I pity the fool who chose to work in computer forensics. 99% of standard law enforcement computer forensics is watching millions of images and movie clips of infants getting raped. Not my idea of a work environment suited for maintaining mental stability. If you wanna be a "anti-hacker superhero" then go work for the NSA. Outside NSA there really are only a few positions at the FBI, CIA and Secret Service that fits that description. Oh, and CTU Los Angeles.
"TIFF files, which only the high-end cameras can generate."
I don't wanna pop your balloon, but my ex-gf's $200 HP crap camera could generate TIFF. In my experience, TIFF is usually generated as a lossless format by low-end cameras, while higher end cameras usually generate some raw format file. This being sais, you are correct in that agencies usually want TIFF, simply because it's a standardized, lossless format that virtually every piece of software out there can convert to. Raw, JPG, DNG, PNG or whatever format your camera outputs, it can alwast be converted to TIFF, and the agency can always read your image.
"I am becoming more convinced that people watch series like 24 or The Unit and are mistakenly under the impression that they are accurate representations of US capability."
There's nothing wrong with people thinking that the US has these capabilities. Ususlly. It's when the wrong people believe these fairytales that the real harm is done.
You are implying that Gimp is Photoshop, or at least that Gimp is equal to Photoshop. It is not. This _is_ a big deal.
[Trying to avoid Gimp-zealot flame: There are things that Gimp does better than Photoshop (the histogram comes to mind) and Gimp certainly is the best freeware graphics program out there, but Gimp is in general not as good as Photoshop when it comes to functions and usability]
"In a recent tour of the Kobe plant in Japan it was discovered that 1000's of ToughBooks are destroyed each year in pursuit of the most rugged systems. Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used."
Do not confuse this with the Kobe plant in Eagle, Colorado, where laptops are being raped.
According to Ray Kolczynski, who claims to be the Program Manager for the Covert Iris Scanner project at Sarnoff Corporation (http://www.sarnoff.com/), "the system *does* work on a subject wearing most common forms of sunglasses". Noteably, the scanner would not work on a person wearing glasses/sunglasses/lenses made from a material reflecting or absorbing IR radiation. Standard reflective sunglasses might only reflect VISIBLE light, not necessarily IR light.
Hopefully, we who like to wear our tin foil hat in public will be able to purchase our IR-absorbing contact lenses any day now. In the mean time I'll be wearing green-glass, reflecting sun glasses.
I use this very method to generate passwords (or pass-phrazes) each three months when I have to change password here at work. I use an item that is on my desk at the time to inspire me and to help me remember the new password for the first few days. If the name of the item on my desk is too short, I add a suffix to add lenght.
Example: On my desk I have a set of Mission speakers. My new password will be based on the word "Mission" in some form, for example: "M1Ssi0n". This being a bit short, I add the suffix "rocks" (since my Mission speakers rock): "M1Ssi0nR0xxorZ".
There you have it: a strong (well, strong enough for anything but an NSA shakedown) password that is resistant to dictionary attacks. As a bonus I have a visual reminder on my desk; one that only I know about.
This was an example; in Real Life ® I use something written on a piece of paper, a pen or a brochure that I can easily despose of once I'm confident that I remember the password.
I only wish more people would use this (or a similar) method. I know for a fact that many of my collegues use their cat's name with a counter number to be able to conform to the IT department's requirements and still remember their password: "fluffy8". Good thing about this is that I have some extra accounts to use if I ever wanna do some corporate hacking...
"I would think it would also be handy for the guy who draws the short straw to man the Humvee turret -- in which case AC lines could easily be run up through his feet."
I think you're confusing him with the guy who draws the short straw at Guantanamo.
Thank you for your challenge, I will try to explain my view.
Biodiversity Biofuel has the potential for becoming a huge source for energy, and therefore has the potential to become a huge source of income for farmers and energy companies. Since some species are more suited than others for biofuel production (growth rate, disease-free, water efficient, simplicity creating biomass, simplicity of extracting biofuel from biomass), these species will be preferred by biofuel producers. This means introduction of, or extending, a monoculture that is destructive for the diversity of insects, birds, plants and animals. Granted, modern agriculture is already a threat to diversity, but the introduction of biofuel production will not minimize this problem; just because everything is crap doesn't mean that it can't get any worse.
In addition, modern agriculture and biofuel production is "too effective". Decomposing trees and plants are a necessity to plants, animals and most importantly insects. Without a natural life cycle, the risk reduced biodiversity (by insect, bird and animal species going extinct) are significant.
If I may make one quote to illustrate my point, the quote comes from Simon Counsell, director of the UK-based "Rain Forest Foundation":
"The expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rain forest destruction in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most environmentally damaging commodities on the planet. Once again it appears we are trying to solve our environmental problems by dumping them in developing countries, where they have devastating effects on local people."
Invasive species The species most suited for biofuel production are characterized by rapid growth and the ability to grow in a multitude of environments. These are also traits that characterize species prone to become invasive. Fast-growing, water-efficient plants with little or no known pests can rapidly take over entire ecosystems, replacing the natural plant life (and consequently insect, bird and animal life). Even domestic species can become invasive when the natural ecological system is destroyed.
Conclusion Don't get me wrong, I'm all for replacing the fossil fuels of yesteryear with new energy sources, but doing so without a thought to the actual ecological cost of those energy sources is just plain stupid.
"Tax breaks for the rich?! DUH only the rich can get 'em cause the botom 50% is getting the money."
Another interpretation of the statistics would be that the bottom 50% aren't paying much taxes because.... they don't have any money to pay taxes with. But I like your logic better. Allow me therefore to paraphrase:
Statistics show that the top 50% all die eventually. Consequently, the bottom 50% obviously live forever!
This is A Conspiracy Against Rich People ®. THE GOVERNMENT MUST CUT TAXES FOR POOR, UNDERPRIVILEGED RICH PEOPLE!
Slashdot Mirror
This is no news to me. The same thing happens when the light at the office hits my eyes every morning. Almost 0 brain activity.
I pity the fool who chose to work in computer forensics. 99% of standard law enforcement computer forensics is watching millions of images and movie clips of infants getting raped. Not my idea of a work environment suited for maintaining mental stability. If you wanna be a "anti-hacker superhero" then go work for the NSA. Outside NSA there really are only a few positions at the FBI, CIA and Secret Service that fits that description. Oh, and CTU Los Angeles.
"TIFF files, which only the high-end cameras can generate."
I don't wanna pop your balloon, but my ex-gf's $200 HP crap camera could generate TIFF. In my experience, TIFF is usually generated as a lossless format by low-end cameras, while higher end cameras usually generate some raw format file. This being sais, you are correct in that agencies usually want TIFF, simply because it's a standardized, lossless format that virtually every piece of software out there can convert to. Raw, JPG, DNG, PNG or whatever format your camera outputs, it can alwast be converted to TIFF, and the agency can always read your image.
So now they're making both Photoshop and Anti-Photoshop? Whon't those two take out each other? Like pasta and anti-pasta?
"I am becoming more convinced that people watch series like 24 or The Unit and are mistakenly under the impression that they are accurate representations of US capability."
There's nothing wrong with people thinking that the US has these capabilities. Ususlly. It's when the wrong people believe these fairytales that the real harm is done.
The government allready has this technology. Don't you guys watch "24"?
Nothing to see here (no pun intended). Move along.
This should bring in some big bucks for certain projects at least...
Sorry, I forgot to defend myself against license technicality zealots. My mistake.
You are implying that Gimp is Photoshop, or at least that Gimp is equal to Photoshop. It is not. This _is_ a big deal.
[Trying to avoid Gimp-zealot flame: There are things that Gimp does better than Photoshop (the histogram comes to mind) and Gimp certainly is the best freeware graphics program out there, but Gimp is in general not as good as Photoshop when it comes to functions and usability]
Yes.
"This is a potentially dangerous action. Are you sure you want to contine?"
Yes.
"Unless youre a system administrator, programmer, or uber-geek"
So... why is the review of this book posted on slashdot?!?
Am I the only one who sees "Homeland Security" written all over this?
"Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used."
So this is like the Abu Ghraib of laptops?
"In a recent tour of the Kobe plant in Japan it was discovered that 1000's of ToughBooks are destroyed each year in pursuit of the most rugged systems. Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used."
Do not confuse this with the Kobe plant in Eagle, Colorado, where laptops are being raped.
http://www.sarnoff.com/products_services/governmen t_solutions/homeland_security/iris.asp
According to Ray Kolczynski, who claims to be the Program Manager for the Covert Iris Scanner project at Sarnoff Corporation (http://www.sarnoff.com/), "the system *does* work on a subject wearing most common forms of sunglasses". Noteably, the scanner would not work on a person wearing glasses/sunglasses/lenses made from a material reflecting or absorbing IR radiation. Standard reflective sunglasses might only reflect VISIBLE light, not necessarily IR light.
Hopefully, we who like to wear our tin foil hat in public will be able to purchase our IR-absorbing contact lenses any day now. In the mean time I'll be wearing green-glass, reflecting sun glasses.
I use this very method to generate passwords (or pass-phrazes) each three months when I have to change password here at work. I use an item that is on my desk at the time to inspire me and to help me remember the new password for the first few days. If the name of the item on my desk is too short, I add a suffix to add lenght.
Example: On my desk I have a set of Mission speakers. My new password will be based on the word "Mission" in some form, for example: "M1Ssi0n". This being a bit short, I add the suffix "rocks" (since my Mission speakers rock): "M1Ssi0nR0xxorZ".
There you have it: a strong (well, strong enough for anything but an NSA shakedown) password that is resistant to dictionary attacks. As a bonus I have a visual reminder on my desk; one that only I know about.
This was an example; in Real Life ® I use something written on a piece of paper, a pen or a brochure that I can easily despose of once I'm confident that I remember the password.
I only wish more people would use this (or a similar) method. I know for a fact that many of my collegues use their cat's name with a counter number to be able to conform to the IT department's requirements and still remember their password: "fluffy8". Good thing about this is that I have some extra accounts to use if I ever wanna do some corporate hacking...
This dude is my GOD! If he's looking for a wife, my ex-gf would KILL to marry him.
I actually have a crapload of methane to donate, whom do I contact?
And since 92% of the population in the western hemsiphere are now "web designers", that would actually account for all downloads made so far.
"I would think it would also be handy for the guy who draws the short straw to man the Humvee turret -- in which case AC lines could easily be run up through his feet."
I think you're confusing him with the guy who draws the short straw at Guantanamo.
Thank you for your challenge, I will try to explain my view.
i d=6933
g y.html
3 ,1659036,00.html
Biodiversity
Biofuel has the potential for becoming a huge source for energy, and therefore has the potential to become a huge source of income for farmers and energy companies. Since some species are more suited than others for biofuel production (growth rate, disease-free, water efficient, simplicity creating biomass, simplicity of extracting biofuel from biomass), these species will be preferred by biofuel producers. This means introduction of, or extending, a monoculture that is destructive for the diversity of insects, birds, plants and animals. Granted, modern agriculture is already a threat to diversity, but the introduction of biofuel production will not minimize this problem; just because everything is crap doesn't mean that it can't get any worse.
In addition, modern agriculture and biofuel production is "too effective". Decomposing trees and plants are a necessity to plants, animals and most importantly insects. Without a natural life cycle, the risk reduced biodiversity (by insect, bird and animal species going extinct) are significant.
If I may make one quote to illustrate my point, the quote comes from Simon Counsell, director of the UK-based "Rain Forest Foundation":
"The expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rain forest destruction in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most environmentally damaging commodities on the planet. Once again it appears we are trying to solve our environmental problems by dumping them in developing countries, where they have devastating effects on local people."
Invasive species
The species most suited for biofuel production are characterized by rapid growth and the ability to grow in a multitude of environments. These are also traits that characterize species prone to become invasive. Fast-growing, water-efficient plants with little or no known pests can rapidly take over entire ecosystems, replacing the natural plant life (and consequently insect, bird and animal life). Even domestic species can become invasive when the natural ecological system is destroyed.
Conclusion
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for replacing the fossil fuels of yesteryear with new energy sources, but doing so without a thought to the actual ecological cost of those energy sources is just plain stupid.
References:
http://www.ub.gu.se/sok/dissdatabas/detaljvy.xml?
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2005/12/bioener
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,567
Science 22 September 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5794, p. 1742. Title: Adding Biofuels to the Invasive Species Fire?
http://www.physorg.com/news78069543.html
Microsoft and inexpensive seems like an odd combination to me. Same goes for flash drives. Durable? Yes. Cheap? No.
On a related note, how the fuck did grandparent get modded +5 Informative? Are there really THAT many 14-years olds in here with mod points?
"Tax breaks for the rich?! DUH only the rich can get 'em cause the botom 50% is getting the money."
Another interpretation of the statistics would be that the bottom 50% aren't paying much taxes because.... they don't have any money to pay taxes with. But I like your logic better. Allow me therefore to paraphrase:
Statistics show that the top 50% all die eventually.
Consequently, the bottom 50% obviously live forever!
This is A Conspiracy Against Rich People ®. THE GOVERNMENT MUST CUT TAXES FOR POOR, UNDERPRIVILEGED RICH PEOPLE!