I'm also a proud Mini-ITX owner. I have the 800 MHz version with a small fan. Got a small 2.5" hard drive used (4 GB). Stick some RAM in there. I put mine in a Cubid 2766 box, which is very compact (it's far smaller in form factor than my VCR) and uses an efficient and quiet 12V DC powersupply; the AC power is rectified outside in a transformer brick that doesn't require active cooling.
Prices (as I recall.... YMMV):
800 Mhz EPIA... $100 128 MB RAM... $40 2.5" 4 GB HDD... $40 16X DVD-ROM drive... $25 (eBay) mini-adapter for DVD-ROM... $10 Case + DC-DC power supply... $60
for a grand total of... $275. And it can double as a DVD / digital media player.
BTW, I originally modded an acrylic cube to hold the computer. With no prior experience, I built a 7" cube to hold everything. I took it out because the power switches I used were difficult to press. I even used acrylic hinges. You can get just the power supply for $30.
I didn't do it for e-mail though. MythTV baby, so you gotta throw in a $150 hardware capture card to be perfectly fair when quoting the price of my system as-is.
To create hydrogen to be used as fuel (i.e.: break up H20 into 2H2 + 02), you need (a lot of) electricity, which fusion would be able to supply big time.
Sorry I'm used to laws of conservation... at first I just thought "if you're burning hydrogen as fuel, there's no way the amount of electricty you generate would be enough to split the water to feed the process"
But of course the energy of fusion is more than enough to split apart a weak little water molecule... perhaps he should've expounded more on this just by giving up some of the strings of long important words he talked about in response to other questions?
Most of Bush's answers seem to not make much sense or have major terminology errors...
But in the answer to question 6... "ITER is a critically important experiment to test the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity and hydrogen." (emphasis added)
Perhaps one of the many scientific reviewers that parsed his comments before sending them to nature should've let him know that fusion actually consumes hydrogen?
Oh and on question 3... is "fissile materials" really a word?
Do you think those Java capable mobile phones have the full blown Java API on them, and run standard non-preverified class files?
To elaborate, J2ME is not J2EE. You have a very limited API. Vector isn't supported. Neither is Serializable. Most of the IO is stripped out (you can add some back in through special extensions; most phones have some of that stuff so that J2ME can send SMS messages) UI is completely different, and only supports 4-5 primitive objects (List, Menu, Canvas, Textbox)
Images aren't mutable. Per pixel operations are generally not supported. You get the idea.
Everything has to fit in a JAR. I forget the maximum size of the JAR; it's just under 64K though. The verification step, which is usually performed by the ClassLoader when loading a.class file is performed on the development platform; its just too CPU and RAM intensive to do it on the device itself...
Blue LEDs used to be really expensive (they still are, compared to RED or fake Green), but they are still cheap enough to make [your favorite consumer electrics device] look cool.
I don't care about LEDs. I care about laser diodes. Blues currently can't be bought at any price.
In fact, there are only two "cost-effective" ways to make a blue laser:
1. Argon laser. This is pretty inefficient (none of the blue lines of argon are high gain) and costly to manufacture, due to the exotic gases, vacuum equipment, and mirrors involved
2. Dye laser. There are dyes that will lase in the blue region. Besides being inefficient, building a continuous wave dye laser is a very difficult proposition.
If one studio releases everything on a 16 layered red-laser disc and another releases their stuff on a 2 layered blue-laser disc, but the player you got in your box of Cherios can play both happily, who really gives a crap?
Hahaha I'm hoping for Blu-Ray for one reason;
currently blue laser diodes are impossible to find. The one manufacturer that makes them has been holding all of their production capacity for guys like Sony.
They're apparently very difficult to manufacture. I don't think they're going to be giving any of them away in cheerios boxes for quite some time.
I will, however, happily buy broken blu-ray players from the local pawn shop to rip out the laser.
Apparently, not only had you made the joke before, but we've had this conversation about you having made that extremely unfunny joke before... cause we both got modded down as redundant.
I'm thinking you must have a vindictive mod or some such. You didn't piss off the anti-slash folks did ya?
If its a second project, where are the links to that? I don't feel like poring through your sourceforge site to find it... not that I have a ton of hope that it'll be in there.
sourceforge is designed so that authors of software can find resources easily. I've never been able to figure out their interface without getting a migraine, however...
Hardened debain is meh to me. However, TRNG hacking is something I'd love to see! Where's the linkage at???
Ozone is bad. It oxidizes metals very rapidly. It can break apart plastics, paper, and pretty much any organic substance (much as bleach can)... it can also kill you.
Rubbing alcohol is bad. A lot of plastics disolve or craze in rubbing alcohol. The amounts you would need to make a difference are not amounts I would subject any computer to. If you do decide to go this route, get the pure+undiluted kind. I recommend a local lab supply. Proper breathing apparatus plus a small crew is essential.
Baking soda will work (though slowly)... activated carbon will work (slightly less slowly)... keep in mind that activated carbon gives off a lot of dust. You should probably change out the dust filter in your air cleaner when done.
I saw someone mention febreze. This is a great idea; febreze really does a number on organic stenches of all sorts. However, be careful about directly spraying it on electronics components. I'm sure it has all sorts of holy scents to counteract unholy-stink. Unfortunately, electronics components are far less forgiving of holy scents than they are of unholy-stink. To put it less obtusely; there are almost certainly components of febreze that leave behind a conductive residue, and you really don't want that.
And finally, hard drives are no longer hermetically sealed. They have a permeable gasket to even out pressure differentials now. Of course, that gasket is now thorughly permeated with unholy-stink, as is the interior of the drive. If you submerse it in alcohol (or any liquid), best case is it'll be filled with alcohol. Worst case is you'll destroy the gasket (usually paper or plasticized rubber)
What would I do? Duct the exhaust fans of all the computers to an activated carbon stack exhaust (the "home growers" you find on google do good work here)... that doesn't solve the problem of stench when you open the cases, however... for that you're going to need to either clean the residues out (impossible without risking damage, IMHO) or add some kind of chemical on the intake to neutralize those odors. I'd probably just put a well-secured box of baking soda in the bottom of each case. Well-secured because... well... do you really want it tipping over? If you've got rack mounts, good luck.
And it isn't a bad idea to wash all these computers in deionized water and let them air dry. Just remember, capacitors keep a charge (discharge with a properly insulated screwdriver), and some things really don't like being filled with water... hard drives for instance. Anything with optical components probably isn't going to like dirty water sloshing across lenses, too. An air compressor can be great to ensure that all the water is out of the nooks and crannies when you're done washing.
Oh and deionized water doesn't stay that way for long with dust and dirt and unholy-stink particles washing around in it...
So why did they store any password at all is the big question?
And I don't really see why storing the hashed password is such a bad thing... I do it all the time for e-commerce sites, in compliance with VISA's published acceptable online credit card security practices document...
But on the flip side I also don't know why you'd need it here, except maybe for password recovery. And in that case, why didn't they just use public key cryptography?
Why not just use the cleartext they just entered, and lose all the hashing completely? I mean, If it's the wrong cleartext phrase, then you'll just get garbage out, right?
This way you can predict whether or not the lengthy calculation you're about to perform will be succesful ahead of time.
Not only that, but generally Windows likes mounted FATs to be valid...
Also I'm guessing that AES needs a "random" key... meaning one that resembles white noise... a hash turns any cleartext into a random-looking bitstream...
I mean, if you have the jumprdrive in your possession it's only a matter of time before you find a weakness to exploit, right?
No. It is absolutely possible to implement a symmetric encryption scheme that does not expose any details of the password and requires the password to be correct in order to decrypt the data.
For instance, instead of saving an xored version of the password (I'm assuming you need the cleartext of the password to run through your decryption algorithm), you can save a hash of the password. Then when the user enters their password, you compare hashes for correctness, and if there's a match, you use the cleartext they just entered.
Assuming all your math is done right and you're using strong crypto, there's nothing anyone could do to decrypt that data without a) knowing the password or b) having more computing power at their disposal than is currently available to any private citizen or group.
On the flip side my company does throw great teambuilding events.
How do they do it?
It's quarterly. A different business unit picks the venue. The company picks up the tab (there is a budget for this)
The last one we had was end of summer beach party. They bought a bunch of sand and we built sand castles. From 2:00 to 4:00 on a Friday afternoon.
We got to take a break from work for a while and have some fun. There were other entertainments too. Beach balls, food, that sort of thing.
A lot of people just sat around and caught up.
Opening game to the local minor league is a big picnic every year. Attendance is optional. Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Beer, Soft Drinks, Tickets, all provided. Other times we've just played frisbee golf for the afternoon. Yes it went on the timesheet as "company meeting"...
The point being it's kept fun and interesting because different people get to choose the activity every time. Our business units are on the order of 10 - 25 heads so everyone gets a chance to put in some feedback when deciding.
The point is to upload it somewhere remote so that a burgler can't just take the PC as well.
I want my security system to be a deterrent, not just a forensic tool.
I am building a home studio. $10,000+ worth of equipment. Naturally, word will eventually get around.
So what am I doing? Everything goes in a steel cage, cabled to a bolt in the floor.
Webcam surveillance. Clearly posted signs demonstrating camera, computer, and internet. The connection is a cellphone. Luckily I have a spare cellphone and AT&T Wireless Internet; it will be configured to dial the cellphone (permanently attatched & powered off an adapter) and use it as an alternate conduit.
All that smart tech won't help me one bit, if the criminals think they can just snip the cable line and be done with it. Luckily, the power is a 2-inch thick stranded aluminum cable coming out of the ground. I don't think anyone's going to try to cut that without going to the transformer, 30 feet up a pole on a well lit street patrolled by police at night.
Some of us don't feel the need to... or listen to mp3s on a phone
And some of us are digital DJs that find it quite convenient to be able to carry a portfolio of our work with us, inside our cell phone, a device we would be carrying around anyways. I'm all with you when it comes to detesting unnecessary bloat in personal devices, but just because it isn't useful to you doesn't mean it's bloated and unworthy of existance...
Basically each key represents two characters, in a qwerty-style arrangement, with the middle block of keys doing double duty for number entry. Because each key represents a diad, not a triad, of possible entries, I imagine the predictive text entry is much closer to type-and-forget than T9.
So it's somewhere between a thumbboard and a typical cell phone. If my phone didn't have a full thumbboard I'd probably be interested in seeing how this performs...
It starts out with 35,000 words. Sure you're going to use some words that aren't in the list, especially proper names and whatnot... but most people only use about 10,000 words in their everyday speech. The chances that large parts of your vocabulary will be absent are pretty small...
Couple that with the fact that this predictive text system is based on diads, not triads, of letters and I think you'll find it's pretty performant. Of course I'm just speculating here, I haven't tried it yet...
It's freaking java. Why do all of these device makers continue to change small things that make all of the previous software libraries not work!
Because there are several different versions of the J2ME. And up until MIDP 2.0 (the most recent version), they all sucked for certain things... no image transparency, no direct access to mutable images, that sort of thing... so some manufacturers wrote their own APIs (Nokia is a notable one, their UI API is very good)
Then on top of that there are optional extensions to J2ME, things like the Mobile Media API or the Wireless Messaging API, and those implementations, though standardized, tend to evolve over time.
Oh and just a BTW, I own a Nokia 3300 (now discontinued:( ) which runs MIDP 1.0, Connection-Limited-Device-Configuration (CLDC) 1.1, the Nokia UI API, MMAPI and WMAPI (I don't have the JSR numbers for those; the JSR number is like the version number of the API you use, for the optional J2ME extensions)
MIDP1.0 apps run anywhere. CLDC 1.1 apps run most anywhere. Nokia UI API apps only run on other Nokia phones. I've not seen another phone that implements the MMAPI, though the WMAPI is pretty common. The WMAPI basically is a way to access SMS and GPRS digital networks. The coolest part is you can start tossing around SMS messages like network packets through the WMAPI. If only AT&T would offer an unlimited texting option I could write some cool apps with that;)
The government contends its court arguments should be sealed from public view and heard before a judge outside the presence of Gilmore and his attorneys.
Ummm... seems unconstitutional... let's go check:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
So if the accused wants a private trial... no reason not to... the accuser has no say in it.
Sorry, when I said faster I meant you can transmit data faster. So a given chunk of data would arrive quicker via laser than radio wave.
While one could argue that, I don't think that it really matters in this case. You're not trying to make christians out of them, you're just trying to say hello.
I think we should start looking for lasers over radio waves simply because you can send more data that way and it is more effcients.
It's not more efficient. What's more, the reason we see in visible light is that its EVERYWHERE. You wanna know why you don't see radio waves? Cause they're not that interesting from a fine perception viewpoint. Visible light is where its at in terms of resolution and color information. That's exactly why we shouldn't be looking for visible light lasers... they'd be indistinguishable from a sun until closer inspection.
Let's talk about efficiency for a second. Assume you don't know where humanity is or how close; you just want to say hi. So you're going to build a huge transmitting complex. And you're going to run it continuously for hundreds of years, because to build something that big and only run it for a brief span of time is futile.
So first off, you don't use any moving parts. You give it a foolproof powersupply and you put it out in outerspace so that there are no corrosive elements. Maybe it's in orbit around your planet. Most likely you put it in one of your planet's trojan points. No moving parts means no working fluid; if its a laser, its a crystal or diode laser. Your maximum efficiency is actually quite good, for a laser. Let's assume that you've got the monster of all nanotech processes and can actually build a diode laser of that scale (we sure as hell can't)... You're still pouring 70% of your input energy into heat generation. Then you've either got to collimate the beam and point it at every nearby star in turn, or spread it out, meaning that you're going to need even bigger diodes.
You could of course built a ground based facility and just keep a huge number of people on staff to tend to it and keep it running. But when was the last time humanity embarked on a plan longer than a single generation? For these people to do something like that, they would have to be immortal for all intents and purposes, or be VERY different in terms of how they think.
Okay let's switch to radio. Advantage one: much better efficiency Advantage two: intrinsically broadcast in nature Advantage three: if you pick the right frequency, you can pick one where the universe is relatively quiescent Advantage four: tunable chromaticity, meaning I can broadcast at different frequencies, or use frequency modulation for my message.
I think radio is definitely an obvious choice. That said, there are optical SETI projects around.
The question isn't how long until its broken... the question is how long until its broken for cheap.
RSA-512 was already broken. It took a major portion of the world's computing resources for several years. You're not really in danger that your wife is going to find out about your girlfriend. Or that your state is gonna find out about your cocaine habit.
If you're using RSA-512 you just might be on the cusp of being in danger of the government, having caught you and trying you for terrorism, is able to decode your e-mail enough in the six months before your trial to convict you.
See its all about level of effort. How long till RSA-512 can be broken by anyone in a few minutes?
Well 40-bit SSL was supposedly bulletproof when it was introduced. My P4 1.8 can decode SSL messages in about 10 seconds. So RSA-512 should be good for another 3-5 years.
Honestly; always use the maximum number of bits. If your data is important enough to encrypt, its important enough to encrypt right.
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I'm also a proud Mini-ITX owner. I have the 800 MHz version with a small fan. Got a small 2.5" hard drive used (4 GB). Stick some RAM in there. I put mine in a Cubid 2766 box, which is very compact (it's far smaller in form factor than my VCR) and uses an efficient and quiet 12V DC powersupply; the AC power is rectified outside in a transformer brick that doesn't require active cooling.
Prices (as I recall.... YMMV):
800 Mhz EPIA... $100
128 MB RAM... $40
2.5" 4 GB HDD... $40
16X DVD-ROM drive... $25 (eBay)
mini-adapter for DVD-ROM... $10
Case + DC-DC power supply... $60
for a grand total of... $275. And it can double as a DVD / digital media player.
BTW, I originally modded an acrylic cube to hold the computer. With no prior experience, I built a 7" cube to hold everything. I took it out because the power switches I used were difficult to press. I even used acrylic hinges. You can get just the power supply for $30.
I didn't do it for e-mail though. MythTV baby, so you gotta throw in a $150 hardware capture card to be perfectly fair when quoting the price of my system as-is.
To create hydrogen to be used as fuel (i.e.: break up H20 into 2H2 + 02), you need (a lot of) electricity, which fusion would be able to supply big time.
Sorry I'm used to laws of conservation... at first I just thought "if you're burning hydrogen as fuel, there's no way the amount of electricty you generate would be enough to split the water to feed the process"
But of course the energy of fusion is more than enough to split apart a weak little water molecule... perhaps he should've expounded more on this just by giving up some of the strings of long important words he talked about in response to other questions?
Most of Bush's answers seem to not make much sense or have major terminology errors...
But in the answer to question 6... "ITER is a critically important experiment to test the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity and hydrogen." (emphasis added)
Perhaps one of the many scientific reviewers that parsed his comments before sending them to nature should've let him know that fusion actually consumes hydrogen?
Oh and on question 3... is "fissile materials" really a word?
Do you think those Java capable mobile phones have the full blown Java API on them, and run standard non-preverified class files?
.class file is performed on the development platform; its just too CPU and RAM intensive to do it on the device itself...
To elaborate, J2ME is not J2EE. You have a very limited API. Vector isn't supported. Neither is Serializable. Most of the IO is stripped out (you can add some back in through special extensions; most phones have some of that stuff so that J2ME can send SMS messages) UI is completely different, and only supports 4-5 primitive objects (List, Menu, Canvas, Textbox)
Images aren't mutable. Per pixel operations are generally not supported. You get the idea.
Everything has to fit in a JAR. I forget the maximum size of the JAR; it's just under 64K though. The verification step, which is usually performed by the ClassLoader when loading a
Blue LEDs used to be really expensive (they still are, compared to RED or fake Green), but they are still cheap enough to make [your favorite consumer electrics device] look cool.
I don't care about LEDs. I care about laser diodes. Blues currently can't be bought at any price.
In fact, there are only two "cost-effective" ways to make a blue laser:
1. Argon laser. This is pretty inefficient (none of the blue lines of argon are high gain) and costly to manufacture, due to the exotic gases, vacuum equipment, and mirrors involved
2. Dye laser. There are dyes that will lase in the blue region. Besides being inefficient, building a continuous wave dye laser is a very difficult proposition.
If one studio releases everything on a 16 layered red-laser disc and another releases their stuff on a 2 layered blue-laser disc, but the player you got in your box of Cherios can play both happily, who really gives a crap?
Hahaha I'm hoping for Blu-Ray for one reason;
currently blue laser diodes are impossible to find. The one manufacturer that makes them has been holding all of their production capacity for guys like Sony.
They're apparently very difficult to manufacture. I don't think they're going to be giving any of them away in cheerios boxes for quite some time.
I will, however, happily buy broken blu-ray players from the local pawn shop to rip out the laser.
Apparently, not only had you made the joke before, but we've had this conversation about you having made that extremely unfunny joke before... cause we both got modded down as redundant.
I'm thinking you must have a vindictive mod or some such. You didn't piss off the anti-slash folks did ya?
I would've used Overrated. 2 is too nice for that joke ;)
But redundant... come on, do you really believe that someone else has already made that joke? With maybe only 5 non-troll posts?
Oh dear lord, where is the (-1, Unfunny) moderation at?
If its a second project, where are the links to that? I don't feel like poring through your sourceforge site to find it... not that I have a ton of hope that it'll be in there.
sourceforge is designed so that authors of software can find resources easily. I've never been able to figure out their interface without getting a migraine, however...
Hardened debain is meh to me. However, TRNG hacking is something I'd love to see! Where's the linkage at???
Ozone is bad. It oxidizes metals very rapidly. It can break apart plastics, paper, and pretty much any organic substance (much as bleach can)... it can also kill you.
Rubbing alcohol is bad. A lot of plastics disolve or craze in rubbing alcohol. The amounts you would need to make a difference are not amounts I would subject any computer to. If you do decide to go this route, get the pure+undiluted kind. I recommend a local lab supply. Proper breathing apparatus plus a small crew is essential.
Baking soda will work (though slowly)... activated carbon will work (slightly less slowly)... keep in mind that activated carbon gives off a lot of dust. You should probably change out the dust filter in your air cleaner when done.
I saw someone mention febreze. This is a great idea; febreze really does a number on organic stenches of all sorts. However, be careful about directly spraying it on electronics components. I'm sure it has all sorts of holy scents to counteract unholy-stink. Unfortunately, electronics components are far less forgiving of holy scents than they are of unholy-stink. To put it less obtusely; there are almost certainly components of febreze that leave behind a conductive residue, and you really don't want that.
And finally, hard drives are no longer hermetically sealed. They have a permeable gasket to even out pressure differentials now. Of course, that gasket is now thorughly permeated with unholy-stink, as is the interior of the drive. If you submerse it in alcohol (or any liquid), best case is it'll be filled with alcohol. Worst case is you'll destroy the gasket (usually paper or plasticized rubber)
What would I do? Duct the exhaust fans of all the computers to an activated carbon stack exhaust (the "home growers" you find on google do good work here)... that doesn't solve the problem of stench when you open the cases, however... for that you're going to need to either clean the residues out (impossible without risking damage, IMHO) or add some kind of chemical on the intake to neutralize those odors. I'd probably just put a well-secured box of baking soda in the bottom of each case. Well-secured because... well... do you really want it tipping over? If you've got rack mounts, good luck.
And it isn't a bad idea to wash all these computers in deionized water and let them air dry. Just remember, capacitors keep a charge (discharge with a properly insulated screwdriver), and some things really don't like being filled with water... hard drives for instance. Anything with optical components probably isn't going to like dirty water sloshing across lenses, too. An air compressor can be great to ensure that all the water is out of the nooks and crannies when you're done washing.
Oh and deionized water doesn't stay that way for long with dust and dirt and unholy-stink particles washing around in it...
So why did they store any password at all is the big question?
And I don't really see why storing the hashed password is such a bad thing... I do it all the time for e-commerce sites, in compliance with VISA's published acceptable online credit card security practices document...
But on the flip side I also don't know why you'd need it here, except maybe for password recovery. And in that case, why didn't they just use public key cryptography?
Why not just use the cleartext they just entered, and lose all the hashing completely? I mean, If it's the wrong cleartext phrase, then you'll just get garbage out, right?
This way you can predict whether or not the lengthy calculation you're about to perform will be succesful ahead of time.
Not only that, but generally Windows likes mounted FATs to be valid...
Also I'm guessing that AES needs a "random" key... meaning one that resembles white noise... a hash turns any cleartext into a random-looking bitstream...
I mean, if you have the jumprdrive in your possession it's only a matter of time before you find a weakness to exploit, right?
No. It is absolutely possible to implement a symmetric encryption scheme that does not expose any details of the password and requires the password to be correct in order to decrypt the data.
For instance, instead of saving an xored version of the password (I'm assuming you need the cleartext of the password to run through your decryption algorithm), you can save a hash of the password. Then when the user enters their password, you compare hashes for correctness, and if there's a match, you use the cleartext they just entered.
Assuming all your math is done right and you're using strong crypto, there's nothing anyone could do to decrypt that data without a) knowing the password or b) having more computing power at their disposal than is currently available to any private citizen or group.
You really can't.
On the flip side my company does throw great teambuilding events.
How do they do it?
It's quarterly. A different business unit picks the venue. The company picks up the tab (there is a budget for this)
The last one we had was end of summer beach party. They bought a bunch of sand and we built sand castles. From 2:00 to 4:00 on a Friday afternoon.
We got to take a break from work for a while and have some fun. There were other entertainments too. Beach balls, food, that sort of thing.
A lot of people just sat around and caught up.
Opening game to the local minor league is a big picnic every year. Attendance is optional. Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Beer, Soft Drinks, Tickets, all provided. Other times we've just played frisbee golf for the afternoon. Yes it went on the timesheet as "company meeting"...
The point being it's kept fun and interesting because different people get to choose the activity every time. Our business units are on the order of 10 - 25 heads so everyone gets a chance to put in some feedback when deciding.
The point is to upload it somewhere remote so that a burgler can't just take the PC as well.
I want my security system to be a deterrent, not just a forensic tool.
I am building a home studio. $10,000+ worth of equipment. Naturally, word will eventually get around.
So what am I doing? Everything goes in a steel cage, cabled to a bolt in the floor.
Webcam surveillance. Clearly posted signs demonstrating camera, computer, and internet. The connection is a cellphone. Luckily I have a spare cellphone and AT&T Wireless Internet; it will be configured to dial the cellphone (permanently attatched & powered off an adapter) and use it as an alternate conduit.
All that smart tech won't help me one bit, if the criminals think they can just snip the cable line and be done with it. Luckily, the power is a 2-inch thick stranded aluminum cable coming out of the ground. I don't think anyone's going to try to cut that without going to the transformer, 30 feet up a pole on a well lit street patrolled by police at night.
Some of us don't feel the need to ... or listen to mp3s on a phone
And some of us are digital DJs that find it quite convenient to be able to carry a portfolio of our work with us, inside our cell phone, a device we would be carrying around anyways. I'm all with you when it comes to detesting unnecessary bloat in personal devices, but just because it isn't useful to you doesn't mean it's bloated and unworthy of existance...
The new board is a hybrid, 21 keys.
Basically each key represents two characters, in a qwerty-style arrangement, with the middle block of keys doing double duty for number entry. Because each key represents a diad, not a triad, of possible entries, I imagine the predictive text entry is much closer to type-and-forget than T9.
So it's somewhere between a thumbboard and a typical cell phone. If my phone didn't have a full thumbboard I'd probably be interested in seeing how this performs...
It starts out with 35,000 words. Sure you're going to use some words that aren't in the list, especially proper names and whatnot... but most people only use about 10,000 words in their everyday speech. The chances that large parts of your vocabulary will be absent are pretty small...
Couple that with the fact that this predictive text system is based on diads, not triads, of letters and I think you'll find it's pretty performant. Of course I'm just speculating here, I haven't tried it yet...
It's freaking java. Why do all of these device makers continue to change small things that make all of the previous software libraries not work!
:( ) which runs MIDP 1.0, Connection-Limited-Device-Configuration (CLDC) 1.1, the Nokia UI API, MMAPI and WMAPI (I don't have the JSR numbers for those; the JSR number is like the version number of the API you use, for the optional J2ME extensions)
;)
Because there are several different versions of the J2ME. And up until MIDP 2.0 (the most recent version), they all sucked for certain things... no image transparency, no direct access to mutable images, that sort of thing... so some manufacturers wrote their own APIs (Nokia is a notable one, their UI API is very good)
Then on top of that there are optional extensions to J2ME, things like the Mobile Media API or the Wireless Messaging API, and those implementations, though standardized, tend to evolve over time.
Oh and just a BTW, I own a Nokia 3300 (now discontinued
MIDP1.0 apps run anywhere. CLDC 1.1 apps run most anywhere. Nokia UI API apps only run on other Nokia phones. I've not seen another phone that implements the MMAPI, though the WMAPI is pretty common. The WMAPI basically is a way to access SMS and GPRS digital networks. The coolest part is you can start tossing around SMS messages like network packets through the WMAPI. If only AT&T would offer an unlimited texting option I could write some cool apps with that
But all the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks HAD VALID IDs!!!! Thus, the secret law serves absolutely NO purpose!
Let's apply a little logic to this statement...
a) The fact that this law may not have been able to prevent a particular bad thing from happening, does not mean that it has no purpose.
b) If the law is secret how do you know there isn't some part of it that would have prevented the 9/11 attacks?
c) If the law is secret, how do you know it serves no purpose?
Of course secret laws are bad, and should not be allowed at any time, but let's not just start making stuff up.
The government contends its court arguments should be sealed from public view and heard before a judge outside the presence of Gilmore and his attorneys.
Ummm... seems unconstitutional... let's go check:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
So if the accused wants a private trial... no reason not to... the accuser has no say in it.
Sorry, when I said faster I meant you can transmit data faster. So a given chunk of data would arrive quicker via laser than radio wave.
While one could argue that, I don't think that it really matters in this case. You're not trying to make christians out of them, you're just trying to say hello.
I think we should start looking for lasers over radio waves simply because you can send more data that way and it is more effcients.
It's not more efficient. What's more, the reason we see in visible light is that its EVERYWHERE. You wanna know why you don't see radio waves? Cause they're not that interesting from a fine perception viewpoint. Visible light is where its at in terms of resolution and color information. That's exactly why we shouldn't be looking for visible light lasers... they'd be indistinguishable from a sun until closer inspection.
Let's talk about efficiency for a second. Assume you don't know where humanity is or how close; you just want to say hi. So you're going to build a huge transmitting complex. And you're going to run it continuously for hundreds of years, because to build something that big and only run it for a brief span of time is futile.
So first off, you don't use any moving parts. You give it a foolproof powersupply and you put it out in outerspace so that there are no corrosive elements. Maybe it's in orbit around your planet. Most likely you put it in one of your planet's trojan points. No moving parts means no working fluid; if its a laser, its a crystal or diode laser. Your maximum efficiency is actually quite good, for a laser. Let's assume that you've got the monster of all nanotech processes and can actually build a diode laser of that scale (we sure as hell can't)... You're still pouring 70% of your input energy into heat generation. Then you've either got to collimate the beam and point it at every nearby star in turn, or spread it out, meaning that you're going to need even bigger diodes.
You could of course built a ground based facility and just keep a huge number of people on staff to tend to it and keep it running. But when was the last time humanity embarked on a plan longer than a single generation? For these people to do something like that, they would have to be immortal for all intents and purposes, or be VERY different in terms of how they think.
Okay let's switch to radio.
Advantage one: much better efficiency
Advantage two: intrinsically broadcast in nature
Advantage three: if you pick the right frequency, you can pick one where the universe is relatively quiescent
Advantage four: tunable chromaticity, meaning I can broadcast at different frequencies, or use frequency modulation for my message.
I think radio is definitely an obvious choice. That said, there are optical SETI projects around.
FTA...
SSL3.0/TLS does use both, and is therefore immune to this attack.
Also FTA, SHA-1 is still believed to be secure, and Cryptography Researchers does not believe it is in danger to this same attack.
The question isn't how long until its broken... the question is how long until its broken for cheap.
RSA-512 was already broken. It took a major portion of the world's computing resources for several years. You're not really in danger that your wife is going to find out about your girlfriend. Or that your state is gonna find out about your cocaine habit.
If you're using RSA-512 you just might be on the cusp of being in danger of the government, having caught you and trying you for terrorism, is able to decode your e-mail enough in the six months before your trial to convict you.
See its all about level of effort. How long till RSA-512 can be broken by anyone in a few minutes?
Well 40-bit SSL was supposedly bulletproof when it was introduced. My P4 1.8 can decode SSL messages in about 10 seconds. So RSA-512 should be good for another 3-5 years.
Honestly; always use the maximum number of bits. If your data is important enough to encrypt, its important enough to encrypt right.