Often, in scientific research computing (my field is chemical engineering, but I am sure physics, chemistry, geography et. al. use similar techniques) we use multiple languages.
For example, you may have a simulation that requires several hours of CPU time to run. We will write the math end of the code in Fortran. (If you really require high speed execution, you will write the most frequently run code in assembler.) We then write the GUI or the interface or file handling parts in C, C++ or Java, depending on what you want.
I have already put a bit of thought into that. We are already working on a version of XMMS that runs without graphics. So you end up with full support of all of your IO plugins (.ogg,.mp3, crossfader, shoutcast, viaVOICE?:), PALMamp, ID input, http controller..... ). Add in samba searches, icecast, a few scripts, som ecustom controllers, a large HD or CD drive, and a nice sound card, and mix well. I actually plan on setting it up for an in-car system, but it would work just as well for in-home.
Also, said Terrorist could use multiple techniques together:
- write message
- apply method of Chaffing and Winnowing (above) or method of hiding messages in spam.
- hide that message in favorite media with outguess.
- encrypt that with PGP or GnuPG.
- encrypt that with the mandated, key-esrowed, back-doored technique
Now there are several barriers to break down, but only the easy one is known about until an investigation is already under way.
Or:
- said terrorist could avoid electronic communications, and meet face to face in a public park or on a public bus or in a crowd
Ask a gardener how they deal with weeds. Do you just remove what you can see, or do you go after the roots? Ask a doctor how he/she deals with a disease. Does he/she treat the symptoms and hope for the best over time, or does he/she treat the source of the disease?
Yes, cutting off one of their means of communication would be an incovenience for people who have evil plans. But is there a better we that we can deal with their evil plans in the first place?
I don't know the answers, I just ask the questions.
There has been discussion of this kind of technology in Canada. Except that it would be installed in the ignition sequence of a car belonging to an already convicted multiple drunk driving offender. Before starting the car, the device would require a breath sample. Fail the sample, car does not start. Pass the test, car starts. Noone knows the results of the test except the driver. And the device is only installed on the cars of persons already convicted of drunk driving and the device is part of their sentence.
As for circumventing the device by getting a sober friend to give the sample: the sober friend might as well drive, if he/she is there to give a sample.
I for one like the idea of reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road.
I sent my letter in just yesterday. You can read it online. That's what I sent in. If you want to use similar ideas and arguments, go ahead. I also plan on bringing this letter and these ideas to my local MP in the next few days.
So have you sent in your letter?
Re:New untaxed mp3 storage method...
on
RIAA To Target CD-R
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
[sarcasm]
Cassette units shipped to U.S. markets decreased by 42.9 percent at mid-year 2001, representing a $176 million dollar value. This number is down 41.9 percent from mid-year 2000.
I think this decrease is sales is due to all those pirates and swashbucklers out there, who would rather download the mp3 than buy the cassette. The only obvious solution to prop up cassette sales is to unilaterally ban the usage of CD-rs and networks. If these bans are allowed, we will expect fourth quarter cassette tape earnings to increase 25%.
[/sarcasm]
Maybe the real reason CD sales are down is due to the double whammy of recession and lack of quality music in the stores. And maybe CD sales would be down 42.9% if mp3's were displacing CD's like CDs are displacing cassettes as the "new" medium.
I was able to hear the stream. But oddly enough, my version of real player did not allow me to save the stream to a disk.
Wasn't the whole thing about how restricting access to information via technologial or legal means is NOT a good idea? I can't save the darn stream to disk.
The stream is at pnm://media.abc.net.au/rn/bbing/bb_120801.rm, but apparently I have software on my computer that is protecting me from saving it to disk. This same software protects me from stabbing myself with a rubber butter knife, because I can't be trusted on my own.
So why are we not bundling CD's of DemoLinux, RedHat, Mandrake, and Debian with computers? Quit complaining, and start trying to convince your local computer retailer to bundle a Linux CD with every new computer. Even if you have to get your local users group to pay a couple bucks to mass print a couple of them.
If you want linux to become more prevalent on the desktop, start giving away CD's to people.
Since when was profit a right? I've never seem the "right to profit" in any constitution. If the corps don't like the internet, they can build their own. They can call it whatever they want, but if they want to control it, they will have yo build it from the ground up.
I reiterate - since when was profit a right? If a corporation can't make money on the internet, maybe they shouldn't be in the internet business. I know that I can't make money selling ice cream, and therefore I am not in the ice cream business. Someone else who can make money in that area will make a better go of it. But I have no right to a profitable ice-cream business.
Also, you can make use of the PGPDisk feature in recent versions of PGP. Make an encrypted PGPdisk and store you key in there. In windows, whenever you want to encrypt something, you mount the PGPDisk (under an assigned drive letter) with a password. Until you enter this password, this drive does not exist. If someone finds the PGPDisk file, they still have to crack that first. And if the PGPDisk file happens to be on the order of 100MB in size, it will be difficult to move around undetected.
That PGPDisk may also be store on your favorite removable media to be taken with you wherever you go.
So there you have it, redundant passpword protection, a hint of storing the key in an obscure place, and a fairly large encrypted file that may be difficult to yoink without passing under some network traffic radar.
Now if only someone could point me to a FAQ or How-To set up a PGPDisk (preferably compatible with the windows-PGPDisk standard) or other encrypted loopback device, that would really help me out.
If you read the CSA interview, you will read that the issue here is safety and training. Is Tito trained on the Russian module? yes he is. Is he trained on the other modules? No, he is not. Can someone go to the ISS and only exist in one of the modules, and never leave that module, even in an emergency? No. The ISS is very interconnected and interdependant. You cannot expect someone to only stay in one module.
----
In the interview, you will notice that the opposition is not against Tito ever going into space. The opposition is against Tito going into space BEFORE HE IS TRAINAED ON ALL MODULES. When he has recieved such training and is qualified, he may be considered for a mission.
Take it home, and put it in my CD-player (very old, quite likely to not be able to read it) or maybe one of those MP3/CD players. It doesn't work. I go back to the store with my CD player in hand, and go to the manager. "Look, this new CD is defective. I doesn't work in my CD player. This other CD of mine (non-crippled) does work, so the CD player is not broken. Please refund my purchase." A couple of these, and the stores will be leery about stocking them.
Then I write a short letter to the actual band: "I bought your CD. It was broken, my CD player was unable to play it. I returned the CD to the store. I downloaded the tracks from Napster/Gnutella/Bearshare. Here is a cheque for $8 that I think you deserve for your efforts in producing the music. I don't think the record company deserves anything, as their CD does not work in my CD player."
Then I write a letter to the RIAA: "I bought an album. You crippled it. I returned it. I downloaded the tracks from Napster/Gnutella/Bearshare. I paid the artists directly for their efforts. You are no longer part of the equation. Good-bye. I hope that you sold your shares two years ago."
Artists get paid, I paid less for the songs, and the record company is taken out of the equation entirely (except that they now have a returned CD to deal with). Keep this up, and they will be forced out of business. And I can rest well, in that I didn't rip off the artist. In fact, the artist probably made 8 times as much from me as they would have from the record company.
Why continue doing business with a company that is trying to hurt you, when you can simply work around them and take them out of the equation?
MSNBC has this article on said topic. It includes a list of who the player's are here. The list includes everbody's favorites: AOL Time Warner, Yahoo!, MSN, Walt Disney Internet Group and DoubleClick. Now I will just have to make some additions to my Junkbusters proxy.
Slashdot Mirror
Often, in scientific research computing (my field is chemical engineering, but I am sure physics, chemistry, geography et. al. use similar techniques) we use multiple languages.
For example, you may have a simulation that requires several hours of CPU time to run. We will write the math end of the code in Fortran. (If you really require high speed execution, you will write the most frequently run code in assembler.) We then write the GUI or the interface or file handling parts in C, C++ or Java, depending on what you want.
-----
I have already put a bit of thought into that. We are already working on a version of XMMS that runs without graphics. So you end up with full support of all of your IO plugins (.ogg, .mp3, crossfader, shoutcast, viaVOICE? :), PALMamp, ID input, http controller..... ). Add in samba searches, icecast, a few scripts, som ecustom controllers, a large HD or CD drive, and a nice sound card, and mix well. I actually plan on setting it up for an in-car system, but it would work just as well for in-home.
There are method of hiding data in plain sight. Just read "Chaffing and Winnowing: Confidentiality without Encryption" at http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/chaffing.txt
Also, said Terrorist could use multiple techniques together:
- write message
- apply method of Chaffing and Winnowing (above) or method of hiding messages in spam.
- hide that message in favorite media with outguess.
- encrypt that with PGP or GnuPG.
- encrypt that with the mandated, key-esrowed, back-doored technique
Now there are several barriers to break down, but only the easy one is known about until an investigation is already under way.
Or:
- said terrorist could avoid electronic communications, and meet face to face in a public park or on a public bus or in a crowd
Ask a gardener how they deal with weeds. Do you just remove what you can see, or do you go after the roots? Ask a doctor how he/she deals with a disease. Does he/she treat the symptoms and hope for the best over time, or does he/she treat the source of the disease?
Yes, cutting off one of their means of communication would be an incovenience for people who have evil plans. But is there a better we that we can deal with their evil plans in the first place?
I don't know the answers, I just ask the questions.
I wrote my letter, and you can read it here.
As for circumventing the device by getting a sober friend to give the sample: the sober friend might as well drive, if he/she is there to give a sample.
I for one like the idea of reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road.
So have you sent in your letter?
[sarcasm] Cassette units shipped to U.S. markets decreased by 42.9 percent at mid-year 2001, representing a $176 million dollar value. This number is down 41.9 percent from mid-year 2000.
I think this decrease is sales is due to all those pirates and swashbucklers out there, who would rather download the mp3 than buy the cassette. The only obvious solution to prop up cassette sales is to unilaterally ban the usage of CD-rs and networks. If these bans are allowed, we will expect fourth quarter cassette tape earnings to increase 25%.
[/sarcasm]
Maybe the real reason CD sales are down is due to the double whammy of recession and lack of quality music in the stores. And maybe CD sales would be down 42.9% if mp3's were displacing CD's like CDs are displacing cassettes as the "new" medium.
Wasn't the whole thing about how restricting access to information via technologial or legal means is NOT a good idea? I can't save the darn stream to disk.
The stream is at pnm://media.abc.net.au/rn/bbing/bb_120801.rm, but apparently I have software on my computer that is protecting me from saving it to disk. This same software protects me from stabbing myself with a rubber butter knife, because I can't be trusted on my own.
If you want linux to become more prevalent on the desktop, start giving away CD's to people.
I reiterate - since when was profit a right? If a corporation can't make money on the internet, maybe they shouldn't be in the internet business. I know that I can't make money selling ice cream, and therefore I am not in the ice cream business. Someone else who can make money in that area will make a better go of it. But I have no right to a profitable ice-cream business.
Profit is a privilege, and not a right.
Also, you can make use of the PGPDisk feature in recent versions of PGP. Make an encrypted PGPdisk and store you key in there. In windows, whenever you want to encrypt something, you mount the PGPDisk (under an assigned drive letter) with a password. Until you enter this password, this drive does not exist. If someone finds the PGPDisk file, they still have to crack that first. And if the PGPDisk file happens to be on the order of 100MB in size, it will be difficult to move around undetected.
That PGPDisk may also be store on your favorite removable media to be taken with you wherever you go.
So there you have it, redundant passpword protection, a hint of storing the key in an obscure place, and a fairly large encrypted file that may be difficult to yoink without passing under some network traffic radar.
Now if only someone could point me to a FAQ or How-To set up a PGPDisk (preferably compatible with the windows-PGPDisk standard) or other encrypted loopback device, that would really help me out.
If you read the CSA interview, you will read that the issue here is safety and training. Is Tito trained on the Russian module? yes he is. Is he trained on the other modules? No, he is not. Can someone go to the ISS and only exist in one of the modules, and never leave that module, even in an emergency? No. The ISS is very interconnected and interdependant. You cannot expect someone to only stay in one module. ----
In the interview, you will notice that the opposition is not against Tito ever going into space. The opposition is against Tito going into space BEFORE HE IS TRAINAED ON ALL MODULES. When he has recieved such training and is qualified, he may be considered for a mission.
Take it home, and put it in my CD-player (very old, quite likely to not be able to read it) or maybe one of those MP3/CD players. It doesn't work. I go back to the store with my CD player in hand, and go to the manager. "Look, this new CD is defective. I doesn't work in my CD player. This other CD of mine (non-crippled) does work, so the CD player is not broken. Please refund my purchase." A couple of these, and the stores will be leery about stocking them.
Then I write a short letter to the actual band: "I bought your CD. It was broken, my CD player was unable to play it. I returned the CD to the store. I downloaded the tracks from Napster/Gnutella/Bearshare. Here is a cheque for $8 that I think you deserve for your efforts in producing the music. I don't think the record company deserves anything, as their CD does not work in my CD player."
Then I write a letter to the RIAA: "I bought an album. You crippled it. I returned it. I downloaded the tracks from Napster/Gnutella/Bearshare. I paid the artists directly for their efforts. You are no longer part of the equation. Good-bye. I hope that you sold your shares two years ago."
Artists get paid, I paid less for the songs, and the record company is taken out of the equation entirely (except that they now have a returned CD to deal with). Keep this up, and they will be forced out of business. And I can rest well, in that I didn't rip off the artist. In fact, the artist probably made 8 times as much from me as they would have from the record company.
Why continue doing business with a company that is trying to hurt you, when you can simply work around them and take them out of the equation?
MSNBC has this article on said topic. It includes a list of who the player's are here. The list includes everbody's favorites: AOL Time Warner, Yahoo!, MSN, Walt Disney Internet Group and DoubleClick. Now I will just have to make some additions to my Junkbusters proxy.