Why does the London Transport store a history of destinations per card? It seems to me that you don't need to centrally store anything card-specific. I believe that BART here in San Francisco stores the value and entry point on the card itself; when you exit, your balance is deducted. I don't know if the entry point is retained, but it's on the card, not stored in some master central database.
A fingerprint identifies you. It doesn't authenticate you. It's effectively your username. To use it as your password is akin to using your username as your password.
Great concept, brilliant novel, and I highly recommend the books. One little problem with this in "real life", as I understand, is that most pacemakers are typically *idle* (doing nothing). They only "fire" if they sense the heart is stopped, going too slowly, or beating arrhythmically; for example, fibrilation instead of a steady beat. I also wouldn't be surprised if there was firmware with hard limits (upper/lower) so that the "adjustable" rate cannot be re-programmed to lethal levels.
That depends on the model and the medical situation. In my case, it is as you describe: it only fires if the heart doesn't do so in time (my at rest heart rate was about 30 before the implant; now it's set at 80).
Some people, however, depend upon their implanted pacemaker to make their heart beat. My father is facing this situation; his doctor is considering a procedure where the nerve that acts as the heart's natural pacemaker is severed and his heart will not beat if his pacemaker doesn't fire.
As far as "lethal" levels, mine can be set anywhere from 30 to 200. I imagine setting it to 200 and leaving it there would take its toll after a while...
I agree with those that said that in order to "hack" the pacemaker you have to be at a very close range to the victim. At this range, you could just as easily stab or shoot them. As a more general rule, apart from a select few VIP figures, there is nothing we can do to prevent someone from carrying out a murder if they want to, the only thing we can do is punish them after the fact and hope it serves as deterrent for others.
What IS a problem is that unlike other means to kill a person at close range, this method is rather subvert, and unless you are an expert at recognizing behavior and/or expect the victim to be targeted, you will probably not even notice the attack took place. Picture this: a man walks by another man, with a wireless device in his pocket and already pre-configured to carry out the attack. They each go their own ways, and seconds later the other man has a heart attack. The pacemaker is likely not to keep any logs that can reveal the nature of the "hack". So unless you find the equipment used for "hacking" and can tie it to the attacker, you have very little evidence to charge them with.
I have a Medtronic pacemaker implanted. A few points:
1) When the doctor wants to communicate with it, he lays the transceiver on my chest, directly over the pacemaker. It works through my shirt, but the total distance is probably no more than 2 to 3 cms. Yes, it may work at a greater distance, but I doubt it's much more than 10 to 15 cms. One of the things about pacemakers is that they run at very low power. So, yes, it would be easier to shoot me than to hack my pacemaker.
2) The pacemaker has decent data storage. Any change to its settings is logged internally. All sorts of other biometrics (highest heart rate detected and when, %age of beats for which pacing was required, etc.) are logged as well and available for download. I'd be surprised if they *couldn't* tell that the pacemaker had been hacked, and when.
In fact, I do remember a SciFi novel in which these robots got out of hand and eventually restricted our actions to the extreme, since it may cause us harm. Even eating a cheeseburger.
"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson, 1947. An all-time classic, and one that still gives me the absolute creeps today.
The statement, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS was authored by four of Switzerland's foremost HIV experts: Prof Pietro Vernazza, of the Cantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, and President of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS; Prof Bernard Hirschel from Geneva University Hospital; Dr Enos Bernasconi of the Lugano Regional Hospital; and Dr Markus Flepp, president of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health's Sub-committee on the clincal and therapeutic aspects of HIV / AIDS.
The statement's headline statement says that "after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion," the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, "An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact."
It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:
* the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and
* the viral load has been suppressed ( 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and
* there are no other sexually transmitted infections.
I'd like to give Prof. Hirschel, Dr. Bernasconi, and Dr. Flepp a simple test. They have two choices:
1) The each have to have unprotected intercourse with an HIV-infected person 3 times a week for the next year. The person meets the criteria specified above. 2) They retract the statement.
Monitor any security line at any airport. After each shift, pull the slowest, dumbest TSA drone aside and shoot them in the head, in front of all of the other TSA drones. Within a few days you'll see a dramatic improvement in the speed of the line.
Where do I go to collect my $500,000?
(Not looking forward to my cross-USA flights the next two weekends...)
Sentencing documents noted that in his role as systems administrator, Lin had access to Medco's network, which is made up of about 70 HP Unix servers, and that he was "proficient" in coding for them.
It's much easier to extend the horizontal resolution without increasing eyestrain than the vertical resolution, since you can easily swivel your head to view the extra real estate. You could build a spherical monitor, which I imagine would be even harder to manufacture well than a cylindrical monitor, but I think moving your head up and down to read would feel less natural than moving it left to right (unless you typically use a language that uses a vertical orientation).
This is the old telecom industry chant. "Let's put the smarts in the network, they say, where they're out of touch and nobody can even get in to attack them, and have dumb devices out on the edge. Blue boxes are just a rumor."
The desire of the telecom industry to "put the smarts in the network" has nothing to do with security and everything to do with economics. If the "smarts" are in my network, then you have to use my network to use those "smarts". If the "smarts" are in the phone then you can use those "smarts" on anyone's network. (Or, at least, on anyone's network that provides some basic level of infrastructure, such as Internet access.)
Except, of course those micro-black holes couldn't exist, at least given our current understanding of stellar evolution. Post-supernova, without enough mass, neutron degeneracy will prevent the remains of our dead star from falling below the Schwartzchild radius. It's theorized that the minimum mass to form a black hole is about 2-3 times that of the sun, so the smallest black holes would probably have a 6km event horizon.
Not due to stellar evolution, but it has been theorized that such black holes could have been created as part of the Big Bang.
Probably not an issue for the building in question.
I used to work for a telco carrier that had (has) a facility in the carrier hotel at 111 8th Avenue, which is in the same neighborhood. That building's freight elevator had a capacity closer to 80,000 pounds. I don't know what the actual capacity was; I do know that 18-wheelers would drive into the elevator, then be brought up to the 8th floor where there was a loading dock that equipment (telephone switches, storage arrays, etc.) could be offloaded.
The building was built at around the same time as the Empire State Building and was of similar technology: lots of brick and concrete. The floor was concrete a couple of feet thick. When a semi came up to the 8th floor and drove out of the elevator and into the loading dock area, the people working on the floor couldn't tell.
We had an EMC storage array installed and EMC started asking questions about load factors for the floor. When we told them where we were, they stopped asking.
The biggest issue with the loading dock was the vehicle exhaust; there were large exhaust fans and ducts to make sure everyone didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Coincidentally, I flew United from San Francisco to Boston just today. My bag always seems to come off the plane last anyway - this is no change for me.
And you know what? The time difference between the first bag and the last bag is about a whopping 8 to 10 minutes. Anyone who's so stressed out about getting their bags that 8 to 10 minutes makes a difference really needs to re-examine their priorities...
The last thing this comment should be moderated is Offtopic. This is one of the more insightful comments you'll find.
My first computer was an IMSAI 8080. I built it from the kit, as well as the Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal I connected to it. This was in 1976, and I, too, miss those days. While we can do some cool stuff today with 3-D graphics, multithreaded and multiprocessing operating systems, networks, etc., there was still something about building everything from scratch.
PUBLICLY SUPPORTING COMCAST, CHINA, 'the dark side of the PATRIOT ACT', and ALL other entities and institutions that support the argument that the World Wide Web ought to be monitored, manipulated, and controlled.
Slashdot Mirror
And, relevant to today's poll:
What could possibly go wrong?
Or better:
Good luck with that
Why does the London Transport store a history of destinations per card? It seems to me that you don't need to centrally store anything card-specific. I believe that BART here in San Francisco stores the value and entry point on the card itself; when you exit, your balance is deducted. I don't know if the entry point is retained, but it's on the card, not stored in some master central database.
A fingerprint identifies you. It doesn't authenticate you. It's effectively your username. To use it as your password is akin to using your username as your password.
That depends on the model and the medical situation. In my case, it is as you describe: it only fires if the heart doesn't do so in time (my at rest heart rate was about 30 before the implant; now it's set at 80).
Some people, however, depend upon their implanted pacemaker to make their heart beat. My father is facing this situation; his doctor is considering a procedure where the nerve that acts as the heart's natural pacemaker is severed and his heart will not beat if his pacemaker doesn't fire.
As far as "lethal" levels, mine can be set anywhere from 30 to 200. I imagine setting it to 200 and leaving it there would take its toll after a while...
I have a Medtronic pacemaker implanted. A few points:
1) When the doctor wants to communicate with it, he lays the transceiver on my chest, directly over the pacemaker. It works through my shirt, but the total distance is probably no more than 2 to 3 cms. Yes, it may work at a greater distance, but I doubt it's much more than 10 to 15 cms. One of the things about pacemakers is that they run at very low power. So, yes, it would be easier to shoot me than to hack my pacemaker.
2) The pacemaker has decent data storage. Any change to its settings is logged internally. All sorts of other biometrics (highest heart rate detected and when, %age of beats for which pacing was required, etc.) are logged as well and available for download. I'd be surprised if they *couldn't* tell that the pacemaker had been hacked, and when.
I always liked George Carlin's take on this:
"Selling is legal.
Fucking is legal.
Why isn't selling fucking legal?"
You mean old Futurama episode idea.
Yes. Yes it is.
"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson, 1947. An all-time classic, and one that still gives me the absolute creeps today.
Oh, that's good. So from where do I download the sources to Google Desktop?
I'd like to give Prof. Hirschel, Dr. Bernasconi, and Dr. Flepp a simple test. They have two choices:
1) The each have to have unprotected intercourse with an HIV-infected person 3 times a week for the next year. The person meets the criteria specified above.
2) They retract the statement.
Which do you think they would choose?
But he did!
It's called a gun.
Monitor any security line at any airport. After each shift, pull the slowest, dumbest TSA drone aside and shoot them in the head, in front of all of the other TSA drones. Within a few days you'll see a dramatic improvement in the speed of the line.
Where do I go to collect my $500,000?
(Not looking forward to my cross-USA flights the next two weekends...)
Obviously not...
It's much easier to extend the horizontal resolution without increasing eyestrain than the vertical resolution, since you can easily swivel your head to view the extra real estate. You could build a spherical monitor, which I imagine would be even harder to manufacture well than a cylindrical monitor, but I think moving your head up and down to read would feel less natural than moving it left to right (unless you typically use a language that uses a vertical orientation).
It's about .04 Libraries of Congress.
...when it comes to FOSS. They do care about free as in beer.
(This is in response to the tag freespeechisnotfreebeer.)
The desire of the telecom industry to "put the smarts in the network" has nothing to do with security and everything to do with economics. If the "smarts" are in my network, then you have to use my network to use those "smarts". If the "smarts" are in the phone then you can use those "smarts" on anyone's network. (Or, at least, on anyone's network that provides some basic level of infrastructure, such as Internet access.)
This reminds me of a George Carlin routine:
"Selling is legal.
Fucking is legal.
So why isn't selling fucking legal?"
Not due to stellar evolution, but it has been theorized that such black holes could have been created as part of the Big Bang.
Probably not an issue for the building in question.
I used to work for a telco carrier that had (has) a facility in the carrier hotel at 111 8th Avenue, which is in the same neighborhood. That building's freight elevator had a capacity closer to 80,000 pounds. I don't know what the actual capacity was; I do know that 18-wheelers would drive into the elevator, then be brought up to the 8th floor where there was a loading dock that equipment (telephone switches, storage arrays, etc.) could be offloaded.
The building was built at around the same time as the Empire State Building and was of similar technology: lots of brick and concrete. The floor was concrete a couple of feet thick. When a semi came up to the 8th floor and drove out of the elevator and into the loading dock area, the people working on the floor couldn't tell.
We had an EMC storage array installed and EMC started asking questions about load factors for the floor. When we told them where we were, they stopped asking.
The biggest issue with the loading dock was the vehicle exhaust; there were large exhaust fans and ducts to make sure everyone didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Coincidentally, I flew United from San Francisco to Boston just today. My bag always seems to come off the plane last anyway - this is no change for me.
And you know what? The time difference between the first bag and the last bag is about a whopping 8 to 10 minutes. Anyone who's so stressed out about getting their bags that 8 to 10 minutes makes a difference really needs to re-examine their priorities...
The last thing this comment should be moderated is Offtopic. This is one of the more insightful comments you'll find.
My first computer was an IMSAI 8080. I built it from the kit, as well as the Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal I connected to it. This was in 1976, and I, too, miss those days. While we can do some cool stuff today with 3-D graphics, multithreaded and multiprocessing operating systems, networks, etc., there was still something about building everything from scratch.
I'm with Woz on this one.
And Nazis. Don't forget Nazis.
I use OOo exclusively. I save all of my Writer documents in .odt format. When I need to send it to someone, I export as PDF and send them that.
.doc if the person I'm sending to needs to edit the document, but that's pretty rare.
Occasionally I'll save as