*nod* However, if yon waiter uses your credit card illegally, it's usually pretty easy to track down when it started and who the guilty party is. Most credit card 'thefts' like this are done by people with a minimum of the daily recommended intake of intelligence.
However, with online security, all too frequently, the people who are intercepting transmissions or forging them are quite intelligent (or have read the user docs for their script kiddie toy). Therefore it takes a little more then the standard protocols to insure a minimum level of safety.
No protocol is 100% safe. We accept that. Well, most of us/.'ers do. It's the clueless masses that get all of their tech news from Headline News that panic over this.
Oh well. Wonder how long it will be before the next "X isn't secure" story on/.?
Just because I say I'm someone doesn't mean I am really that person. Just because I am using the PGP or SSH key of Joe Smith doesn't mean I am Joe Smith. Now, it's pretty likely that I am, but the possibility still exists that some 733t h4xx0r or script kiddie got them from Joe.
And there comes a point where too much security slows down the system. Hey, yeah, we could go to 4096-bit encryption, but what's the point?
Basically, it boils down to a couple points:
1) If you absolutely, positively don't want anyone else but the intended reader to see some private communication, hand it to them. No transmission media is 100% secure.
2) There comes a point where security paranoia limits efficiency. We're damn close to the paranoia limit.
Well, a bad electrical connector, notwithstanding what common sense tells us it should be, could be anything from a broken electrical clip, to faulty wiring, a short in the component, etc. But saying that it is a bad electrical connector sounds better and scares less people (and scared people don't like funding things that scare them) then saying "electrical fire" or "short in the system".
How very true. Now, early on in their "quest for space" (i.e. the space race between the USSR and the USA, where the USSR was kicking our butts in terms of hours in space and orbits of the Earth), and even before that (unmanned shots, animals launched into space), the Russians had numerable problems. Foremost among them was a 'tendency' for their rockets to explode on the pad shortly afterwards. For a while, the attrition rate was upwards of 30%.
Now, as muecksteiner pointed out, the good old USA spent a bucket of money on the space pen, while the Russians went to pencils. The Russians are also known for incredibly good mathematicians and tech that you literally have to take a hammer to to destroy.
Given the amount of materials and components that are going into the ISS and the length of time that many of these components are rated to work for, I am not surprised that some things break down. I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often. Even considering the incredible advances in technology that we have made in the last 100 years (much less the last 10), we still have so little experience with microgravity. There is no way to predict how certain components will act in microgravity. We learn new things each day that there are people in the ISS.
Now, does the breakdown of the air scrubber mean we should all hide our heads in the sand like good little neo-Luddites? No. Does it mean that we should start finger-pointing and look for someone to blame? No. We should get the damn thing fixed and get on with life in general and get the rest of the ISS built.
Thing is, how many other countries have a major space program (host country going bankrupt notwithstanding) that have a lot of microgravity experience, and are politcally friendly?
The US and France (not that France has any kind of space program) are not at the best of terms, Germany is still re-building the eastern half, the UK... what are they up to, and Japan. Actually, I'm surprised that Japan isn't involved... well, maybe they are, but if so, the newspeople are ignoring it.
You can pretty much count out all of Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia, South America, and a fair chunk of Europe. No one really lives in Antarctica, so that really leaves the Aussies. Are they involved? If not, why not? (Probably because you couldn't convince an Aussie he'd need a spacesuit...)
Finally, I wouldn't be too surprised if some of the American bits start breaking too. If the past is any indication, the parts were either made by the lowest bidder, or by some pork-barrelled government contractor who can charge $300 for a screwdriver.
Thing is, there's only so many times you can test something to insure that it works properly before you start drastically cutting its usage lifetime. Another thing you have to consider is that some things work differently in microgravity then in 1-G environments. Yeah, they use air scrubbers in submarines too, but it's a different system, and if all else fails, they can always rise to the surface for more air.
Anyway, if they have to go to their backup backup system, which only lasts for 14 days, they still have plenty of time. There's a launch on the 26th, which still gives them 6 spare days to play around with. And given that time frame, if the launch on the 26th goes wrong, there's still time to try a few more options.
Why? Certain games need, nay, deserve buttons allocated to taunt your opponents. Most wrestling games now (at least the ones in the WWF series) have them, and an Evil Dead game would be sad without a "taunt" button.
Having said that, certain games can do fine without 'taunts'. Although I have to wonder what some character specific taunts would have been for FFVIII....
I think it had something to do with X-Files getting that prime Friday night time-slot, and Brisco County Jr. having whatever time-slot the local affiliate gave it.
That, and Brisco was campy. (Well, duh!) And campy, sad to say, doesn't appeal to as many people as a good government conspiracy/alien abduction/psychic powers/wierd-shit-o-meter just pegged show.
Anyway, X-Files, IMAO, is worthless without Duchovny, and was pretty bad for the last couple of seasons.
True. I think this is why online games like Everquest and the like are so popular. They have a lot of diversity in terms of what you can and cannot do. And, Everquest has already come out with a second expansion, so I think we can safely assume it's not going to crash and burn.
Basically, any game where the players can have some control over their character's development is better, IMAO, then every game that has a static path to victory. Yeah, FFVIII was cool to play, but it basically required you to solve quest A, then quest B, and so on. Same with so very many other games.
MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHes, MOOs, and the like are the "game of the future" to paraphrase damn near every ad geek. Sure, sports games and 1st person shooters will probably always have fans, but more and more, RP style games are winning market share.
(That, and I can only play DiabloII for a couple hours before it gets boring... Evercrack, I mean Everquest, can keep me interested for a looong time.)
That Linux is becoming more mainstream at all? When you can buy various distributions at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, it gets people who normally would not have access interested in it. Plus, you're guarenteed to get a good copy with the manuals...
But when it becomes available in chain stores like those, of course hardware makers are going to do things like this. They see where the cash lies, and what with the supposedly imminent M$ break-up (not to mention their lackluster earnings in the second quarter), they're hedging their bets.
If you're 30 feet away from a street and you can't tell what the street sign says, you need more then GPS can help you with. Of course, I say this from the relatively easy to get around in city of Columbia, SC.
Me, I see accurate GPS to be very useful in the boonies or jungle areas, where 30 feet can mean a difference. I also saw an article about a dig in Egypt about 4 months ago where the archaelogical team used a GPS system to 'map' where walls should be, based upon their understanding of the ancient Egyptian architechture. It worked very well, but for the life of me I cannot find the article again.
Yeah, but is it a perfect reflection, meaning that no data is lost from the signal? I think not. Besides, wave motion (no pun intended) of the surface of the ocean would not only potentially distort the signal, but could send it in directions not intended. Of course, if you want a broad-based transmission, that's not a problem, but with tight-beam communication, it is.
And what happens if this bounces off of a cruise ship, or a whale or something?
...but was there a reason why this plant was picked? Some obscure scientific reason? Because it is a 'simple' plant? Because some scientist was on a walk decided to pick the first interesting looking weed he found?
Depends. IANAL, but since M$ would still be offering their own 'solutions' ala BugTraq available on a publically accessible web-page, it would be legal to copy and distribute that information provided that you make no claims to ownership, do not change the information, and do not charge for it.
Because, let's face it, if we were not meant to print out copies from web-pages, Netscape would not have a Print button.:P
What makes you think they don't? M$ has a long history of not correcting bugs before their programs are released and then ignoring or denying the bugs until a patch is released. Not that they are the only ones. IBM has done it too, as have darn near every single computer game company, especially those with online playing.
It's nothing new, though. M$ is just taking it a little further then most...
Check me on this, I may be wrong, but I thought that the UK was pretty much ignoring the EU (or was it France?). I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the major European countries was not playing along with the rest of the EEU, deliberately.
Besides, unless the European courts are an order of magnitude faster then American ones, I don't see an end to this before 2003...
Well, I seem to recall, or at least think I recall, reading somewhere that at least one of the Iridium satellites will pile it in somewhere in China. Considering that there are a billion or so people living in that country, fair odds of it hitting someone. (Of course, there's also some seriously huge uninhabited areas of China, just like in any country... save the Vatican City.)
Now, what are the odds of an Iridium satellite hitting someone who deserves it? Like Regis?
Well, apparently, this satellite (and the next one to fall) were already going to fall by the time of the supposed buyout. The fact that some of them were in the process of plummeting to the earth probably did not appeal to buyers though.
Al Gore was heard to comment that the use of GNOME for the voters in Florida would be too confusing, leading many to think that they had KDE on their desktops instead.
Do you realize what you're saying? Okay, coming up with a line of poetry of equal length is so easy it's not even funny, but given the length of time to come up with an encryption scheme so that your line of poetry matches an already existing cipher would be pointless. At that level of complexity, it's much easier to solve the original cipher by transliteration into the Roman alphabet.
And once you have the symbols transformed, you solve it like a cryptoquote. Using letter frequencies, word frequencies, etc. it is possible to solve any transliterated cipher. It may take time, but it can be done.
If you want much more difficult, translate an English document into a dead language phonetically, then encrypt it. Or use a queue-transformation on the document.
IMAO, it's not worth getting. While the animation is decent (I've seen lots better), the story will confuse the Hell(tm) out of you.
The movie is basically set in the middle of the manga (Japanese comic book) run, so there is all this backstory you're not getting, and all this aftermath that you have no clue happens. What you're left with is a confusing section of the manga series that has been animated.
Of course, since it is going on DVD, who knows what they will add. Hopefully some of the backstory, something on the writers perhaps.
That being said, my favorite part of it is the flying leap-kick from the back of the motorcycle.
Okay, but let's say that my 10% and your 10% differ by.5%. And another user's 10% differs by.5% as well. Given most programs, after a relatively small user base, that will not happen any more. In the case of a word-processor program, most of the users use the same features over and over again because they don't need to use anything else.
The only reason some of the features are included are to give people more options and as selling points. Half the functions on the copy of Word 2000 I have I never use, and I never plan to. Again, the vast majority of users are probably the same way. It's not that they don't necessarily know how to use those features. It's that they don't need to. Change font and font size, bond and underline are probably the most commonly used aspects of the program other then print.
Be happy that those features are (mostly) bug free....
You forgot the worst form of lie. Computer modeling. (yeah, that wasn't around when Twain said the original but you all know it's true)
There are (obviously) some people who are better at managing computer systems then others. There are also some supposed network administrators who can't do anything right. I suspect that's what affects the "average" number of computers that can (or can't) be managed. Also, those statistics can be massaged any number of ways to produce results that are (1) frightening (2) thought-provoking (3) sound-byte sized or (4) all of the above.
Slashdot Mirror
*nod* However, if yon waiter uses your credit card illegally, it's usually pretty easy to track down when it started and who the guilty party is. Most credit card 'thefts' like this are done by people with a minimum of the daily recommended intake of intelligence.
/.'ers do. It's the clueless masses that get all of their tech news from Headline News that panic over this.
/.?
However, with online security, all too frequently, the people who are intercepting transmissions or forging them are quite intelligent (or have read the user docs for their script kiddie toy). Therefore it takes a little more then the standard protocols to insure a minimum level of safety.
No protocol is 100% safe. We accept that. Well, most of us
Oh well. Wonder how long it will be before the next "X isn't secure" story on
Kierthos
True.
"On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog."
Just because I say I'm someone doesn't mean I am really that person. Just because I am using the PGP or SSH key of Joe Smith doesn't mean I am Joe Smith. Now, it's pretty likely that I am, but the possibility still exists that some 733t h4xx0r or script kiddie got them from Joe.
And there comes a point where too much security slows down the system. Hey, yeah, we could go to 4096-bit encryption, but what's the point?
Basically, it boils down to a couple points:
1) If you absolutely, positively don't want anyone else but the intended reader to see some private communication, hand it to them. No transmission media is 100% secure.
2) There comes a point where security paranoia limits efficiency. We're damn close to the paranoia limit.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Well, a bad electrical connector, notwithstanding what common sense tells us it should be, could be anything from a broken electrical clip, to faulty wiring, a short in the component, etc. But saying that it is a bad electrical connector sounds better and scares less people (and scared people don't like funding things that scare them) then saying "electrical fire" or "short in the system".
Kierthos
How very true. Now, early on in their "quest for space" (i.e. the space race between the USSR and the USA, where the USSR was kicking our butts in terms of hours in space and orbits of the Earth), and even before that (unmanned shots, animals launched into space), the Russians had numerable problems. Foremost among them was a 'tendency' for their rockets to explode on the pad shortly afterwards. For a while, the attrition rate was upwards of 30%.
Now, as muecksteiner pointed out, the good old USA spent a bucket of money on the space pen, while the Russians went to pencils. The Russians are also known for incredibly good mathematicians and tech that you literally have to take a hammer to to destroy.
Given the amount of materials and components that are going into the ISS and the length of time that many of these components are rated to work for, I am not surprised that some things break down. I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often. Even considering the incredible advances in technology that we have made in the last 100 years (much less the last 10), we still have so little experience with microgravity. There is no way to predict how certain components will act in microgravity. We learn new things each day that there are people in the ISS.
Now, does the breakdown of the air scrubber mean we should all hide our heads in the sand like good little neo-Luddites? No. Does it mean that we should start finger-pointing and look for someone to blame? No. We should get the damn thing fixed and get on with life in general and get the rest of the ISS built.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Thing is, how many other countries have a major space program (host country going bankrupt notwithstanding) that have a lot of microgravity experience, and are politcally friendly?
The US and France (not that France has any kind of space program) are not at the best of terms, Germany is still re-building the eastern half, the UK... what are they up to, and Japan. Actually, I'm surprised that Japan isn't involved... well, maybe they are, but if so, the newspeople are ignoring it.
You can pretty much count out all of Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia, South America, and a fair chunk of Europe. No one really lives in Antarctica, so that really leaves the Aussies. Are they involved? If not, why not? (Probably because you couldn't convince an Aussie he'd need a spacesuit...)
Finally, I wouldn't be too surprised if some of the American bits start breaking too. If the past is any indication, the parts were either made by the lowest bidder, or by some pork-barrelled government contractor who can charge $300 for a screwdriver.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Thing is, there's only so many times you can test something to insure that it works properly before you start drastically cutting its usage lifetime. Another thing you have to consider is that some things work differently in microgravity then in 1-G environments. Yeah, they use air scrubbers in submarines too, but it's a different system, and if all else fails, they can always rise to the surface for more air.
Anyway, if they have to go to their backup backup system, which only lasts for 14 days, they still have plenty of time. There's a launch on the 26th, which still gives them 6 spare days to play around with. And given that time frame, if the launch on the 26th goes wrong, there's still time to try a few more options.
Finally, MIR was a wreck to begin with...
Kierthos
Why? Certain games need, nay, deserve buttons allocated to taunt your opponents. Most wrestling games now (at least the ones in the WWF series) have them, and an Evil Dead game would be sad without a "taunt" button.
Having said that, certain games can do fine without 'taunts'. Although I have to wonder what some character specific taunts would have been for FFVIII....
Kierthos
I think it had something to do with X-Files getting that prime Friday night time-slot, and Brisco County Jr. having whatever time-slot the local affiliate gave it.
That, and Brisco was campy. (Well, duh!) And campy, sad to say, doesn't appeal to as many people as a good government conspiracy/alien abduction/psychic powers/wierd-shit-o-meter just pegged show.
Anyway, X-Files, IMAO, is worthless without Duchovny, and was pretty bad for the last couple of seasons.
Kierthos
True. I think this is why online games like Everquest and the like are so popular. They have a lot of diversity in terms of what you can and cannot do. And, Everquest has already come out with a second expansion, so I think we can safely assume it's not going to crash and burn.
Basically, any game where the players can have some control over their character's development is better, IMAO, then every game that has a static path to victory. Yeah, FFVIII was cool to play, but it basically required you to solve quest A, then quest B, and so on. Same with so very many other games.
MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHes, MOOs, and the like are the "game of the future" to paraphrase damn near every ad geek. Sure, sports games and 1st person shooters will probably always have fans, but more and more, RP style games are winning market share.
(That, and I can only play DiabloII for a couple hours before it gets boring... Evercrack, I mean Everquest, can keep me interested for a looong time.)
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
That Linux is becoming more mainstream at all? When you can buy various distributions at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, it gets people who normally would not have access interested in it. Plus, you're guarenteed to get a good copy with the manuals...
But when it becomes available in chain stores like those, of course hardware makers are going to do things like this. They see where the cash lies, and what with the supposedly imminent M$ break-up (not to mention their lackluster earnings in the second quarter), they're hedging their bets.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
If you're 30 feet away from a street and you can't tell what the street sign says, you need more then GPS can help you with. Of course, I say this from the relatively easy to get around in city of Columbia, SC.
Me, I see accurate GPS to be very useful in the boonies or jungle areas, where 30 feet can mean a difference. I also saw an article about a dig in Egypt about 4 months ago where the archaelogical team used a GPS system to 'map' where walls should be, based upon their understanding of the ancient Egyptian architechture. It worked very well, but for the life of me I cannot find the article again.
Kierthos
Yeah, but is it a perfect reflection, meaning that no data is lost from the signal? I think not. Besides, wave motion (no pun intended) of the surface of the ocean would not only potentially distort the signal, but could send it in directions not intended. Of course, if you want a broad-based transmission, that's not a problem, but with tight-beam communication, it is.
And what happens if this bounces off of a cruise ship, or a whale or something?
Kierthos
...but was there a reason why this plant was picked? Some obscure scientific reason? Because it is a 'simple' plant? Because some scientist was on a walk decided to pick the first interesting looking weed he found?
Kierthos
Depends. IANAL, but since M$ would still be offering their own 'solutions' ala BugTraq available on a publically accessible web-page, it would be legal to copy and distribute that information provided that you make no claims to ownership, do not change the information, and do not charge for it.
:P
Because, let's face it, if we were not meant to print out copies from web-pages, Netscape would not have a Print button.
But "brought" is a real word, so a spellchecker would not have picked up on it. Perhaps a good grammar checker would, but that's debateable.
Kierthos
What makes you think they don't? M$ has a long history of not correcting bugs before their programs are released and then ignoring or denying the bugs until a patch is released. Not that they are the only ones. IBM has done it too, as have darn near every single computer game company, especially those with online playing.
It's nothing new, though. M$ is just taking it a little further then most...
Kierthos
Check me on this, I may be wrong, but I thought that the UK was pretty much ignoring the EU (or was it France?). I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the major European countries was not playing along with the rest of the EEU, deliberately.
Besides, unless the European courts are an order of magnitude faster then American ones, I don't see an end to this before 2003...
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Well, I seem to recall, or at least think I recall, reading somewhere that at least one of the Iridium satellites will pile it in somewhere in China. Considering that there are a billion or so people living in that country, fair odds of it hitting someone. (Of course, there's also some seriously huge uninhabited areas of China, just like in any country... save the Vatican City.)
Now, what are the odds of an Iridium satellite hitting someone who deserves it? Like Regis?
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Well, apparently, this satellite (and the next one to fall) were already going to fall by the time of the supposed buyout. The fact that some of them were in the process of plummeting to the earth probably did not appeal to buyers though.
Kierthos
Chicken Little was right?
Say, wasn't it an Iridium meteorite that killed all the dinosaurs?
Kierthos
Al Gore was heard to comment that the use of GNOME for the voters in Florida would be too confusing, leading many to think that they had KDE on their desktops instead.
Kierthos
Do you realize what you're saying? Okay, coming up with a line of poetry of equal length is so easy it's not even funny, but given the length of time to come up with an encryption scheme so that your line of poetry matches an already existing cipher would be pointless. At that level of complexity, it's much easier to solve the original cipher by transliteration into the Roman alphabet.
And once you have the symbols transformed, you solve it like a cryptoquote. Using letter frequencies, word frequencies, etc. it is possible to solve any transliterated cipher. It may take time, but it can be done.
If you want much more difficult, translate an English document into a dead language phonetically, then encrypt it. Or use a queue-transformation on the document.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
IMAO, it's not worth getting. While the animation is decent (I've seen lots better), the story will confuse the Hell(tm) out of you.
The movie is basically set in the middle of the manga (Japanese comic book) run, so there is all this backstory you're not getting, and all this aftermath that you have no clue happens. What you're left with is a confusing section of the manga series that has been animated.
Of course, since it is going on DVD, who knows what they will add. Hopefully some of the backstory, something on the writers perhaps.
That being said, my favorite part of it is the flying leap-kick from the back of the motorcycle.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Okay, but let's say that my 10% and your 10% differ by .5%. And another user's 10% differs by .5% as well. Given most programs, after a relatively small user base, that will not happen any more. In the case of a word-processor program, most of the users use the same features over and over again because they don't need to use anything else.
The only reason some of the features are included are to give people more options and as selling points. Half the functions on the copy of Word 2000 I have I never use, and I never plan to. Again, the vast majority of users are probably the same way. It's not that they don't necessarily know how to use those features. It's that they don't need to. Change font and font size, bond and underline are probably the most commonly used aspects of the program other then print.
Be happy that those features are (mostly) bug free....
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
You forgot the worst form of lie. Computer modeling. (yeah, that wasn't around when Twain said the original but you all know it's true)
There are (obviously) some people who are better at managing computer systems then others. There are also some supposed network administrators who can't do anything right. I suspect that's what affects the "average" number of computers that can (or can't) be managed. Also, those statistics can be massaged any number of ways to produce results that are (1) frightening (2) thought-provoking (3) sound-byte sized or (4) all of the above.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos