a large, flat touchscreen
with the rest mostly hidden.
That's been the obvious next step in computers for so long that everyone forgot all about it. Duh!!! Yes, tablet computers are what I really want for the typical desktop/laptop work. That is, flat touchscreen about the size of letter paper, MB and drives under the screen, you can carry it around and use handwriting or voice recognition, or prop it up on the desk and plug in a keyboard. But if I could get everything I wanted, that wouldn't be my _best_ machine.
I'm an engineer that sometimes gets into serious hardware design. The best machine to do CAD on would be a gigantic (2 x 3 foot minimum) touchscreen, mounted on an adjustable tilted table. Like the old drafting boards. The ergonomics of that system were pretty good, except that when you drew with ink on paper, you really hated to have changes come along and have to re-draw it all. But it would be great to do CAD with a stylus on a drafting board...
Of course, underneath that touchscreen drafting table would be a big old tower box, where there was room to add anything I wanted...
Yeah, I've seen wirewrap boards running OK in the 8MHz ISA slot. For PCI. you not only have to do a clean layout of a custom board, you've probably got to do a multi-layer board (need those power and ground planes).
However, AFAIK it would be very easy to interface custom circuits to the USB bus. The software will get more complex than running a custom ISA bus card under DOS by directly accessing the registers was, but driving that ISA card from Windows isn't easy, either. USB 1.0 is somewhat slower than even the original IBM PC bus was (4.77MHz x 8 bits is better than 12MHz x 1 bit), but USB 2.0 sounds like it's going to be very, very fast.
Ribbon cables give you flexibility in locating the drive connectors. Mechanically, sliding drives into a fixed connector doesn't work unless everyone makes the drives the exact same size put the connector in the exact same place. You can get that in SCSI racks (I'm not sure about interchangeability between brands), but it's pricey. It's cheaper to make the drive only as tall and long as needed, and put the connector wherever is easiest to reach the internal connections.
IMHO large chunks of the problem could be solved by taking advantage of both sides of the motherboard. Put the CPU and most of the misc. chips on one side, put the expansion slots and RAM on the other.
First, many people would say that you should get rid of the card slots and hang any add-ons outside the box on the USB or Firewire boxes. I'm not going to address that -- it's OK for those who won't do much with their 'puters, and it would save $10 to $30 in parts, but I want those slots!
The change to the case is rather minor: tall standoffs for MB mounting, make the case an inch or two thicker but smaller in other dimensions. There would be resistance from people who were worried about being able to get a new MB to fit that case when needed, but this hasn't stopped case evolution before. And I do see a trend towards shorter, more cube-like towers. However, there are some real manufacturing & physical difficulties. They're solvable, but might run the costs up:
1. The CPU heatsink has to change considerably, because you won't want to waste the two+ inches of space needed for a conventional heat-sink/fan. How about a liquid cooling bag using that side of the case as the radiator? Does that cost a lot more?
2. Most motherboards presently use bus and RAM connectors with wave-soldered through-hole pins. That is, the MB end of the connector is male pins, which go through holes on the board, then they are soldered all at once by pumping liquid solder up to the bottom of the board as it goes down a conveyor. You cannot put the CPU socket through this, and it's probably not a good idea to put the chipset's giant IC's through the wave either. (Small capacitors and resistors are OK on the wave-solder side, and it's quite common to find them on the bottom of a MB.)
3. Also, if you are using through-hole connectors and a board not much bigger than required to hold the connectors, where do you put the CPU and other big chips that don't conflict with a through-hole pin?
The solution to #2 and #3 is obviously to change to surface-mount (SMT) connectors. They cost more now, although that would change if more MB manufacturers ordered them. But at present they are also more trouble-prone than the through-hole parts. There's been more than 60 years of work done on improving wave-solder yields, and about 20 on SMT, so we get more defects in SMT, and the testers aren't as good at finding them.
Finally, bus connectors take quite a lot of force when inserting and removing boards. There's no chance of through-hole connectors pulling loose from that, because the holes in the board were plated with copper, and the solder goes all the way through and broadens out like a rivet at each end. It's not going anywhere unless the solder breaks at one end and the copper separates from the board everywhere else; I have no idea of the breaking strength of the pin/solder connection, because if I hook a hydraulic puller onto a through-hole connector either the connector body or the fiberglass-epoxy board will break first.
SMT has a lot less inherent strength; the pads are just laminated onto the top of the board, and can pull off. So the connectors have to also have pegs or screws that go through the board and are fastened on the other side. In a PCI connector, you can only put pegs at the end, so the connector body has to be rigid enough that the middle won't pull up. This is another reason (besides lower production volumes) that SMT connectors are more costly -- extra plastic is expensive.
OTOH, we put the through-hole connectors in by hand and the SMT by machine. All the issues are potentially solvable (sometimes by spending more on parts and machines and less on labor), and I expect that in another 10 years pure SMT will become cheaper than the present SMT/throughhole hybrid technologies. It just hasn't happened yet, and I have no idea what PC's will look like by the time SMT bus connectors do become common.
Do keep in mind that the custom-built MaxiMog is not one of those SUV's. If you just want to have the biggest, meanest vehicle on the freeway, get a semi-truck; it's more "macho", costs less, is no harder to drive, and will go faster unloaded. At 13,500 pounds empty weight and a 5.7 liter engine (far from the largest available), the MaxiMog isn't going to be zipping past you on the freeway, but it is geared to slog along on dirt tracks while carrying 3,000 pounds of gear and fuel, with a trailer bringing the total loaded weight to 30,500 pounds. This is off-roading in style --and considerable excess!
It seems one of most common questions is 'Can I apply to take a ride on the Space Shuttle?' (A very polite 'No' in case you were wondering. Presumably the Russian Space Agency have a different answer to this one...)
Why the Russians will sell space rides and NASA won't: the Russians aren't worried about being sued if the thing explodes.
The ISS is not the right platform for assembling a manned Mars mission, but neither is Cape Canaveral. Mars Direct just shows that NASA would rather repeat their mistakes than admit their Apollo program was flawed. The "Moon Direct" mission plan came about when the mission turned from true exploration/science into a publicity stunt to be executed as fast as possible. It got two men to the moon in about 7 years, but the work they were able to do was quite limited, and going back more than a few times was too expensive.
With Mars, let's take our time, and put together a mission that has enough people, equipment, and supplies to really accomplish something. That will be far too big to launch in one piece...
OK, finally got enough of the main page to see the FAQ link -- and it downloads instantly. (See how much better text works?)
WHY WAS IT BUILT?
The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle and trailer was built because it's owner plans to drive around the world to remote and hard to get to places doing both photography and scientific exploration. Contrary to what many people believe, most of our planet is still relatively unexplored. After a year of research, he determined that a custom vehicle would have to be built to meet his requirements. The MaxiMog(TM) is the first pass at that solution and is a work in progress.
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WHY A VEHICLE, TRAILER AND MOTORBIKE?
To provide the most flexibly. The hybrid system allows the vehicle or motorbike to go off exploring while the trailer remains behind as a base camp. The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle alone can be used by itself for small expeditions that don't require sleeping, kitchen or toilet facilities.
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WHY IS IT CALLED AN EXPEDITION SYSTEM?
Because the various components including the vehicle, trailer, motorbike, underwater submersible (ROV), remote surveillance aircraft (UAV), Jet Boat, and modular electronics systems are designed to be easily interchangeable, and work together as a coordinated whole.
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WHAT WAS IT BASED ON?
The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle is based upon a highly modified Mercedes Benz Unimog U90 chassis. At this point about 30% is original. The MaxiMog(TM) trailer was designed and built from scratch.
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WHAT'S ITS DRIVING RANGE?
The vehicle has a design driving cruise range of about 1200 miles without refueling. Obviously this MPG rating is affected up or down based upon speed and terrain.
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HOW MUCH DOES IT WEIGH?
The vehicle weights approximately 16,500 pounds loaded, and the trailer weighs about 14,000 pounds.
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FROM THE PICTURES, IT LOOKS TOP HEAVY.
While the vehicle has a high profile to provide adequate internal headroom (BTW - It's the same height as the original Unimog U90 chassis on which it was based.), the center of gravity is quite low due to the placement of heavy items such as the Engine, Generator, Batteries and Fuel Tanks. Additionally, the vehicle has front and rear antisway bars and an auto leveling air suspension system to assist in dynamic stability.
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DON'T THOSE NERF BARS HURT GROUND CLEARANCE?
The Nerf Bars (side steps) are shown extended in the pictures on the site. When driving, they are pneumatically retracted.
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WHY SO MUCH CHROME!?
There is actually no chrome anywhere on the Maximog(TM). Everything you see that looks like chrome (including the 4 front bumper mounted 5 gallon water tanks) is solid 316 stainless steel alloy with a natural polished finish. Beyond corrosion resistance and appearance, the polished finish minimizes adhesion of snow, ice and mud.
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DOES THE TRAILER HAVE TO BE CONNECTED TO THE MAXIMOG(TM) VEHICLE TO GET POWER AND COMMUNICATIONS?
While the trailer can be connected to the trailer for power, communications and data, it does not need to. It has it's own water cooled quiet 25KW generator which can supply power, air conditioning or heat, or hydraulic power to operate the wheel motors at low speeds (Both 4 wheel drive and steering) for campsite positioning or power assist for off road mobility.
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CAN IT STAY IN COMMUNICATION AND CONNECT TO THE INTERNET IN VERY REMOTE AREAS?
Yes. It has multiple long range communications systems for plain or secure message traffic in addition to short range VHF and UHF transceivers for short and medium range use. The principally long range (non-emergency) communications systems are Inmarsat-B/C/Mini-M, Globalstar LEO, and a HF/ALE (High Frequency/Automatic Link Establishment) transceiver for low bandwidth communications in areas where there is no satellite visibility. Asymmetrical data-only internet connectivity for wideband downloads can be accomplished via a tracking DSS satellite dish if within the satellite footprint. When wideband video Uplink capability is required an independent satellite system is carried on board the Vehicle or trailer.
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WHAT IF IT BREAKS DOWN?
The MaxiMog(TM) carries a significant compliment of spare parts and tools to effect field repairs. It is also designed so that critical systems have backups and automatic systems can be isolated and operated manually if needed. However in the event of a serious component failure such as a broken drive-line component, the approach is to take the BMW R1150GS bike and get help, or use the global communications system to get parts and tools driven or flown in.
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HOW GOOD IS IT FOR ROCK CRAWLING AND EXTREME OFF ROADING?
Simply stated, it's an expedition vehicle, not a recreational vehicle. While it is designed for severe off road conditions whenever encountered, this is a vehicle that is intended for long duration expeditions, not "seeing what it can do" by traversing technical trails created by off road enthusiasts. However, the Maximog(TM) chassis provides 20+" of suspension travel, 25" inches of ground clearance (worst case, under the differential housings), positive locking differentials, CTIS, variable ride height, adjustable shock absorber compliance, and air shifted transfer case for low range operation. This makes it quite capable in a broad variety of off road conditions.
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BUT WON'T IT GET STUCK OFF ROAD IF TOWING THE TRAILER?
The Maximog(TM) trailer is designed for the same off-road operation conditions as the Maximog(TM) vehicle. It has a ruggedized chassis, the same 25" ground clearance, and the same air suspension and adjustable shock which are coordinated in operation with the tow vehicle. Additionally, the trailer is a fully powered 4X4 using computer controlled hydraulic wheel motors so the combined MaxiMog(TM) + Trailer functions as an 8X8 with coordinated drive, suspension ride height and compliance, and CTIS operation. The front wheels are steered so the vehicle and trailer combined has the same turn radius as the vehicle alone.
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HOW DO YOU CHANGE A TIRE AND WHAT DO THEY WEIGH?
Fortunately, this size of heavy duty Michelin tire doesn't get a lot of punctures and if it's a slow leak the Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS) can often keep up with it. When you do need to change a tire, the vehicle has a tire lowering winch built into the swing away spare tire holder that easily lowers it to the ground or raises it into the storage position. Depending upon which tire size and tread pattern (highway, off-road or combination) is fitted, the weight is between 325 and 400 pounds each.
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WHY THE BIG TELESCOPIC MAST?
The mast has a variety of uses. It can elevate an electro optics package for long range observation and rangefinding (day or night). It is also used to mount communications antennas to increase point-to-point communications range. This is especially useful for flying the UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) at long range, and to increase the service area of portable communications devices like walkie talkies (using the onboard VHF and UHF repeaters). A chair can also be fitted to the mast to elevate a person for direct observation. The mast has a tilt-down facility which facilitates loading heavy items on top from ground level. It has a static payload capacity of 350 pounds.
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WHAT IF IT GETS STUCK?
It has 20,000lb capacity (continuous duty) front and rear hydraulic winches with 150' stainless steel cables. The winches are dual speed units and may be controlled locally from the drivers cab, or remotely via a safety interlocked radio remote control system. The vehicle also carries a variety of hydraulically powered accessory tools including an submersible chain saw, impact wrench, bolt/cable cutter, grinder, and multi-purpose push-pull jacks.
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IS IT LEGAL TO DRIVE IN THE USA?
Yes, once certified and licensed it is fully legal to drive on any road that is rated for it's weight (all major roads and highways) and height (10'6"). It meets California emissions standards and all applicable DOT/FMVSS/EPA regulations. The MaxiMog(TM) is a Truck not an SUV and requires a driver's license for a heavy (over 12,500lbs) vehicle with air brakes.
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HOW IS THE TRAILER CONSTRUCTED?
It is a composite panel structure using a sandwich of fiberglass reinforced plastic, thermal insulating foam, and electrical shielding to provide lightning protection. These custom panels are fabricated with internal metal tubes and fittings to provide reinforcement where needed. Unicat in Germany is expert at this construction technique which yields an excellent strength to weight ratio and superior thermal insulation for extreme heat or cold.
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HOW DOES THE TRAILER FOLD AND UNFOLD?
The trailer uses a new system which combines a lifting roof with two interchangeable side mounted Swingout® modules (patent pending). These modules are electrically operated with a microprocessor based motion control and safety system doing the motion control coordination. It takes approximately 5 minutes to complete its fold/unfold cycle (limited to this speed for safety). When in its folded state the trailer is fully protected (all glass covered) and the overall size as the MaxiMog(TM) vehicle. When it unfolds, there is approximately double the internal volume. There are seven steps to the fold/unfold process.
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DOES IT HAVE A TV AND AM/FM?
Yes to both with DSS satellite TV capability.
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DOES IT FLY?
Not intentionally...
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WHO DESIGNED IT?
The vehicle was designed by Bran Ferren of Applied Minds Inc in collaboration with Thomas Ritter of Unicat. He can be reached at bran@AppliedMinds.net.
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WHO BUILT IT?
Thomas Ritter at his company Unicat based in Hambrücken Germany was selected as the best and most experienced manufacturer to build the vehicle he designed, and the staff at Applied Minds in Glendale California did the technology systems design and integration.
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WHAT DOES IT COST AND CAN I BUY ONE?
Well, let's just say that it costs more than a Hummer and Less than a Boeing 777 -- and you can't buy this one. However, you can have one built just like it, or to your precise specifications by the same company, Unicat. For more information please contact Thomas Ritter
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Read the site's FAQ??? I started downloading the main page in another window before I started reading comments -- 20 or 30 comments later, still waiting on that download.
Well, I don't think any OS has ever been short of undeletion tools DOS 3.3 and earlier? Undelete was actually ridiculously simple -- all del did was to change the first letter of the filename in the directory to an illegal character ("?") and mark the space as free -- so eventually there were third party commercial and even shareware utilities, but Microsoft didn't release an undelete utility with the OS until at least v. 4.0.
(This wasn't the only obvious and useful utility that was missing although it would only take someone who knew their way around the DOS source a few hours to write it. I have to figure that MS programmers either didn't use DOS much, or else didn't release the tools they used themselves when working in it.)
Problem is, in most cases there was an unencrypted file before the encrypted file was created. I don't see how you could write an encryption program that didn't store the plaintext first. So you "deleted" the temporary plaintext file -- but all that means is that it marked the filename as deleted in the directory and the space as available for re-use. Until the space actually is re-used, it takes just a few minutes to find the "deleted" file with the proper utilities.
Worse, you may well have multiple copies of the plaintext on your drive, because every time you open that encrypted file, a decrypted temporary file must be created. (And if you never open it, why are you keeping it?)
The solution of course is to use a program that physically overwrites the data. Do that once, and you are safe as far as someone sniffing with Norton Utilities is concerned. The data could still be recovered by electron microscope or something, but how many of us really have secrets worth (1) physically removing the drive, (2) taking it apart, and (3) paying some lab 5 or 6 figures for the electron-microscope work?
If you've got a budget for the data conversion, follow the link in the article to E-mag. They do conversion too. In fact, it looks like they're counting on getting _more_ conversion business from this!
Here is a discussion of smart card security by cryptographer & computer security expert Bruce Schneier. It's pretty hard reading, but the main point is that, by depending on an external keypad and display, the smart cards allow a lot of new security breaks. For example, a hacked ATM terminal may steal your PIN and also divert the money -- the screen says your deposit is going to your account, but actually it's going to the somewhere in Belize, from which it will be untraceably transferred before you find out you've been robbed.
Bruce didn't consider putting a fingerprint sensor in the card itself. That will rule out some breaks -- neither stealing the PIN by "wiretapping" (and European PIN keypads have some protection against that), nor stealing the card and beating the PIN out of you will get someone into your accounts. But other vulnerabilities still remain. If you build the keys and display into the card itself, you may be quite a lot more secure -- especially if the card does good enough encryption internally and talks directly to the server, which is the only thing outside of the card which knows the key.
But then you've got the case of the Saudi terrorist (say) with a German ID (say), at a traffic stop in Maryland. Will the police car be carrying equipment that can query a database in Germany? Will results come back in a reasonable time? And even if they do, why would a German database show that the FBI wants this guy?
There is also the big issue of how identity is confirmed when someone is first entered into the system. Anyone with my birth certificate and social security number could get an ID in my name, and the SSN is in all sorts of records while you don't have to prove identity to get the birth certificate. If I'm alive and in the system, it should notice the duplication, but there are plenty of dead people to choose from. Internationally, there are many nations where records got blown up or never were complete, so you've pretty much got to take people's word about their identity.
So there is a new national driver's license with thumbprints. Which will be issued by the same old state driver license bureau clerks, who will accept almost anything as proof of identity (especially bribes in some places)... So it will be entirely possible for a criminal to have a half dozen licenses under a half dozen differnt names, actually issued from the databases. (The technology for matching thumbprints is nowhere up to the task of detecting duplicates -- it's hard enough for the FBI to check the prints of one suspect against their much smaller database of known criminals, they aren't going to be trying to check everyones prints against everyone else.)
And of course, the guys that fake drivers licenses, or steal a valid one and change the picture with exacto knife and a laminating machine will now have to change the thumbprint too, if you are planning to use it for more than getting into bars. Big deal.
Certainly not environmentally friendly. I've got this mental picture of a whole pod of killer whales strung together on one tape, passed through each from mouth to rear. 8-)
First, e-mag made the tape, not the drives. But if they are no longer selling enough tape to justify keeping a production line going, I think the drives must have been out of production for a few years already. The drives are big, sturdy, industrial quality equipment; with a little maintenance they are probably good for 20 to 30 years, IF you can manage to keep interfacing them to newer computers. But I'd expect most of them to be over 15 years old already.
Second, magnetic tape deteriorates with age. The base material gets brittle. The magnetic patterns slowly demagnetize, and also can "print through" to the next layer of tape.
Brittleness can be delayed by proper storage (controlled humidity and temperature) plus winding the tape onto a new spool every two or three years. These tapes were relatively low density, with big and heavily magnetized areas, so demagnetization and print through affect them more slowly than most formats. But I think that after 10 or 15 years, they are overdue to be copied to something else.
E-mag does have a "datalink" service doing that -- or, it can take data in more modern formats and mail it out on 9-track, if you've got customers that still need it. But it is _really_ time to replace the 9-track drives and copy the data to new media. Someday any format you pick will go obsolete too and make more business for e-mag's service... They seem to favor "3408" whatever that is (another tape format?), but I'd suggest using a very good CD-R if you don't want to go through this again too soon. You can be pretty sure that the data on a good CD-R will survive for longer than drives are made, and that will be a few decades. That is, many DVD drives are backwards compatible to read CD-R's, and when they replace DVD's, the best of the new drives will still be backwards compatible all the way to CD-R's. Note that drives that could read 5-1/4 360K floppy disks hit the market about 1981, 360K/1.2M drives were standard equipment for drive B in 1991, and I doubt they are entirely out of production even now. The 3-1/2 1.44M drives are going to exceed 15 years on the market. But those were never consumer products; CD's are, so replacing them will take much longer.
Farraday cages around each country. I thought about that, but my post was getting too long already. Just think of the boost to the aluminum netting industry! 8-)
However, it is quite possible to internet-filter a whole country. Saudi Arabia does. China is trying to. However, my feeling is that a country that actually does that is not only centuries behind the times already, but will continue to fall further behind the free nations at a rate exceeding 100 years per century. Now all we have to do is make the USA a free nation again...
What are the laws like covering broadcasts and how are they enforced? I think that the laws covering broadcasts across borders are pretty confused at this point. One thing is that most border crossing is accidental -- that is, the intended audience is quite clearly in the same jurisdiction as the broadcast antenna, and it's not the broadcaster's fault that the laws of physics don't allow radio waves to stop cleanly at the border. However, they don't normally travel several thousand miles past the border, while the internet does.
The other thing is that in hostile situations, it's been fairly common for one country to deliberately beam propaganda to another, in the other country's language. (Lord Hawhaw, Tokyo Rose, Radio Free Europe,...) But in those cases, it was hardly possible for the target countries to get the broadcasters into their courts.
A few years ago I did hear of efforts in the UN to get an international law established concerning broadcasting, which would have given the laws and courts in a recipient country jurisdiction against beamed-in broadcasts. The General Assembly is numerically dominated by tin-pot third world dictators and corrupt politicians; naturally such "leaders" want to be able to outlaw anyone letting the people know how badly they are being scr***d. I'm not sure how far that got. It sounded like some of the liberal-fascists in the Clinton administration were sympathetic. The US couldn't sign on without violating the 1st Amendment, but I'm sure there are government officials that would like to give foreigners the ability to do what they can't... OTOH, the US wouldn't like to give up beaming signals into Cuba, North Korea, Serbia, Afghanistan, or whatever "terrorist" or "genocidal" target du jour.
Right, it's going to be a niche market. But if it really works, it could be a very important niche. Plenty of businesses that buy Windows & MS Office licenses by the 100's are getting sick and tired of the continuous upgrade-and-wait-for-bug-fixes treadmill. Linux + KDE or Gnome + Star Office sounds good enough for most internal corporate operations now, although with a quite difficult changeover and retraining period. But we've also got to continue exchanging documents with our customers, some of whom are unaware that there are any non-MS OS's... Star Office is probably going to be perpetually _almost_ good enough at importing and exporting Office files, because it's in MS's own self-interest to keep breaking the file formats.
So if we converted to Linux right now, about 20% of our people would have to either have dual boot Windows/Linux boxes, or dual boxes. That gets pretty expensive. Also, I've got this feeling that no matter how the antitrust settlement comes out, when we go to buy site licenses for that 20%, there will be some sort of problem when MS discovers that we aren't buying Windoze for _all_ the boxes. Suppose we could buy Lindows for that 20% instead? That's a significant direct cost savings over the same # of Windows licenses. The users won't have to reboot from Linux into Windows to get Word running, which is a considerable time savings.
Or we could ease the transition a lot by starting with a 75% Windows, 25% Lindows shop and gradually moving more to Linux until Windows was gone and only those people with a real need to interchange data with outside Windows shops still used Lindows.
One final note: engineering has quite a lot of archived projects in Windows-only CAD systems (Orcad, for instance). We will need to keep the capability of printing out and updating those designs practically forever. Buying the newest version of Windows every couple of years really doesn't cut it, because eventually one of their new "features" is going to render the old applications inoperable. Any chance we'll be able to run those apps in some version of Lindows or Wine?
I think the point is to (1) have a way by which servers can be set to recognize & reject bogus return addresses, and (2) get enough servers running this way so that the ones that don't download the patches can be blocked without major disruptions. Spam aside, if we keep giving equal rights on the net to insecure boxes and outdated server programs, eventually any 10 year old with a DDOS script is going to be able to recruit enough zombies to bring the net down world-wide. So at some point we've got to black-hole those that aren't even making an effort...
OTOH, I really don't want to rule out anonymous mail entirely. Let's make an exception: false-names get black-holed, but return address = "anonymous.coward" (say) gets passed through the backbone. Individual users can choose whether or not to bounce anonymous mail, and if a server is getting overloaded those may go first.
The other issue is that there are some legitimate reasons for wanting responses to come back to a different IP address than the sender. So it should be possible for you to convince the server that you do own an alternate return address, and have it accept that as legitimate, or even do the address change for you. But I'm not sure the extra code complexity would be acceptable in all server installations...
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a large, flat touchscreen
with the rest mostly hidden.
That's been the obvious next step in computers for so long that everyone forgot all about it. Duh!!! Yes, tablet computers are what I really want for the typical desktop/laptop work. That is, flat touchscreen about the size of letter paper, MB and drives under the screen, you can carry it around and use handwriting or voice recognition, or prop it up on the desk and plug in a keyboard. But if I could get everything I wanted, that wouldn't be my _best_ machine.
I'm an engineer that sometimes gets into serious hardware design. The best machine to do CAD on would be a gigantic (2 x 3 foot minimum) touchscreen, mounted on an adjustable tilted table. Like the old drafting boards. The ergonomics of that system were pretty good, except that when you drew with ink on paper, you really hated to have changes come along and have to re-draw it all. But it would be great to do CAD with a stylus on a drafting board...
Of course, underneath that touchscreen drafting table would be a big old tower box, where there was room to add anything I wanted...
Yeah, I've seen wirewrap boards running OK in the 8MHz ISA slot. For PCI. you not only have to do a clean layout of a custom board, you've probably got to do a multi-layer board (need those power and ground planes).
However, AFAIK it would be very easy to interface custom circuits to the USB bus. The software will get more complex than running a custom ISA bus card under DOS by directly accessing the registers was, but driving that ISA card from Windows isn't easy, either. USB 1.0 is somewhat slower than even the original IBM PC bus was (4.77MHz x 8 bits is better than 12MHz x 1 bit), but USB 2.0 sounds like it's going to be very, very fast.
You can get expansion chassis. For instance, the PCXI chassis and cards at www.natinst.com
They are (and always have been) pretty expensive. It's not a mass-market item.
Isn't PC-104 just the ISA bus on different connectors? Horribly SLOW.
Ribbon cables give you flexibility in locating the drive connectors. Mechanically, sliding drives into a fixed connector doesn't work unless everyone makes the drives the exact same size put the connector in the exact same place. You can get that in SCSI racks (I'm not sure about interchangeability between brands), but it's pricey. It's cheaper to make the drive only as tall and long as needed, and put the connector wherever is easiest to reach the internal connections.
IMHO large chunks of the problem could be solved by taking advantage of both sides of the motherboard. Put the CPU and most of the misc. chips on one side, put the expansion slots and RAM on the other.
First, many people would say that you should get rid of the card slots and hang any add-ons outside the box on the USB or Firewire boxes. I'm not going to address that -- it's OK for those who won't do much with their 'puters, and it would save $10 to $30 in parts, but I want those slots!
The change to the case is rather minor: tall standoffs for MB mounting, make the case an inch or two thicker but smaller in other dimensions. There would be resistance from people who were worried about being able to get a new MB to fit that case when needed, but this hasn't stopped case evolution before. And I do see a trend towards shorter, more cube-like towers. However, there are some real manufacturing & physical difficulties. They're solvable, but might run the costs up:
1. The CPU heatsink has to change considerably, because you won't want to waste the two+ inches of space needed for a conventional heat-sink/fan. How about a liquid cooling bag using that side of the case as the radiator? Does that cost a lot more?
2. Most motherboards presently use bus and RAM connectors with wave-soldered through-hole pins. That is, the MB end of the connector is male pins, which go through holes on the board, then they are soldered all at once by pumping liquid solder up to the bottom of the board as it goes down a conveyor. You cannot put the CPU socket through this, and it's probably not a good idea to put the chipset's giant IC's through the wave either. (Small capacitors and resistors are OK on the wave-solder side, and it's quite common to find them on the bottom of a MB.)
3. Also, if you are using through-hole connectors and a board not much bigger than required to hold the connectors, where do you put the CPU and other big chips that don't conflict with a through-hole pin?
The solution to #2 and #3 is obviously to change to surface-mount (SMT) connectors. They cost more now, although that would change if more MB manufacturers ordered them. But at present they are also more trouble-prone than the through-hole parts. There's been more than 60 years of work done on improving wave-solder yields, and about 20 on SMT, so we get more defects in SMT, and the testers aren't as good at finding them.
Finally, bus connectors take quite a lot of force when inserting and removing boards. There's no chance of through-hole connectors pulling loose from that, because the holes in the board were plated with copper, and the solder goes all the way through and broadens out like a rivet at each end. It's not going anywhere unless the solder breaks at one end and the copper separates from the board everywhere else; I have no idea of the breaking strength of the pin/solder connection, because if I hook a hydraulic puller onto a through-hole connector either the connector body or the fiberglass-epoxy board will break first.
SMT has a lot less inherent strength; the pads are just laminated onto the top of the board, and can pull off. So the connectors have to also have pegs or screws that go through the board and are fastened on the other side. In a PCI connector, you can only put pegs at the end, so the connector body has to be rigid enough that the middle won't pull up. This is another reason (besides lower production volumes) that SMT connectors are more costly -- extra plastic is expensive.
OTOH, we put the through-hole connectors in by hand and the SMT by machine. All the issues are potentially solvable (sometimes by spending more on parts and machines and less on labor), and I expect that in another 10 years pure SMT will become cheaper than the present SMT/throughhole hybrid technologies. It just hasn't happened yet, and I have no idea what PC's will look like by the time SMT bus connectors do become common.
Do keep in mind that the custom-built MaxiMog is not one of those SUV's. If you just want to have the biggest, meanest vehicle on the freeway, get a semi-truck; it's more "macho", costs less, is no harder to drive, and will go faster unloaded. At 13,500 pounds empty weight and a 5.7 liter engine (far from the largest available), the MaxiMog isn't going to be zipping past you on the freeway, but it is geared to slog along on dirt tracks while carrying 3,000 pounds of gear and fuel, with a trailer bringing the total loaded weight to 30,500 pounds. This is off-roading in style --and considerable excess!
Unless you are a caterpillar.
It seems one of most common questions is 'Can I apply to take a ride on the Space Shuttle?' (A very polite 'No' in case you were wondering. Presumably the Russian Space Agency have a different answer to this one ...)
Why the Russians will sell space rides and NASA won't: the Russians aren't worried about being sued if the thing explodes.
Spammers respirate, are carbon based, and do not constitute life.
Now you've got me dreaming about the sort of experiments that would have to be performed on captive spammers to confirm the first two claims...
The ISS is not the right platform for assembling a manned Mars mission, but neither is Cape Canaveral. Mars Direct just shows that NASA would rather repeat their mistakes than admit their Apollo program was flawed. The "Moon Direct" mission plan came about when the mission turned from true exploration/science into a publicity stunt to be executed as fast as possible. It got two men to the moon in about 7 years, but the work they were able to do was quite limited, and going back more than a few times was too expensive.
With Mars, let's take our time, and put together a mission that has enough people, equipment, and supplies to really accomplish something. That will be far too big to launch in one piece...
OK, finally got enough of the main page to see the FAQ link -- and it downloads instantly. (See how much better text works?)
WHY WAS IT BUILT?
The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle and trailer was built because it's owner plans to drive around the world to remote and hard to get to places doing both photography and scientific exploration. Contrary to what many people believe, most of our planet is still relatively unexplored. After a year of research, he determined that a custom vehicle would have to be built to meet his requirements. The MaxiMog(TM) is the first pass at that solution and is a work in progress.
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WHY A VEHICLE, TRAILER AND MOTORBIKE?
To provide the most flexibly. The hybrid system allows the vehicle or motorbike to go off exploring while the trailer remains behind as a base camp. The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle alone can be used by itself for small expeditions that don't require sleeping, kitchen or toilet facilities.
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WHY IS IT CALLED AN EXPEDITION SYSTEM?
Because the various components including the vehicle, trailer, motorbike, underwater submersible (ROV), remote surveillance aircraft (UAV), Jet Boat, and modular electronics systems are designed to be easily interchangeable, and work together as a coordinated whole.
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WHAT WAS IT BASED ON?
The MaxiMog(TM) vehicle is based upon a highly modified Mercedes Benz Unimog U90 chassis. At this point about 30% is original. The MaxiMog(TM) trailer was designed and built from scratch.
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WHAT'S ITS DRIVING RANGE?
The vehicle has a design driving cruise range of about 1200 miles without refueling. Obviously this MPG rating is affected up or down based upon speed and terrain.
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HOW MUCH DOES IT WEIGH?
The vehicle weights approximately 16,500 pounds loaded, and the trailer weighs about 14,000 pounds.
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FROM THE PICTURES, IT LOOKS TOP HEAVY.
While the vehicle has a high profile to provide adequate internal headroom (BTW - It's the same height as the original Unimog U90 chassis on which it was based.), the center of gravity is quite low due to the placement of heavy items such as the Engine, Generator, Batteries and Fuel Tanks. Additionally, the vehicle has front and rear antisway bars and an auto leveling air suspension system to assist in dynamic stability.
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DON'T THOSE NERF BARS HURT GROUND CLEARANCE?
The Nerf Bars (side steps) are shown extended in the pictures on the site. When driving, they are pneumatically retracted.
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WHY SO MUCH CHROME!?
There is actually no chrome anywhere on the Maximog(TM). Everything you see that looks like chrome (including the 4 front bumper mounted 5 gallon water tanks) is solid 316 stainless steel alloy with a natural polished finish. Beyond corrosion resistance and appearance, the polished finish minimizes adhesion of snow, ice and mud.
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DOES THE TRAILER HAVE TO BE CONNECTED TO THE MAXIMOG(TM) VEHICLE TO GET POWER AND COMMUNICATIONS?
While the trailer can be connected to the trailer for power, communications and data, it does not need to. It has it's own water cooled quiet 25KW generator which can supply power, air conditioning or heat, or hydraulic power to operate the wheel motors at low speeds (Both 4 wheel drive and steering) for campsite positioning or power assist for off road mobility.
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CAN IT STAY IN COMMUNICATION AND CONNECT TO THE INTERNET IN VERY REMOTE AREAS?
Yes. It has multiple long range communications systems for plain or secure message traffic in addition to short range VHF and UHF transceivers for short and medium range use. The principally long range (non-emergency) communications systems are Inmarsat-B/C/Mini-M, Globalstar LEO, and a HF/ALE (High Frequency/Automatic Link Establishment) transceiver for low bandwidth communications in areas where there is no satellite visibility. Asymmetrical data-only internet connectivity for wideband downloads can be accomplished via a tracking DSS satellite dish if within the satellite footprint. When wideband video Uplink capability is required an independent satellite system is carried on board the Vehicle or trailer.
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WHAT IF IT BREAKS DOWN?
The MaxiMog(TM) carries a significant compliment of spare parts and tools to effect field repairs. It is also designed so that critical systems have backups and automatic systems can be isolated and operated manually if needed. However in the event of a serious component failure such as a broken drive-line component, the approach is to take the BMW R1150GS bike and get help, or use the global communications system to get parts and tools driven or flown in.
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HOW GOOD IS IT FOR ROCK CRAWLING AND EXTREME OFF ROADING?
Simply stated, it's an expedition vehicle, not a recreational vehicle. While it is designed for severe off road conditions whenever encountered, this is a vehicle that is intended for long duration expeditions, not "seeing what it can do" by traversing technical trails created by off road enthusiasts. However, the Maximog(TM) chassis provides 20+" of suspension travel, 25" inches of ground clearance (worst case, under the differential housings), positive locking differentials, CTIS, variable ride height, adjustable shock absorber compliance, and air shifted transfer case for low range operation. This makes it quite capable in a broad variety of off road conditions.
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BUT WON'T IT GET STUCK OFF ROAD IF TOWING THE TRAILER?
The Maximog(TM) trailer is designed for the same off-road operation conditions as the Maximog(TM) vehicle. It has a ruggedized chassis, the same 25" ground clearance, and the same air suspension and adjustable shock which are coordinated in operation with the tow vehicle. Additionally, the trailer is a fully powered 4X4 using computer controlled hydraulic wheel motors so the combined MaxiMog(TM) + Trailer functions as an 8X8 with coordinated drive, suspension ride height and compliance, and CTIS operation. The front wheels are steered so the vehicle and trailer combined has the same turn radius as the vehicle alone.
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HOW DO YOU CHANGE A TIRE AND WHAT DO THEY WEIGH?
Fortunately, this size of heavy duty Michelin tire doesn't get a lot of punctures and if it's a slow leak the Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS) can often keep up with it. When you do need to change a tire, the vehicle has a tire lowering winch built into the swing away spare tire holder that easily lowers it to the ground or raises it into the storage position. Depending upon which tire size and tread pattern (highway, off-road or combination) is fitted, the weight is between 325 and 400 pounds each.
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WHY THE BIG TELESCOPIC MAST?
The mast has a variety of uses. It can elevate an electro optics package for long range observation and rangefinding (day or night). It is also used to mount communications antennas to increase point-to-point communications range. This is especially useful for flying the UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) at long range, and to increase the service area of portable communications devices like walkie talkies (using the onboard VHF and UHF repeaters). A chair can also be fitted to the mast to elevate a person for direct observation. The mast has a tilt-down facility which facilitates loading heavy items on top from ground level. It has a static payload capacity of 350 pounds.
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WHAT IF IT GETS STUCK?
It has 20,000lb capacity (continuous duty) front and rear hydraulic winches with 150' stainless steel cables. The winches are dual speed units and may be controlled locally from the drivers cab, or remotely via a safety interlocked radio remote control system. The vehicle also carries a variety of hydraulically powered accessory tools including an submersible chain saw, impact wrench, bolt/cable cutter, grinder, and multi-purpose push-pull jacks.
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IS IT LEGAL TO DRIVE IN THE USA?
Yes, once certified and licensed it is fully legal to drive on any road that is rated for it's weight (all major roads and highways) and height (10'6"). It meets California emissions standards and all applicable DOT/FMVSS/EPA regulations. The MaxiMog(TM) is a Truck not an SUV and requires a driver's license for a heavy (over 12,500lbs) vehicle with air brakes.
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HOW IS THE TRAILER CONSTRUCTED?
It is a composite panel structure using a sandwich of fiberglass reinforced plastic, thermal insulating foam, and electrical shielding to provide lightning protection. These custom panels are fabricated with internal metal tubes and fittings to provide reinforcement where needed. Unicat in Germany is expert at this construction technique which yields an excellent strength to weight ratio and superior thermal insulation for extreme heat or cold.
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HOW DOES THE TRAILER FOLD AND UNFOLD?
The trailer uses a new system which combines a lifting roof with two interchangeable side mounted Swingout® modules (patent pending). These modules are electrically operated with a microprocessor based motion control and safety system doing the motion control coordination. It takes approximately 5 minutes to complete its fold/unfold cycle (limited to this speed for safety). When in its folded state the trailer is fully protected (all glass covered) and the overall size as the MaxiMog(TM) vehicle. When it unfolds, there is approximately double the internal volume. There are seven steps to the fold/unfold process.
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DOES IT HAVE A TV AND AM/FM?
Yes to both with DSS satellite TV capability.
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DOES IT FLY?
Not intentionally...
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WHO DESIGNED IT?
The vehicle was designed by Bran Ferren of Applied Minds Inc in collaboration with Thomas Ritter of Unicat. He can be reached at bran@AppliedMinds.net.
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WHO BUILT IT?
Thomas Ritter at his company Unicat based in Hambrücken Germany was selected as the best and most experienced manufacturer to build the vehicle he designed, and the staff at Applied Minds in Glendale California did the technology systems design and integration.
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WHAT DOES IT COST AND CAN I BUY ONE?
Well, let's just say that it costs more than a Hummer and Less than a Boeing 777 -- and you can't buy this one. However, you can have one built just like it, or to your precise specifications by the same company, Unicat. For more information please contact Thomas Ritter
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Read the site's FAQ??? I started downloading the main page in another window before I started reading comments -- 20 or 30 comments later, still waiting on that download.
Well, I don't think any OS has ever been short of undeletion tools DOS 3.3 and earlier? Undelete was actually ridiculously simple -- all del did was to change the first letter of the filename in the directory to an illegal character ("?") and mark the space as free -- so eventually there were third party commercial and even shareware utilities, but Microsoft didn't release an undelete utility with the OS until at least v. 4.0.
(This wasn't the only obvious and useful utility that was missing although it would only take someone who knew their way around the DOS source a few hours to write it. I have to figure that MS programmers either didn't use DOS much, or else didn't release the tools they used themselves when working in it.)
Problem is, in most cases there was an unencrypted file before the encrypted file was created. I don't see how you could write an encryption program that didn't store the plaintext first. So you "deleted" the temporary plaintext file -- but all that means is that it marked the filename as deleted in the directory and the space as available for re-use. Until the space actually is re-used, it takes just a few minutes to find the "deleted" file with the proper utilities.
Worse, you may well have multiple copies of the plaintext on your drive, because every time you open that encrypted file, a decrypted temporary file must be created. (And if you never open it, why are you keeping it?)
The solution of course is to use a program that physically overwrites the data. Do that once, and you are safe as far as someone sniffing with Norton Utilities is concerned. The data could still be recovered by electron microscope or something, but how many of us really have secrets worth (1) physically removing the drive, (2) taking it apart, and (3) paying some lab 5 or 6 figures for the electron-microscope work?
If you've got a budget for the data conversion, follow the link in the article to E-mag. They do conversion too. In fact, it looks like they're counting on getting _more_ conversion business from this!
Here is a discussion of smart card security by cryptographer & computer security expert Bruce Schneier. It's pretty hard reading, but the main point is that, by depending on an external keypad and display, the smart cards allow a lot of new security breaks. For example, a hacked ATM terminal may steal your PIN and also divert the money -- the screen says your deposit is going to your account, but actually it's going to the somewhere in Belize, from which it will be untraceably transferred before you find out you've been robbed.
Bruce didn't consider putting a fingerprint sensor in the card itself. That will rule out some breaks -- neither stealing the PIN by "wiretapping" (and European PIN keypads have some protection against that), nor stealing the card and beating the PIN out of you will get someone into your accounts. But other vulnerabilities still remain. If you build the keys and display into the card itself, you may be quite a lot more secure -- especially if the card does good enough encryption internally and talks directly to the server, which is the only thing outside of the card which knows the key.
But then you've got the case of the Saudi terrorist (say) with a German ID (say), at a traffic stop in Maryland. Will the police car be carrying equipment that can query a database in Germany? Will results come back in a reasonable time? And even if they do, why would a German database show that the FBI wants this guy?
There is also the big issue of how identity is confirmed when someone is first entered into the system. Anyone with my birth certificate and social security number could get an ID in my name, and the SSN is in all sorts of records while you don't have to prove identity to get the birth certificate. If I'm alive and in the system, it should notice the duplication, but there are plenty of dead people to choose from. Internationally, there are many nations where records got blown up or never were complete, so you've pretty much got to take people's word about their identity.
So there is a new national driver's license with thumbprints. Which will be issued by the same old state driver license bureau clerks, who will accept almost anything as proof of identity (especially bribes in some places)... So it will be entirely possible for a criminal to have a half dozen licenses under a half dozen differnt names, actually issued from the databases. (The technology for matching thumbprints is nowhere up to the task of detecting duplicates -- it's hard enough for the FBI to check the prints of one suspect against their much smaller database of known criminals, they aren't going to be trying to check everyones prints against everyone else.)
And of course, the guys that fake drivers licenses, or steal a valid one and change the picture with exacto knife and a laminating machine will now have to change the thumbprint too, if you are planning to use it for more than getting into bars. Big deal.
Certainly not environmentally friendly. I've got this mental picture of a whole pod of killer whales strung together on one tape, passed through each from mouth to rear. 8-)
First, e-mag made the tape, not the drives. But if they are no longer selling enough tape to justify keeping a production line going, I think the drives must have been out of production for a few years already. The drives are big, sturdy, industrial quality equipment; with a little maintenance they are probably good for 20 to 30 years, IF you can manage to keep interfacing them to newer computers. But I'd expect most of them to be over 15 years old already.
Second, magnetic tape deteriorates with age. The base material gets brittle. The magnetic patterns slowly demagnetize, and also can "print through" to the next layer of tape.
Brittleness can be delayed by proper storage (controlled humidity and temperature) plus winding the tape onto a new spool every two or three years. These tapes were relatively low density, with big and heavily magnetized areas, so demagnetization and print through affect them more slowly than most formats. But I think that after 10 or 15 years, they are overdue to be copied to something else.
E-mag does have a "datalink" service doing that -- or, it can take data in more modern formats and mail it out on 9-track, if you've got customers that still need it. But it is _really_ time to replace the 9-track drives and copy the data to new media. Someday any format you pick will go obsolete too and make more business for e-mag's service... They seem to favor "3408" whatever that is (another tape format?), but I'd suggest using a very good CD-R if you don't want to go through this again too soon. You can be pretty sure that the data on a good CD-R will survive for longer than drives are made, and that will be a few decades. That is, many DVD drives are backwards compatible to read CD-R's, and when they replace DVD's, the best of the new drives will still be backwards compatible all the way to CD-R's. Note that drives that could read 5-1/4 360K floppy disks hit the market about 1981, 360K/1.2M drives were standard equipment for drive B in 1991, and I doubt they are entirely out of production even now. The 3-1/2 1.44M drives are going to exceed 15 years on the market. But those were never consumer products; CD's are, so replacing them will take much longer.
Farraday cages around each country. I thought about that, but my post was getting too long already. Just think of the boost to the aluminum netting industry! 8-)
However, it is quite possible to internet-filter a whole country. Saudi Arabia does. China is trying to. However, my feeling is that a country that actually does that is not only centuries behind the times already, but will continue to fall further behind the free nations at a rate exceeding 100 years per century. Now all we have to do is make the USA a free nation again...
What are the laws like covering broadcasts and how are they enforced? I think that the laws covering broadcasts across borders are pretty confused at this point. One thing is that most border crossing is accidental -- that is, the intended audience is quite clearly in the same jurisdiction as the broadcast antenna, and it's not the broadcaster's fault that the laws of physics don't allow radio waves to stop cleanly at the border. However, they don't normally travel several thousand miles past the border, while the internet does.
...) But in those cases, it was hardly possible for the target countries to get the broadcasters into their courts.
The other thing is that in hostile situations, it's been fairly common for one country to deliberately beam propaganda to another, in the other country's language. (Lord Hawhaw, Tokyo Rose, Radio Free Europe,
A few years ago I did hear of efforts in the UN to get an international law established concerning broadcasting, which would have given the laws and courts in a recipient country jurisdiction against beamed-in broadcasts. The General Assembly is numerically dominated by tin-pot third world dictators and corrupt politicians; naturally such "leaders" want to be able to outlaw anyone letting the people know how badly they are being scr***d. I'm not sure how far that got. It sounded like some of the liberal-fascists in the Clinton administration were sympathetic. The US couldn't sign on without violating the 1st Amendment, but I'm sure there are government officials that would like to give foreigners the ability to do what they can't... OTOH, the US wouldn't like to give up beaming signals into Cuba, North Korea, Serbia, Afghanistan, or whatever "terrorist" or "genocidal" target du jour.
Right, it's going to be a niche market. But if it really works, it could be a very important niche. Plenty of businesses that buy Windows & MS Office licenses by the 100's are getting sick and tired of the continuous upgrade-and-wait-for-bug-fixes treadmill. Linux + KDE or Gnome + Star Office sounds good enough for most internal corporate operations now, although with a quite difficult changeover and retraining period. But we've also got to continue exchanging documents with our customers, some of whom are unaware that there are any non-MS OS's... Star Office is probably going to be perpetually _almost_ good enough at importing and exporting Office files, because it's in MS's own self-interest to keep breaking the file formats.
So if we converted to Linux right now, about 20% of our people would have to either have dual boot Windows/Linux boxes, or dual boxes. That gets pretty expensive. Also, I've got this feeling that no matter how the antitrust settlement comes out, when we go to buy site licenses for that 20%, there will be some sort of problem when MS discovers that we aren't buying Windoze for _all_ the boxes. Suppose we could buy Lindows for that 20% instead? That's a significant direct cost savings over the same # of Windows licenses. The users won't have to reboot from Linux into Windows to get Word running, which is a considerable time savings.
Or we could ease the transition a lot by starting with a 75% Windows, 25% Lindows shop and gradually moving more to Linux until Windows was gone and only those people with a real need to interchange data with outside Windows shops still used Lindows.
One final note: engineering has quite a lot of archived projects in Windows-only CAD systems (Orcad, for instance). We will need to keep the capability of printing out and updating those designs practically forever. Buying the newest version of Windows every couple of years really doesn't cut it, because eventually one of their new "features" is going to render the old applications inoperable. Any chance we'll be able to run those apps in some version of Lindows or Wine?
I think the point is to (1) have a way by which servers can be set to recognize & reject bogus return addresses, and (2) get enough servers running this way so that the ones that don't download the patches can be blocked without major disruptions. Spam aside, if we keep giving equal rights on the net to insecure boxes and outdated server programs, eventually any 10 year old with a DDOS script is going to be able to recruit enough zombies to bring the net down world-wide. So at some point we've got to black-hole those that aren't even making an effort...
OTOH, I really don't want to rule out anonymous mail entirely. Let's make an exception: false-names get black-holed, but return address = "anonymous.coward" (say) gets passed through the backbone. Individual users can choose whether or not to bounce anonymous mail, and if a server is getting overloaded those may go first.
The other issue is that there are some legitimate reasons for wanting responses to come back to a different IP address than the sender. So it should be possible for you to convince the server that you do own an alternate return address, and have it accept that as legitimate, or even do the address change for you. But I'm not sure the extra code complexity would be acceptable in all server installations...
According to the Washington Post, she lost the workman's comp case -- they didn't believe the injury was real.