I suspect most backup software on the computer pushes the backups to a network share somewhere that I suspect these ransomware packages go looking for and encrypt those files as well.
What if the backup system was remote and pulled the data from a network share on the client. If the client is infected, the infection cannot get to the backup file locations because they are not shared.
I realize this is not trivial for average users to setup, but I'm exploring this option for my home network. Setup NAS type server that looks for read only network shares accessable to userid BACKUP and slurps up any files it finds. Have it keep some kind of version control of a few days (multiple copies). Now when any new system is setup in my house (kid's laptops, wife's desktop, etc) I just have them create a read only share of their personal folders with a userid BACKUP and appropriate password.
I doubt that you could use a Tesla-like Supercharger to charge a battery other than one made by Tesla. I'm not talking about DRM, I'm talking about the architecture of the battery pack itself - its charging characteristics, its safety features, its cooling system, and so on down to the level of the individual 18650 cells.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about the Tesla Supercharger.
But I do know generally how chargers work - specifically multi-cell lithium chargers. Each cell requires a charge management circuit. I don't think the Supercharger actively manages the cell level charging. It is highly unlikely that given 10s or 100s of cells in a Tesla pack that there is going to be anything other than voltage, current and maybe a serial data line for that can be used for metering and financial charging.
As long as my car can handle the voltage, draws an appropriate amount of current and (possibly) provides some identification for payment or statistics, I can take that power and charge 18650's, NiCds, SLAs, caps or just run a big stereo for a block party. At some point there may be a $/kWh bill in the mail, but otherwise, the charging station is most likely battery tech agnostic.
this is what bus planners have always done with the best available data, in setting routes.
And therein lies the rub. Well that at and just general bureaucratic inertia. In our city, route changes tend not to keep up with road construction, destination changes, etc. We have major roads that are full of cars during rush hour, but hardly any buses and empty buses touring residential areas.
An example of an empty major road is Kenaston Blvd & Bishop Grandin Blvd (Note: Zoom in on the map - there's lots of route "close by"). Not a single bus route travels that stretch and yet this road is one of our "inner perimeters" where 42,000 vehicles drive it every day (PDF warning).
Another example is our 98 and 82. These are "feeder" routes. They collect residents and bring them to major routes where they can go downtown. However, if you live on one side of the river and wish to go to a business or school on the other side of the river, you need to take BOTH buses which only run every 1/2 hour. It would seem to me that the logical thing to do would be to combine them into a single loop. That way you aren't stuck in -30C weather waiting 29 minutes for your transfer because the first bus was running late.
Tip-{ring,ring,...}-Sleeve. Easily handles the 3 or 4 connectors needs for just about any modern digital serial connector. Need power? why not modulate the signal on top of the power carrier? Easy to connect, proven reliable (can't count how many times I've broken a mini/micro USB or worse those umpteen pin pico/nano pin connectors that are only used for power or maybe a simple serial connection)
In Winnipeg (Canada), charging for bags - or even simply flat out not supplying them (MEC), has resulted in such a drop in small, convenient shopping bags that we (re)used for garbage bags, that we now have to explicitly buy garbage bags (for small waste bins like in the bathrooms).
Also, yard waste used to be dropped off at certain depots - and large plastic bags were king. Now, it is collected at the curb side - but only if in PAPER yard waste bags. We had stocked up on the large garbage bags for yard waste before the switch, and I fear we now have a lifetime supply of paint smocks, emergency rain coats, vapour barrier material, etc....
I suspect (based on a loose study of my family), us older generation believes that the more important people to focus your attention on are the ones in your presence (at the table, in a meeting, etc) and that the person on the other end of the line can wait.
Our kids however, feel that certain people are more important than others regardless of where they are. Their friends are more important than any boss or family that is nearby.
And so, my wife and I will let the phone ring / answer machine take the call, ignore text messages / FB notifications, etc during supper.
And my kids are squirming as if in extreme pain if their phone buzzes and we don't let them immediately see who it's from and if it's a friend let them respond.
I'm not going to say it's a bad priority shift, but it certainly is an interesting one.
Not to say that DIY'ers can't get around this, but all them fancy guns need fancy bullets. Home made guns will also need decent bullets. So, why not tighten up bullet control:
I realize lots of hunters, etc reload their own, but I'm not aware of too many DIY'ers who are able to make reliable primers (might be wrong) - so maybe just control the sale and distribution of primers?
Like ice sculptures, live performances, draft deals, verbal negotiations - there are things that need to be done that lead to better things, but in themselves have no value if kept and (sometimes) can only do harm.
These things would benefit from DRM that render them useless at the will & command of the creator.
Getting OSHA / union / bubblewrap parents involved means that those who are capable of helping are not allowed to because of the risk that some idiot gets hurt or damages something.
They have their place and time when things are normal to try and minimize the impact of a disaster, but once that disaster is in full swing, they need to sit down, shut up and let people self-mobilize to get the job done.
In the spring of '97 guys were working heavy equipment for days straight, often by the light of military flares, to build a dike that saved Winnipeg from one of the biggest spring floods in our history (often "stealing" clay/dirt from nearby farms to get the dike to the heights needed, dragging and dumping scrap cars, buses, anything they could find to shore up the water front side from erosion, etc.). Ignoring the union rules, safety rules, land procurement rules, etc. they got it done in time.
After the flood waters receded, then all the compensating processes kicked in to address the shortcomings.
In security circles, doesn't physical access = assumed compromise? Game consoles & "locked" phones, e-Readers, etc. are all compromised within hours of being released to the masses. I think one should be very careful before placing trust in physical access security.
There's a stretch of highway by my place that has these really cool LED lights countersunk into the centre line that I'm sure were marketed as a great way to increase safety. The stretch of highway is a narrow 2 lane non-divided temporary by pass around a construction zone (major interchange being built to no where).
The problem with these fancy LEDs is they are so dim that I actually find myself quite distracted trying to determine if they are in fact glowing. Had they gone with a much lower tech solution of putting countersunk reflectors, my headlights would have gladly lit up the centre line.
Glow in the dark stickers, etc. only work when the surrounding area is really dark, otherwise there just isn't enough contrast.
I hope this tech provides a significant visual contrast or else it will just be a distracting and annoying waste of money.
Where the heck did you get all your misinformation from, again?
Owned a 1989 Eagle Vista GT - no power steering, 1989 Honda Civic LX with power steering, and a 1996 Geo Metro with no power steering and now a 2009 Toyota Yaris with power steering. All manual Tx btw. Not sure if the Yaris can come w/out power steering, so not much opinion there, but based on the other 3 - I was safer without power steering.
When the Honda was getting old and would stall (often as I was slowing to a stop at intersections) the sudden loss of power assist in the steering was disconcerting at best, and certainly added effort and therefore time to react as I tried to limp to the side of the road. Neither Metro nor Eagle had that problem.
Looking at failure modes of the smaller cars I've owned - I'll stand by my statement that power steering was a safety hazard.
Funny, it seems the NHTSA actually agrees with me. Allow me to quote:
"ABS allows the driver to maintain directional stability,control over steering, and in some situations, to reduce stopping distances during emergency braking situation, particularly on wet and slippery road surface."
When specifically answering the "Do cars with ABS stop more quickly than cars without?" question they have this to say:
"ABS is designed to help the driver maintain control of the vehicle during emergency braking situations, not make the car stop more quickly."
They then do some hand waving saying some systems may stop a car faster, (BTW, they don't mention "skilled drivers").
The reality is, the difference in stopping distances are minor nits compared to the benefit of steering while breaking - and ABS needs to be advertised as such.
Just to be pedantic - in most situations, ABS will NOT decrease your stopping distance, in fact, by definition not locking your tires reduces friction and actually increases stopping distances. What ABS does do, is enable you to stear around objects, etc while slowing down - which you cannot do if your tires are locked.
Power steering is actually a safety hazard - if you engine fails you will quickly lose the ability to safely steer the vehicle - especially if you are applying the brakes.
For large airlines, that 35lb argument is such a red herring. $1.2 million in fuel savings when spread out per flight has to be so far below the noise floor as to be completely meaningless. Any change in fuel consumption over the year that small can be contributed to so many other factors.
I know I can sometimes flip through a large book that I am very familiar with to find what I'm looking for faster than I can type the words into a search engine - especially when I'm not 100% sure on what word I'm looking for, but I'll know it when I see it. How much fuel does a 747 burn idling while a pilot tries typing in different key words looking for that section he knows deals with the quirk at hand?
On a typical jet carrying 200+ passengers, there is going to be more than 35lbs of weight fluctuation in the level of water retention among the passengers.
Fuel burn is also related to temperature, humidity and wind speed. Will they see the fuel savings when factoring in all that entropy?
Maybe the weight makes a difference on a small 206 Caravan, but for these big birds, call a spade a spade - the pilots want their toys.
Does your right-handed friend also open the cover of books across his body with his right hand?
Actually - he probably does. I observe that people hold books with their left hand and then lift the cover/turn pages with their right. It works because the book cover isn't clipped to the body/pages to limit accidental opening.
I'm not 100% left handed, and have a lot of right handed tendencies (all sports are rh) - I dexterously open books, but sinistrously open CD cases.
Other than smudging the ink from those awful erasable pens, I never payed much attention to products working or not working for us lefties, until CD's came along. Actually, it wasn't until I watched my right handed friend struggle to open a CD case. Somehow he was awkwardly trying to pry the front open with his right hand, which between the case swinging open against the natural movement of the right arm, and somehow gripping the edges of the lid with his left hand as he held the back, was quite entertaining.
For me it was natural to hold the back with my right hand (hinge side on my middle fingers, other side on my thumb) and then grab the front with my left hand (fingers/thumb along top and bottom). The case just opened beautifully.
It is the only tech device I can think of that worked better for us lefties from day one.
If the government is giving pubic $ to companies for research, then the results of the research should be public. Anything else is corporate welfare. Plain and simple.
There are many large organizations in Canada that utilize the SR&ED http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/menu-eng.html that offsets various project costs, but I don't see any publication of what knowledge was gained or discoveries were made.
Slashdot Mirror
"all programs can be optimized, and all programs have bugs; therefore all programs can be optimized to one line that doesn't work"
I suspect most backup software on the computer pushes the backups to a network share somewhere that I suspect these ransomware packages go looking for and encrypt those files as well.
What if the backup system was remote and pulled the data from a network share on the client. If the client is infected, the infection cannot get to the backup file locations because they are not shared.
I realize this is not trivial for average users to setup, but I'm exploring this option for my home network. Setup NAS type server that looks for read only network shares accessable to userid BACKUP and slurps up any files it finds. Have it keep some kind of version control of a few days (multiple copies). Now when any new system is setup in my house (kid's laptops, wife's desktop, etc) I just have them create a read only share of their personal folders with a userid BACKUP and appropriate password.
Thoughts?
... tempest in a teapot ...
I doubt that you could use a Tesla-like Supercharger to charge a battery other than one made by Tesla. I'm not talking about DRM, I'm talking about the architecture of the battery pack itself - its charging characteristics, its safety features, its cooling system, and so on down to the level of the individual 18650 cells.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about the Tesla Supercharger.
But I do know generally how chargers work - specifically multi-cell lithium chargers. Each cell requires a charge management circuit. I don't think the Supercharger actively manages the cell level charging. It is highly unlikely that given 10s or 100s of cells in a Tesla pack that there is going to be anything other than voltage, current and maybe a serial data line for that can be used for metering and financial charging.
As long as my car can handle the voltage, draws an appropriate amount of current and (possibly) provides some identification for payment or statistics, I can take that power and charge 18650's, NiCds, SLAs, caps or just run a big stereo for a block party. At some point there may be a $/kWh bill in the mail, but otherwise, the charging station is most likely battery tech agnostic.
this is what bus planners have always done with the best available data, in setting routes.
And therein lies the rub. Well that at and just general bureaucratic inertia. In our city, route changes tend not to keep up with road construction, destination changes, etc. We have major roads that are full of cars during rush hour, but hardly any buses and empty buses touring residential areas.
An example of an empty major road is Kenaston Blvd & Bishop Grandin Blvd (Note: Zoom in on the map - there's lots of route "close by"). Not a single bus route travels that stretch and yet this road is one of our "inner perimeters" where 42,000 vehicles drive it every day (PDF warning).
Another example is our 98 and 82. These are "feeder" routes. They collect residents and bring them to major routes where they can go downtown. However, if you live on one side of the river and wish to go to a business or school on the other side of the river, you need to take BOTH buses which only run every 1/2 hour. It would seem to me that the logical thing to do would be to combine them into a single loop. That way you aren't stuck in -30C weather waiting 29 minutes for your transfer because the first bus was running late.
If they start poisoning search with for-profit results Google will be quickly reminded that they are not the only search engine in town.
And other search engines (that matter) are?
Bing?
My point being, google's dominance in the search space, while not guaranteed, will certainly offer them a fair bit of buffer to experiment.
Tip-{ring,ring,...}-Sleeve. Easily handles the 3 or 4 connectors needs for just about any modern digital serial connector. Need power? why not modulate the signal on top of the power carrier? Easy to connect, proven reliable (can't count how many times I've broken a mini/micro USB or worse those umpteen pin pico/nano pin connectors that are only used for power or maybe a simple serial connection)
In Winnipeg (Canada), charging for bags - or even simply flat out not supplying them (MEC), has resulted in such a drop in small, convenient shopping bags that we (re)used for garbage bags, that we now have to explicitly buy garbage bags (for small waste bins like in the bathrooms).
Also, yard waste used to be dropped off at certain depots - and large plastic bags were king. Now, it is collected at the curb side - but only if in PAPER yard waste bags. We had stocked up on the large garbage bags for yard waste before the switch, and I fear we now have a lifetime supply of paint smocks, emergency rain coats, vapour barrier material, etc....
I suspect (based on a loose study of my family), us older generation believes that the more important people to focus your attention on are the ones in your presence (at the table, in a meeting, etc) and that the person on the other end of the line can wait.
Our kids however, feel that certain people are more important than others regardless of where they are. Their friends are more important than any boss or family that is nearby.
And so, my wife and I will let the phone ring / answer machine take the call, ignore text messages / FB notifications, etc during supper.
And my kids are squirming as if in extreme pain if their phone buzzes and we don't let them immediately see who it's from and if it's a friend let them respond.
I'm not going to say it's a bad priority shift, but it certainly is an interesting one.
Unless the battery is removed, they can still call emergency services. And once a toddler realizes someone will answer, they'll keep calling.
The one that you (or someone you trust) can effectively manage.
Not to say that DIY'ers can't get around this, but all them fancy guns need fancy bullets. Home made guns will also need decent bullets. So, why not tighten up bullet control:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZrFVtmRXrw
(It's Chris Rock)
I realize lots of hunters, etc reload their own, but I'm not aware of too many DIY'ers who are able to make reliable primers (might be wrong) - so maybe just control the sale and distribution of primers?
Just a note that women - or more specifically "the biological mother who is unable to work because she is pregnant or has recently given birth" can receive an additional 15 weeks of Maternity leave.
Like ice sculptures, live performances, draft deals, verbal negotiations - there are things that need to be done that lead to better things, but in themselves have no value if kept and (sometimes) can only do harm.
These things would benefit from DRM that render them useless at the will & command of the creator.
The Machine Stops
OSHA must be thrilled
Getting OSHA / union / bubblewrap parents involved means that those who are capable of helping are not allowed to because of the risk that some idiot gets hurt or damages something.
They have their place and time when things are normal to try and minimize the impact of a disaster, but once that disaster is in full swing, they need to sit down, shut up and let people self-mobilize to get the job done.
In the spring of '97 guys were working heavy equipment for days straight, often by the light of military flares, to build a dike that saved Winnipeg from one of the biggest spring floods in our history (often "stealing" clay/dirt from nearby farms to get the dike to the heights needed, dragging and dumping scrap cars, buses, anything they could find to shore up the water front side from erosion, etc.). Ignoring the union rules, safety rules, land procurement rules, etc. they got it done in time.
After the flood waters receded, then all the compensating processes kicked in to address the shortcomings.
In security circles, doesn't physical access = assumed compromise? Game consoles & "locked" phones, e-Readers, etc. are all compromised within hours of being released to the masses. I think one should be very careful before placing trust in physical access security.
There's a stretch of highway by my place that has these really cool LED lights countersunk into the centre line that I'm sure were marketed as a great way to increase safety. The stretch of highway is a narrow 2 lane non-divided temporary by pass around a construction zone (major interchange being built to no where).
The problem with these fancy LEDs is they are so dim that I actually find myself quite distracted trying to determine if they are in fact glowing. Had they gone with a much lower tech solution of putting countersunk reflectors, my headlights would have gladly lit up the centre line.
Glow in the dark stickers, etc. only work when the surrounding area is really dark, otherwise there just isn't enough contrast.
I hope this tech provides a significant visual contrast or else it will just be a distracting and annoying waste of money.
Where the heck did you get all your misinformation from, again?
Owned a 1989 Eagle Vista GT - no power steering, 1989 Honda Civic LX with power steering, and a 1996 Geo Metro with no power steering and now a 2009 Toyota Yaris with power steering. All manual Tx btw. Not sure if the Yaris can come w/out power steering, so not much opinion there, but based on the other 3 - I was safer without power steering.
When the Honda was getting old and would stall (often as I was slowing to a stop at intersections) the sudden loss of power assist in the steering was disconcerting at best, and certainly added effort and therefore time to react as I tried to limp to the side of the road. Neither Metro nor Eagle had that problem.
Looking at failure modes of the smaller cars I've owned - I'll stand by my statement that power steering was a safety hazard.
Funny, it seems the NHTSA actually agrees with me. Allow me to quote:
"ABS allows the driver to maintain directional stability,control over steering, and in some situations, to reduce stopping distances during emergency braking situation, particularly on wet and slippery road surface."
When specifically answering the "Do cars with ABS stop more quickly than cars without?" question they have this to say:
"ABS is designed to help the driver maintain control of the vehicle during emergency braking situations, not make the car stop more quickly."
They then do some hand waving saying some systems may stop a car faster, (BTW, they don't mention "skilled drivers").
The reality is, the difference in stopping distances are minor nits compared to the benefit of steering while breaking - and ABS needs to be advertised as such.
Just to be pedantic - in most situations, ABS will NOT decrease your stopping distance, in fact, by definition not locking your tires reduces friction and actually increases stopping distances. What ABS does do, is enable you to stear around objects, etc while slowing down - which you cannot do if your tires are locked.
Power steering is actually a safety hazard - if you engine fails you will quickly lose the ability to safely steer the vehicle - especially if you are applying the brakes.
For large airlines, that 35lb argument is such a red herring. $1.2 million in fuel savings when spread out per flight has to be so far below the noise floor as to be completely meaningless. Any change in fuel consumption over the year that small can be contributed to so many other factors.
I know I can sometimes flip through a large book that I am very familiar with to find what I'm looking for faster than I can type the words into a search engine - especially when I'm not 100% sure on what word I'm looking for, but I'll know it when I see it. How much fuel does a 747 burn idling while a pilot tries typing in different key words looking for that section he knows deals with the quirk at hand?
On a typical jet carrying 200+ passengers, there is going to be more than 35lbs of weight fluctuation in the level of water retention among the passengers.
Fuel burn is also related to temperature, humidity and wind speed. Will they see the fuel savings when factoring in all that entropy?
Maybe the weight makes a difference on a small 206 Caravan, but for these big birds, call a spade a spade - the pilots want their toys.
Actually - he probably does. I observe that people hold books with their left hand and then lift the cover/turn pages with their right. It works because the book cover isn't clipped to the body/pages to limit accidental opening.
I'm not 100% left handed, and have a lot of right handed tendencies (all sports are rh) - I dexterously open books, but sinistrously open CD cases.
Other than smudging the ink from those awful erasable pens, I never payed much attention to products working or not working for us lefties, until CD's came along. Actually, it wasn't until I watched my right handed friend struggle to open a CD case. Somehow he was awkwardly trying to pry the front open with his right hand, which between the case swinging open against the natural movement of the right arm, and somehow gripping the edges of the lid with his left hand as he held the back, was quite entertaining.
For me it was natural to hold the back with my right hand (hinge side on my middle fingers, other side on my thumb) and then grab the front with my left hand (fingers/thumb along top and bottom). The case just opened beautifully.
It is the only tech device I can think of that worked better for us lefties from day one.
If the government is giving pubic $ to companies for research, then the results of the research should be public. Anything else is corporate welfare. Plain and simple.
There are many large organizations in Canada that utilize the SR&ED http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/menu-eng.html that offsets various project costs, but I don't see any publication of what knowledge was gained or discoveries were made.