FAPSI is the old communications security directorate of the KGB. They are responsible for setting the security standards that are applied to government and commercial computer systems in the Russian Federation.
There has been a lot of interest in open systems in the Russian Federation because you can legally have the source code. This isn't the old days and they are not supposed to be sitting on the VSS archives of NT.
Strangely enough, the Russian federation has a similar probem to the US. How to do electronic commerce securely. The Russian Federation is a lot bigger (9 hours time difference from St. Pete to Vladivostok) thus making non-electronic commerce a major problem.
If the Russians decide they also like SE Linux, it will be a big plus. At the moment, on the commercial side, they use a mixture of OpenBSD and Mandrake Linux.
If you want to do anything security-wise, FAPSI want to know about it so I'm pretty sure we'll get to hear their opinion soon. The general Russian opinion on standard Linux was not that high for security, although they liked the price and the uptime.
At last, the possibility of a hash in space...
on
Beer In Space
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· Score: 1
One of the things that will happen when space is truely conquered is that a hash trail will be set (a kind of paperchase, not an illegal substance). The problem is drinking the beer afterwards.
I am glad to see that some useful reseach is taking place to address this issue. There have been hashes held in many parts of the world, even onboard a Jumbo jet and it is a vital form of recreation for expat engineers. You can't get much more expat than the ISS!!!!! Note there have been underwater hashes, but I have not heard of the beer consumption problem being solved there, but it is easier to return to the surface than to reenter the atmosphere.
To find out more about this kind of hash, try searching the web for Hash House Harriers or check out this link.
You may be a senile old fart, but you are a correct one.
TOPS20 Adventure (Crowther/Woods) definitely came first. My own first copy of the source came from a regional air-traffic-control centre running under IBM, but with a little work we soon had it running on a PDP-11.
Dungeon was the original Zork and although based on Adventure, it was a lot more sophisticated. There was some kind of problem because Dungeon was sort-of public-domain but Zork wasn't. I seem to remember after some kind of row, Dungeon being pulled.
Selective Availability or SA the thing that distorts the GPS signals is officially off unless the US is in a war situation. A good stationary receiver should be able to get down to the metre or so that you mentioned instantly. With multiple passes you can get down to a centimetre or less.
Precision GPS isn't really that big a deal anymore.
IANA (I am not an astronaut), although a friend works on EVA training. I do know from her that it is very hard physical work to do any kind of mechanical operation in space (especially if you are suited).
In the past the Russian space program has been rigidly hierarchical with the ground dictating. When problems occur, the ground never makes mistakes. It is always the cosmonauts' fault.
NASA gives their astronauts a little more freedom, but I don't know how the crew is managed on the ISS.
CD and Video libraries are very popular here in Germany.
This is a very good point and this hopefully will lead to the explict permission for DVD copying also. If anyone can suggest an alternative revenue model, I am sure it would be considered as interesting.
Of course, if all I'm doing is buring my own disks tyhen this is another issue. However, I don't believe we are paying tax on blank media yet.
Some people here (in Europe) get very confused about the GPL. I would suggest that there is a lot of GPL'ed code floating around in commercial products that are sold.
People don't like to talk about using GPL code here (even the LGPL code) because management gets nervous. Even if the end result is a product for internal use only.
It would be nice to have the FSF here as a lobby, to clarify this and other issues such as the trouble with EU IP law.
There is a wonderful little website putting up info about high-tech companies about to go-under called www.fuckedcompany.com - very appropiate, funny and useful as well. This is a US run site, so someone must have accepted the registration.
We would need a GPS receiver with a cryptographically secure serial number (think PKI) and then have a fingerprint sensor. The GPS receiver could allow me to generate a string consisting of date and time (automatic in GPS), the Longitude and Latitude and a syndrome from my physical fingerprint.
Unfortunately, this is susceptible to fake GPS info from simulators. The only real way is to walk into a notary with a passport. The current electronic ways can be faked.
An alternative would be to use the mobile telephone system, where you can be tracked by basestation. We can never be sure that it is really you on the end of the line but again I could have a fingerprint sensor built into the phone (also solves the problems with PINs). If we use existing GSM etchnology with better encryption, we could have the SIM card release the IMSI (serial no) on fingerprint recodinition and send it using public-key encryption to the net (currently GSM uses secret-key stuff), the net provider would then parcel the thing up with a lat and long of the base station together with the time, cryptographically sign the whole thing so I end up with a signed identity with a location and a date and time.
It could work, but it needs some major changes of the mobile net specifications.
We would need a GPS receiver with a cryptographically secure serial number (think PKI) and then have a fingerprint sensor. The GPS receiver could allow me to generate a string consisting of date and time (automatic in GPS), the Longitude and Latitude and a syndrome from my physical fingerprint.
Unfortunately, this is susceptible to fake GPS info from simulators. The only real way is to walk into a notary with a passport. The current electronic ways can be faked.
An alternative would be to use the mobile telephone system, where you can be tracked by basestation. We can never be sure that it is really you on the end of the line but again I could have a fingerprint sensor built into the phone (also solves the problems with PINs). If we use existing GSM etchnology with better encryption, we could have the SIM card release the IMSI (serial no) on fingerprint recodinition and send it using public-key encryption to the net (currently GSM uses secret-key stuff), the net provider would then parcel the thing up with a lat and long of the base station together with the time, cryptographically sign the whole thing so I end up with a signed identity with a location and a date and time.
It could work, but it needs some major changes of the mobile net specifications.
Re:What about MiniDisc as a floppy?
on
Is MiniDisc Dead?
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· Score: 1
There are MD players around (check out Sony) but they are expensive (more so than a zip) but the media is much cheaper. Nobody other than SOny sold the drives and they screwed up their marketing strategy and the way the device was sold (i.e., SCSI only)
If the LEOs go to the heavies in Maryland, information can be recovered from deleted (and rewritten) sectors. For this they need the HDs. However, this is a non-trivial process so the computer will probably sit in a corner gathering dust (as in Steve Jackson).
The rest of the computer is really irrelevant and should be returned immediately. New HDs cost money but what are the cops doing with your Geofx graphics card?
Actually MS Win 2K sells for 60 roubles (about $2)in St. Petersburg. Office costs more because of the extra CDs. Moscow prices at the market are slighly less. It is openly sold and it is quite difficult to find legit versions.
None of the clampdowns have been effective and most people stick with pirate distributions. If a top programmer costs about $1000/month, $300 for an OS is a lot of money.
Re:Maybe this is what sunk the Kursk
on
Microsoft Cracked
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· Score: 1
Sick yes, but
very, very sad - but the current theory going around miltary circles is that the cruiser "Peter the Great" fired a missle either at the wrong time or it malfunctioned. The submarine was hit (there was inward buckling of the hull) and one or more torpedoes exploded.
They wouldn't have been running Win2K. However someone in St. Petersburg, Russia knows a lot about this incident.
Most Banks are using stuff like Solaris, AIX and various IBM mainframe O/S. VMS gets used for some specialised stuff but isn't so popular anymore, despite its reliability.
Sorry VMS does crash, but usually not very often. However, I have taken many machines down whilst testing stuff. Try debugging a piggy-back kernal AST for one thing!
Happened at Digital - BIG Mess over Source Audit
on
Microsoft Cracked
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· Score: 1
This happened at Digital some years ago requiring a massive audit of OpenVMS to look for trapdoors. The source to Win2K is many times larger and there is a lot about MS that suggests that their version control isn't that hot. A thorough audit will take a *long* time and take a *lot* of warm bodies.
It may be a good time to sell your Micro$oft shares!
Pterry also seems to like DEATH quite a lot, who is a character that has nicely over the years. He even turns up with wonderful effect in "Good Omens".
Having two well-dressed heavies is veryBritish and dates back to London's Underword of the fifties and early sixties. Think the "Kray Twins". There was a long standup gig done by a pair of comedians "Ron" and "Ron" which was also featured on TV so even Crop and Vandemeer had precedents.
Anyway Gaiman is an oldtime buddy of Pratchett, as in "Good Omens" so it wouldn't suprise me if he decided on using a similar idea.
Slashdot Mirror
There has been a lot of interest in open systems in the Russian Federation because you can legally have the source code. This isn't the old days and they are not supposed to be sitting on the VSS archives of NT.
Strangely enough, the Russian federation has a similar probem to the US. How to do electronic commerce securely. The Russian Federation is a lot bigger (9 hours time difference from St. Pete to Vladivostok) thus making non-electronic commerce a major problem.
If the Russians decide they also like SE Linux, it will be a big plus. At the moment, on the commercial side, they use a mixture of OpenBSD and Mandrake Linux.
If you want to do anything security-wise, FAPSI want to know about it so I'm pretty sure we'll get to hear their opinion soon. The general Russian opinion on standard Linux was not that high for security, although they liked the price and the uptime.
I am glad to see that some useful reseach is taking place to address this issue. There have been hashes held in many parts of the world, even onboard a Jumbo jet and it is a vital form of recreation for expat engineers. You can't get much more expat than the ISS!!!!! Note there have been underwater hashes, but I have not heard of the beer consumption problem being solved there, but it is easier to return to the surface than to reenter the atmosphere.
To find out more about this kind of hash, try searching the web for Hash House Harriers or check out this link.
TOPS20 Adventure (Crowther/Woods) definitely came first. My own first copy of the source came from a regional air-traffic-control centre running under IBM, but with a little work we soon had it running on a PDP-11.
Dungeon was the original Zork and although based on Adventure, it was a lot more sophisticated. There was some kind of problem because Dungeon was sort-of public-domain but Zork wasn't. I seem to remember after some kind of row, Dungeon being pulled.
Precision GPS isn't really that big a deal anymore.
In the past the Russian space program has been rigidly hierarchical with the ground dictating. When problems occur, the ground never makes mistakes. It is always the cosmonauts' fault.
NASA gives their astronauts a little more freedom, but I don't know how the crew is managed on the ISS.
This is a very good point and this hopefully will lead to the explict permission for DVD copying also. If anyone can suggest an alternative revenue model, I am sure it would be considered as interesting.
Of course, if all I'm doing is buring my own disks tyhen this is another issue. However, I don't believe we are paying tax on blank media yet.
People don't like to talk about using GPL code here (even the LGPL code) because management gets nervous. Even if the end result is a product for internal use only.
It would be nice to have the FSF here as a lobby, to clarify this and other issues such as the trouble with EU IP law.
There is a wonderful little website putting up info about high-tech companies about to go-under called www.fuckedcompany.com - very appropiate, funny and useful as well. This is a US run site, so someone must have accepted the registration.
Unfortunately, this is susceptible to fake GPS info from simulators. The only real way is to walk into a notary with a passport. The current electronic ways can be faked.
An alternative would be to use the mobile telephone system, where you can be tracked by basestation. We can never be sure that it is really you on the end of the line but again I could have a fingerprint sensor built into the phone (also solves the problems with PINs). If we use existing GSM etchnology with better encryption, we could have the SIM card release the IMSI (serial no) on fingerprint recodinition and send it using public-key encryption to the net (currently GSM uses secret-key stuff), the net provider would then parcel the thing up with a lat and long of the base station together with the time, cryptographically sign the whole thing so I end up with a signed identity with a location and a date and time.
It could work, but it needs some major changes of the mobile net specifications.
Unfortunately, this is susceptible to fake GPS info from simulators. The only real way is to walk into a notary with a passport. The current electronic ways can be faked.
An alternative would be to use the mobile telephone system, where you can be tracked by basestation. We can never be sure that it is really you on the end of the line but again I could have a fingerprint sensor built into the phone (also solves the problems with PINs). If we use existing GSM etchnology with better encryption, we could have the SIM card release the IMSI (serial no) on fingerprint recodinition and send it using public-key encryption to the net (currently GSM uses secret-key stuff), the net provider would then parcel the thing up with a lat and long of the base station together with the time, cryptographically sign the whole thing so I end up with a signed identity with a location and a date and time.
It could work, but it needs some major changes of the mobile net specifications.
There are MD players around (check out Sony) but they are expensive (more so than a zip) but the media is much cheaper. Nobody other than SOny sold the drives and they screwed up their marketing strategy and the way the device was sold (i.e., SCSI only)
If the LEOs go to the heavies in Maryland, information can be recovered from deleted (and rewritten) sectors. For this they need the HDs. However, this is a non-trivial process so the computer will probably sit in a corner gathering dust (as in Steve Jackson). The rest of the computer is really irrelevant and should be returned immediately. New HDs cost money but what are the cops doing with your Geofx graphics card?
Actually MS Win 2K sells for 60 roubles (about $2)in St. Petersburg. Office costs more because of the extra CDs. Moscow prices at the market are slighly less. It is openly sold and it is quite difficult to find legit versions. None of the clampdowns have been effective and most people stick with pirate distributions. If a top programmer costs about $1000/month, $300 for an OS is a lot of money.
They wouldn't have been running Win2K. However someone in St. Petersburg, Russia knows a lot about this incident.
Sorry VMS does crash, but usually not very often. However, I have taken many machines down whilst testing stuff. Try debugging a piggy-back kernal AST for one thing!
It may be a good time to sell your Micro$oft shares!
Pterry also seems to like DEATH quite a lot, who is a character that has nicely over the years. He even turns up with wonderful effect in "Good Omens".
Anyway Gaiman is an oldtime buddy of Pratchett, as in "Good Omens" so it wouldn't suprise me if he decided on using a similar idea.