The biggest problem with what America is trying to do is to make more things illegal. To make more people into criminals. However, if someone is willing to commit suicide to kill a lot of people then does anyone really believe that they are going to balk at breaking a law about encryption? The only people that the government will be able to catch through these new laws are going to be the very minor criminals who don't know better.
Intelligent people like these terrorist leaders will simply use another method such as the Spam encryption technique or what they've already done by hiding information in web sites.
We have to protect our freedoms. We want to be safe, but let's be realistic and realize that making privacy illegal is not the right way to go about it.
Keep in mind that all the ISP's ALREADY log all the connections through their network. They ALREADY have a lot of the emails, etc. on their system in the form of access logs and backups of undelivered messages.
Carnivore can only be installed to monitor traffic to/from a specific person (as per the warrant). It can also only monitor real-time data (nothing from the past). Therefore, what is the point of installing Carnivore now? They just want to install it so that it will be easier for them to deploy it in the future to catch all the non-violent pot smokers who are "ruining the country"
"Now, with some computer experts estimating that over 50% of the Internet is incomprehensible to braille interfaces, and most computer operating systems devolving to caveman interfaces ("point at the pretty pictures and grunt") we seem to be ready to take the next step - disenfranchising the merely color-blind."
This brings me back to the BBS days. One of the best people in the area was a blind judge. He used a text->speech program which allowed him to do everything on the BBS that everyone else did. Since the BBS's were all text-only anyway the interface was easy. Nowadays we have so many sites that are design-centric that I can't see how people with disabilities get around.
I always strive to keep my sites simple and clean (like slashdot) so that the site can be more easily used by anyone, anywhere.
This isn't to say that flash, etc. shouldn't exist, but I don't think that they belong on a business-oriented site.
On a similar note, network traffic over the backbones increased from the normal 40% utilization to an 80% utilization Tuesday. (Sorry, can't remember the source). The article also said that traffic to search sites such as Google did not increase.
What this means is that people already knew where to go for the information, people know to look to certain sites for information. When MSNBC, NPR, CNN, and all the other sites failed I came here, and from here found a link to shoutcast which in turn led me to people who put up audio feeds from CNN - my only way to get the information while at work.
We all know that buildings sway a lot (several feet at the top). We also all know that electricity can be generated by piezoelectric strips that bend. Has anyone tried running a long piezoelectric strip up a building?
I know they were able to generate electricity from the rising and falling of waves by using piezoelectrics, maybe the same idea would work here.
Several problems with this idea:
1) Take the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, they have a skybridge between them that has to be flexible since the towers move independently. The wind turbines would have to do the same on their buildings.
2) Traffic would not "drown out" the noise. The sound of the turbines would simply add to the overall noise of the city. Especially inside the buildings.
I still think its a great idea to use various means of generating electricity rather than relying on a few huge sources though!
Backdoors are pointless. PGP in its current version offers excellent encryption. All a 'terrorist' has to do is use the existing programs that are out there. The only people the FBI would be able to 'catch' would be those that aren't very bright, and they can catch those guys without a backdoor.
Backdoors only weaken security and violate people's private lives. They should not be used.
The reason Office became so popular (other than marketing) is that the user only had to install one product to get email, word processing, spreadsheets, and powerpoint. The user doesn't care whether each item is part of a single product or a part of many, they just want a seamless system. So if Linux can get a set of programs that can be bundled and used similar to Office then they'll have a viable product.
Also, why is Office monolithic? When I install it I simply choose to not install powerpoint, access, etc. because I never use them. The key is to educate users to only install what they actually use.
This brings up the question of who would be responsible. If the corporation that wrote the software is to blame, does that mean that the corporation can be arrested for manslaughter of the unborn?
If that happens, a lot more software is going to be tested if it is going into a potentially life threatening situation.
Also, if they used a library for their date functions, does that make the library author responsible too?
Financial penalties would not help anything. I, for example, am having a hard enough time just trying to make rent. Add an unreasonable amount to what I already owe and I may be forced to sell drugs just to cover the costs. That's definately not what anyone wants to see happen.
Financial penalties usually make things worse, not better.
I've had trouble with the implementation side of XML. While the concept behind XML is extremely simple, getting it to display is quite another. XSL chose some extremely hard to understand syntax for a data structure designed to be human-readable.
Travis
Re:What can be done about terrorism?
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
Fedex recently wanted to automate the flying of their cargo jets. With some work, couldn't we add that as an emergency system to a plane? Put a button in the cockpit that will activate an automatic emergency landing when pressed. Locking out all the onboard controls would effectively prevent anyone from seizing control.
I believe you are incorrect about the attention span of today's children. My cousin (he's in 3rd grade) is visiting. For the last week he constantly watched the cartoon network and barely moved. Then I got out the chess board and asked him to play. We've now played several games. Parents simply need to turn off the tv after an hour and give the kids something else to do. People think kids have short attention spans because they can't say no to their kids and the kids love to lounge around.
Your logic is flawed. I had a hole on my FTP server several years ago which exposed my entire hard drive to the internet. A kind dorm-mate played a prank on me which opened my eyes to the problem. I would rather have a white-hat let me know about the problem so I can fix it than to never know and leave it open for a potential black-hat.
Well, he could just publish it on paper and mail it to anyone who wants it... My understanding is that the DMCA only applies to the _electronic_ distribution of crypto stuff. Once he puts it in meatspace it isn't regulated by the DMCA.
Perhaps whoever types it back into the computer would be at risk, but then again that person didn't crack anything - he just typed in something from a book.
Travis
Re:As long as I can connect...
on
Taming the Web
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Simple. Use an anonymous remailer that breaks and encrypts the email. Even though it still might be seen by Carnivore it would be gibberish and anonymous. The only place it gets reassembled and decrypted is at the final destination when the FBI illegally installs a keystroke logger to get the password. It doesn't even leave YOUR computer without being broken and encrypted.
The systems exist, unfortunately only hackers (in the good sense) will use them. But isn't that really the point? Do we really want a bunch of computer illiterates trading illegal files?
$50 says that they check their hits logs tomorrow and scratch their heads about why page 2 has double the hits as page 1, and that hardly anyone read page 3.
Of course, I bet most of the slashdot crowd figured it out after one click, but that's still two hits for page 2 and one for page's 1 and 3:)
You most certainly do NOT need to pay people to make good maps! When team Fortress was initially released it didn't come with ANY maps. Someone made 2fort4, shared it, and made history. The best part of TF was trying out new maps!
Making a single player campaign, on the other hand, is much harder, but who wants to buy a game that they can only play through once?
The article seems to imply that they had every password in the study, and that they also knew the names of the users. Therefore, isn't the biggest security threat that the users gave up their passwords? No matter how "secure" the password is, if you just tell someone because they say they are doing a study then that password is as insecure as "god".
Social Engineering is a much bigger treat than hard-to-guess passwords...
We are at a paradigm shift. This is a major point in the development of media and entertainment. In the past, people were forced to watch what the corporate empire controlling the signals wanted you to watch. Until the VCR was developed, people did not even have the capability to fast forward past commercials. Until the remote control not many people could mute the advertisements.
Now we are entering a new age. In this age, people can choose. If products like Tivo (the good version) are allowed to flourish then the current businesses that rely on advertising will fail. There will be chaos. Out of that chaos will come a new system that respects the viewers. People will be happy.
Freedom is important, even if that freedom is merely choosing to not watch ads for tampons.
Oh great, I can see it now when Apple adopts the gesture system: They'll come out with the latest greatest "no-button" mouse! No longer will the user have to be confused about what the button might do when pressed!
I went to nofreelunchseter.com and read their (heavily biased) info, but I found no evidence of any anti-fair-use materials in the MP3's, only normal mp3's.
I even downloaded one of the speeches (hilary rosen) and WinAmp's MPEG info box said
"Copyrighted: No; Original: No". Heh heh, that's great.
Perhaps I misunderstood you, perhaps you misspoke...
Through the hard work that I put into a half-life fan site several years ago, I gained a lot of skills at everything from HTML to JavaScript to PHP and Perl, plus a smattering of SQL. That experience helped land me a great summer job, and now I'm looking forward to a career at web design after college graduation in three months.
So, even though it took a lot of time and is now in the bit bucket, I learned a lot from the time spent and it definately made me into a better web site designer:)
Slashdot Mirror
The biggest problem with what America is trying to do is to make more things illegal. To make more people into criminals. However, if someone is willing to commit suicide to kill a lot of people then does anyone really believe that they are going to balk at breaking a law about encryption? The only people that the government will be able to catch through these new laws are going to be the very minor criminals who don't know better.
Intelligent people like these terrorist leaders will simply use another method such as the Spam encryption technique or what they've already done by hiding information in web sites.
We have to protect our freedoms. We want to be safe, but let's be realistic and realize that making privacy illegal is not the right way to go about it.
Travis
Keep in mind that all the ISP's ALREADY log all the connections through their network. They ALREADY have a lot of the emails, etc. on their system in the form of access logs and backups of undelivered messages.
Carnivore can only be installed to monitor traffic to/from a specific person (as per the warrant). It can also only monitor real-time data (nothing from the past). Therefore, what is the point of installing Carnivore now? They just want to install it so that it will be easier for them to deploy it in the future to catch all the non-violent pot smokers who are "ruining the country"
Travis
This brings me back to the BBS days. One of the best people in the area was a blind judge. He used a text->speech program which allowed him to do everything on the BBS that everyone else did. Since the BBS's were all text-only anyway the interface was easy. Nowadays we have so many sites that are design-centric that I can't see how people with disabilities get around.
I always strive to keep my sites simple and clean (like slashdot) so that the site can be more easily used by anyone, anywhere.
This isn't to say that flash, etc. shouldn't exist, but I don't think that they belong on a business-oriented site.
Travis
On a similar note, network traffic over the backbones increased from the normal 40% utilization to an 80% utilization Tuesday. (Sorry, can't remember the source). The article also said that traffic to search sites such as Google did not increase.
What this means is that people already knew where to go for the information, people know to look to certain sites for information. When MSNBC, NPR, CNN, and all the other sites failed I came here, and from here found a link to shoutcast which in turn led me to people who put up audio feeds from CNN - my only way to get the information while at work.
Thanks guys,
Travis
We all know that buildings sway a lot (several feet at the top). We also all know that electricity can be generated by piezoelectric strips that bend. Has anyone tried running a long piezoelectric strip up a building?
I know they were able to generate electricity from the rising and falling of waves by using piezoelectrics, maybe the same idea would work here.
Travis
Several problems with this idea:
1) Take the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, they have a skybridge between them that has to be flexible since the towers move independently. The wind turbines would have to do the same on their buildings.
2) Traffic would not "drown out" the noise. The sound of the turbines would simply add to the overall noise of the city. Especially inside the buildings.
I still think its a great idea to use various means of generating electricity rather than relying on a few huge sources though!
Backdoors are pointless. PGP in its current version offers excellent encryption. All a 'terrorist' has to do is use the existing programs that are out there. The only people the FBI would be able to 'catch' would be those that aren't very bright, and they can catch those guys without a backdoor.
Backdoors only weaken security and violate people's private lives. They should not be used.
Travis
The reason Office became so popular (other than marketing) is that the user only had to install one product to get email, word processing, spreadsheets, and powerpoint. The user doesn't care whether each item is part of a single product or a part of many, they just want a seamless system. So if Linux can get a set of programs that can be bundled and used similar to Office then they'll have a viable product.
Also, why is Office monolithic? When I install it I simply choose to not install powerpoint, access, etc. because I never use them. The key is to educate users to only install what they actually use.
Travis
This brings up the question of who would be responsible. If the corporation that wrote the software is to blame, does that mean that the corporation can be arrested for manslaughter of the unborn?
If that happens, a lot more software is going to be tested if it is going into a potentially life threatening situation.
Also, if they used a library for their date functions, does that make the library author responsible too?
Travis
Financial penalties would not help anything. I, for example, am having a hard enough time just trying to make rent. Add an unreasonable amount to what I already owe and I may be forced to sell drugs just to cover the costs. That's definately not what anyone wants to see happen.
Financial penalties usually make things worse, not better.
Travis
I've had trouble with the implementation side of XML. While the concept behind XML is extremely simple, getting it to display is quite another. XSL chose some extremely hard to understand syntax for a data structure designed to be human-readable.
Travis
Fedex recently wanted to automate the flying of their cargo jets. With some work, couldn't we add that as an emergency system to a plane? Put a button in the cockpit that will activate an automatic emergency landing when pressed. Locking out all the onboard controls would effectively prevent anyone from seizing control.
Travis
I believe you are incorrect about the attention span of today's children. My cousin (he's in 3rd grade) is visiting. For the last week he constantly watched the cartoon network and barely moved. Then I got out the chess board and asked him to play. We've now played several games. Parents simply need to turn off the tv after an hour and give the kids something else to do. People think kids have short attention spans because they can't say no to their kids and the kids love to lounge around.
Travis
Your logic is flawed. I had a hole on my FTP server several years ago which exposed my entire hard drive to the internet. A kind dorm-mate played a prank on me which opened my eyes to the problem. I would rather have a white-hat let me know about the problem so I can fix it than to never know and leave it open for a potential black-hat.
It's always better to know what's going on.
Travis
Well, he could just publish it on paper and mail it to anyone who wants it... My understanding is that the DMCA only applies to the _electronic_ distribution of crypto stuff. Once he puts it in meatspace it isn't regulated by the DMCA.
Perhaps whoever types it back into the computer would be at risk, but then again that person didn't crack anything - he just typed in something from a book.
Travis
Simple. Use an anonymous remailer that breaks and encrypts the email. Even though it still might be seen by Carnivore it would be gibberish and anonymous. The only place it gets reassembled and decrypted is at the final destination when the FBI illegally installs a keystroke logger to get the password. It doesn't even leave YOUR computer without being broken and encrypted.
The systems exist, unfortunately only hackers (in the good sense) will use them. But isn't that really the point? Do we really want a bunch of computer illiterates trading illegal files?
Travis
$50 says that they check their hits logs tomorrow and scratch their heads about why page 2 has double the hits as page 1, and that hardly anyone read page 3.
:)
Of course, I bet most of the slashdot crowd figured it out after one click, but that's still two hits for page 2 and one for page's 1 and 3
Travis
You most certainly do NOT need to pay people to make good maps! When team Fortress was initially released it didn't come with ANY maps. Someone made 2fort4, shared it, and made history. The best part of TF was trying out new maps!
Making a single player campaign, on the other hand, is much harder, but who wants to buy a game that they can only play through once?
Travis
Is the SirCam virus P2P since it sends your files to everyone on your Outlook address book?
Heh heh
Kallahar
That's funny, I was under the impression that decompiling code was a violation of the DMCA... Funny how their precious sword cuts both ways.
Kallahar
The article seems to imply that they had every password in the study, and that they also knew the names of the users. Therefore, isn't the biggest security threat that the users gave up their passwords? No matter how "secure" the password is, if you just tell someone because they say they are doing a study then that password is as insecure as "god".
Social Engineering is a much bigger treat than hard-to-guess passwords...
-Kallahar
Now we are entering a new age. In this age, people can choose. If products like Tivo (the good version) are allowed to flourish then the current businesses that rely on advertising will fail. There will be chaos. Out of that chaos will come a new system that respects the viewers. People will be happy.
Freedom is important, even if that freedom is merely choosing to not watch ads for tampons.
- Kallahar http://quickwired.com/
Oh great, I can see it now when Apple adopts the gesture system: They'll come out with the latest greatest "no-button" mouse! No longer will the user have to be confused about what the button might do when pressed!
-Kallahar
I went to nofreelunchseter.com and read their (heavily biased) info, but I found no evidence of any anti-fair-use materials in the MP3's, only normal mp3's.
I even downloaded one of the speeches (hilary rosen) and WinAmp's MPEG info box said
"Copyrighted: No; Original: No". Heh heh, that's great.
Perhaps I misunderstood you, perhaps you misspoke...
Through the hard work that I put into a half-life fan site several years ago, I gained a lot of skills at everything from HTML to JavaScript to PHP and Perl, plus a smattering of SQL. That experience helped land me a great summer job, and now I'm looking forward to a career at web design after college graduation in three months.
:)
So, even though it took a lot of time and is now in the bit bucket, I learned a lot from the time spent and it definately made me into a better web site designer
- Kallahat