Seriously, no OS will ever be exploit / bug free. I see it like a competition between would-be hackers and OS programmers... sure, some security holes are just obvious bad programming, but most are not, and in the end, someone somewhere, given enough time, will always find a vulnerability. If Linux had the user base MS Windows have, you can be sure that we would be seeing a LOT more of vulnerabilities popping up. If the average Linux user was as computer-inexperienced as the average Windows user, it would surely help.
Want a 100% secure OS? Run "Hello World" OS, the only unhackable OS, and its friendly, too!
If the poster took the time to read his wiki link, he would have realized that the Hinderburg didn't not explode because of the hydrogen, but because of a new highly flammable fabric used for the skin of the zeppelin.
From the wiki link:
"Most current analysis of the accident assumes that the static spark theory is correct. There is still a debate, however, as to whether the fabric itself or the hydrogen used for bouyancy was the fuel for the initial fire.
Proponents (http://www.dwv-info.de/pm/hindbg/hbe.htm) of the "flammable fabric" theory point out that the coatings on the fabric contained both iron oxide and aluminium-impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate. Cellulose acetate butyrate is known to be flammable and iron oxide is well-known to react with aluminium powder. In fact, iron oxide and aluminium are sometimes used as components of solid rocket fuel or thermite. (However, the oft-cited claim that the ship was "coated in rocket fuel" is a significant overstatement.) While the coating components were potentially reactive, they were separated by a layer of material that should have prevented the reaction from starting.
After the disaster, the Zeppelin company's engineers determined this skin material, used only on the Hindenburg, was more flammable than the skin used on previous craft and changed the composition for future designs. Nonetheless, the Hindenburg had flown for over a year (and through several lightning storms) with no reports of adverse chemical reactions, much less fires on the fabric.
The proponents of the "flammable fabric" theory also point to fact that the naturally odorless hydrogen gas in the Hindenburg was 'odorised' with garlic so that any leaks could be detected, and that there were no reports of garlic odors during the flight or prior to the fire."
I'm tired of seeing this example used by "hydrogen is dangerous" folks...
I can't wait to see the day where Wireless net access will be free for everyone in Big cities... Would it be anonymous? Untracable? Probably not... but free information (with a wireless-enabled computer, which is not exactly free...) is excellent for communities....Knowledge is power.
- Don't buy their "loss leaders", but stock up on their overpriced stuff.
- People who don't check other companies price, but get attracted by the "Best price policy"
- People who don't return their mail-in rebates.
Why don't you just ask me to give you my money?
On the Canadian side, FutureShop is exactly like that : Best price policy, overpriced stuff... and they "labeled" me a devil, for sure (a seller once "recognized" me : "Yes, I remember you...", first time I meet the guy). When price matching Camera-Canada for a new Canon G5, a seller even told me: -"I can't match that price, maybe remove 50$ off the total but that's it". -"But your policy is to match the price, and remove 50% of the difference" -"Yeah but I'll lose money that way!" -"Well its not MY policy, isn't it?"
They promise you customer heaven, but slowly draggin you in hell. They're the devils, not us, the intelligent customers.
"The sun emits X-rays and these are reflected back into space by atoms on the Moon's surface. A magnesium atom will reflect an X-ray in a different way from an iron atom, and Grande's detector can detect these differences.
Flying over the lunar poles, so that it covers the entire Moon as it revolves below, Smart will create strip maps of the surface - and eventually a global map of its composition."
Look like useful data to me if we were in the 'mine the moon' business... maybe in a not so distant future?
If this is true, it makes me think about using Google News as my #1 information source. I realize that other news network DO filter information, too, but it my mind, Google wasn't in this kind of stuff (at least, outside China).
Their news service already report a link to this thread under the title "Google Censors Abu Ghraib Images". Now let's see if it'll remain there...
"IBM and its partners are currently exploring a growing list of applications including hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling."
So no PGP key cracking. At least officially.
I wonder how the Fold@Home total CPU power compare to this in terms of percentage?
The scary part isn`t the stuff that you can trace back (i.e he exchange some of the memory cards for some containing results in favor of Candidate A or B), but stuff you can`t nor detect, nor trace back.
Remember, NO LOGS of the voting process are kept on these machines. Think of "Irregularities" in the code that add a vote for Candidate A when a certain vote pattern is met. Or as Mr Rubins said, physical tampering allowing you to "one could change a few bytes in the ballot definition file and votes for the two major Presidential candidates would be swapped. In that case, none of the procedures we had in place could detect that votes were tallied for the wrong candidates."
Great. Maybe this time no one abused the system. But think long-term; in 50 years, when e-voting will be predominant and everyone will be confident in it...
Ok... so the article is not exactly new, nor interesting, so I'm gonna talk about something related:
DNA microarrays from Affymetrix, used to quantify gene expression, are built on a process inspired from CPU design (photolitography - read more about it here). Chips are getting more complex with time, ala Moore Law (shrinking the probe cells to get more density); the most recent human chip harbor 1 300 000 probes representing 39000 transcripts and variants.
So technology developed for CPU is helping to find cures for diseases, increase our knowledge of life... etc. Isn't cool?
To me all the outsourcing problems can be resumed to a simple allegory : cooking.
Home-cooked and cafeteria; sure you'll eat just fine at the end of the day, but chances are the cafeteria food will taste bad, cost less in the short term (efforts + money) but more in the long term, and doesn't have the nice 'home' feeling.
And you're never sure if the cook is on a bad day and spit in your soup (security allusion, for those who don't get it).
As a Canadian, you would expect that it has NOT affected me. But in the light of recent news, I'm not so sure anymore. I'll get flamed for this, but why should your government Patriotism give them every right in MY country? Canadians are patriotic too, love they country, want to protect it, etc... did we ever invade USA citizens privacy like this? Sure, its to fight terrorism... but be careful not to damage your relations with your allies by doing so (if its not already done, with France and the Iraq war).
Why would they announce this kind of thing in a public press release? I mean, its the equivalent of a fireworker announcing to his team he maried a pyro. Maybe the software DOES comply with their standard... now, maybe their standard is a little low... I don't know anything about WhenU, so I can't judge on that. WhenU website even have a link to "anti-spyware portal"... confusing.
I remember playing Final Fantasy I as a kid... and I especially remember the music (I still can play it in my head, haven't played in 10 years). I can say the same thing for most early FF games... the music was wonderful, especially when you consider the limited sound capabilities of the original NES.
Is there a soundtrack of some sort regrouping the most popular FF themes? I find it to be very relaxing...
No word on added cost in the article... if it drives CD prices too much, I guess I'll be used for backup purposes only (perfect application for that). Are scratches the only factor of data decay on CDs?
Cellphones (and camera?) unscratchable LCDs are quite nice too...
Honestly, who is buying these things? At a price of 999$ US (1000 units lot) and a marginal performance increase compared to other, far less costly solutions (3500+ AMD anyone?), I just don't see a market. Is it just for the performance crown, which they didn't even get to win this time around (or should I say, in the past 2-3 years)?No word on heat, nor power consumption.
AMD all the way. Intel is alive just because of Dell (among others) and a large reserve of cash. They cost more, do less, and heat your bedroom to boot. But it has 'Intel Inside', so I guess it must count for something...
The tech behind this amazing stuff is from 2d3, a UK company. Among others, WETA digitals (responsible for the LOTR CG effects) used their camera-tracking soft for post-production.
The phenomenon isnt specific to IT security admins; its the (sad) consequence of corporations with 'false priorities' ('one hand doesn't know what the other is doing' thing). Management ask you to do something they don't have a clue about (in this case, improving security on a network). Then you ask for resources to do the job, and the Finances guys refuse for budget (priorities) reasons.
Basically, you're stuck in a bad position : management yell at you if anything goes wrong, Finance is annoyed by your constant demands they see no 'use' for.
Of course, not every business works this way. But it tend to when the company gets too large...
For that price, I can buy a nice trenchcoat (personal style, they don't have it) and sew interior black pockets for almost nothing. Customizable, killer look. But I agree that its a cool vest, if it fits your style.
To me, a cheap 500 Mhz computer (who probably have 64-128 megs of ram, I guess) is gonna choke on 8 250 GB hardrives on Software RAID 5. Some other posters suggested buying an hardware controller, and I agree. If you host stuff for your friends, you can always charge them a little extra to compensate.
I shouldn't be feeding the Troll, but here it goes. I figured that copypasting at the beginning of an interesting thread, with reference and links, conclusions from a 6 page article most slashdotters won't bother to wade throught is useful for the community. Thanks for your input anyway.
From the article...
on
Broadband Bits
·
· Score: 5, Informative
"Of course we need broadband, but the technology moves so fast that we might end up with a system that nobody wants" Risavi said.
So lets not invest in it... heh.
Conclusions for every 'future broadband' tech from The Future of Broadband Article:
BPL has been given a bad wrap by many news sources. At this stage, it is really impossible to tell whether the interference complaints are legit for the actual technology as a whole, or whether they are based purely on BPL networks that were not researched or planned well enough before deployment - some reports even suggest false claims have been made to try and derail the deployment of BPL by pro-radio enthusiasts. With most information about BPL being very dated, it is hard to say what we can expect. There is nothing we can do but sit back and hope this technology can become sturdy enough for widespread deployment, because the potential is almost unmatched.
Wireless Broadband has already taken a huge step forward worldwide. Here in Australia, for example, Sydney is facing almost complete coverage in the near future from various companies adopting various technologies with DSL-like speeds and prices. However, none of the current systems seem economically viable for widespread coverage. Although true field tests have not yet confirmed the on-paper features, with backing from companies like Intel, it is hard to imagine WiMax not making a huge impact. Look out for its retail release sometime in 2005.
Whilst FTTH is by far the most impressive and feature-filled technology on display here, the likeliness of it ever reaching a wide audience isn't very high, at least not in the near future. Many leading Telco's around the world have decided to merge into a pure IP network in the near future for data and voice, which will fuel the expansion of FTTH. However, FTTH is very much viewed as a technology for new estates and areas, not necessarily current establishments. For the lucky few who will be able to use FTTH in the near future, you can probably expect Telephone, Broadband, TV and other services delivered by a conventional high-speed connection directly to your doorstop. But for the worldwide broadband scene, I wouldn't get your hopes up. It will be a very long time before this makes any sort of widespread impact if any at all.
Probably the most "far out there" concept in this roundup, Stratellite is actually much closer to reality than what you may think. Sanswire insists it will extensively trial a real air ship in January 2005 after successfully demonstrating the technology in 2004. This is a promising technology that could combine the best of Satellite and wired Internet - fast with low latency and hugely widespread, at least in theory. Whilst it is still unclear how exactly a floating broadband hub could haul its data back down to earth wirelessly with acceptable bandwidth (keeping in mind its potential ability to serve millions of people at a time), rest assured this is a prime candidate for tomorrow's broadband world. Whether or not it will get the industry support required, however, is yet to be seen.
Is it too little too late for DSL? Only time will tell just how efficient ADSL2 will be at offering a better service to a wider range of customers. The impression given is that ADSL2 is really more of an add-on to the current ADSL, rather than a completely new revolution. Whilst it sounds li
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, no OS will ever be exploit / bug free. I see it like a competition between would-be hackers and OS programmers... sure, some security holes are just obvious bad programming, but most are not, and in the end, someone somewhere, given enough time, will always find a vulnerability. If Linux had the user base MS Windows have, you can be sure that we would be seeing a LOT more of vulnerabilities popping up. If the average Linux user was as computer-inexperienced as the average Windows user, it would surely help.
Want a 100% secure OS? Run "Hello World" OS, the only unhackable OS, and its friendly, too!
From the wiki link
Second option, sadly :( Nothing is free, in the end...
:(
I just read the article, and they charge an INSANE price for their service... this is sad
I can't wait to see the day where Wireless net access will be free for everyone in Big cities...
Would it be anonymous? Untracable? Probably not... but free information (with a wireless-enabled computer, which is not exactly free...) is excellent for communities....Knowledge is power.
On the "excellent comparison" page... wow. Excellent? Worst use of tables EVER.
Must...not...stare...at...ugly... colors!
Honestly, can someone actually read anything from these? Ugh
So basically, they want people who :
:
- Don't buy their "loss leaders", but stock up on their overpriced stuff.
- People who don't check other companies price, but get attracted by the "Best price policy"
- People who don't return their mail-in rebates.
Why don't you just ask me to give you my money?
On the Canadian side, FutureShop is exactly like that : Best price policy, overpriced stuff... and they "labeled" me a devil, for sure (a seller once "recognized" me : "Yes, I remember you...", first time I meet the guy). When price matching Camera-Canada for a new Canon G5, a seller even told me
-"I can't match that price, maybe remove 50$ off the total but that's it".
-"But your policy is to match the price, and remove 50% of the difference"
-"Yeah but I'll lose money that way!"
-"Well its not MY policy, isn't it?"
They promise you customer heaven, but slowly draggin you in hell. They're the devils, not us, the intelligent customers.
From the article :
"The sun emits X-rays and these are reflected back into space by atoms on the Moon's surface. A magnesium atom will reflect an X-ray in a different way from an iron atom, and Grande's detector can detect these differences.
Flying over the lunar poles, so that it covers the entire Moon as it revolves below, Smart will create strip maps of the surface - and eventually a global map of its composition."
Look like useful data to me if we were in the 'mine the moon' business... maybe in a not so distant future?
They have a "SafeSearch" feature for that, enabled by default.
Pictures aren't showing up even with the feature disabled.
If this is true, it makes me think about using Google News as my #1 information source. I realize that other news network DO filter information, too, but it my mind, Google wasn't in this kind of stuff (at least, outside China).
Their news service already report a link to this thread under the title "Google Censors Abu Ghraib Images". Now let's see if it'll remain there...
"IBM and its partners are currently exploring a growing list of applications including hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling."
So no PGP key cracking. At least officially.
I wonder how the Fold@Home total CPU power compare to this in terms of percentage?
The scary part isn`t the stuff that you can trace back (i.e he exchange some of the memory cards for some containing results in favor of Candidate A or B), but stuff you can`t nor detect, nor trace back.
Remember, NO LOGS of the voting process are kept on these machines. Think of "Irregularities" in the code that add a vote for Candidate A when a certain vote pattern is met. Or as Mr Rubins said, physical tampering allowing you to "one could change a few bytes in the ballot definition file and votes for the two major Presidential candidates would be swapped. In that case, none of the procedures we had in place could detect that votes were tallied for the wrong candidates."
Great. Maybe this time no one abused the system. But think long-term; in 50 years, when e-voting will be predominant and everyone will be confident in it...
Ok... so the article is not exactly new, nor interesting, so I'm gonna talk about something related :
DNA microarrays from Affymetrix, used to quantify gene expression, are built on a process inspired from CPU design (photolitography - read more about it here). Chips are getting more complex with time, ala Moore Law (shrinking the probe cells to get more density); the most recent human chip harbor 1 300 000 probes representing 39000 transcripts and variants.
So technology developed for CPU is helping to find cures for diseases, increase our knowledge of life... etc. Isn't cool?
To me all the outsourcing problems can be resumed to a simple allegory : cooking.
Home-cooked and cafeteria; sure you'll eat just fine at the end of the day, but chances are the cafeteria food will taste bad, cost less in the short term (efforts + money) but more in the long term, and doesn't have the nice 'home' feeling.
And you're never sure if the cook is on a bad day and spit in your soup (security allusion, for those who don't get it).
Attack? Sure... millions of people across the world hitting refresh in unison... Terrorists!
As a Canadian, you would expect that it has NOT affected me. But in the light of recent news, I'm not so sure anymore. I'll get flamed for this, but why should your government Patriotism give them every right in MY country? Canadians are patriotic too, love they country, want to protect it, etc... did we ever invade USA citizens privacy like this? Sure, its to fight terrorism... but be careful not to damage your relations with your allies by doing so (if its not already done, with France and the Iraq war).
Why would they announce this kind of thing in a public press release? I mean, its the equivalent of a fireworker announcing to his team he maried a pyro. Maybe the software DOES comply with their standard... now, maybe their standard is a little low... I don't know anything about WhenU, so I can't judge on that. WhenU website even have a link to "anti-spyware portal"... confusing.
I remember playing Final Fantasy I as a kid... and I especially remember the music (I still can play it in my head, haven't played in 10 years). I can say the same thing for most early FF games... the music was wonderful, especially when you consider the limited sound capabilities of the original NES.
Is there a soundtrack of some sort regrouping the most popular FF themes? I find it to be very relaxing...
No word on added cost in the article... if it drives CD prices too much, I guess I'll be used for backup purposes only (perfect application for that). Are scratches the only factor of data decay on CDs?
Cellphones (and camera?) unscratchable LCDs are quite nice too...
Honestly, who is buying these things? At a price of 999$ US (1000 units lot) and a marginal performance increase compared to other, far less costly solutions (3500+ AMD anyone?), I just don't see a market. Is it just for the performance crown, which they didn't even get to win this time around (or should I say, in the past 2-3 years)?No word on heat, nor power consumption.
AMD all the way. Intel is alive just because of Dell (among others) and a large reserve of cash. They cost more, do less, and heat your bedroom to boot. But it has 'Intel Inside', so I guess it must count for something...
The tech behind this amazing stuff is from 2d3, a UK company. Among others, WETA digitals (responsible for the LOTR CG effects) used their camera-tracking soft for post-production.
Holodeck, closer than we think?
The phenomenon isnt specific to IT security admins; its the (sad) consequence of corporations with 'false priorities' ('one hand doesn't know what the other is doing' thing). Management ask you to do something they don't have a clue about (in this case, improving security on a network). Then you ask for resources to do the job, and the Finances guys refuse for budget (priorities) reasons.
Basically, you're stuck in a bad position : management yell at you if anything goes wrong, Finance is annoyed by your constant demands they see no 'use' for.
Of course, not every business works this way. But it tend to when the company gets too large...
For that price, I can buy a nice trenchcoat (personal style, they don't have it) and sew interior black pockets for almost nothing. Customizable, killer look. But I agree that its a cool vest, if it fits your style.
:
The best part from their product description
"you can even fit a laptop in the back pocket!*"
Hmmm... what about no? Greatest Idea Ever(tm).
To me, a cheap 500 Mhz computer (who probably have 64-128 megs of ram, I guess) is gonna choke on 8 250 GB hardrives on Software RAID 5. Some other posters suggested buying an hardware controller, and I agree. If you host stuff for your friends, you can always charge them a little extra to compensate.
I shouldn't be feeding the Troll, but here it goes. I figured that copypasting at the beginning of an interesting thread, with reference and links, conclusions from a 6 page article most slashdotters won't bother to wade throught is useful for the community. Thanks for your input anyway.
"Of course we need broadband, but the technology moves so fast that we might end up with a system that nobody wants" Risavi said.
:
So lets not invest in it... heh.
Conclusions for every 'future broadband' tech from The Future of Broadband Article
The final word on Broadband Over Power Lines
BPL has been given a bad wrap by many news sources. At this stage, it is really impossible to tell whether the interference complaints are legit for the actual technology as a whole, or whether they are based purely on BPL networks that were not researched or planned well enough before deployment - some reports even suggest false claims have been made to try and derail the deployment of BPL by pro-radio enthusiasts. With most information about BPL being very dated, it is hard to say what we can expect. There is nothing we can do but sit back and hope this technology can become sturdy enough for widespread deployment, because the potential is almost unmatched.
The final word on WiMax
Wireless Broadband has already taken a huge step forward worldwide. Here in Australia, for example, Sydney is facing almost complete coverage in the near future from various companies adopting various technologies with DSL-like speeds and prices. However, none of the current systems seem economically viable for widespread coverage. Although true field tests have not yet confirmed the on-paper features, with backing from companies like Intel, it is hard to imagine WiMax not making a huge impact. Look out for its retail release sometime in 2005.
The final word on Fiber To the Home
Whilst FTTH is by far the most impressive and feature-filled technology on display here, the likeliness of it ever reaching a wide audience isn't very high, at least not in the near future. Many leading Telco's around the world have decided to merge into a pure IP network in the near future for data and voice, which will fuel the expansion of FTTH. However, FTTH is very much viewed as a technology for new estates and areas, not necessarily current establishments. For the lucky few who will be able to use FTTH in the near future, you can probably expect Telephone, Broadband, TV and other services delivered by a conventional high-speed connection directly to your doorstop. But for the worldwide broadband scene, I wouldn't get your hopes up. It will be a very long time before this makes any sort of widespread impact if any at all.
The final word on Stratellite
Probably the most "far out there" concept in this roundup, Stratellite is actually much closer to reality than what you may think. Sanswire insists it will extensively trial a real air ship in January 2005 after successfully demonstrating the technology in 2004. This is a promising technology that could combine the best of Satellite and wired Internet - fast with low latency and hugely widespread, at least in theory. Whilst it is still unclear how exactly a floating broadband hub could haul its data back down to earth wirelessly with acceptable bandwidth (keeping in mind its potential ability to serve millions of people at a time), rest assured this is a prime candidate for tomorrow's broadband world. Whether or not it will get the industry support required, however, is yet to be seen.
The final word on ADSL2
Is it too little too late for DSL? Only time will tell just how efficient ADSL2 will be at offering a better service to a wider range of customers. The impression given is that ADSL2 is really more of an add-on to the current ADSL, rather than a completely new revolution. Whilst it sounds li