I can't say what the next LinuxWorld Expo will be like. I can say that the first LinuxWorld Expo had an amazing air to it...a definite feel of something powerful and new. The entire Slashdot/FSF/Debian crowd was shoved in this little tiny corner away from the massive Alien Landing Zone(sorry guys;-) of everyone else, yet somehow that was continually the single most active and interesting area of the entire show. From the genuinely egoless "stars" of the Free Software Movement to actually fascinating demos, LinuxWorld Expo in March was a commercialized trade show with that rare kernel of truth and beauty that turned out making the actual people and educational sessions quite worthwhile.
The staff there, incidentally, is quite friendly. Their "bottom line" attitude is generally "if you have something to contribute, we'll support you." What more of a lesson could there be from a free software paradigm?:-)
But that's just my take. YMMV, as always.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Netcat is insufficient for what I need access to. Netcat, as far as I know, lives in the IP realm...I want to basically be able to shove bits on a wire, tcpdump -w - | tcpsend .
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Heh. I suppose now would be an interesting time for me to bring up a Request For Software. I'd like something that does the opposite of tcpdump, i.e. given input of packets, say, FROM tcpdump, shove them onto the wire. There are a *large* number of *non*-hacking applications out there for something like this, mainly because the datastream can be tampered with using standard tools before it's piped back onto the wire. Of course, the key thing is against the servers, we can play lots of "here are a bunch of 'almost correct' packets--have fun!" games.
Think you can code this? Email me. I'll tell ya what other *major* functionality a tool like this would bring.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky DoxPara Research
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
My signature is extremely unstable. What does this say about my personality? Besides, of course, the fact that I'll be driven crazy when signature biometrics become de rigeur...
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
OK Folks, we're looking for stuff that fulfills this:
--- A network system or architecture where a client (such as a browser) and a server exchange information using a control structure defined by metadata (e.g. expressed in XML) which describes
how to transfer updated information from the server to the client how to transfer feedback information, and updates to that information, from the client to the server, and how to process the exchanged information by reference to the control structure. Additionally, the receiving device must be able to process the metadata using instructions external to the control structure. ---
Off the very top of my head, capability testing apparatuses(such as telnet uses to transmit everything from default username to screen dimensions) would fulfill some of these requirements. This is important, not because telnet is prior art, but that there are sure to be systems, particularly "advanced languages" that never made it big, that attempted to expand on what telent began. Some places to research:
1) Expired patents. Always nice, go to the IBM patent server. 2) History. As far as I know, "tokens" that allow one-to-one marketing thousands of years ago have been successfully used to fight those patents that appear to place ownership on the majority of uses of cookies. 3) Computer Languages. Yes, I'm repeating this--it's very likely that a number of languages could be argued to implement features of these styles. I'd poke around specifically for languages that advertised the ability to interface with other languages. 4) Electronic Commerce Systems. Remember, there have been literally hundreds if not thousands of methods for representing the flow of products and monies. Middleware for converting the protocols of one data flow to another have been around for ages. Lets find specific examples. This is rather powerful, if you ask me. If I remember right, there was a massive move by the industry--DCE?--to move to a standard e-commerce solution. Any solution of this style would have left a wake of protocol conversion software, much of which written by companies as a matter of course. This goes even farther to prove that the systems described by the patent are "obvious to any master of the field".
That's my "off the top of the head" response to Yet Another Preposterous Patent Situation.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
I've never met you, but you've put up with myself and my ilk to quite a degree, especially in recent days. Whatever the details behind the accident may have been, I am very sorry for the pain you endured in the crash and the time you were forced to spend in the hospital. Your wounds will almost assuredly heal, and as for any damage to your vehicle, I'm sure all of us can agree that its far preferable to have two tons of armor take the hit instead of you!
Good luck over the next few days. Things *will* turn out OK.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky Just Another Slashdotter...
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
On the one hand, it sucks to *have* to wait in line to get tickets. On the other hand, it sucks *far* more to wait in line forever only to find out that almost all the tickets were sold ahead of time over the phone.
Lucas has created a major community, no, a *movement* which is *already* waiting in line for tickets. Can you imagine if these people, who have been waiting in line for ages, actually end up being unable to buy tickets in person?
I suspect Mr. Lucas is attempting to reduce the lines to "those who want the best seat", instead of "wait six hours and maybe you won't even see it." This seems worthy. But I still wonder--LucasFilm has already chosen to give the finger to one of the most(*the* most?) well known Star Wars artists--is this company still making decisions with the fans in mind(i.e. "we don't want people to wait without seeing it") or are they obsessed with making the most money("people might not go see Star Wars because they think its too hard to get tickets").
Who knows. About the only thing obvious is that the "scalper protection"(12 tickets a turn) is rather useless:-) It'd be better to highly publicize anti-scalper police presences.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky DoxPara Research http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
[Warning: Offensive, moderately out-of-normal-slashdot-character post following.]
OK.
I'm not one to bitch about CmdrTaco's posting methods usually, but I just gotta say:
Fully functional lightsaber-like portable plasma unit for *SEVENTY BUCKS* and it's just a *QUICKIE*? Oh my. I know of Star Wars addicts who would buy three: Two for the wall in the classic sword formation, and one for doing things that are illegal in the state of Alabama.
Hurm. Maybe that explains it. Malda has a better grasp of the Dark Side of the Force than the rest of us...
Another clip from that site: One of the Railgun capacitors has a kilowatt capacity and, *I QUOTE*, will "Explode Small Wires".
Another device will create 300,000 volts of usable current--i.e. not a stun gun. I wonder what that would do to your tounge; 9 volt batteries are already pretty tingly. (Note to PsychoGeek Community: You're better off with the aforementioned lightsaber.)
Very cool--they have a hand-held negative ion generator. What's cool about these things is that the static stream can be modulated to do some really funky things. Place a large metal mixing bowl on top of a negative ion generator, in contact with the leads. Fill with salt or flour. Slooooowwly put your hand in, and the salt/flour will literally fly off the bottom of the bowl and coat your hand. Get too close to the bowl and you'll get a small shock though:-)
Of course, if you think that's bad, turns out these guys will, for a hundred dollars, sell you a small, easily concealable hand shocking unit--no, not a buzzer, actually a small shock unit. Too bad shocks can hurt you sometimes more than they hurt the target, or else certain crimes would become much more interesting. (Imagines attempted rapist yelping away after picking the wrong target.)
Quote:
"Plasma Guns" "Projects high frequency waves capable of igniting lights and producing energy fields without wires or contact! Excellent for testing neon or fluorescent tubes without removal from this sockets."
'Nuff said on that one.
"Caution Man-Trapping Is Illegal!!" --Notice on stun guns from this site. Am I the only one who gets this hilariously updated image of the old Caveman-Get-Girl-By-Bonking-Her-On-Head, then Cavegirl-Get-Man-By-Bonking-New-Man-On-Head scene? Heh baby, I've got your ExplosiveSparkDischarge(TM) right here...
From the Big F'in Potato Gun Department: "Beer Can Mortar"...hurm, launch me a six pack from a state where twenty year olds can drink...
Alas, I'll have to suffice with the Neon Geekware that these guys peddle. Nice stuff, I gotta say--eighty bucks for a neon clock that changes through two sets of two colors as time goes on. Changing from pink to blue, though? Great, I already have to mention to out-of-staters that, even though I'm from San Francisco, I still prefer women...
I can just *see* Rob: "What part of Commander *TACO* *don't* you understand?"
Being a geek has its perks.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
I can't explain it. Yes, the graphics are insanely nice, the lighting is perfect, the cinematography is wonderful, the effects are impressive...
Naw. There's something else Bunny has. Just when you least expect it, Bunny...I dunno. I can't put it into words and I wouldn't want to--there's something that's truly magical about this film, and I'm glad it won the highest honor in its industry.
If there's one video you hunt down, make sure you watch Bunny. You won't regret it, and you won't forget it either.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky DoxPara Research http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
A quick observation--I'm working on a paper that actually will end up rebutting this article to a degree, so I'll leave most of my commentary to that essay when it is complete.
At one point in the article, it is noted that open source software ceases development when interest wanes or when the developers close the source to take it commercial.
This is not entirely valid.
While the original developer retains the right to use his own code in closed source software, I do not believe that he(or she) may use submitted code in that software--at least not under the GPL license. However, even if one looks at other licenses, it is simply not possible for the OSS license to be "revoked"--once code is put out to the public, it can not be taken back nor reigned in.
Sendmail, of course, is not(to my knowledge) covered under GPL, so that probably explains why its makers can use publically submitted patches in a private product. The most famous example of the latter condition I refer to above is the FLTK affair, when Digital Domain ceased the (L)GPL status of future versions of one of their coders' graphical toolkit. While the software is still being developed in house at DD, the older, pre-recall versions still remain and will always remain under protection of an OSS license.
An interesting contrast can be drawn with closed source software, which increasingly is including time limits on usage in the fine print. While you can never lose the right to use OSS software, certain popular programs are legally limited to only twenty five to thirty years of usage.
That's one way to look at value-per-dollar...
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky DoxPara Systems http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
"If in your office, you as an intellectual worker were supplied with a computer display backed up by a computer that was alive for you all day and was instantly responsive, how much value could you derive from that?"
Douglas Engelbart Dec. 9, 1968
---
Great article. Apparently, he pulled off what is known as "The Mother Of All Demos", basically demonstrating Internet Groupware in the late 60's. Exceedingly cool.
I read this guy with great interest. He comes up with all this incredibly useful and usable stuff, and turns around and holds disdain for user friendlyness--he says people are unwilling to learn stuff and it's causing them to use less efficient tools. Where I think the true problems lie in the fact that user friendliness intersects with maximum efficiency only at great research expense to the designers of the hardware or software--in other words, it's easy to be efficient and hard, and it's easy to be inefficient and easy, but it's hard to be efficient and easy.
Working so hard on UI stuff(I'm leading a BOF at LinuxWorldExpo!:-), it's interesting to hear the perspective of an undisputable master of my field. Read this article, you'll probably find it as fascinating as I did.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky DoxPara Research http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Everything I use my computer for split into 89437598375 different random devices? Look ma, it's Push 2!
I don't want one box that's a web browser, another that's a music player, another that's a word processor, another that's a network router, another that plays Quake, another that organizes my schedule, another that checks my email, and so on ad infinitum. Jini? Universal Plug and Play? I prefer all my wires *INSIDE* my box(which may or may not be half open). As for wireless, oh yes I can't wait for my wireless Jini enabled stereo system to be hacked from scannerboy and for me to go deaf at 4AM.
You just can't beat security through impossibility.
Every once in a while I get the feeling that half of the fads in Silicon Valley are started when one or two venture capitalists nods their head in understanding. Like a lightning bolt, "Bob Richguy Inc. just dropped a million bucks on that stupid concept" turns into "This is finally how we'll make money on the net".
Well, that million bucks had to go somewhere, so somebody's right.
In this case, I think the VC meeting was some poor schmuck sputtering trying to save his product(who knows what) until he finally--very accidentally--opened his mouth and let the magic words "More types of gadgets = More Units Sold = More Items For The Profit Margin To Multiply = $$$".
Don't believe me? You *KNOW* Push came from "We'll solve the problem of users not wanting to download $500,000 sites by doing it while they sleep, and we'll get a chunk of that $500,000 by finally getting BigCorp some hits!" Nod. Fad. Blink.
This isn't to say that I think Transmeta is going to fail. They won't--I'll flat out go wayyyy out on a limb and say that Transmeta is playing the industry with just a little too much skill to not truly have something up their sleeve. (Not even Microsoft has managed so much good press with so little product.) My honest guess is that they're planning to replace all those tiny custom chips that the semiconductor industry spurts out in mass quantities and replace them with one chip, in various die sizes, that just does everything.
God, Transmeta's good, they've even got me postulating. They've got something. I just hope they don't think that they're going to sell ten gadgets for each app my one PC manages quite well. Beyond every other argument I've already given, nine times out of ten three buttons and an LCD display does not a good user interface make.
Hurm. I'm going to start archiving these posts on my home page.
(SANTA CLARA, DMK): Recent developments in the Technology Industry have lead to heretofore unprecedented mass suicides among once-hopeful Public Relations representatives. Realizing the stocks they foolishly accepted in place of a living wage were tied to the public acumen of individuals shunned as children, agencies everywhere have had to deal with employees plummeting from the roof--a distinct problem for those attempting to dodge their way into the office, though a definite boon to telecommuting stocks.
Recent events have exacerbated this situation. Vice president Seamus McMahon of First Manhattan Consulting Group admitting the true attitude of modern banking with lines such as "You charge them higher fees because you don't want them -- make them know they're not welcome" and "Raise his ATM, credit card and account fees till he leaves" have actually led to people spontaneously combusting on their way to the roof.
But nothing could have prepared the newly-downsized PR agencies for Sun CEO Scott McNealy's comments regarding consumer privacy. Stating that Consumer Privacy was a "Red Herring", that "You[Americans] have no privacy anyway", and that people should "Get Over It", Scott singlehandedly destroyed over three hundred thousand office walls and cubicles when crazed PR workers began pounding their heads into the nearest hard surface in an attempt to conceptualize existance with such little common sense.
McNealy's company, Sun Microsystems, makes serial-numbered computers that are often used as massive servers that store personal information on every individual in America. Popular Wisdom holds that Sun is considering changing it's slogan to "Have a nice day, sucker.", or "We're the 'Screw' in 'Screw' you."
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Harken back before the days of the Celeron 300A, and send ye mind to the age of the first of the Celeron Fiefs. It was an age of darkness for Ye Olde Processor Lords, for one need search far and wide for a townsfolk that had not heard from the Town Berst about the Daemon of L2 Castration that had possessed the Meadows of Celeron. YEOM(Ye Olde, etceterth) tapped its vast reserves of marketing and engineering black magicks, and slayed the Daemon mightily, but prophecy would fortell of another, more sinister creature, summoned once again by the misguided lords...a creature so hideous that even one of Kings Men would demand on behalf of the lowly serfs that this creature be sent to the silicon bit bucket from whence it came. The time hath come once again, Fellow Slashers of the Order Dot, for us to stand as an army of Knightly Geeks against those Daemons that would possess the identities of all it touched. Tis the Celeron Effect that has once again plagued the conjurers of Intel, and as we have done once, we must again do battle to save the land.
[I need to sleep more. I need to sleep more. I need to sleep more.]
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Here's a guy who has been busting his ass keeping a server up for you, and a company that *YOU SUPPORT* with *YOUR MUSIC DOLLARS* is trying to *criminally prosecute* this guy.
That takes serious balls. Said balls require kicking.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
I repeat--the TCP Wrappers source attack isn't scary at all.
The hack went in on the 21st. It's now the 22nd, barely.
This is scary? It took one day to detect and handle a security problem? Closed source products can have security issues for years and years before their existence becomes public knowledge. Took them a day.
Indeed, it is only when attacks become "open source" in a sense that they're cured.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
If there's a person available, random number generation is easy. Attach microsecond timers to keyboard inputs and your distribution curve for interkey press rates will be *completely* random.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
You said... By making the cryptotext bigger, you're increasing redundancy--no way about it. This is intrinsically insecure. I reply... Bigger is not necessarily more insecure. For example: YES vs. 250519 The latter is the former expressed in alphabet placement--Y is the 25th letter of the alphabet, E is the 5th, and S is the 19th. The former is a significantly more insecure transmission despite its smaller size. Entropy specifies a minimum size, but not all additional noise contains data.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Actually I can see a few interesting ideas here...permission explictly granted for usage either intentional or not(there, now I can speak without causing a writer to commit suicide because I blew his concept)...however, don't take total credit if you're intentionally copying...
An open source superhero might have some interesting angles--yeah, everybody knows how the powers work, but "fan submissions" for new uses for his powers keep him(or her) on top. (If I could just reach my utility belt...AHA! EAT MY MIGHTY PATCH MERGE!)
A creature built from a microcelluar network, with a benevolent dictator(the brain;-) running the show.
On the internet, nobody know's you're a dog...I'm sure Stan has something like this already...hope the character actually is a dog...
The net connects completely dissimilar hardware...character name? Jiniyus:-)
OK ENOUGH GEEKING OUT DAN, TIME TO CODE SOME MORE.:-)))))))
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Congratulations to one of the most effective, responsive, and intelligent coding teams on the net. Congratulations to everybody who has submitted code, who has provided bug reports, and who has evangelized this product(cept me, cuz I don't wanna pat myself on the back:-).
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Slashdot Mirror
Hi.
;-) of everyone else, yet somehow that was continually the single most active and interesting area of the entire show. From the genuinely egoless "stars" of the Free Software Movement to actually fascinating demos, LinuxWorld Expo in March was a commercialized trade show with that rare kernel of truth and beauty that turned out making the actual people and educational sessions quite worthwhile.
:-)
I can't say what the next LinuxWorld Expo will be like. I can say that the first LinuxWorld Expo had an amazing air to it...a definite feel of something powerful and new. The entire Slashdot/FSF/Debian crowd was shoved in this little tiny corner away from the massive Alien Landing Zone(sorry guys
The staff there, incidentally, is quite friendly. Their "bottom line" attitude is generally "if you have something to contribute, we'll support you." What more of a lesson could there be from a free software paradigm?
But that's just my take. YMMV, as always.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Netcat is insufficient for what I need access to. Netcat, as far as I know, lives in the IP realm...I want to basically be able to shove bits on a wire, tcpdump -w - | tcpsend .
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Heh. I suppose now would be an interesting time for me to bring up a Request For Software. I'd like something that does the opposite of tcpdump, i.e. given input of packets, say, FROM tcpdump, shove them onto the wire. There are a *large* number of *non*-hacking applications out there for something like this, mainly because the datastream can be tampered with using standard tools before it's piped back onto the wire. Of course, the key thing is against the servers, we can play lots of "here are a bunch of 'almost correct' packets--have fun!" games.
Think you can code this? Email me. I'll tell ya what other *major* functionality a tool like this would bring.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
My signature is extremely unstable. What does this say about my personality? Besides, of course, the fact that I'll be driven crazy when signature biometrics become de rigeur...
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
OK Folks, we're looking for stuff that fulfills this:
---
A network system or architecture where a client (such as a browser) and a server exchange information using a control structure defined by metadata (e.g. expressed in XML) which describes
how to transfer updated information from the server to the client
how to transfer feedback information, and updates to that information, from the client to the server, and
how to process the exchanged information by reference to the control structure.
Additionally, the receiving device must be able to process the metadata using instructions external to the control structure.
---
Off the very top of my head, capability testing apparatuses(such as telnet uses to transmit everything from default username to screen dimensions) would fulfill some of these requirements. This is important, not because telnet is prior art, but that there are sure to be systems, particularly "advanced languages" that never made it big, that attempted to expand on what telent began. Some places to research:
1) Expired patents. Always nice, go to the IBM patent server.
2) History. As far as I know, "tokens" that allow one-to-one marketing thousands of years ago have been successfully used to fight those patents that appear to place ownership on the majority of uses of cookies.
3) Computer Languages. Yes, I'm repeating this--it's very likely that a number of languages could be argued to implement features of these styles. I'd poke around specifically for languages that advertised the ability to interface with other languages.
4) Electronic Commerce Systems. Remember, there have been literally hundreds if not thousands of methods for representing the flow of products and monies. Middleware for converting the protocols of one data flow to another have been around for ages. Lets find specific examples. This is rather powerful, if you ask me. If I remember right, there was a massive move by the industry--DCE?--to move to a standard e-commerce solution. Any solution of this style would have left a wake of protocol conversion software, much of which written by companies as a matter of course. This goes even farther to prove that the systems described by the patent are "obvious to any master of the field".
That's my "off the top of the head" response to Yet Another Preposterous Patent Situation.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Dear Rob's Girlfriend:
I've never met you, but you've put up with myself and my ilk to quite a degree, especially in recent days. Whatever the details behind the accident may have been, I am very sorry for the pain you endured in the crash and the time you were forced to spend in the hospital. Your wounds will almost assuredly heal, and as for any damage to your vehicle, I'm sure all of us can agree that its far preferable to have two tons of armor take the hit instead of you!
Good luck over the next few days. Things *will* turn out OK.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
Just Another Slashdotter...
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
There's a real problem to online ticket sales.
:-) It'd be better to highly publicize anti-scalper police presences.
On the one hand, it sucks to *have* to wait in line to get tickets. On the other hand, it sucks *far* more to wait in line forever only to find out that almost all the tickets were sold ahead of time over the phone.
Lucas has created a major community, no, a *movement* which is *already* waiting in line for tickets. Can you imagine if these people, who have been waiting in line for ages, actually end up being unable to buy tickets in person?
I suspect Mr. Lucas is attempting to reduce the lines to "those who want the best seat", instead of "wait six hours and maybe you won't even see it." This seems worthy. But I still wonder--LucasFilm has already chosen to give the finger to one of the most(*the* most?) well known Star Wars artists--is this company still making decisions with the fans in mind(i.e. "we don't want people to wait without seeing it") or are they obsessed with making the most money("people might not go see Star Wars because they think its too hard to get tickets").
Who knows. About the only thing obvious is that the "scalper protection"(12 tickets a turn) is rather useless
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
/me sees some evil fashion statements developing.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
[Warning: Offensive, moderately out-of-normal-slashdot-character post following.]
:-)
OK.
I'm not one to bitch about CmdrTaco's posting methods usually, but I just gotta say:
Fully functional lightsaber-like portable plasma unit for *SEVENTY BUCKS* and it's just a *QUICKIE*? Oh my. I know of Star Wars addicts who would buy three: Two for the wall in the classic sword formation, and one for doing things that are illegal in the state of Alabama.
Hurm. Maybe that explains it. Malda has a better grasp of the Dark Side of the Force than the rest of us...
Another clip from that site: One of the Railgun capacitors has a kilowatt capacity and, *I QUOTE*, will "Explode Small Wires".
Another device will create 300,000 volts of usable current--i.e. not a stun gun. I wonder what that would do to your tounge; 9 volt batteries are already pretty tingly. (Note to PsychoGeek Community: You're better off with the aforementioned lightsaber.)
Very cool--they have a hand-held negative ion generator. What's cool about these things is that the static stream can be modulated to do some really funky things. Place a large metal mixing bowl on top of a negative ion generator, in contact with the leads. Fill with salt or flour. Slooooowwly put your hand in, and the salt/flour will literally fly off the bottom of the bowl and coat your hand. Get too close to the bowl and you'll get a small shock though
Of course, if you think that's bad, turns out these guys will, for a hundred dollars, sell you a small, easily concealable hand shocking unit--no, not a buzzer, actually a small shock unit. Too bad shocks can hurt you sometimes more than they hurt the target, or else certain crimes would become much more interesting. (Imagines attempted rapist yelping away after picking the wrong target.)
Quote:
"Plasma Guns"
"Projects high frequency waves capable of igniting lights and producing energy fields without wires or contact! Excellent for testing neon or fluorescent tubes without removal from this sockets."
'Nuff said on that one.
"Caution Man-Trapping Is Illegal!!"
--Notice on stun guns from this site. Am I the only one who gets this hilariously updated image of the old Caveman-Get-Girl-By-Bonking-Her-On-Head, then Cavegirl-Get-Man-By-Bonking-New-Man-On-Head scene? Heh baby, I've got your ExplosiveSparkDischarge(TM) right here...
From the Big F'in Potato Gun Department: "Beer Can Mortar"...hurm, launch me a six pack from a state where twenty year olds can drink...
Alas, I'll have to suffice with the Neon Geekware that these guys peddle. Nice stuff, I gotta say--eighty bucks for a neon clock that changes through two sets of two colors as time goes on. Changing from pink to blue, though? Great, I already have to mention to out-of-staters that, even though I'm from San Francisco, I still prefer women...
I can just *see* Rob: "What part of Commander *TACO* *don't* you understand?"
Being a geek has its perks.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
I can't explain it. Yes, the graphics are insanely nice, the lighting is perfect, the cinematography is wonderful, the effects are impressive...
Naw. There's something else Bunny has. Just when you least expect it, Bunny...I dunno. I can't put it into words and I wouldn't want to--there's something that's truly magical about this film, and I'm glad it won the highest honor in its industry.
If there's one video you hunt down, make sure you watch Bunny. You won't regret it, and you won't forget it either.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
A quick observation--I'm working on a paper that actually will end up rebutting this article to a degree, so I'll leave most of my commentary to that essay when it is complete.
At one point in the article, it is noted that open source software ceases development when interest wanes or when the developers close the source to take it commercial.
This is not entirely valid.
While the original developer retains the right to use his own code in closed source software, I do not believe that he(or she) may use submitted code in that software--at least not under the GPL license. However, even if one looks at other licenses, it is simply not possible for the OSS license to be "revoked"--once code is put out to the public, it can not be taken back nor reigned in.
Sendmail, of course, is not(to my knowledge) covered under GPL, so that probably explains why its makers can use publically submitted patches in a private product. The most famous example of the latter condition I refer to above is the FLTK affair, when Digital Domain ceased the (L)GPL status of future versions of one of their coders' graphical toolkit. While the software is still being developed in house at DD, the older, pre-recall versions still remain and will always remain under protection of an OSS license.
An interesting contrast can be drawn with closed source software, which increasingly is including time limits on usage in the fine print. While you can never lose the right to use OSS software, certain popular programs are legally limited to only twenty five to thirty years of usage.
That's one way to look at value-per-dollar...
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Systems
http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
"If in your office, you as an intellectual worker were supplied with a computer display backed up by a computer that was alive for you all day and was instantly responsive, how much value could you derive from that?"
:-), it's interesting to hear the perspective of an undisputable master of my field. Read this article, you'll probably find it as fascinating as I did.
Douglas Engelbart
Dec. 9, 1968
---
Great article. Apparently, he pulled off what is known as "The Mother Of All Demos", basically demonstrating Internet Groupware in the late 60's. Exceedingly cool.
I read this guy with great interest. He comes up with all this incredibly useful and usable stuff, and turns around and holds disdain for user friendlyness--he says people are unwilling to learn stuff and it's causing them to use less efficient tools. Where I think the true problems lie in the fact that user friendliness intersects with maximum efficiency only at great research expense to the designers of the hardware or software--in other words, it's easy to be efficient and hard, and it's easy to be inefficient and easy, but it's hard to be efficient and easy.
Working so hard on UI stuff(I'm leading a BOF at LinuxWorldExpo!
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://doxpara.netpedia.net
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Bad Dan. Blathering at 7:04AM and not even using the Preview Button? Bad, bad, bad.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Easy to design electronics? Cool.
Everything I use my computer for split into 89437598375 different random devices? Look ma, it's Push 2!
I don't want one box that's a web browser, another that's a music player, another that's a word processor, another that's a network router, another that plays Quake, another that organizes my schedule, another that checks my email, and so on ad infinitum. Jini? Universal Plug and Play? I prefer all my wires *INSIDE* my box(which may or may not be half open). As for wireless, oh yes I can't wait for my wireless Jini enabled stereo system to be hacked from scannerboy and for me to go deaf at 4AM.
You just can't beat security through impossibility.
Every once in a while I get the feeling that half of the fads in Silicon Valley are started when one or two venture capitalists nods their head in understanding. Like a lightning bolt, "Bob Richguy Inc. just dropped a million bucks on that stupid concept" turns into "This is finally how we'll make money on the net".
Well, that million bucks had to go somewhere, so somebody's right.
In this case, I think the VC meeting was some poor schmuck sputtering trying to save his product(who knows what) until he finally--very accidentally--opened his mouth and let the magic words "More types of gadgets = More Units Sold = More Items For The Profit Margin To Multiply = $$$".
Don't believe me? You *KNOW* Push came from "We'll solve the problem of users not wanting to download $500,000 sites by doing it while they sleep, and we'll get a chunk of that $500,000 by finally getting BigCorp some hits!" Nod. Fad. Blink.
This isn't to say that I think Transmeta is going to fail. They won't--I'll flat out go wayyyy out on a limb and say that Transmeta is playing the industry with just a little too much skill to not truly have something up their sleeve. (Not even Microsoft has managed so much good press with so little product.) My honest guess is that they're planning to replace all those tiny custom chips that the semiconductor industry spurts out in mass quantities and replace them with one chip, in various die sizes, that just does everything.
God, Transmeta's good, they've even got me postulating. They've got something. I just hope they don't think that they're going to sell ten gadgets for each app my one PC manages quite well. Beyond every other argument I've already given, nine times out of ten three buttons and an LCD display does not a good user interface make.
Hurm. I'm going to start archiving these posts on my home page.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
effugas@best.com
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Rob,
:-)
Do some polls. Slashdot is more trusted than ZDNet, News.com, or any other "pretenders to the throne".
Want some money?
Do a few polls saying basically "We need to show who we are so we can charge more for our ads."
You'll find out that Slashdotters control more money than the entire reading audiences of most of the news sites out there.
Then you take those #'s, go to a *real* ad agency, offer them a cut, and let them hawk your ass like it was a Hollywood Actress turned Call Girl.
Have a nice day
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Thank you for the single, non repeated Ha. I appreciate your Ha, and hope to provide many Ha's in the future.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
(SANTA CLARA, DMK): Recent developments in the Technology Industry have lead to heretofore unprecedented mass suicides among once-hopeful Public Relations representatives. Realizing the stocks they foolishly accepted in place of a living wage were tied to the public acumen of individuals shunned as children, agencies everywhere have had to deal with employees plummeting from the roof--a distinct problem for those attempting to dodge their way into the office, though a definite boon to telecommuting stocks.
Recent events have exacerbated this situation. Vice president Seamus McMahon of First Manhattan Consulting Group admitting the true attitude of modern banking with lines such as "You charge them higher fees because you don't want them -- make them know they're not welcome" and "Raise his ATM, credit card and account fees till he leaves" have actually led to people spontaneously combusting on their way to the roof.
But nothing could have prepared the newly-downsized PR agencies for Sun CEO Scott McNealy's comments regarding consumer privacy. Stating that Consumer Privacy was a "Red Herring", that "You[Americans] have no privacy anyway", and that people should "Get Over It", Scott singlehandedly destroyed over three hundred thousand office walls and cubicles when crazed PR workers began pounding their heads into the nearest hard surface in an attempt to conceptualize existance with such little common sense.
McNealy's company, Sun Microsystems, makes serial-numbered computers that are often used as massive servers that store personal information on every individual in America. Popular Wisdom holds that Sun is considering changing it's slogan to "Have a nice day, sucker.", or "We're the 'Screw' in 'Screw' you."
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Harken back before the days of the Celeron 300A, and send ye mind to the age of the first of the Celeron Fiefs. It was an age of darkness for Ye Olde Processor Lords, for one need search far and wide for a townsfolk that had not heard from the Town Berst about the Daemon of L2 Castration that had possessed the Meadows of Celeron. YEOM(Ye Olde, etceterth) tapped its vast reserves of marketing and engineering black magicks, and slayed the Daemon mightily, but prophecy would fortell of another, more sinister creature, summoned once again by the misguided lords...a creature so hideous that even one of Kings Men would demand on behalf of the lowly serfs that this creature be sent to the silicon bit bucket from whence it came. The time hath come once again, Fellow Slashers of the Order Dot, for us to stand as an army of Knightly Geeks against those Daemons that would possess the identities of all it touched. Tis the Celeron Effect that has once again plagued the conjurers of Intel, and as we have done once, we must again do battle to save the land.
[I need to sleep more. I need to sleep more. I need to sleep more.]
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to sign a petition.
Do it.
Here's a guy who has been busting his ass keeping a server up for you, and a company that *YOU SUPPORT* with *YOUR MUSIC DOLLARS* is trying to *criminally prosecute* this guy.
That takes serious balls. Said balls require kicking.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
I repeat--the TCP Wrappers source attack isn't scary at all.
The hack went in on the 21st. It's now the 22nd, barely.
This is scary? It took one day to detect and handle a security problem? Closed source products can have security issues for years and years before their existence becomes public knowledge. Took them a day.
Indeed, it is only when attacks become "open source" in a sense that they're cured.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Well, to a degree.
If there's a person available, random number generation is easy. Attach microsecond timers to keyboard inputs and your distribution curve for interkey press rates will be *completely* random.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
You said... By making the cryptotext bigger, you're increasing redundancy--no way about it. This is intrinsically insecure. I reply... Bigger is not necessarily more insecure. For example: YES vs. 250519 The latter is the former expressed in alphabet placement--Y is the 25th letter of the alphabet, E is the 5th, and S is the 19th. The former is a significantly more insecure transmission despite its smaller size. Entropy specifies a minimum size, but not all additional noise contains data.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Actually I can see a few interesting ideas here...permission explictly granted for usage either intentional or not(there, now I can speak without causing a writer to commit suicide because I blew his concept)...however, don't take total credit if you're intentionally copying...
;-) running the show.
:-)
:-)))))))
An open source superhero might have some interesting angles--yeah, everybody knows how the powers work, but "fan submissions" for new uses for his powers keep him(or her) on top. (If I could just reach my utility belt...AHA! EAT MY MIGHTY PATCH MERGE!)
A creature built from a microcelluar network, with a benevolent dictator(the brain
On the internet, nobody know's you're a dog...I'm sure Stan has something like this already...hope the character actually is a dog...
The net connects completely dissimilar hardware...character name? Jiniyus
OK ENOUGH GEEKING OUT DAN, TIME TO CODE SOME MORE.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
Congratulations to one of the most effective, responsive, and intelligent coding teams on the net. Congratulations to everybody who has submitted code, who has provided bug reports, and who has evangelized this product(cept me, cuz I don't wanna pat myself on the back :-).
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
> they're doing us a favor. who cares if they scare the clueless?
Sounds like a compromise to me, Tom.
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.