create their own kind of poetry when put in to the right order. Maybe it shows how a genre has changed over time to reflect current morality. At the end of the day you end up with the same argument - what's fair use any way? If value is the only determining factor - then how do you measure value? To me, you end up at the same stopping point.
I admit to being a moron. Actually, airports might be a really good place for this (as described in the article).
This is a wonderful idea, until some moron with a jackhammer knocks out the heat to your building. Or worse, the pipes all freeze up due to a "computer monitoring glitch" - rendering all roads with this technology useless as the asphalt buckles and cracks due to the expanding water in the pipes.
It is time consuming enough when the local DOT decides to start digging up roads. Imagine if they had to lay miles of pipe under it too! Please put this in the recycle bin and move on to the next idea. This one has so many flaws I'm surprised it even made it past the bar napkin it was apparently designed on. One too many drinks for that engineer.
So is it cheating if I use one of these to break a million points on Guitar Hero?
After that I'm going to put him to work on Heroin Hero... I WILL CATCH THAT DRAGON!
That is really cool. I hadn't heard of that before.
In my opinion the most important of all: Morse code doesn't have an accent.
I personally think the NetFlix envelopes are horrid. I've had them come in various stages of destruction to my home. Ripped edges, torn open, etc. Nearly every envelope we get looks like it was jammed in some sort of machinery... that is until about three weeks ago. It looks like the postal service changed tactics and is manually sorting NetFlix envelopes to keep their equipment running smoothly. I've had no problems with torn envelopes since then. Perhaps the postal service is simply wanting to be paid for the problems NetFlix envelopes cause.
Other than that, I'm a huge NetFlix fan and hope they can work this out. The last thing they should want to do is make their delivery channel angry. Their business depends on it. I had naively imagined the problem was solved because NetFlix was working with the USPS. Let's hope the NetFlix managers figure out they need to be nice to the postal works. You DO NOT want to make your mail man angry! TRUST ME!
All she is doing is trying to raise two kids! You are putting her out on the street! How dare anyone out there make fun of Britney. You are STEALING her music! All she asks is $15 for one of her CDs. That's nothing to you! She only has several million dollars, no thanks to you pirates out there! So leave Britney alone, okay?!?
*sob*
*sob*
A local nuclear physicist in our area recently commented about the current detection systems in use. He regarded them as so easily thwarted they are basically worthless. He even described how to do it on a local news broadcast (sorry, I couldn't find a link). It basically involved very low cost (common) materials. He indicated the type of technology talked about in this article is really the only meaningful method for detecting nuclear material. He further stated that the organizations responsible for detecting this material know what they are using is worthless, but are unwilling to spend the additional money needed for the correct technology. He was upset that they were more interested in putting on a 'show' of force, rather than offering real protection.
Let's hope that isn't true, and places like Sandia are working on making nuetron detection less expensive.