Yep, here you go. She cracked it herself shortly after it was publicised, the method is detailed in the appendix.
Also here's a link to the press release this guy's university published on his work. Although, come to think of it, it looks quite familiar. Is this a repeated story?
They said it had something to do with the algorithms they use to generate realistic looking character movements. Maybe this has it's roots in chaos theory?
The article was a bit scant on details. As we've seen before, if you keep your encryption scheme unpunlished and just claim that it is 'unbreakable', usually someone comes along later when it is in use and breaks it for you.
Actually it sounds quite similar to the 'teenage genius' story of that Irish schoolgirl who had her similarly 'unbreakable' matrix encryption scheme widely publicized without peer review, and then broken.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in this case..
The trouble is with these sort of discussions is that people concentrate on the big copyright holders, when DRM and its ilk also apply just as easily to small copyright holders too.
Just think of the small publishing houses and little record companies that would benefit from this sort of technology. The only reason you don't hear about them as much is that only the large organisations have the influence to actually get something done about it.
And then of course we get the whole conspiracy theory thing, and the David-and-Goliath-esque "those big nasty corporations are trying to take away my rights!!" screams. Which are really quite unfounded if you look at the situation in a more rational light.
The point is, did you buy or steal the thing that you are trying to install on your computer. A more correct analogy would be is if your car had some sort of system that could detect if you had bought the car radio you are trying to install, or if you just nicked it from someone else.
I was referring to the relative merits of the Control Panel method as compared to typing 'xf86cfg'. Of course if they know either operating system well then the point is moot, but a newcomer to PCs would have a much better guess as to what 'Control Panel' and 'Display' means than 'xf86cfg'.
I think it's ridiculous that my comment get moderated down as a Troll. I am serious about the points I made there, and I wasn't fishing for bites at all.
Just because you disagree with it doesn't mean it's a troll! I imagine most reasonable people would disagree with the popular opinion on slashdot regarding copyright and theft.
They're going to have a bit of a problem determining the posting date, as the date header in the http response can quite easily be forged.
I suppose this is where things like Google cache and the Wayback archive come in useful, (IANAL) but it seems to me that for them to be trusted, further legislation and rulings would be necessary to give them reliable legal status.
And, like, what if someone hacked them? These things need to be considered!
This article is the usual paranoid rhetoric about how Microsoft is evil and going to take over the world, disguised under some serious journalism.
This is the same thing people were whinging on about four years ago, and it still hasn't happened yet.
And DRM technology makes sense in many ways - sometimes I get the impression that a lot of people who post to these discussions don't quite get the fact that if someone has something for sale, and you want it, then you should pay for it and not bootleg or steal it.
You could call it a lack of moral common sense, perhaps.
The recent Windows email viruses have spread so rapidly for two main reasons:
Microsoft's Outlook products have bugs and design flaws that allow them to spread easily, with barely any human intervention.
Most people new to computers start off using Windows as it is the industry standard, and they don't know enough about the system to avoid doing things like, for example, opening and running executable attachments.
I would guess that if Linux was as popular as Windows is, then many new users of computers would use that too and make similar mistakes.
Outlook is an application that runs on the operating system, not part of the OS itself. This is a problem inherent in a particular piece of Microsoft software, and not Windows itself. I agree with you though, they were very careless in the creation of this product and most of the blame lies there.
It'll be interesting to see what effects the 'sandboxing' features of.NET will have on such viruses, when its usage becomes widespread. Hopefully it will raise the bar somewhat to virus writers.
As for your suspend/unsuspend feature on your laptop - this is also available in Windows. In Windows XP, there is also a similar feature that allows the computer to be completely switched off - it is called 'Hibernate' and is very useful when moving machines with no built in suspend functionality, such as desktops.
Thanks, it took ages to bump up the uids high enough to get that one:-)
My only qualm with the multi-user stuff is that if you're logging in to a domain, you can't use the terminal services stuff like fast user switching. And being able to do a remote admin login like Windows 2000 Server would be pretty useful too.
It's just a case of using the most appropriate technology for the task at hand. Windows is the most appropriate for most desktop users, and recently has the added benefit that it is pretty damn stable too.
I use Windows XP at home, and since installing it four months ago, have only rebooted three times - twice for Windows Update (comparable to the reboot required when doing a kernel update in Linux) and once because of a power cut.
I've had some stability issues in individual applications, some from Microsoft but most not. But it didn't bring the rest of the OS down, I just killed the process and started again.
It gives basic access to a few features of the PS2. For example double buffering, using the setdrawbuf command, and gourad shaded triangles, using gtriangle. Enough to play around with for a while when you're bored of the games.
Maybe someone can port yabasic to PS2 Linux to use the extra functionality exposed there?
Because Lindows hardly measures up to Windows XP at all. It may be better than, say, Windows 95 or 98 due to stability and a decent GUI, but times have moved on since then.
NT-based Windows systems are actually pretty good. The main benefit of a Linux based system, stability, has been negated as Windows caught up quite a while ago.
Features like 'open source' and '$150 cheaper' aren't really bonuses to most PC users, when it doesn't have the feature 'runs all my Windows programs and games just fine' implemented correctly.
What disappointed me in that article was the lack of emphasis on actually using the thing to write software. What tools are available? Is there any additional libraries for using the custom PS2 chips?
Another thing is, some PS2s come with a copy of yabasic, giving it the feel of the the old 8 bit micro days where you could write your own BASIC programs, and save them onto the memory cards. You can use any USB keyboard for input to this. It seems to me, if you want to program the PS/2, this is a much more accessible choice!
Slashdot Mirror
Yep, here you go. She cracked it herself shortly after it was publicised, the method is detailed in the appendix.
Also here's a link to the press release this guy's university published on his work. Although, come to think of it, it looks quite familiar. Is this a repeated story?
They said it had something to do with the algorithms they use to generate realistic looking character movements. Maybe this has it's roots in chaos theory?
The article was a bit scant on details. As we've seen before, if you keep your encryption scheme unpunlished and just claim that it is 'unbreakable', usually someone comes along later when it is in use and breaks it for you.
..
Actually it sounds quite similar to the 'teenage genius' story of that Irish schoolgirl who had her similarly 'unbreakable' matrix encryption scheme widely publicized without peer review, and then broken.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in this case
Those are interesting statistics. What do you use each type of server for?
Copy their own work? That is fine, and is not the issue here. We are talking about copying the work of others.
The trouble is with these sort of discussions is that people concentrate on the big copyright holders, when DRM and its ilk also apply just as easily to small copyright holders too.
Just think of the small publishing houses and little record companies that would benefit from this sort of technology. The only reason you don't hear about them as much is that only the large organisations have the influence to actually get something done about it.
And then of course we get the whole conspiracy theory thing, and the David-and-Goliath-esque "those big nasty corporations are trying to take away my rights!!" screams. Which are really quite unfounded if you look at the situation in a more rational light.
The point is, did you buy or steal the thing that you are trying to install on your computer. A more correct analogy would be is if your car had some sort of system that could detect if you had bought the car radio you are trying to install, or if you just nicked it from someone else.
That is the difference here.
I was referring to the relative merits of the Control Panel method as compared to typing 'xf86cfg'. Of course if they know either operating system well then the point is moot, but a newcomer to PCs would have a much better guess as to what 'Control Panel' and 'Display' means than 'xf86cfg'.
I think it's ridiculous that my comment get moderated down as a Troll. I am serious about the points I made there, and I wasn't fishing for bites at all.
Just because you disagree with it doesn't mean it's a troll! I imagine most reasonable people would disagree with the popular opinion on slashdot regarding copyright and theft.
They're going to have a bit of a problem determining the posting date, as the date header in the http response can quite easily be forged.
I suppose this is where things like Google cache and the Wayback archive come in useful, (IANAL) but it seems to me that for them to be trusted, further legislation and rulings would be necessary to give them reliable legal status.
And, like, what if someone hacked them? These things need to be considered!
This article is the usual paranoid rhetoric about how Microsoft is evil and going to take over the world, disguised under some serious journalism.
This is the same thing people were whinging on about four years ago, and it still hasn't happened yet.
And DRM technology makes sense in many ways - sometimes I get the impression that a lot of people who post to these discussions don't quite get the fact that if someone has something for sale, and you want it, then you should pay for it and not bootleg or steal it.
You could call it a lack of moral common sense, perhaps.
- Microsoft's Outlook products have bugs and design flaws that allow them to spread easily, with barely any human intervention.
- Most people new to computers start off using Windows as it is the industry standard, and they don't know enough about the system to avoid doing things like, for example, opening and running executable attachments.
I would guess that if Linux was as popular as Windows is, then many new users of computers would use that too and make similar mistakes.Outlook is an application that runs on the operating system, not part of the OS itself. This is a problem inherent in a particular piece of Microsoft software, and not Windows itself. I agree with you though, they were very careless in the creation of this product and most of the blame lies there.
It'll be interesting to see what effects the 'sandboxing' features of
As for your suspend/unsuspend feature on your laptop - this is also available in Windows. In Windows XP, there is also a similar feature that allows the computer to be completely switched off - it is called 'Hibernate' and is very useful when moving machines with no built in suspend functionality, such as desktops.
No .. I'm not trolling or trying to be funny, I'm completely serious.
Thanks, it took ages to bump up the uids high enough to get that one :-)
My only qualm with the multi-user stuff is that if you're logging in to a domain, you can't use the terminal services stuff like fast user switching. And being able to do a remote admin login like Windows 2000 Server would be pretty useful too.
But for standalone home use, it's great.
I'm not being defeatist - this isn't a battle.
It's just a case of using the most appropriate technology for the task at hand. Windows is the most appropriate for most desktop users, and recently has the added benefit that it is pretty damn stable too.
I use Windows XP at home, and since installing it four months ago, have only rebooted three times - twice for Windows Update (comparable to the reboot required when doing a kernel update in Linux) and once because of a power cut.
I've had some stability issues in individual applications, some from Microsoft but most not. But it didn't bring the rest of the OS down, I just killed the process and started again.
If anyone is interested, the source code for PS2 BASIC is here.
It gives basic access to a few features of the PS2. For example double buffering, using the setdrawbuf command, and gourad shaded triangles, using gtriangle. Enough to play around with for a while when you're bored of the games.
Maybe someone can port yabasic to PS2 Linux to use the extra functionality exposed there?
Because Lindows hardly measures up to Windows XP at all. It may be better than, say, Windows 95 or 98 due to stability and a decent GUI, but times have moved on since then.
NT-based Windows systems are actually pretty good. The main benefit of a Linux based system, stability, has been negated as Windows caught up quite a while ago.
Features like 'open source' and '$150 cheaper' aren't really bonuses to most PC users, when it doesn't have the feature 'runs all my Windows programs and games just fine' implemented correctly.
The difference is, Control Panel -> Display -> Settings is a lot more obvious than running a program called 'xf86cfg'.
He's half right though - Windows is the standard.
Except I realise, shortly after posting this, that yabasic isn't available in the US because they use NTSC, and we (in Europe) use PAL.
What disappointed me in that article was the lack of emphasis on actually using the thing to write software. What tools are available? Is there any additional libraries for using the custom PS2 chips?
Another thing is, some PS2s come with a copy of yabasic, giving it the feel of the the old 8 bit micro days where you could write your own BASIC programs, and save them onto the memory cards. You can use any USB keyboard for input to this. It seems to me, if you want to program the PS/2, this is a much more accessible choice!
If you're really stuck for something new and interesting, make your own designs and get them printed.
Check out The Oasis if you happen to live near Birmingham city centre in the UK, they'll print 'em off at a fiver each.
This article describes the ice storm in a bit more detail.
At least with nuclear waste you can choose where you dump it. With the smoke from diesel engines, you have no such choice.