If I can choose my cryptosystem and key length, I can, with very high confidence, hide the content of my private communications, no matter who is trying to break it, no matter how hard.
For now. No system is 100% secure (with the exception of the single-use pad that comes close). Yes, if I chose a 256 length key no one today could figure it out. That we know of. But what about tomorrow? The reason brute-force attacks don't work today is because we don't have enough computing power. But tomorrow we just might have a (sigh) Beowulf cluster of machines that could brute force a 256 length key in a matter of hours.
So you change your key length. Which protects your future data, but not the data that they already cracked.
So I wholeheartedly agree with your second statement about content protection. But we have to be cautious about trusting even what we feel to be secure communications, unless you keep up with the Jones' of security and technology.
Yes, generally speaking a lot of false alarms are generated. And I know that, from working with the fire department, we go on a lot of them. A normal house fire response would get 3 fire engines, a ladder truck, a rescue car, and a batallion chief (at least here). Fire alarms get a single engine- though still emergency - response.
Does it make sense to do this? Well, while I can only count on one hand the number of these alarms that have turned out to be real - I can count more the number of people who have been killed or lost everything because they didn't have them.
And since I am ranting:) - If you are going to spend a lot of money for your house - lets say your study is going to be bigger than my apartment - invest in a sprinkler system for your house too. It adds I think about 10k to the total cost, but our response area includes two neighborhoods where 3 million dollar houses are fairly common.
And yes - you do get charged a fee for false alarms - $30 for each alarm after 3 false alarms within a given time period. Hey, mistakes happen.
Let's just open up every single TLD to whoever wants to take it! No reason.edu should mean that it is a university, or that.org should be an organization, or that any of the TLDs should stay what they were meant for!
I can see it now. We are already having to fight over two TLD's (one that was squatted (.com) and one that was given to the wrong people (.co.hillsborough.fl.us). Now we are going to have to buy and maintain 17 seperate web addresses just to point them all to one server so that people can find us. Great! Can't wait!
I know this has been mentioned before, but what is the point of opening up the TLDs? Companies are just going to have to buy the ones (or sue to steal them back) that infringe upon them. So why not leave them alone?
Ya know, I actually have to agree with him a bit on this one. I was speaking to some of our Haz-Mat crews (I also work for Fire/Rescue) and ours, the city's, and the next county over's Haz-Mat units have been running non-stop with Anthrax and other scares. But do we tell the media? We can't. It would only increase the load that we already have.
I agree that information has to get out there, and it seems as if most of the calls we get are people who are playing pranks more than anything else. Lots of people are exposed to Anthrax every day - it is a naturally occuring spore. And it is highly responsive to treatment when caught early. Take something like smallpox - that has potential to be dangerous. Something that hasn't been seen for years, we don't have enough vaccine for, AND is contagious? But again, it is treatable when caught early.
There is a fine line between reporting the news, keeping the citizens informed, and reporting to the point that you push people to the limit where copycats start happening and fear is rampent. I don't have a TV, so I don't know how well the TV media have done with the story, but all of the 'net coverage I have seen has been pretty responsible.
So should we run in fear because the media says it is so? Or perhaps we should merely take that as an opportunity to do more research and find out just how much danger you are really in. Remember, the media are humans too, and prone to make mistakes. Make sure that what they are reporting truly affects you before you go out an by Bio suits and build your bunkers.
Well, here's my chunk - about 10 minutes in to the conversation:
SJ - "And the last one being one year at Berkeley that the bluebox here at Steve Jobs. I wouldn't have traded Apple for that whole year"
SK - "Explain to the audience what that Blue Box year is."
SJ - "Blue Boxes, you know, I don't even think they worked the year that I left. But the year I was there, it's like, you could put the right tones into a telephone and just control all the switching circuits of the phone network of the world and make free calls anywhere and talk to operators in other countries and reroute signals back to the phone next to you."
SK - "Completely illegal by the way."
SJ - "Pardon?"
SK - "Completely illegal by the way."
SJ - "Completely Illegal and I kind of thought of myself as an ethical hacker. I won't make these calls. I wouldn't make bluebox calls. Any call I made to like friends, relatives, I paid for. I developed that thinking about it early on. I only used the bluebox to experiment with the system and explore it. But, I have helped other people build blueboxes, redboxes, blackboxes and pass out information to them and doing that - that I feel badly about looking back. Like that was really kind of illegal. I was helping other people cheat the system and, you know, not pay for things they should pay for."
SK - "Well, at that time, that was kind of a, uh, don't you see that as part of the experimentation of youth, that, and granted, we're both probably just justifying our past indiscretions, but isn't it, because nobody really got hurt, isn't it...serve"
SJ - "Well, very close. Young people will often, if they have these abilities to do this - almost nobody has the ability - they make up blueboxes, you know, just their technical and engineering ability and stumbling onto it and being interested in certain articles, but, you know, you mentioned my shyness earlier? This was the first time in my life that, for that one year, I was also out of my shyness because I was master of ceremonies. I could talk for an hour describing the bluebox stories, the technology, how it worked, giving demos, talking about famouse phone phreaks, and wierd stories of strange things they've done and how they beat the system and that basically was the first time in my life I could kind of talk and be the MC."
SK - "It's sort of a hacker ethic that you're talking about is, and that's obviously still to a certain degree has a great deal of effect in your life at Apple and your life after Apple, correct?"
SJ - "Ummm, I would say just all my life I guess that the way I operate then is probably still, it's still the same now.I'm sure if you had heard some of the things I've done in the recent years you'd say, 'He's still doing it.' But, ummm, the best thing came out the bluebox for Apple was just a chance to experiment, trying to get my designs as tiny as possible with the perfect set of chips, and I did some designs in the bluebox that I never did anything that good, even at Apple. But at least the timing circuits were the exact same chip structure of the synchronous counter chips that I used for the TV counting signals of the Apple 1 and 2."
SK - "Mm hmm"
SJ - "So it's carried over a little."
SK - "That's something we'll definately get into in the next segment we're going to talk about your life at Apple. But in the meantime folks I would go to Woz.org. He's got a very extensive FAQ there that has all kinds of letters, all kinds of answers to questions that you can find out what he's doing now, what he was doing in the past, what his thoughts are about various things including sounds like the much hated A&E Billionaire Biography, right?"
SJ - "Uhh, repeat that?"
SK - "It sounds like you weren't a big fan of the A&E Billionaire biography about you?"
I agree with Katz on a lot of the points above. I don't own a TV, I got most of my information that day from the Net(mostly Slashdot, and then CNN). I still get almost all of my news from CNN.com, Baynews 9.com, our local newspapers online, etc.
I think as long as you realize that there are some things you have to take with a grain of salt on the net, and you don't ever rely on one strict source for everything (but instead substantiate it with other sources), the Net can be pretty reliable.
Another thing you might want to think about is checking to see what information your site is displaying,especially when potential investors are heading over. For example, I clicked on the interactive script that lets me see your last 16 emails, and got this:
--- cut here ---
10:12 am having trouble getting mail to domain
10:27 am works now
10:28 am what's the command to find an ip
10:31 am no replies yet from u? will re-send all mails
11:01 am i think you're emails broken
12:53 pm thanks for the replies - all works now
12:58 pm can't find your web site URL again - can you re-send?
1:00 pm found it in my bookmarks, nevermind
1:52 pm can you give me your phone # to talk now cause you don't
always reply to email right away like you should
7:02 pm Got your replies - reading them (Re: give me your phone#)
7:31 pm I THINK YOU GOT VIRUS PUTTING BAD WORDS IN YOR REPLYS!!1!
7:43 pm Bob here says he cant' see yahoo - is it down?
7:46 pm Nevermind - bob says it works (Re: Bob here says he can')
8:50 pm hope your email get's fixe'd soon
9:35 pm you replied!
9:38 pm whats "restraining order" ? is it my account name pls rply
--- cut here ---
Probably not the best thing for us to see. Though some of them show you have friends very similar to mine.:)
A firefigter eners a burning building; it's smoky and nothing can be seen. Radar maps the suroundings and shows a wireframe model on his heads up display. (Actually, I think they have things already which can see through smoke, but perhaps they could be made lighter). Or maybe containers of hazardous materials would have a transponder that would alert the firefighter to its presence, display a red dot at its location, and show its material safety data sheet on request
Yes, it is called a Thermal Imager. I think the hardest part of this would not the technology, but the application. We see heat in excess of 1000 degrees F, which would quicky melt most any sunglasses.
However, and this may be a thought to the originator. When we enter a hazardous condition (read: fire, HazMat), we are wearing our SCBAs. These include a mask that connects to our air tank. If there was a way that you could integrate the display onto those masks, with an on/off button, there would probably be a gigantic market for it.
Scripting adds almost no value to websites, and is now just a tool of marketers, used more against you than for you.
Not quite. I use Javascript religiously and responsibly. It provides form validation, interactive elements, and menu selections you can't do any other way (save going to the server for form validation).
And yes, I use pop-up windows. I use them for useful purposes. To build web applications, not just fun toys to show pictures of my cat. Some of us want this functionality, use it responsibly, and understand the risks involved.
However, I agree with you to a point. Compromise. Don't be afraid to shut off scripting, but don't remove it completely. If you don't like it, then don't use it, but allow those of us who do like it and use it the ability to enjoy our web experience and use it for productive purposes other than just hitting refresh on Slashdot every 5 minutes.
For those of you who have ever pondered what the point of the Check Card is vs the Debit Card? The bank/Credit union make money off of you when you use your Check Card. That is why it is pushed so hard.
When I worked for the Credit Union, one of our largest sources of revenue was from people who used Check Cards. That's why, when I use it, I always choose Debit and enter the Pin number. Why should I make the store pay a fee just so I can sign instead of punching in a PIN?
Thanks for the ideas. Norcom Networks has changed their name (though I forget to what right now). They are great for small data transfer - such as realtime updating for delivery companies or field technicians. The drawbacks are that they charge by the Kb, and it's 2400/4800 baud up/down.
Switching Cell providers may prove to be a bit of a challenge as well. The manufacturer of the vehicle specified CDMA phones, which is only used by Alltel/GTE/Verizon. AT&T (who a majority of our c-phones are through) does not have an interface for that.
It looks more and more like this is going to have to go to our telecommunications section due to the abundance of options out there. Thanks!
Do you expect us to not move on with out lives? To sit and tremble at every passing plane? To ogle at everyone who doesn't quite look like us? To dig shelters, build weapons, etc, etc?
Get real. Some of us would like to take a break from what we are seeing. Just because there are other discussions going on does *NOT* mean that we have forgotten what happened. We are simply trying to move on with our lives so that we can function, and not let the terrorists win.
Maybe you were trying to be crass with the MS comment, but I am tired of hearing comments like the first ones you mentioned. Let us not forgot, but please let us move on so we can function.
Thaks for the answers so far. Just a little more info. Realize first that this is not used to transmit fire ground communications. The primary purpose of the vehicle is extended operations, such as New York, where we expect to be on the scene greater than two days. The Internet connection is used to get weather updates, haz-mat information, and communicate with Headquarters.
Unfortunately, due to the size and wierd shape of our county, Ham radios would probably be out. And, because we have 900mhz radio communications, relatively unnecessary. And Satellite Internet is being advertised here for 39.95 per month, which would be a substantial cost savings to the taxpayers. (Yes, we actually care about you all).
And maybe there isn't a system, but if anyone has creative ideas of how to build one, that would be appreciated as well. Thanks again!
Umm..actually, yes it does. The scripting allowed in Flash, especially Flash 5.0, is amazing. We have built chat clients, news tickers, etc. The other great thing about it is that it can interact with whatever Server-side scripting language you are using, be it ASP, Cold Fusion, Perl, etc.
I think the challenge is that because Flash is still new, lots of people are just using it to use it. But just like with any other system, you will start to see more and more applications built out of it that utilize its true power.
I work for a Government job as well. 9,600 emloyees, a million residents (county job) as the senior webmaster. Hmmm...seems like we have a good rubber band fight about twice a week, there are constantly toy airplanes flying about (two of the guys are R/C pilots, so they bring in the paper version), and I tend to have quite a bit of fun.
But, as someone already mentioned, there has to be a balance between that. These periods of activity usually last no longer than 5 minutes, and happen once, maybe twice, in a day. It may help that because we have control over our projects, we can push them along and keep them as best we can from stagnating. Oh well.
I work on the 21st floor of a large building in downtown Tampa. Our building is in between the tall Federal building and the Federal courthouse. I can see TIA (Tampa International Airport) from my window.
I am tired of looking at every plane that goes by, and wondering. Yesterday we had a rally, in memory of what happened, outside, and when a plane flew over 80% of the crowd looked up, no matter how much they didn't want to.
I am also a firefighter. I am tired of having to worry constantly about where our trucks are at, who is coming in, what type of call we are going to have to go on. There are risks involved, but worrying about a bomb from some stupid moron while I am trying to server my duty is rediculous.
I am sick of worrying, of being scared. I am scared of losing my freedoms, and my privacy, but I think that my life balances that out to a degree. But worrying is something I will always do, and will always have to live with regardless.
You are right. That is why eventually the sound coming out will be encoded all the way to the speakers. Even then, the way around that would be to stick a microphone to the speaker (just like old times...). There is no way to completely control the music, no matter how much the Music Industry would like to think so.
Positive: Flash plugin will eventually no longer be needed for vector
graphics as a key set of vector standards will be integrated with browsers.
Ensuring that fonts are on the users system will no longer be an issue.
Font embedding can be standardized.
Negative: Netscape and IE will both bring "enhancements" to the base SVG
models. Of course none of those "enhancements" will be present in BOTH
browsers. IE will allow for basic SVG 3d shapes, though no applications
will currently support the creation of those shapes. IE will also allow for
very loose coding to create the SVG shapes. If you accidentally put a
single co-ordinate set into your file, IE, instead of telling you that there
is a stray point. Will assume that you wanted to create a MSN logo and
subsequent link to MSN.Com. Microsoft Word will support SVG export,
including in the source file a bunch of code that noone has any bloody idea
where it came from, what it is supposed to do, or how to get rid of it.
Thirteen years later, Microsoft will take over the US Government and we will
find out that the "miscellaneous code", has been stealing our personal
information for years. Microsoft will call it "A bug". Netscape, on the
other hand, encountering a stray co-ordinate pair, will assume that the
"clean-coding" standards of the internet development community are going
straight to hell in a hand basket and that the world is coming to an end.
"That being the case," it will logically decide, "this poor bloke is about
to meet his maker and doesn't need to be squandering his last few minutes
with his peepers fixed on a computer monitor now does he? Best he be off to
the local pub for a pint or two while he still has the chance". Netscape
will them proceed to crash your operating system. Netscape will also do
wonderful little tricks like incorrectly display circles as parallelograms,
Render every font as 16 point Times New Roman, and completely leave out the
bottom half of your document for some obscure reason that you will spend 13
weeks trying to track down before you finally come to the conclusion that
"There really aren't that many Netscape users out there anyway". AOL will
just compress the heck out of everything it encounters and render every SVG
image as a Dot.
Insignificant: Someone somewhere on a UNIX machine will be writing Plain
Text news articles about how SVG is the worst threat to web usability since
the invention of JPEG compression. They will urge the development community
to avoid SVG because compatibility will still not be standard across all
computers. They themselves will be ample proof of this fact only because
their 28.8k external modems will not facilitate the download of the newest
version of Netscape (God forbid a UNIX user should install IE) and even if
they could get it installed, their 16mhz 1987 computer wouldn't know how to
run it. The general population will promptly ignore these articles as they
click yet another accidentally generated MSN logo link, leaving the insecure
author to return to Usenet and his IRC client.
I was going to quote one section, but can't narrow it down.
I am truly sorry that you were not the right person. And yes, it was unfortunate that you were in the 'wrong place at the wrong time.' But, as much as I believe in individual liberties, if I was that cop I would have done the same thing.
I work in computers, but have spent 4 1/2 years as a firefighter as well. I am 22 and have seen a lot more than I would like. Like the outright murder of not one, but three police officers (two Tampa detective and one Highway Patrolman) as well as recently another murder of a Tampa Police Officer. Why? Because they did not do exactly what the police officer above did.
Let's play what if. What if you would have been that shooter? What if the officer had a report the shooter had high-caliber weapons? What if the report also involved possible other shootings? What if you had not been the shooter, but had a gun?
Unfortunately, because we are all human, mistakes are made. You were not held illegally, not tortured, nor beaten, you were 'secured' via a legal method of takedown in a possibly hostile situation. And if I was in your situation (and I have been) I would only be upset if the police officer would have continued to hold me for hours, or would not have released me, or would have had no reason at all.
As far as your points? I am not even going to start on them. I can say that you appear not to even know a Police Officer or (obviously) be one. As I tell people who complain about how open source projects are going, if you don't like it, do something about it. Don't sit on your freakin' butt and come up with reasons to make you feel better about yourself. Go out and do something. Become an officer. Put YOUR life on the line. Or help those that do. See how it feels to arrive on the scene of a shot officer, to see the destruction caused by it. To do everything you can and it not be enough. Do that, then come back and see how your viewpoints are.
If you don't like the idea of someone reading the information you send through their machine, then don't use their machine. Nothing compels you to use @Home; it's not a monopoly like the phone company.
It's not?
Let's see, here where I live, I have pretty much two choices. Verizon or Road Runner if I want high speed access. And you know what, as part of my job I am required to have high-speed access.
So I can just use dial-up, right? Ok, think about this. I feel (at least here in the states) that I should have the right to pick up the phone and call my girlfriend without fear that someone is recording my conversation and using it for marketing purposes. If I am doing criminal activities, it is within the rights of the authorities to obtain a permit to wiretap. But to say that it would happen all the time, just in case, goes too far in my opinion.
Would your answer then be to get the cans and string the previous poster had? What about if the US Post Office got a technology to read all postal mail, without opening it (without the sender or receiver knowing), just in case? Does that still make you warm and fuzzy to just using something else?
We have to draw the line somewhere. Are ISP's providers of service like telephone companies or are they private industries who can do whatever they want? I believe the former, and I don't want my rights to just go away thankyouverymuch.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm. When I went to that link, it asked me to pick my country, then redirected me back to this article. Guess they don't much like Slashdot.
For now. No system is 100% secure (with the exception of the single-use pad that comes close). Yes, if I chose a 256 length key no one today could figure it out. That we know of. But what about tomorrow? The reason brute-force attacks don't work today is because we don't have enough computing power. But tomorrow we just might have a (sigh) Beowulf cluster of machines that could brute force a 256 length key in a matter of hours.
So you change your key length. Which protects your future data, but not the data that they already cracked.
So I wholeheartedly agree with your second statement about content protection. But we have to be cautious about trusting even what we feel to be secure communications, unless you keep up with the Jones' of security and technology.
(IMHO :)
Yes, generally speaking a lot of false alarms are generated. And I know that, from working with the fire department, we go on a lot of them. A normal house fire response would get 3 fire engines, a ladder truck, a rescue car, and a batallion chief (at least here). Fire alarms get a single engine- though still emergency - response.
:) - If you are going to spend a lot of money for your house - lets say your study is going to be bigger than my apartment - invest in a sprinkler system for your house too. It adds I think about 10k to the total cost, but our response area includes two neighborhoods where 3 million dollar houses are fairly common.
Does it make sense to do this? Well, while I can only count on one hand the number of these alarms that have turned out to be real - I can count more the number of people who have been killed or lost everything because they didn't have them.
And since I am ranting
And yes - you do get charged a fee for false alarms - $30 for each alarm after 3 false alarms within a given time period. Hey, mistakes happen.
Thanks so much for the link. That just brightened my day.
Just a friendly reminder!
Let's just open up every single TLD to whoever wants to take it! No reason .edu should mean that it is a university, or that .org should be an organization, or that any of the TLDs should stay what they were meant for!
I can see it now. We are already having to fight over two TLD's (one that was squatted (.com) and one that was given to the wrong people (.co.hillsborough.fl.us). Now we are going to have to buy and maintain 17 seperate web addresses just to point them all to one server so that people can find us. Great! Can't wait!
I know this has been mentioned before, but what is the point of opening up the TLDs? Companies are just going to have to buy the ones (or sue to steal them back) that infringe upon them. So why not leave them alone?
Ya know, I actually have to agree with him a bit on this one. I was speaking to some of our Haz-Mat crews (I also work for Fire/Rescue) and ours, the city's, and the next county over's Haz-Mat units have been running non-stop with Anthrax and other scares. But do we tell the media? We can't. It would only increase the load that we already have.
I agree that information has to get out there, and it seems as if most of the calls we get are people who are playing pranks more than anything else. Lots of people are exposed to Anthrax every day - it is a naturally occuring spore. And it is highly responsive to treatment when caught early. Take something like smallpox - that has potential to be dangerous. Something that hasn't been seen for years, we don't have enough vaccine for, AND is contagious? But again, it is treatable when caught early.
There is a fine line between reporting the news, keeping the citizens informed, and reporting to the point that you push people to the limit where copycats start happening and fear is rampent. I don't have a TV, so I don't know how well the TV media have done with the story, but all of the 'net coverage I have seen has been pretty responsible.
So should we run in fear because the media says it is so? Or perhaps we should merely take that as an opportunity to do more research and find out just how much danger you are really in. Remember, the media are humans too, and prone to make mistakes. Make sure that what they are reporting truly affects you before you go out an by Bio suits and build your bunkers.
Can someone post the article so that I can read it? Darn Websense filtering at work....
SJ - "And the last one being one year at Berkeley that the bluebox here at Steve Jobs. I wouldn't have traded Apple for that whole year"
SK - "Explain to the audience what that Blue Box year is."
SJ - "Blue Boxes, you know, I don't even think they worked the year that I left. But the year I was there, it's like, you could put the right tones into a telephone and just control all the switching circuits of the phone network of the world and make free calls anywhere and talk to operators in other countries and reroute signals back to the phone next to you."
SK - "Completely illegal by the way."
SJ - "Pardon?"
SK - "Completely illegal by the way."
SJ - "Completely Illegal and I kind of thought of myself as an ethical hacker. I won't make these calls. I wouldn't make bluebox calls. Any call I made to like friends, relatives, I paid for. I developed that thinking about it early on. I only used the bluebox to experiment with the system and explore it. But, I have helped other people build blueboxes, redboxes, blackboxes and pass out information to them and doing that - that I feel badly about looking back. Like that was really kind of illegal. I was helping other people cheat the system and, you know, not pay for things they should pay for."
SK - "Well, at that time, that was kind of a, uh, don't you see that as part of the experimentation of youth, that, and granted, we're both probably just justifying our past indiscretions, but isn't it, because nobody really got hurt, isn't it...serve"
SJ - "Well, very close. Young people will often, if they have these abilities to do this - almost nobody has the ability - they make up blueboxes, you know, just their technical and engineering ability and stumbling onto it and being interested in certain articles, but, you know, you mentioned my shyness earlier? This was the first time in my life that, for that one year, I was also out of my shyness because I was master of ceremonies. I could talk for an hour describing the bluebox stories, the technology, how it worked, giving demos, talking about famouse phone phreaks, and wierd stories of strange things they've done and how they beat the system and that basically was the first time in my life I could kind of talk and be the MC."
SK - "It's sort of a hacker ethic that you're talking about is, and that's obviously still to a certain degree has a great deal of effect in your life at Apple and your life after Apple, correct?"
SJ - "Ummm, I would say just all my life I guess that the way I operate then is probably still, it's still the same now.I'm sure if you had heard some of the things I've done in the recent years you'd say, 'He's still doing it.' But, ummm, the best thing came out the bluebox for Apple was just a chance to experiment, trying to get my designs as tiny as possible with the perfect set of chips, and I did some designs in the bluebox that I never did anything that good, even at Apple. But at least the timing circuits were the exact same chip structure of the synchronous counter chips that I used for the TV counting signals of the Apple 1 and 2."
SK - "Mm hmm"
SJ - "So it's carried over a little."
SK - "That's something we'll definately get into in the next segment we're going to talk about your life at Apple. But in the meantime folks I would go to Woz.org. He's got a very extensive FAQ there that has all kinds of letters, all kinds of answers to questions that you can find out what he's doing now, what he was doing in the past, what his thoughts are about various things including sounds like the much hated A&E Billionaire Biography, right?"
SJ - "Uhh, repeat that?"
SK - "It sounds like you weren't a big fan of the A&E Billionaire biography about you?"
I think as long as you realize that there are some things you have to take with a grain of salt on the net, and you don't ever rely on one strict source for everything (but instead substantiate it with other sources), the Net can be pretty reliable.
Another thing you might want to think about is checking to see what information your site is displaying,especially when potential investors are heading over. For example, I clicked on the interactive script that lets me see your last 16 emails, and got this:
:)
--- cut here ---
10:12 am having trouble getting mail to domain
10:27 am works now
10:28 am what's the command to find an ip
10:31 am no replies yet from u? will re-send all mails
11:01 am i think you're emails broken
12:53 pm thanks for the replies - all works now
12:58 pm can't find your web site URL again - can you re-send?
1:00 pm found it in my bookmarks, nevermind
1:52 pm can you give me your phone # to talk now cause you don't
always reply to email right away like you should
7:02 pm Got your replies - reading them (Re: give me your phone#)
7:31 pm I THINK YOU GOT VIRUS PUTTING BAD WORDS IN YOR REPLYS!!1!
7:43 pm Bob here says he cant' see yahoo - is it down?
7:46 pm Nevermind - bob says it works (Re: Bob here says he can')
8:50 pm hope your email get's fixe'd soon
9:35 pm you replied!
9:38 pm whats "restraining order" ? is it my account name pls rply
--- cut here ---
Probably not the best thing for us to see. Though some of them show you have friends very similar to mine.
Yes, it is called a Thermal Imager. I think the hardest part of this would not the technology, but the application. We see heat in excess of 1000 degrees F, which would quicky melt most any sunglasses.
However, and this may be a thought to the originator. When we enter a hazardous condition (read: fire, HazMat), we are wearing our SCBAs. These include a mask that connects to our air tank. If there was a way that you could integrate the display onto those masks, with an on/off button, there would probably be a gigantic market for it.
And yes, I use pop-up windows. I use them for useful purposes. To build web applications, not just fun toys to show pictures of my cat. Some of us want this functionality, use it responsibly, and understand the risks involved.
However, I agree with you to a point. Compromise. Don't be afraid to shut off scripting, but don't remove it completely. If you don't like it, then don't use it, but allow those of us who do like it and use it the ability to enjoy our web experience and use it for productive purposes other than just hitting refresh on Slashdot every 5 minutes.
BTW...
For those of you who have ever pondered what the point of the Check Card is vs the Debit Card? The bank/Credit union make money off of you when you use your Check Card. That is why it is pushed so hard.
When I worked for the Credit Union, one of our largest sources of revenue was from people who used Check Cards. That's why, when I use it, I always choose Debit and enter the Pin number. Why should I make the store pay a fee just so I can sign instead of punching in a PIN?
Thanks for the ideas. Norcom Networks has changed their name (though I forget to what right now). They are great for small data transfer - such as realtime updating for delivery companies or field technicians. The drawbacks are that they charge by the Kb, and it's 2400/4800 baud up/down.
Switching Cell providers may prove to be a bit of a challenge as well. The manufacturer of the vehicle specified CDMA phones, which is only used by Alltel/GTE/Verizon. AT&T (who a majority of our c-phones are through) does not have an interface for that.
It looks more and more like this is going to have to go to our telecommunications section due to the abundance of options out there. Thanks!
Ok, and?
Do you expect us to not move on with out lives? To sit and tremble at every passing plane? To ogle at everyone who doesn't quite look like us? To dig shelters, build weapons, etc, etc?
Get real. Some of us would like to take a break from what we are seeing. Just because there are other discussions going on does *NOT* mean that we have forgotten what happened. We are simply trying to move on with our lives so that we can function, and not let the terrorists win.
Maybe you were trying to be crass with the MS comment, but I am tired of hearing comments like the first ones you mentioned. Let us not forgot, but please let us move on so we can function.
Thaks for the answers so far. Just a little more info. Realize first that this is not used to transmit fire ground communications. The primary purpose of the vehicle is extended operations, such as New York, where we expect to be on the scene greater than two days. The Internet connection is used to get weather updates, haz-mat information, and communicate with Headquarters.
Unfortunately, due to the size and wierd shape of our county, Ham radios would probably be out. And, because we have 900mhz radio communications, relatively unnecessary. And Satellite Internet is being advertised here for 39.95 per month, which would be a substantial cost savings to the taxpayers. (Yes, we actually care about you all).
And maybe there isn't a system, but if anyone has creative ideas of how to build one, that would be appreciated as well. Thanks again!
Umm..actually, yes it does. The scripting allowed in Flash, especially Flash 5.0, is amazing. We have built chat clients, news tickers, etc. The other great thing about it is that it can interact with whatever Server-side scripting language you are using, be it ASP, Cold Fusion, Perl, etc.
I think the challenge is that because Flash is still new, lots of people are just using it to use it. But just like with any other system, you will start to see more and more applications built out of it that utilize its true power.
I work for a Government job as well. 9,600 emloyees, a million residents (county job) as the senior webmaster. Hmmm...seems like we have a good rubber band fight about twice a week, there are constantly toy airplanes flying about (two of the guys are R/C pilots, so they bring in the paper version), and I tend to have quite a bit of fun.
But, as someone already mentioned, there has to be a balance between that. These periods of activity usually last no longer than 5 minutes, and happen once, maybe twice, in a day. It may help that because we have control over our projects, we can push them along and keep them as best we can from stagnating. Oh well.
Do you know what I'm tired of?
I work on the 21st floor of a large building in downtown Tampa. Our building is in between the tall Federal building and the Federal courthouse. I can see TIA (Tampa International Airport) from my window.
I am tired of looking at every plane that goes by, and wondering. Yesterday we had a rally, in memory of what happened, outside, and when a plane flew over 80% of the crowd looked up, no matter how much they didn't want to.
I am also a firefighter. I am tired of having to worry constantly about where our trucks are at, who is coming in, what type of call we are going to have to go on. There are risks involved, but worrying about a bomb from some stupid moron while I am trying to server my duty is rediculous.
I am sick of worrying, of being scared. I am scared of losing my freedoms, and my privacy, but I think that my life balances that out to a degree. But worrying is something I will always do, and will always have to live with regardless.
You are right. That is why eventually the sound coming out will be encoded all the way to the speakers. Even then, the way around that would be to stick a microphone to the speaker (just like old times...). There is no way to completely control the music, no matter how much the Music Industry would like to think so.
The Effects of a W3C SVG Standard:
Positive: Flash plugin will eventually no longer be needed for vector
graphics as a key set of vector standards will be integrated with browsers.
Ensuring that fonts are on the users system will no longer be an issue.
Font embedding can be standardized.
Negative: Netscape and IE will both bring "enhancements" to the base SVG
models. Of course none of those "enhancements" will be present in BOTH
browsers. IE will allow for basic SVG 3d shapes, though no applications
will currently support the creation of those shapes. IE will also allow for
very loose coding to create the SVG shapes. If you accidentally put a
single co-ordinate set into your file, IE, instead of telling you that there
is a stray point. Will assume that you wanted to create a MSN logo and
subsequent link to MSN.Com. Microsoft Word will support SVG export,
including in the source file a bunch of code that noone has any bloody idea
where it came from, what it is supposed to do, or how to get rid of it.
Thirteen years later, Microsoft will take over the US Government and we will
find out that the "miscellaneous code", has been stealing our personal
information for years. Microsoft will call it "A bug". Netscape, on the
other hand, encountering a stray co-ordinate pair, will assume that the
"clean-coding" standards of the internet development community are going
straight to hell in a hand basket and that the world is coming to an end.
"That being the case," it will logically decide, "this poor bloke is about
to meet his maker and doesn't need to be squandering his last few minutes
with his peepers fixed on a computer monitor now does he? Best he be off to
the local pub for a pint or two while he still has the chance". Netscape
will them proceed to crash your operating system. Netscape will also do
wonderful little tricks like incorrectly display circles as parallelograms,
Render every font as 16 point Times New Roman, and completely leave out the
bottom half of your document for some obscure reason that you will spend 13
weeks trying to track down before you finally come to the conclusion that
"There really aren't that many Netscape users out there anyway". AOL will
just compress the heck out of everything it encounters and render every SVG
image as a Dot.
Insignificant: Someone somewhere on a UNIX machine will be writing Plain
Text news articles about how SVG is the worst threat to web usability since
the invention of JPEG compression. They will urge the development community
to avoid SVG because compatibility will still not be standard across all
computers. They themselves will be ample proof of this fact only because
their 28.8k external modems will not facilitate the download of the newest
version of Netscape (God forbid a UNIX user should install IE) and even if
they could get it installed, their 16mhz 1987 computer wouldn't know how to
run it. The general population will promptly ignore these articles as they
click yet another accidentally generated MSN logo link, leaving the insecure
author to return to Usenet and his IRC client.
I was going to quote one section, but can't narrow it down.
I am truly sorry that you were not the right person. And yes, it was unfortunate that you were in the 'wrong place at the wrong time.' But, as much as I believe in individual liberties, if I was that cop I would have done the same thing.
I work in computers, but have spent 4 1/2 years as a firefighter as well. I am 22 and have seen a lot more than I would like. Like the outright murder of not one, but three police officers (two Tampa detective and one Highway Patrolman) as well as recently another murder of a Tampa Police Officer. Why? Because they did not do exactly what the police officer above did.
Let's play what if. What if you would have been that shooter? What if the officer had a report the shooter had high-caliber weapons? What if the report also involved possible other shootings? What if you had not been the shooter, but had a gun?
Unfortunately, because we are all human, mistakes are made. You were not held illegally, not tortured, nor beaten, you were 'secured' via a legal method of takedown in a possibly hostile situation. And if I was in your situation (and I have been) I would only be upset if the police officer would have continued to hold me for hours, or would not have released me, or would have had no reason at all.
As far as your points? I am not even going to start on them. I can say that you appear not to even know a Police Officer or (obviously) be one. As I tell people who complain about how open source projects are going, if you don't like it, do something about it. Don't sit on your freakin' butt and come up with reasons to make you feel better about yourself. Go out and do something. Become an officer. Put YOUR life on the line. Or help those that do. See how it feels to arrive on the scene of a shot officer, to see the destruction caused by it. To do everything you can and it not be enough. Do that, then come back and see how your viewpoints are.
Let's see, here where I live, I have pretty much two choices. Verizon or Road Runner if I want high speed access. And you know what, as part of my job I am required to have high-speed access.
So I can just use dial-up, right? Ok, think about this. I feel (at least here in the states) that I should have the right to pick up the phone and call my girlfriend without fear that someone is recording my conversation and using it for marketing purposes. If I am doing criminal activities, it is within the rights of the authorities to obtain a permit to wiretap. But to say that it would happen all the time, just in case, goes too far in my opinion.
Would your answer then be to get the cans and string the previous poster had? What about if the US Post Office got a technology to read all postal mail, without opening it (without the sender or receiver knowing), just in case? Does that still make you warm and fuzzy to just using something else?
We have to draw the line somewhere. Are ISP's providers of service like telephone companies or are they private industries who can do whatever they want? I believe the former, and I don't want my rights to just go away thankyouverymuch.