A few years ago, I started feeling pains in my wrists. I then started practicing Tai Chi, and they went away and didn't return.
I think another poster suggested those Chinese massage balls; they're another good idea. Buy a pair and roll them in each hand for a good few minutes a day, and they will help.
Aside: I heard a while ago that some enterprising cracker was selling CD-ROMs containing a big sorted hash table, mapping all possible encrypted UNIX passwords to valid plaintext, and thus reducing the cracking operation to a table lookup. Has anybody else heard anything about this? (It certainly sounds possible.)
Why do so many people assume that Pamela Lee is some sort of paragon of superhuman beauty/attractiveness? I've never understood why anyone would find her attractive (short of a knee-jerk genetically programmed reaction to blond hair and inflated lips and breasts).
Maybe I'm just strangely wired, but the abovementioned meat-sculpture does nothing for me.
Linux as a Windows application
on
WinLinux 2000
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· Score: 1
Wasn't there an attempt to implement a toy version of Linux which ran entirely as a user-space Windows application a while ago? (I think someone mentioned a version of Linux that ran as a Windows Netscape plug-in, though they may have been joking.)
Interesting... according to another recent article, a lot of brain functions which were thought to run in parallel run serially; parallelism is simulated much like in a multitasking single-CPU computer: by swapping tasks rapidly.
I believe someone else found a brain area responsible for task switching; a sort of neurological scheduler. This is apparently damaged or underutilised in people with ADHD or a tendency to hyperfocus.
"Autisitic people can see things out of context--the starting point for invention."
Applying labels such as "autistic", "borderline", "ADHD", &c., to sets of traits and behaviours on such a fine level seems fundamentally flawed. Human nature doesn't fit into such neat packages, and labels are more cumbersome than they're worth when discussing subtle traits.
Take, for example, seeing things out of context. This is not a symptom of a mental disorder/syndrome, or a characteristic of an enumerable personality type, but a behaviour or ability. Someone who can see out of context has mental strategies for considering problems which consider things others wouldn't consider.
The thing about strategies is that they can be modified. The brain is reconfigurable. Anyone can modify their behaviour strategies to consider different information; usually it involves consciously rehearsing them until they become subconscious.
(Editing existing strategies is harder, as they are below the level of conscious awareness, though apparently it is possible. Check out some literature on NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) if you're interested in that kind of thing.)
Beyond a point, emulation becomes inefficient. Creating a virtual machine that emulates a social being, in interpreted neurocode, and running it when talking to members of the appropriate sex, is a massively ugly kludge on a Microsoftean scale.
Patching your usual human-interaction methods to be capable of speaking human social protocols takes up less space and runs more efficiently too. And you can always switch it off.
Distance has little to do with it... all your traffic would go through Menwith Hill if you lived in Istanbul, Helsinki or Cairo. They watch all of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from there.
Anyone here remember Dennis Ritchie's PCC compiler hack, in which the C compiler in an early version of UNIX (V6, I think) was modified to insert a backdoor in/bin/login, and also to insert the back-door-insertion code into the compiler? Thus, a system could be shipped with clean source for login and the C compiler, relying on a carefully-tainted binary to propagate a security hole.
While it'd be hard for the NSA to replace the gcc in all distributions, it is at least theoretically possible to introduce such a hole which, say, recognises various pieces of crypto code/random number generators and inserts subtle flaws.
Getting even more paranoid: doesn't the NSA have silent filters on all major Internet routes? Could those conceivably be programmed to patch downloads on the fly, modifying them and the md5sum files? (Assuming the level of technology and funding that the Echelon project would imply.)
Microsoft's Crypto API allows modules of any strength -- as long as they're signed by Microsoft. The compliance part involves MS not signing any strong modules destined for export.
I think HP or someone made a crypto chip that uses a similar mechanism, requiring an authentication code from a central authority to enable features. Thus it can do full-strength crypto in the US, 40-bit cereal-box-decoder-ring crypto outside of the US, and nothing at all in France.
You could move to Fernando Poo or Stateless. Or one of those heavily-armed floating anarcho-objectivist colonies on the high seas. (Heavily armed to fend off pirates and because foreign governments would be only too pleased if they met with misfortune.)
I seem to recall that one of those cypherpunks who runs some kind of crypto company in Anguilla or somewhere renounced his US citizenship a few years ago to be able to legally work on exportable crypto.
Even if you don't have a high enough Noriega factor to justify kidnapping, if you're a US citizen and export crypto from the US or work on crypto overseas, you'd best be wary about catching any flights that stop over in US territory.
For my Masters thesis, I am writing code in C++, using STL and Qt. The code takes about a minute to compile and link on the university's Indy workstations. However, I was surprised to find that on my 133MHz Pentium laptop, it makes in seconds.
Given that it doesn't use anything IRIX-specific, I've pretty much switched all development over to Linux, using the Indys mostly to access email and the web and print stuff.
-- acb [being able to code whilst on the bus is another advantage of having a laptop...]
If they start checking up (by checking mandatory blacklist download logs and subpoenaing ISP records in tax-audit-style swoops) and making examples of selected offenders with highly-publicised fines amd the odd jail term, the rest of the public will cave in. Or so the theory goes.
And this law's also useful for selectively getting rid of whistleblowers, civil libertarians and other troublemakers.
Slashdot Mirror
And Mozilla will probably be out and ready for prime time at about the same time as the GNU HURD is.
The betas sort of work, but many end-user features (navigation buttons, bookmarks, &c.) are missing.
A few years ago, I started feeling pains in my wrists. I then started practicing Tai Chi, and they went away and didn't return.
I think another poster suggested those Chinese massage balls; they're another good idea. Buy a pair and roll them in each hand for a good few minutes a day, and they will help.
Aside: I heard a while ago that some enterprising cracker was selling CD-ROMs containing a big sorted hash table, mapping all possible encrypted UNIX passwords to valid plaintext, and thus reducing the cracking operation to a table lookup.
Has anybody else heard anything about this? (It certainly sounds possible.)
Why do so many people assume that Pamela Lee is some sort of paragon of superhuman beauty/attractiveness? I've never understood why anyone would find her attractive (short of a knee-jerk genetically programmed reaction to blond hair and inflated lips and breasts).
Maybe I'm just strangely wired, but the abovementioned meat-sculpture does nothing for me.
Wasn't there an attempt to implement a toy version of Linux which ran entirely as a user-space Windows application a while ago? (I think someone mentioned a version of Linux that ran as a Windows Netscape plug-in, though they may have been joking.)
Doesn't Disney own a large chunk of McDonalds?
The average streetwalker gets a larger cut left to her by her pimp than the average musician gets from their record company.
Think about it.
Interesting... according to
another recent article, a lot of brain functions which were thought to run in parallel run serially; parallelism is simulated much like in a multitasking single-CPU computer: by swapping tasks rapidly.
I believe someone else found a brain area responsible for task switching; a sort of neurological scheduler. This is apparently damaged or underutilised in people with ADHD or a tendency to hyperfocus.
Applying labels such as "autistic", "borderline", "ADHD", &c., to sets of traits and behaviours on such a fine level seems fundamentally flawed. Human nature doesn't fit into such neat packages, and labels are more cumbersome than they're worth when discussing subtle traits.
Take, for example, seeing things out of context. This is not a symptom of a mental disorder/syndrome, or a characteristic of an enumerable personality type, but a behaviour or ability. Someone who can see out of context has mental strategies for considering problems which consider things others wouldn't consider.
The thing about strategies is that they can be modified. The brain is reconfigurable. Anyone can modify their behaviour strategies to consider different information; usually it involves consciously rehearsing them until they become subconscious.
(Editing existing strategies is harder, as they are below the level of conscious awareness, though apparently it is possible. Check out some literature on NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) if you're interested in that kind of thing.)
One doesn't necessarily need to be into guns to be classified as "dangerous". Wearing black is enough.
Beyond a point, emulation becomes inefficient. Creating a virtual machine that emulates a social being, in interpreted neurocode, and running it when talking to members of the appropriate sex, is a massively ugly kludge on a Microsoftean scale.
Patching your usual human-interaction methods to be capable of speaking human social protocols takes up less space and runs more efficiently too. And you can always switch it off.
How do you say "get a fucking life" in Klingon?
It'd be a good thing to print on a T-shirt and wear to Star Trek conventions.
If it radiates a electromagnetic signal, it's not secure.
Unless your Pilot has a solid lead case, I suspect it's vulnerable.
Where's the fun in that?
Besides, if you're really paranoid, you'll go for OpenBSD, not Linux.
Face it. If you want to keep a secret, its better not ever go across a wire, airwave or hit magnetic medium.
That won't help; they can just use a SQUID to read it out of your brain.
Distance has little to do with it... all your traffic would go through Menwith Hill if you lived in Istanbul, Helsinki or Cairo. They watch all of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from there.
Anyone here remember Dennis Ritchie's PCC compiler hack, in which the C compiler in an early version of UNIX (V6, I think) was modified to insert a backdoor in /bin/login, and also to insert the back-door-insertion code into the compiler? Thus, a system could be shipped with clean source for login and the C compiler, relying on a carefully-tainted binary to propagate a security hole.
While it'd be hard for the NSA to replace the gcc in all distributions, it is at least theoretically possible to introduce such a hole which, say, recognises various pieces of crypto code/random number generators and inserts subtle flaws.
Getting even more paranoid: doesn't the NSA have silent filters on all major Internet routes? Could those conceivably be programmed to patch downloads on the fly, modifying them and the md5sum files? (Assuming the level of technology and funding that the Echelon project would imply.)
Microsoft's Crypto API allows modules of any strength -- as long as they're signed by Microsoft. The compliance part involves MS not signing any strong modules destined for export.
I think HP or someone made a crypto chip that uses a similar mechanism, requiring an authentication code from a central authority to enable features. Thus it can do full-strength crypto in the US, 40-bit cereal-box-decoder-ring crypto outside of the US, and nothing at all in France.
You could move to Fernando Poo or Stateless. Or one of those heavily-armed floating anarcho-objectivist colonies on the high seas. (Heavily armed to fend off pirates and because foreign governments would be only too pleased if they met with misfortune.)
I seem to recall that one of those cypherpunks who runs some kind of crypto company in Anguilla or somewhere renounced his US citizenship a few years ago to be able to legally work on exportable crypto.
Even if you don't have a high enough Noriega factor to justify kidnapping, if you're a US citizen and export crypto from the US or work on crypto overseas, you'd best be wary about catching any flights that stop over in US territory.
My laptop's of about 1996 vintage (got it cheaply secondhand), and it beats an Indy.
...not to mention the gaping hole cut in X authentication, no doubt to install some cool-looking graphics and impress some Hollywood suit.
At the risk of sounding lame, "me too".
For my Masters thesis, I am writing code in C++, using STL and Qt. The code takes about a minute to compile and link on the university's Indy workstations. However, I was surprised to find that on my 133MHz Pentium laptop, it makes in seconds.
Given that it doesn't use anything IRIX-specific, I've pretty much switched all development over to Linux, using the Indys mostly to access email and the web and print stuff.
-- acb [being able to code whilst on the bus is another advantage of having a laptop...]
...resistance becomes duty.
If they start checking up (by checking mandatory blacklist download logs and subpoenaing ISP records in tax-audit-style swoops) and making examples of selected offenders with highly-publicised fines amd the odd jail term, the rest of the public will cave in. Or so the theory goes.
And this law's also useful for selectively getting rid of whistleblowers, civil libertarians and other troublemakers.