Like a lot of folks, I came accross Da Vinci Code first... I liked it. I quickly read the rest of his books and shared them with others.
Combined with the others I shared the books with we decided that if we had started with Deception Point, we never would have gotten to Digital Fortress much less Angels and Demons or Da Vinci Code... DP is complete inplausible screenplay fare; DF isn't really much better... I confess I did still like A&D though while others thought it jumped around too much and Langdon's leaps of cognition too easy...
I've certainly read worse books, but if you start with Da Vinci and work backwards you're in for disappointment.
It's also a felony and federal case ...
on
MIT vs. Las Vegas
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· Score: 2, Informative
to do as you're suggesting, I'm not saying people don't do it, but I can tell you I was flown to El Paso, TX to testify by the DEA to testify against someone that did 4 $3000 cashiers checks in a day --- they couldn't make a drug case, but they could make a money laundering/structured transaction case -- you don't want to mess with the reporting paperwork -- there are lots of safegaurds in place to see aggregates that trigger reports as well...
I know everyone wants it free, but that isn't reality. When I first signed up for dsl I got 1.5Mbs symetric for $58/month... with 4 static IPs and no server restrictions;... that company and the two the succeeded went out of business, bankrupt or both...
Today I have 1.1Mbs symetric with 4 static IPs and no server restrictions for $199.95/month and honestly I feel that *fair*. I've never measured it acurately, but I'd guess I use about 10-12 Gigs d/l and 2-5 Gigs u/l a month... that probably isn't nearly as high as someone swapping mp3s 24/7 but I'm not exactly a light user either -- for me the TOS stuff for servers and the static IPs were the important stuff, otherwise I still look at it that I've got near T1 performance for 25% of the price.
I'm not surprised the guys at $58 went out of business... I honestly can't figure out how they covered costs much less made money... at $200 a month I think my providor makes a few bucks and I have decent service.
Sure there are parts of the whole system that need improvement, but there ain't no free lunch, nor bandwith.
Many folks commented that the Xbox itself is a loss leader, MS needs revenue streams associated... the initail comments were that that would be the games... but if the infrastructure in the current XB or an upgraded version makes it a real competitor to TiVo with a subscription model attractive to the whole household (meaning mom and dad, not just the gamer kids) it becomes a success for MS
Folks have been bemoaning "Linux on the Desktop" for a few years now -- you want Linux on the desktop? RHAOL, bundled with StarOffice (or Open Office)... stick it on an inexpensive Duron platform and the AOL terminal is reborn... it connects to the internet, does 'Office' stuff, comes installed on your computer and has a low price point --
Most everyone makes valid points in this thread. Strong encryption is easy to find if you want it.... further I'd wager that if you found bin Laden's personal machine (if he even has one) it would be much better protected (though maybe we give too much credit?)... but the point is; and the reason the export restriction might make sense is that end users accept and use what's given to them... this goof was given 40bit encryption, so he used 40bit encryption... who knows he may have even used his mother's maiden name as the password; we just didn't have a good arabic version of crack --
People are lazy, peons are peons and user space problems always exist, even for terrorists
while this got modded to funny, it's something I was thinking about when I heard about the sysadmins being pestered to delete files and such -- one of two things will happen --
One (or more) such admin will have an old backup of the mail spool that will get turned over... and the chips will fall where they may... or
The documentation and testemony of said admin(s) being asked to not only destroy files, but backups and archives will be a cornerstone of the Grand Jury indictment of AA partners.
It really choked on an upgrade too -- I had an old 6.0 box that I finally decided to 'upgrade' to 7.2 when it was first announced...it has a 1.3G/usr partition that had about 800M used... pretty installer plugs along does an ext3 conversion on my disk and starts copying... all of a sudden it pops up and tells me I need 400MB more on my/usr partition and dies... system left unbootable -- seems to be an fschk version problem, tried to use the fschk from the install cd... didn't help, nothing did.
Fortunately my/home partition is separate and my dbs (mysql stored on/var) were backedup from the night before... whipped out my debian *diskettes*, did a bare pototoe net install, upgraaded to unstable, built a new kernel all new KDE stuff and magically/usr is only used to the tune of 450Megs....
Kind of a shame, all my machines are Debian now, I really wanted to keep one Red Hat box as I work on client sites with Red Hat and it's good to keep one around -- but their installer so wrecked the experience it's unlikely they'll get another chance.
You know, I live for that, and it's amazing what you can build for cheap that works great!
FIC AZ11 MOBO ~$30 on auction sites
ECS K7S5A ~$50 w/AC97 snd and SiS NIC on board
Duron @ $50 (should get you about a 750Mhz today)
Decent Case (I like Enlight 71XX) ~$60
PC133 still works fine for me 256MB @ $30
A 'base' *decent* system for ~$200US
Splurge for a new ATI Radeon (OEM package) $75 -- or find a used or discounted G400
So you need a floppy and a CD now --- you've got one of those laying around, right?... if not that's what computer shows, old used machines and friends are for.
Nope, it's not a rocketship.
Nope, it doesn't have highend audio
... but, it's a darned decent machine for under $300
OK, let's get real here -- maybe this is *theoretically* possible with *good* OCR equipment, but let's remember that banks have a hard enough time getting all your checks processed each night -- forget error rates, I'm just talking *time*. To suggest that they now scan, inventory and account for (by serial number) all bills that go in and out is simply insane -- then remember that most ATM replenishments for big networks are handled via third parties (Brinks) and are usually $50K at a crack... that's a lot of money scanning -- that would create wear and tear on the bills themselves --
Then move on to the intake side -- in order to track which customer deposited which bill it would have to be done at the teller station at the time of deposit (or bagged and tagged for later processing) -- I don't know about the tellers where you are, but they have a hard time handling a check deposit with more than 5 items in a timely fashion here:)
As I said, *theoretically* possible -- *incredibly* impractical.
Slashdot Mirror
I've no mod points, but +1
Well said.
Like a lot of folks, I came accross Da Vinci Code first ... I liked it. I quickly read the rest of his books and shared them with others.
... DP is complete inplausible screenplay fare; DF isn't really much better ... I confess I did still like A&D though while others thought it jumped around too much and Langdon's leaps of cognition too easy ...
Combined with the others I shared the books with we decided that if we had started with Deception Point, we never would have gotten to Digital Fortress much less Angels and Demons or Da Vinci Code
I've certainly read worse books, but if you start with Da Vinci and work backwards you're in for disappointment.
to do as you're suggesting, I'm not saying people don't do it, but I can tell you I was flown to El Paso, TX to testify by the DEA to testify against someone that did 4 $3000 cashiers checks in a day --- they couldn't make a drug case, but they could make a money laundering/structured transaction case -- you don't want to mess with the reporting paperwork -- there are lots of safegaurds in place to see aggregates that trigger reports as well...
Today I have 1.1Mbs symetric with 4 static IPs and no server restrictions for $199.95/month and honestly I feel that *fair*. I've never measured it acurately, but I'd guess I use about 10-12 Gigs d/l and 2-5 Gigs u/l a month ... that probably isn't nearly as high as someone swapping mp3s 24/7 but I'm not exactly a light user either -- for me the TOS stuff for servers and the static IPs were the important stuff, otherwise I still look at it that I've got near T1 performance for 25% of the price.
I'm not surprised the guys at $58 went out of business ... I honestly can't figure out how they covered costs much less made money ... at $200 a month I think my providor makes a few bucks and I have decent service.
Sure there are parts of the whole system that need improvement, but there ain't no free lunch, nor bandwith.
Many folks commented that the Xbox itself is a loss leader, MS needs revenue streams associated ... the initail comments were that that would be the games ... but if the infrastructure in the current XB or an upgraded version makes it a real competitor to TiVo with a subscription model attractive to the whole household (meaning mom and dad, not just the gamer kids) it becomes a success for MS
Folks have been bemoaning "Linux on the Desktop" for a few years now -- you want Linux on the desktop? RHAOL, bundled with StarOffice (or Open Office) ... stick it on an inexpensive Duron platform and the AOL terminal is reborn ... it connects to the internet, does 'Office' stuff, comes installed on your computer and has a low price point --
You're wish is granted. Are you happy now?
Most everyone makes valid points in this thread. Strong encryption is easy to find if you want it. ... further I'd wager that if you found bin Laden's personal machine (if he even has one) it would be much better protected (though maybe we give too much credit?) ... but the point is; and the reason the export restriction might make sense is that end users accept and use what's given to them ... this goof was given 40bit encryption, so he used 40bit encryption ... who knows he may have even used his mother's maiden name as the password; we just didn't have a good arabic version of crack --
People are lazy, peons are peons and user space problems always exist, even for terrorists
while this got modded to funny, it's something I was thinking about when I heard about the sysadmins being pestered to delete files and such -- one of two things will happen --
... and the chips will fall where they may ... or
One (or more) such admin will have an old backup of the mail spool that will get turned over
The documentation and testemony of said admin(s) being asked to not only destroy files, but backups and archives will be a cornerstone of the Grand Jury indictment of AA partners.
It really choked on an upgrade too -- I had an old 6.0 box that I finally decided to 'upgrade' to 7.2 when it was first announced ...it has a 1.3G /usr partition that had about 800M used ... pretty installer plugs along does an ext3 conversion on my disk and starts copying ... all of a sudden it pops up and tells me I need 400MB more on my /usr partition and dies ... system left unbootable -- seems to be an fschk version problem, tried to use the fschk from the install cd ... didn't help, nothing did.
/home partition is separate and my dbs (mysql stored on /var) were backedup from the night before ... whipped out my debian *diskettes*, did a bare pototoe net install, upgraaded to unstable, built a new kernel all new KDE stuff and magically /usr is only used to the tune of 450Megs ....
Fortunately my
Kind of a shame, all my machines are Debian now, I really wanted to keep one Red Hat box as I work on client sites with Red Hat and it's good to keep one around -- but their installer so wrecked the experience it's unlikely they'll get another chance.
You know, I live for that, and it's amazing what you can build for cheap that works great!
... if not that's what computer shows, old used machines and friends are for.
FIC AZ11 MOBO ~$30 on auction sites
ECS K7S5A ~$50 w/AC97 snd and SiS NIC on board
Duron @ $50 (should get you about a 750Mhz today)
Decent Case (I like Enlight 71XX) ~$60
PC133 still works fine for me 256MB @ $30
A 'base' *decent* system for ~$200US
Splurge for a new ATI Radeon (OEM package) $75 -- or find a used or discounted G400
So you need a floppy and a CD now --- you've got one of those laying around, right?
Nope, it's not a rocketship.
Nope, it doesn't have highend audio
... but, it's a darned decent machine for under $300
Then move on to the intake side -- in order to track which customer deposited which bill it would have to be done at the teller station at the time of deposit (or bagged and tagged for later processing) -- I don't know about the tellers where you are, but they have a hard time handling a check deposit with more than 5 items in a timely fashion here:)
As I said, *theoretically* possible -- *incredibly* impractical.