This site contains a good few links about Hacks (& cracks) in the broadest sense.
http://www.hackhull.com/
You should certainly checkout the Prestel royal mail box crack in the UK in about 1979. This incident was often quoted in support of the Data Protection Act and the Computer Misuse Act.
Also checkout the "Real World' Chapter of Bruce Schneier's book Applied Cryptography.
The changes in US Crypto export law was a direct result of PGP. A quick search turned up this:
There is nothing (except themselves) stopping Microsoft from producing a Java compatible product. The injunction prevents them from using Sun's JAVA trademark.
This site details RIP (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000)), which has nothing to do with reglation, but with allows unwarrented searches of computer data, without the data holders knowledge or permission.
Well, duh...how do you think Slashdot's operators get it? The system keeps a log, right? Logs are very obtainable, especially if you happen to have a badge. Even if you don't you could always break into the box and steal it if you know what you're doing.
I'm personally not really bothered about 'official' logs, accessable to Slashdot's Ops, or even Badges.
It's public logs, contain IP details, accessable by everybody including Prats & Loonies, that bother me. Your post implied that slashdot had some public logs, that I was unaware of.
In the distant past when I first started using the net through compuserve, I appear to have offended some nonce (no idea who or why ). Who mail bombed me with pedo crap for over 3 months, whilst compuserve did nothing to stop it, so I finally dropped compuserve.
I had a few problems with some of the early free demo games, but no problems with proper commecial releases.
It's certainly more reliable than my old Windows games PC.
Submitted Story refusal.
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
One impovement I'd like to see a reason for the rejection of submitted stories.
I've submitted about a dozen stories/links over the last year, most have been [IMHO] good quality, and some have been 'Bang On Target', yet I've only had one accepted. e.g.
2000-10-24 09:13:06 UK Employers gain e-snoop powers today (articles,news) (accepted)
2001-01-24 11:09:08 Interactive Digital Television casestudy. (articles,tv) (rejected)
2001-02-28 15:22:44 nCube doubles size of worlds largest VOD System. (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-03-08 22:15:04 Amazon Security hole (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-04-09 13:17:24 PS2 & STB Convergence (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-04-09 13:22:41 Update: PS2/STB Convergence (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-05-04 13:02:10 'Tractor beam' technology advances (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-08-24 16:59:15 J2EE vs'.NET (developers,news) (rejected)
2001-10-11 12:38:02 Microsoft astro-turf EU investigation. (articles,news) (rejected)
In too many cases (all above) I've also seen a similar story posted within days. So it's not the stories themselves, so why are they being rejected? I think if we've gone to the effort of contributing we deserve at least a basic explaination.
Perhaps, other niche groups need their own slashdot? I've seen a few uses of the slashcode in various poorly frequented news sights, but nothing of the scope that Slashdot has.
I agree, it is becoming increasing apparent that interesting and valuable posts are being modded off-topic. Whilst many are OT their true value is not being realised.
I been increasingly feeling that we need some additional areas to bleed off some of these topics to new sections, two obvious (to me) are IT Politics and IT Industry.
Indeed a distinct and seperate FlameWars section, might also improve things by keeping the children occupied.
Except like all 'advances' it's actually a balance advantages and disadvantages, for example rotary engines rev higher, have higher wear and higher fuel consumption.
What gives the US and Britain the right to attack a sovereign nation in this manner? And what do they hope to achieve?
The fact that they where attacked first, it's called self defence, and it is the best response to a bully. Any lets be clear it is OBL and his cronies who are the bullies, like most bullies, they pick on theose they think are weak, American Civilians.
This suggest a whole new business/income model. Perhaps we should patent it before some corporate monster does:)
1) Copyright your number, including dial tone.
2) Allways complete your phone-number on forms, and request for information. Include notification that use of your number is by licence only.
3) Receive call(s).
4) Charge abusers licence fee.
Now all we need is a good book teaching subscribers how to _use_ mailing lists
- not replying to all, not sending admin commands to the list, realising that digested people really don't like binaries.
Since no two mailing lists are ever quite the same, even when a common solution like Majodomo is used; Such a book would be be pretty difficult and near impossible to do well.
To blame the 'end users' for poor admin is out of order, mailing lists users are rarely newbies; so if even the old hands making mistakes, it's usually because of the lack of consistency and poorly implemented/managed lists, not miss-use.
I'm not arguing that this is correct, but strictly speaking software is licensed, not sold. That means you don't own it. If you don't own it, you can't sell or resell it.
This makes no difference [in the UK], you own one copy of the licence, which you can [re]sell. manufacturers or retailers cannot impose limitation or conditions that counter your statutory rights. Indeed the courts take a very dim view of those that try to limit your rights through unfair trading practices.
TV over Internet is here TODAY.
on
HDTV Over IP
·
· Score: 1
Everyone said high speed Internet access with DSL and Cable would bring in an age of high bandwidth Internet applications like TV over IP. This article just shows that this is not going to be the case for sometime. If HDTV requires a throughput of 20 Mbps, then our fast connections at home are still a long way off. Besides, when is the last time you even managed full bandwidth when doing an upload? Something upstream is always a bottleneck.
Just think about it, a T1 is 1.5 Mbps, my cable modem max's out at 2.9 Mbps (not that I ever see that.) These bandwidth hungry applications are still a long way away, at least until the next Internet revolution when we all have fiber to the home...
There is no 'will' about it, TV over IP *has* already arrived in the UK. We (www.kitv.co.uk) carry a MPEG 2 encoded PAL signal using an IP transport over ADSL and our system is available to consumers TODAY.
Using MPEG 2, It's possible to carry a reasonable TV signal in ~2.5Mbps, and a pretty good one in ~4.5Mbps. The picture quality is superior to analogue broadcasts and comparable with cable/satellite systems. In practice picture quality *really depends* on how much you are prepared spend on your MPEG encoders, No 199 pound/dollar mpeg cards here. We use custom built broadcast spec PIXStream encoders which cost 60,000 pounds (~90,000dollars) apiece. It perhaps worth mentioning that PIXStream make probably the 'best of breed' MPEG encoders in the world and choosen because we know we are pushing the envelope.
The nature of the platform (Multicast IP) also means that an MPEG 4 upgrade is a straight forward exercise, and since MPEG 4 is nearly twice as efficient, we can improve picture resolution and save bandwidth.
This technology will make Cable Cable uses a ring based network topology, so the bandwidth is shared between connections. ADSL uses a star topology, so the contention is moved back from the MAN backbone to the head end. Our customers get between 4.5-8Mbps each depending on their line attenuation.
Cable and Satellite are obsolete. They just don't know it yet.
Fibre is not necessary, Interactive Digital TV can be delivered at 4.5Mbps over ADSL, for a fraction of the cost.
How can I be sure?
We are already doing this commercially. I work on a system, which delivers Interactive Digital Television using IP over ADSL. It includes 60 channels of broadcast TV, Video on Demand using the largest nCube Video Server installation in the world, Web and Email, TV-Commerce, a Local Link which includes links to local services such as Schools and Libraries & Pizza Deliver. Our News on Demand service has won innovation awards including from the Royal Television Society, (which was perversely sponsored by our arch Rival BT:-). We also have an Interactive Virtual Avatar.
Checkout this link for a detailed case study.
http://www.broadcastpapers.com/data/KingstonCase St udy01.htm
BTW I've submitted links to our story 3 times over the last two years, but/. Has never seen fit to publish it, now a much simpler US system gets the coverage, make me wonder.
Re:Not too far off in Europe
on
HDTV Over IP
·
· Score: 1
Actually Sky's licence is only for upto 1001 homes, it's only a trial.
Kingston Communications (www.kcom.com), have been doing this for two years, and our service (www.kitv.co.uk) includes Web & Email, Content (News/ Movies) on Demand, frankly KIT blows the Sky system out of the water, in terms of Capability.
In the UK '#' is called 'hash' and to hash something is too bodge it or mess something up.
Rather ironic (or should that be iconic?:), under the circumstances because it seems to me that C[hash] pronounced 'cash' in UK English is actually the broken J++ product, broken because it does not comply with the Java standard.
I had both as a child, the original lego before moving on to Meccano, and back to lego technic. I would suggest the have complementary roles, Lego teaches Design, and Meccano teaches Engineering.
Whilst our 'open' nature proper use of this a dificult we should recognise application.
When able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must seem distant;
when far away, we must seem near.
If he is secure, be prepared for him.
If he is superior, evade him.
There is considerable danger to the Open & Free software communities in allowing Microsoft to set the agenda regarding this debate, we should be engaging in debate on our own terms or not at all. We must recognise Microsoft dominance of and ability to set the agenda within mainstream media.
If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.
Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
If his forces are united, separate them.
Attack where not expected and your oponent is unprepared.
Consider the Ben & Jerry 'What's the pilsbury dough boy affaid of' campaign.
Bring materials with you, but forage from your opponent.
This might seem an area of difficulty for ourselves, however resources in this context extends well beyond source; it includes people (Windows freeware developers), sites (Free web space & WebMail), bandwidth and information. So our resources are enhanced whilst the enemies are depleted.
supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
The path to victory for open/free software is not defeating microsoft, but winning for ourselves. The bulk of our resources should be directed to those ends.
the highest form of generalship is to foil the enemy's plans;
http://www.google.com/search?q=Tzu+Sun+%22The+Art+ of+War%22&btnG=Google+Search
I've worked with developing digital-TV applications, and the current platforms suck so bad it aint even fun.
I agree, I also work on iDTV (www.kitv.co.uk), and this statement is so VERY TRUE, it's painful to think about. Quite frankly, our STB supplier suck's big time, they are the worst supplier I've ever had to deal with in 12+ years in IT.
I fully characterised over a dozen bug's in the beta release of the standard software baseline, nearly two years latter ONE of them has been fixed.
One of their Chief technical officers stood up in a meeting 2 weeks after the DVB standard and said "Java has no future on Set-top-boxes".
They then offer JavaScript as a replacement, they where not kidding.:(
Another senior technical office (a Dr of electronics no less) did not understand the concept of address space.
So I say roll on an open standard platform for STB's.
Slashdot Mirror
What's the world coming to when paranoia represents a business opportunity ?
This site contains a good few links about Hacks (& cracks) in the broadest sense.
http://www.hackhull.com/
You should certainly checkout the Prestel royal mail box crack in the UK in about 1979. This incident was often quoted in support of the Data Protection Act and the Computer Misuse Act.
Also checkout the "Real World' Chapter of Bruce Schneier's book Applied Cryptography.
The changes in US Crypto export law was a direct result of PGP. A quick search turned up this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/06708595
There is nothing (except themselves) stopping Microsoft from producing a Java compatible product. The injunction prevents them from using Sun's JAVA trademark.
http://java.sun.com/lawsuit/index.html
>That's a great way to make your site less accessible to people with disabilities.
Blame the Cause not the Effect.
This site details RIP (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000)), which has nothing to do with reglation, but with allows unwarrented searches of computer data, without the data holders knowledge or permission.
I'm personally not really bothered about 'official' logs, accessable to Slashdot's Ops, or even Badges.
It's public logs, contain IP details, accessable by everybody including Prats & Loonies, that bother me. Your post implied that slashdot had some public logs, that I was unaware of.
In the distant past when I first started using the net through compuserve, I appear to have offended some nonce (no idea who or why ). Who mail bombed me with pedo crap for over 3 months, whilst compuserve did nothing to stop it, so I finally dropped compuserve.
I had a few problems with some of the early free demo games, but no problems with proper commecial releases.
It's certainly more reliable than my old Windows games PC.
I've submitted about a dozen stories/links over the last year, most have been [IMHO] good quality, and some have been 'Bang On Target', yet I've only had one accepted. e.g.
2000-10-24 09:13:06 UK Employers gain e-snoop powers today (articles,news) (accepted) .NET (developers,news) (rejected)
2001-01-24 11:09:08 Interactive Digital Television casestudy. (articles,tv) (rejected)
2001-02-28 15:22:44 nCube doubles size of worlds largest VOD System. (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-03-08 22:15:04 Amazon Security hole (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-04-09 13:17:24 PS2 & STB Convergence (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-04-09 13:22:41 Update: PS2/STB Convergence (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-05-04 13:02:10 'Tractor beam' technology advances (articles,news) (rejected)
2001-08-24 16:59:15 J2EE vs'
2001-10-11 12:38:02 Microsoft astro-turf EU investigation. (articles,news) (rejected)
In too many cases (all above) I've also seen a similar story posted within days. So it's not the stories themselves, so why are they being rejected? I think if we've gone to the effort of contributing we deserve at least a basic explaination.
Your posts can always get linked back to your IP address, AC or no AC, there's no way around that short of an anonymizer...
Are you sure? if so how?
I've never had any indication that this was possible outside obvious routes of slashdot's SysOps.
I agree, it is becoming increasing apparent that interesting and valuable posts are being modded off-topic. Whilst many are OT their true value is not being realised.
I been increasingly feeling that we need some additional areas to bleed off some of these topics to new sections, two obvious (to me) are IT Politics and IT Industry.
Indeed a distinct and seperate FlameWars section, might also improve things by keeping the children occupied.
Except like all 'advances' it's actually a balance advantages and disadvantages, for example rotary engines rev higher, have higher wear and higher fuel consumption.
http://www.monito.com/wankel/advantages.html
What gives the US and Britain the right to attack a sovereign nation in this manner? And what do they hope to achieve?
The fact that they where attacked first, it's called self defence, and it is the best response to a bully. Any lets be clear it is OBL and his cronies who are the bullies, like most bullies, they pick on theose they think are weak, American Civilians.
This suggest a whole new business/income model. Perhaps we should patent it before some corporate monster does
1) Copyright your number, including dial tone.
2) Allways complete your phone-number on forms, and request for information. Include notification that use of your number is by licence only.
3) Receive call(s).
4) Charge abusers licence fee.
- not replying to all, not sending admin commands to the list, realising that digested people really don't like binaries.
Since no two mailing lists are ever quite the same, even when a common solution like Majodomo is used; Such a book would be be pretty difficult and near impossible to do well.
To blame the 'end users' for poor admin is out of order, mailing lists users are rarely newbies; so if even the old hands making mistakes, it's usually because of the lack of consistency and poorly implemented/managed lists, not miss-use.
I'm not arguing that this is correct, but strictly speaking software is licensed, not sold. That means you don't own it. If you don't own it, you can't sell or resell it.
This makes no difference [in the UK], you own one copy of the licence, which you can [re]sell. manufacturers or retailers cannot impose limitation or conditions that counter your statutory rights. Indeed the courts take a very dim view of those that try to limit your rights through unfair trading practices.
There is no 'will' about it, TV over IP *has* already arrived in the UK. We (www.kitv.co.uk) carry a MPEG 2 encoded PAL signal using an IP transport over ADSL and our system is available to consumers TODAY.
Using MPEG 2, It's possible to carry a reasonable TV signal in ~2.5Mbps, and a pretty good one in ~4.5Mbps. The picture quality is superior to analogue broadcasts and comparable with cable/satellite systems. In practice picture quality *really depends* on how much you are prepared spend on your MPEG encoders, No 199 pound/dollar mpeg cards here. We use custom built broadcast spec PIXStream encoders which cost 60,000 pounds (~90,000dollars) apiece. It perhaps worth mentioning that PIXStream make probably the 'best of breed' MPEG encoders in the world and choosen because we know we are pushing the envelope.
The nature of the platform (Multicast IP) also means that an MPEG 4 upgrade is a straight forward exercise, and since MPEG 4 is nearly twice as efficient, we can improve picture resolution and save bandwidth.
This technology will make Cable Cable uses a ring based network topology, so the bandwidth is shared between connections. ADSL uses a star topology, so the contention is moved back from the MAN backbone to the head end. Our customers get between 4.5-8Mbps each depending on their line attenuation.
Cable and Satellite are obsolete. They just don't know it yet.
Fibre is not necessary, Interactive Digital TV can be delivered at 4.5Mbps over ADSL, for a fraction of the cost.
How can I be sure?
We are already doing this commercially. I work on a system, which delivers Interactive Digital Television using IP over ADSL. It includes 60 channels of broadcast TV, Video on Demand using the largest nCube Video Server installation in the world, Web and Email, TV-Commerce, a Local Link which includes links to local services such as Schools and Libraries & Pizza Deliver. Our News on Demand service has won innovation awards including from the Royal Television Society, (which was perversely sponsored by our arch Rival BT :-). We also have an Interactive Virtual Avatar.
Checkout this link for a detailed case study.
http://www.broadcastpapers.com/data/KingstonCase St udy01.htm
BTW I've submitted links to our story 3 times over the last two years, but /. Has never seen fit to publish it, now a much simpler US system gets the coverage, make me wonder.
Actually Sky's licence is only for upto 1001 homes, it's only a trial. Kingston Communications (www.kcom.com), have been doing this for two years, and our service (www.kitv.co.uk) includes Web & Email, Content (News/ Movies) on Demand, frankly KIT blows the Sky system out of the water, in terms of Capability.
Cause Glbal warming ? :)
In the UK '#' is called 'hash' and to hash something is too bodge it or mess something up. Rather ironic (or should that be iconic? :), under the circumstances because it seems to me that C[hash] pronounced 'cash' in UK English is actually the broken J++ product, broken because it does not comply with the Java standard.
I had both as a child, the original lego before moving on to Meccano, and back to lego technic. I would suggest the have complementary roles, Lego teaches Design, and Meccano teaches Engineering.
Whasupp$
All warfare is based on deception.
Whilst our 'open' nature proper use of this a dificult we should recognise application.
When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must seem distant; when far away, we must seem near.
If he is secure, be prepared for him. If he is superior, evade him. There is considerable danger to the Open & Free software communities in allowing Microsoft to set the agenda regarding this debate, we should be engaging in debate on our own terms or not at all. We must recognise Microsoft dominance of and ability to set the agenda within mainstream media.
If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.
Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
If his forces are united, separate them.
Attack where not expected and your oponent is unprepared. Consider the Ben & Jerry 'What's the pilsbury dough boy affaid of' campaign.
Bring materials with you, but forage from your opponent.
This might seem an area of difficulty for ourselves, however resources in this context extends well beyond source; it includes people (Windows freeware developers), sites (Free web space & WebMail), bandwidth and information. So our resources are enhanced whilst the enemies are depleted.
supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. The path to victory for open/free software is not defeating microsoft, but winning for ourselves. The bulk of our resources should be directed to those ends.
the highest form of generalship is to foil the enemy's plans; http://www.google.com/search?q=Tzu+Sun+%22The+Art+ of+War%22&btnG=Google+Search
I agree, I also work on iDTV (www.kitv.co.uk), and this statement is so VERY TRUE, it's painful to think about. Quite frankly, our STB supplier suck's big time, they are the worst supplier I've ever had to deal with in 12+ years in IT.
I fully characterised over a dozen bug's in the beta release of the standard software baseline, nearly two years latter ONE of them has been fixed.
One of their Chief technical officers stood up in a meeting 2 weeks after the DVB standard and said "Java has no future on Set-top-boxes".
They then offer JavaScript as a replacement, they where not kidding. :(
Another senior technical office (a Dr of electronics no less) did not understand the concept of address space.
So I say roll on an open standard platform for STB's.
This sound's just like the tacyon detection grid from the StarTrek:TNG episode where they where searching for cloaked Romulan blockade runners.