Did I miss a post somewhere? From the articles I read it looks like Richard Branson is not paying for this spaceport, but rather the taxpayers of New Mexico are.
Building such a facility is their business, but I look at the number of state and municipal governments that were hoodwinked into spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build major sports complexes only to see the bulk of the revenues go into the pockets of the millionaire (billionaire) team owners' pockets. The promised jobs were generally low paying security and food service positions.
If this spaceport is such a wonderful and potentially profitable project, why doesn't Sir Richard use some of his own billions to fund the whole thing?
If you can pardon a comment from an old man who went to college in the last century (1976-80), I would just like to say this type of marketing is nothing new.
When I was in school there were people hired by area travel agents to arrange for groups of students to go spring break trips. The more people this person signed up, the more money he or she earned. (plus a free trip) The shill did not often make it known that someone was paying them to promote the trip. We found out about it when one of them tried to take advantage of the school newspaper's free advertising for students policy.
At the same time, the drinking age was 18. The the local distributors of beer, liquor and wine used terribly original concept of finding the most attractive students to give samples of drinks and pushing more consumption of alchohol . At least these people (mostly female) wore t-shirts that proclaimed their affiliation.
Didn't Daewoo try this for cars in the late 1990s?
You can easily have the energy for this. Project Orion talked about this years ago.
You could use an atomic vehicle as the mother ship. Once built, it would stay in high earth orbit until ready to fly to Mars. It would return to Earth and be parked in orbit.
Travelers could get to and from the ship using more conventional launch systems.
Maybe this is off topic, but I am tired of two bit legislators (and Massachusetts has plenty) trivializing the US Constitution's Bill of Rights by attaching "Insert cause here Bill of Rights" to every bill they file.
Consumers of a given service should have certain rights and protections,but these pale in comparison to the rights spelled out in the first 10 ammendments of the US Constitution. Maybe they aren't as fairly applied as they are supposed to be, but faults can be addressed and it's a goal to strive toward.
These "bills of rights" are just politicians trying to get re-elected.
Don't get me started on legislators who try to gain political support by capitalizing on the victim of a tragedy.
"Space" is an overused buzzword too. Does it mean market?, Field?, Profession?. Using the word "space" after certain nouns and adjectives makes the non-techie feel techie.
Slightly off topic, but iTunes already gets around the 99 cents for some songs.
Some of my favorite oldies are not available as singles but rather only the album -- usually $9.99. I have bought a couple of albums because it was still cheaper than buying a CD. As an example, American Pie by Don McLean. A great album of the early 70's (yeah, I'm old)
There are some other oldies I'd like to have but I won't pay for the album because the rest of the songs were garbage.
I think the subjects of the article are on the wrong track.
Unfortunately, too much energy and money is being expended on trying to trick employees so that these self styled Security Experts can justify their existence. It also can generate a "boy who cried wolf" psychology. If you receive a bit of phishing email from a truly evil source you may decided it is another war game and you will ignore it because you have your own work to do.
Many employees get frustrated with these games because they are overworked and feel they should not have to do the security manager's job.
What should be done? In the short term, educate, not trick, your employees, vendors and customers. Also,make sure that those in charge of email are using the latest filtering products. Test a web proxy system that filters out traffic to weblinks that direct to an IP address and not to a URL that contains a domain name.
In the long term - consider switching to virus resistant operating systems such as the Mac OS X or Linux and Solaris or Linux for servers. The usual argument of cost does not hold true here. How much is being spent on patching servers and workstations. Governments get incredible discounts on Mac and SUN equipment.
Training isn't an issue either, any support person who can manage Windows effectively is smart enough to learn Unix and Linux. Any user can slip in front of a Mac and be going in minutes.
Realistic or not, popular entertainment can be an influence on career choices.
This will give you an idea of hold I am. I have friends who became police officers because they were inspired by Jack Webb's "Adam-12".
I know of a woman who became interested in EMS from "Emergency!" and went on to become an Air Force nurse and now , as a civilian, is one of those people who will fly your seriously injured butt from a rain and blood soaked highway to a nice clean hospital room.
I have a college friend who joined the Army because M*A*S*H got him to thinking about it as a career. (He knew M*A*S*H was unrealistic.)
Granted, all the problems of the greater Los Angeles area or the US Army being solved in the course of one or two episodes is not realistic, but it can show you career options you may not have considered.
I have heard (but have no proof) that there is an increase in the number of students signing up for biology and chemistry because of the "CSI" shows. I'm hoping "Numb3rs" will make math cool.
I remember attending the Boston Computer Society presentation of Amiga. The demographic of the audience went from the most technical users to the business computer user/department "guru" (how's that for 80's talk?)
Everyone was impressed. Everyone wanted one. But for the business user, who was trying to justify computer in the office, the lack of business software for the relatively pricey Amiga was a problem. There was a package that would let you run DOS software. Still, no real business need for a multi-tasking, gui based computer with real sound. Hmmm I wonder if there ever will be.
Could this be the push that is needed to revive the Orion project?
I'm not a physicist, not even sure I can spell "physicist". But it seems to me that travelling in space is more than just exotic technology and dealing with social problems on long flights. It's about enough energy to get you out there and back again.
The ground work for that was done in the late 50's and early 60's. The theorists thought a trip to Saturn by 1970 was possible.
Check out --Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship by George Dyson. I'd offer my copy, but I lent it to another Slashdotter and it hasn't been returned.
I have to agree. One of the reasons the Intrusion Detection Systems have taken a backseat to Intrusion Prevention Systems is the marketing people felt that IPS was more "proactive" than IDS. (I hate that buzzword "proactive")
Some of the services that bill themselves as IPS simply give you a report that list your vulnerabilities. At least one lets you actively kill TCP connections. ISS RealSecure is an example of this. They want from an IDS to an IPS.
Back to basics; A good firewall is the best start. If your boss doesn't like the Open Source route, try SonicWall or Checkpoint. Not cheap, but worth it.
You can use HP OpenView to watch for unauthorized equipment that connects to your network. There are Open Source solutions too.
The issue is you have to be able to get immediate alerts. Either someone has to be watching a console or getting a page.
Constant maintenance is what's required of all your equipment. Every host needs to be kept up to date with the latest fixes and patches.
I also keep an eye on Slashdot for the latest ideas and products.
Not wanting to sound like a bleeding heart liberal, but with the reported child labor abuse in some third world countries I can just picture a bunch of "enterprising business men" going into elementary schools and starting outsourcing companies. "Why yes, all of our techs are MCSEs".
So if that support person sounds really young and he just woke up from naptime you may want to look into who is supporting your computers...
One will have to feel sorry for Nick Burns, your company computer guy. He was hoping to get his MCSE so he could "quit this lousy job"
and may I add... The Andy Warhol programmer: Takes small pieces of other's code and makes a big deal out of it. The NY programmers fall over themselves praising him... everyone else says "huh?"
I never liked the idea of depending on firewall software on the machine it is supposed to protect. It pretty much tells you that all your other security has been bypassed. Sort of like the king finding out about an invasion because the Huns are knocking on his locked chambers door.
Assuming that you already have firewalls on the perimeters of your networks I would put Snort agents, or some other IDS, on each server and also one to sniff the network.
The network agent will detect the Huns at the moat and warn you.
I see the point. But 24, CSI and some other shows are dramas that happen to incorporate science, and at that they play fast and loose with time. DNA tests takes more time than the commercial break and even with the best sample a fingerprint search can take a long time.
Science Fiction, as a genre, let's us look at contemporary problems with a lot "what ifs"; what if we could go faster than light, what if we met a[nother] intelligent species, what if we has unlimited and cheap energy, what if you were bitten by a radioactive spider... and so on.
Let the Sci Fi fans have their fun and the folks looking for drama have theirs.
You'll have to excuse me, I'm due for a haircut on Europa...
I worked for a well known medical school in the Boston area. Like any job, there are ups and downs. I left just as the P.C. police were gaining the most power.
I won't pretend that this school is typical, but since so many other universities try to emulate it here are some things to remember:
1. EVERYTHING is decided by committee, from whether or not you are interviewed to the frosting on the Dean's going away party cake. Decisions take forever.
2. Promotions are usually based on perception and not always reality.
3. We had a running joke about HR. They spend their mornings in meetings making up new rules. They spend their afternoons in meetings finding ways around the new rules.
4. Watch out for "Associate Dean Syndrome" If you try to explain something to an AD and they don't like it or understand - you will be reminded that if you were as smart as he or she you would be an Associate Dean. So their tech problem is your fault.
5. Professors with the biggest grants get the most attention and the highest priority. Yes, size does matter.
6. New PhDs are the worst in terms of personality. They have just spent three to ten years as grad student slave laborers and now they want revenge.
7. Dissenting opinions, either political or technical, will be shouted down. Freedom of speech only means you agree with the current political fashions.
The good stuff:
1. Wages were at marked level 2. Benefits and retirment plans (if you care) are outstanding 3. A lot of time off. Including every holiday celebrated in your state. 4. Knowing I had a hand in the training some of the best doctors in the world. I just hope their education hasn't ruined their ideals.
He does not make any provision for an infrared through-the-wall-camera watching his monitor, or a microwave bounce off of a window to detect the vibrations in the room that result from pressing keys on his keyboard-each has a different sound that can be recorded and digitized so that what he types may be reproduced.
I suggest heat lamps on the walls, floors and ceilings to deter infrared and atttach speakers to the glass in the windows After a few hours of listening to "Feelings" even the most dedicated spy will go insane.
I seem to remember an article, some years back, about a proposal from a Japanese company to an American bank.
This was back in the mainframe only days. They were going to park a ship full of coders in international waters. Specs and computer tapes would be flown back and forth by helicopter.
Keep in mind, this was before practically free high-speed international data lines became available.
Slashdot Mirror
Did I miss a post somewhere? From the articles I read it looks like Richard Branson is not paying for this spaceport, but rather the taxpayers of New Mexico are.
Building such a facility is their business, but I look at the number of state and municipal governments that were hoodwinked into spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build major sports complexes only to see the bulk of the revenues go into the pockets of the millionaire (billionaire) team owners' pockets. The promised jobs were generally low paying security and food service positions.
If this spaceport is such a wonderful and potentially profitable project, why doesn't Sir Richard use some of his own billions to fund the whole thing?
Pringles - is there anything they can't do?
Does this mean that underinsured Americans will have to organize bus trips to Canada and Mexico for cheap beer?
*This is a joke, no political flames please
If you can pardon a comment from an old man who went to college in the last century (1976-80), I would just like to say this type of marketing is nothing new.
When I was in school there were people hired by area travel agents to arrange for groups of students to go spring break trips. The more people this person signed up, the more money he or she earned. (plus a free trip) The shill did not often make it known that someone was paying them to promote the trip. We found out about it when one of them tried to take advantage of the school newspaper's free advertising for students policy.
At the same time, the drinking age was 18. The the local distributors of beer, liquor and wine used terribly original concept of finding the most attractive students to give samples of drinks and pushing more consumption of alchohol . At least these people (mostly female) wore t-shirts that proclaimed their affiliation.
Didn't Daewoo try this for cars in the late 1990s?
You can easily have the energy for this. Project Orion talked about this years ago.
You could use an atomic vehicle as the mother ship. Once built, it would stay in high earth orbit until ready to fly to Mars. It would return to Earth and be parked in orbit.
Travelers could get to and from the ship using more conventional launch systems.
Maybe this is off topic, but I am tired of two bit legislators (and Massachusetts has plenty) trivializing the US Constitution's Bill of Rights by attaching "Insert cause here Bill of Rights" to every bill they file.
,but these pale in comparison to the rights spelled out in the first 10 ammendments of the US Constitution. Maybe they aren't as fairly applied as they are supposed to be, but faults can be addressed and it's a goal to strive toward.
Consumers of a given service should have certain rights and protections
These "bills of rights" are just politicians trying to get re-elected.
Don't get me started on legislators who try to gain political support by capitalizing on the victim of a tragedy.
Sounds like several more years of guaranteed employment for Microsoft's Consulting practice.
"Space" is an overused buzzword too. Does it mean market?, Field?, Profession?. Using the word "space" after certain nouns and adjectives makes the non-techie feel techie.
Hello, I can name dozens of Mac using Bush voters. I'm just one.
Maybe they're afraid switching to Linux will lead to someone getting the idea to develop an OSLD (Open Source Laundry Detergent)?
Slightly off topic, but iTunes already gets around the 99 cents for some songs.
Some of my favorite oldies are not available as singles but rather only the album -- usually $9.99. I have bought a couple of albums because it was still cheaper than buying a CD. As an example, American Pie by Don McLean. A great album of the early 70's (yeah, I'm old)
There are some other oldies I'd like to have but I won't pay for the album because the rest of the songs were garbage.
I think the subjects of the article are on the wrong track.
Unfortunately, too much energy and money is being expended on trying to trick employees so that these self styled Security Experts can justify their existence. It also can generate a "boy who cried wolf" psychology. If you receive a bit of phishing email from a truly evil source you may decided it is another war game and you will ignore it because you have your own work to do.
Many employees get frustrated with these games because they are overworked and feel they should not have to do the security manager's job.
What should be done? In the short term, educate, not trick, your employees, vendors and customers. Also,make sure that those in charge of email are using the latest filtering products. Test a web proxy system that filters out traffic to weblinks that direct to an IP address and not to a URL that contains a domain name.
In the long term - consider switching to virus resistant operating systems such as the Mac OS X or Linux and Solaris or Linux for servers. The usual argument of cost does not hold true here. How much is being spent on patching servers and workstations.
Governments get incredible discounts on Mac and SUN equipment.
Training isn't an issue either, any support person who can manage Windows effectively is smart enough to learn Unix and Linux. Any user can slip in front of a Mac and be going in minutes.
Realistic or not, popular entertainment can be an influence on career choices.
This will give you an idea of hold I am. I have friends who became police officers because they were inspired by Jack Webb's "Adam-12".
I know of a woman who became interested in EMS from "Emergency!" and went on to become an Air Force nurse and now , as a civilian, is one of those people who will fly your seriously injured butt from a rain and blood soaked highway to a nice clean hospital room.
I have a college friend who joined the Army because M*A*S*H got him to thinking about it as a career. (He knew M*A*S*H was unrealistic.)
Granted, all the problems of the greater Los Angeles area or the US Army being solved in the course of one or two episodes is not realistic, but it can show you career options you may not have considered.
I have heard (but have no proof) that there is an increase in the number of students signing up for biology and chemistry because of the "CSI" shows. I'm hoping "Numb3rs" will make math cool.
I remember attending the Boston Computer Society presentation of Amiga.
The demographic of the audience went from the most technical users to the business computer user/department "guru" (how's that for 80's talk?)
Everyone was impressed. Everyone wanted one. But for the business user, who was trying to justify computer in the office, the lack of business software for the relatively pricey Amiga was a problem. There was a package that would let you run DOS software. Still, no real business need for a multi-tasking, gui based computer with real sound. Hmmm I wonder if there ever will be.
Could this be the push that is needed to revive the Orion project?
I'm not a physicist, not even sure I can spell "physicist". But it seems to me that travelling in space is more than just exotic technology and dealing with social problems on long flights. It's about enough energy to get you out there and back again.
The ground work for that was done in the late 50's and early 60's. The theorists thought a trip to Saturn by 1970 was possible.
Check out --Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship by George Dyson. I'd offer my copy, but I lent it to another Slashdotter and it hasn't been returned.
I have to agree. One of the reasons the Intrusion Detection Systems have taken a backseat to Intrusion Prevention Systems is the marketing people felt that IPS was more "proactive" than IDS. (I hate that buzzword "proactive")
Some of the services that bill themselves as IPS simply give you a report that list your vulnerabilities. At least one lets you actively kill TCP connections. ISS RealSecure is an example of this. They want from an IDS to an IPS.
Back to basics; A good firewall is the best start. If your boss doesn't like the Open Source route, try SonicWall or Checkpoint. Not cheap, but worth it.
You can use HP OpenView to watch for unauthorized equipment that connects to your network. There are Open Source solutions too.
The issue is you have to be able to get immediate alerts. Either someone has to be watching a console or getting a page.
Constant maintenance is what's required of all your equipment. Every host needs to be kept up to date with the latest fixes and patches.
I also keep an eye on Slashdot for the latest ideas and products.
Maybe the root cause of this may be found in the saying "He has more money than sense".
Maybe he just wanted a new machine and needed an excuse?
You can start a reformat and rebuild the old system in the time it takes to order, wait for and set up a new system.
What about all the data he left on the old system. Or did he reformat the drive before tossing the machine?
The subject of the article has PhD in computer science!
I hope he replaced it with a Mac.
Not wanting to sound like a bleeding heart liberal, but with the reported child labor abuse in some third world countries I can just picture a bunch of "enterprising business men" going into elementary schools and starting outsourcing companies. "Why yes, all of our techs are MCSEs".
So if that support person sounds really young and he just woke up from naptime you may want to look into who is supporting your computers...
One will have to feel sorry for Nick Burns, your company computer guy. He was hoping to get his MCSE so he could "quit this lousy job"
and may I add ...
The Andy Warhol programmer: Takes small pieces of other's code and makes a big deal out of it. The NY programmers fall over themselves praising him... everyone else says "huh?"
I never liked the idea of depending on firewall software on the machine it is supposed to protect. It pretty much tells you that all your other security has been bypassed. Sort of like the king finding out about an invasion because the Huns are knocking on his locked chambers door.
Assuming that you already have firewalls on the perimeters of your networks I would put Snort agents, or some other IDS, on each server and also one to sniff the network.
The network agent will detect the Huns at the moat and warn you.
I see the point. But 24, CSI and some other shows are dramas that happen to incorporate science, and at that they play fast and loose with time. DNA tests takes more time than the commercial break and even with the best sample a fingerprint search can take a long time.
Science Fiction, as a genre, let's us look at contemporary problems with a lot "what ifs"; what if we could go faster than light, what if we met a[nother] intelligent species, what if we has unlimited and cheap energy, what if you were bitten by a radioactive spider... and so on.
Let the Sci Fi fans have their fun and the folks looking for drama have theirs.
You'll have to excuse me, I'm due for a haircut on Europa...
I worked for a well known medical school in the Boston area. Like any job, there are ups and downs. I left just as the P.C. police were gaining the most power.
I won't pretend that this school is typical, but since so many other universities try to emulate it here are some things to remember:
1. EVERYTHING is decided by committee, from whether or not you are interviewed to the frosting on the Dean's going away party cake. Decisions take forever.
2. Promotions are usually based on perception and not always reality.
3. We had a running joke about HR. They spend their mornings in meetings making up new rules. They spend their afternoons in meetings finding ways around the new rules.
4. Watch out for "Associate Dean Syndrome" If you try to explain something to an AD and they don't like it or understand - you will be reminded that if you were as smart as he or she you would be an Associate Dean. So their tech problem is your fault.
5. Professors with the biggest grants get the most attention and the highest priority. Yes, size does matter.
6. New PhDs are the worst in terms of personality. They have just spent three to ten years as grad student slave laborers and now they want revenge.
7. Dissenting opinions, either political or technical, will be shouted down. Freedom of speech only means you agree with the current political fashions.
The good stuff:
1. Wages were at marked level
2. Benefits and retirment plans (if you care) are outstanding
3. A lot of time off. Including every holiday celebrated in your state.
4. Knowing I had a hand in the training some of the best doctors in the world. I just hope their education hasn't ruined their ideals.
They still have such a long way to go. I did quick test of a few idioms and the results were, at best, amusing.
I attempted to translate a technical email and the result was total nonsense.
The Google tool is no better nor is it any worse than the others out there.
He does not make any provision for an infrared through-the-wall-camera watching his monitor, or a microwave bounce off of a window to detect the vibrations in the room that result from pressing keys on his keyboard-each has a different sound that can be recorded and digitized so that what he types may be reproduced.
I suggest heat lamps on the walls, floors and ceilings to deter infrared and atttach speakers to the glass in the windows After a few hours of listening to "Feelings" even the most dedicated spy will go insane.
I seem to remember an article, some years back, about a proposal from a Japanese company to an American bank.
This was back in the mainframe only days. They were going to park a ship full of coders in international waters. Specs and computer tapes would be flown back and forth by helicopter.
Keep in mind, this was before practically free high-speed international data lines became available.
Does anyone else recall this?