Once upon a time I worked in some institution that had access to the corporate network only. We bought a new notebook, attached it to the network and did nothing more. It became infected in 15 minutes. Were we the other 0.0001%?
Some 15 years ago I worked in some institution. My policy is:
1) Install the new system on new HDD. 2) Copy all work files to the new HDD. 3) Hide the old HDD. 4) When it's known that everything works then save some critical work files somewhere, test and reuse the HDD.
I asked the management that I need a new HDD. The institution head told my boss to supply me with HDD. My boss left the resolution "You don't need a new HDD". I copied the work files, erased the HDD and reinstalled the system. Then it appeared that some program saves it's work files in c:\Program Files which was not expected. My boss had lots of unpleasant talks both with institution head and operator of this PC.
In the day of half inch 9-track tape the tape format was able to recover multiple single-track errors, be it NRZI or PE. But I have never seen the actual mini computer controller that could do this recovery. No wonder the success rate was near 50 per cent.
1) Typing faster than on standard keyboard? 2) Typing with less errors than on standard keyboard? 3) Typing easier and with less health problems than on standard keyboard? 4) Typing at least not so expensively that on specialized ergo keyboards?
No. This keyboard is made for the single segment of market: Consumer, not professional.
And now I should remember the words of (then) education minister of Russia: Communists were not right when they tried to grow a creator-man. Now we should grow a qualified consumer of all the things the mankind has been created.
I have no patience to read all the comments, I have read about 1/4 of them. But: 1) I feel quite sad that the formalized rules are to be applied where it was enough for Ladies and Gentlemen to behave as in a good society. 2) I think it's necessary to be ready to the moment when the FreeBSD project is just closed due to the political correctness. Since FreeBSD is my main OS I think that the mirroring the FreeBSD project for emergency purposes becomes a necessity.
Full Disclosure: I live in Russia, and I have graduated from the University which before 1917 was a School for Noble Girls.
It should be not too difficult to use any cellular modem or modem module and a simple microcontroller that issues the AT-commands to the modem. As a bonus, you should be able to obtain some status info in order to detect the stingrays.
You cannot trust even the open OS. You cannot trust ANYTHING that could be changed without a hardware programmer, but the ability to load some commercial programs is the thing that makes a piece of hardware a smartphone. Either you retain this ability or you should rewrite all the ecosystem from scratch.
You should be worried about at least 3 things: 1) Intel Management Engine that could be present in some Intel-based books, 2) Something inside a BIOS, for instance a theft prevention mark that is automatically recognized by Windows (Have forgotten the exact name). I have such a Thinkpad and just don't care since I don't use Windows and have a proof of purchase, 3) BIOS password which in Thinkpads is NOT erased by CMOS battery removal.
It's exactly how the Russian specialists are educated in Russian universities.
Being a Russian I have seen the tests for exams of "Automatic control theory". And there was a test "There is a satellite with given moment of inertia and given torque from thrusters. Turn the satellite 30 degrees".
The NORMAL technical decision is "Give it some thrust and wait until it turns in position when it's expected to be slightly before the needed target position after braking. Then turn thrusters ON and OFF according to the expected deceleration curve until it's stopped on position". The turn is limited with available fuel and available time.
The "CORRECT" decision expected from the students was "Turn ON the thrusters and accelerate the satellite until it's almost late to brake it. Then turn ON the thrusters backwards". And it does NOT care that the fuel is extremely valuable and that any possible error is NOT to be corrected.
All this is an expected result of our education policy of our former education minister Fursenko: "The Communists were wrong trying to grow a creator. Our task is to grow a qualified consumer of all that has been already created".
But, Americans, if you think that this policy doesn't apply to you...
Ability to run your OS for years without reinstallation while retaining the ability to install new software
It was THE problem that caused me to switch to FreeBSD. I have installed some new software to Windows 98 and then Word stopped working just when I was to produce an extremely important and extremely urgent letter.
Also, I have produced the following ironclad principle: The HDD is NOT the computer part. It's a medium. So if you install something you do it on a fresh medium while your work medium remains intact. Then your work medium is replaced with the new one and comes to storage.
Can it do all of the Excel functions? Can the I.T. department managing 3,000 PCs with some off, some on, some in different configurations on Active Directory?
It's basically irrelevant from the very moment the Windows is caught with sending your precious data to Redmond and then to all 3-letter agencies that exist. And now we (I work in some Russian defense-related institution that should not be mentioned by name) have only 2 variants: Either conserve the Windows XP environment forever or use LibreOffice.
The Outlook is destined to die ONLY because the SMTP and POP protocols aren't secure anymore. And even if they use the secure transport their providers are obliged to store your correspondence for the Competent Organs.
I think the RetroShare mail subsystem has become operational enough to replace the SMTP.
Really, it's just easier to run and maintain Windows on the desktop for the vast majority of people..
1. The computer park on my workplace consists of 1 Windows-98 computer, 1 FreeBSD 6.1 computer, 6 computers with last versions of FreeBSD and one Windows XP computer. The only computer that requires maintenance is a Windows XP computer. All other computers just work.
2. The said Windows XP computer could be a FreeBSD one but some 10 years ago there was a management decision to use Windows XP because it's a development system for the client which performs the similar tasks. It appeared that the client just needs no such system: they use their own Windows programs and my FreeBSD programs.
3. 'Vast majority of people". I've written some Fortran program that produces some general scientific calculations. Then it was given to the specialist who should independently evaluate the results. And it appeared that she is not able to perform the following tasks, and I was to write every step on paper: - to redirect the output of the program to some file with ">" - to use Windows "find.exe" to extract some specific output lines from the loooooooong listing - again to redirect the output of "find.exe" - to load the results to Excel. And she's NOT the only such specialist here. They all behave similarly, and they all have experience with Unix in 1980-th years and MS-DOS in 1990-s. But they all spent 22 years from 1995 (Windows-95) to today in Windows and as a result they degraded totally.
Here in Siberia the winds blow mostly from West to East. For instance, if we want to know the weather for tomorrow we listen about current weather in some city some 1000 km in the West (Sorry, my exact location is classified).
So if you see a big spot of Ruthenium in South-West Siberia and North Kazakhstan then it's source is somewhere between Russia and the EU.
Your renewable energy requires storage. The cheapest energy storage is lead-acid. So the environment impact of lead mining, battery production and battery recycling, with occasional loss of the batteries into the environment, should be taken into account.
Or, if you prefer, there should be a big subsidy to replace lead-acid with anything less toxic which also is to be taken into account.
And while you Americans do it we Russians just improve our nuclear cycle.
1) int a[16]; index=something(); SOMECODE; b=a[index]; 2) int a[16]; SOMECODE; index=something(); b=a[index&0x0f]; 3) int a[16]; SOMECODE; index=something(); if((index=16)) process_error(); b=a[index];
The first one is a disaster waiting to happen because you rely on something() to return proper values and on SOMECODE to not change index and not to allow jumps inside it. And as I understand the problem it was closed by 1st way.
The next batch of rebels were allowed by Assad to leave Damascus district Qaboon for Idlib with their wives, children, guns and possessions. I could not imagine that Stalin could allow Nazis to be evacuated to Berlin after they are caught in Stalingrad. I also could not imagine the same about Japanese and USA in WWII, Saddam and USA, Gadhafi and USA, Chechnya and Russia in 2000 and Taliban and USA after 911.
Or, in other words, the society you know needs the law enforcement because without law enforcement it could not self-organize and inevitably falls into chaos. Next question is where you should find the law enforcement personnel that is NOT the part of your society.
It's trivial to implement, but: 1) You have absolutely no motivation to do it during peace times (in condition that you are not a Revolutionary) 2) When the substance hits the fan you have absolutely no time and equipment to do it. 3) During the unrest the cell networks shall be blocked. So the only means of distant communications are CB radios. 4) You should resolve the legal conflict between you (the law abiding citizen) and Revolutionaries that use your node - both from your point of view that they use YOUR equipment for THEIR revolution you don't want and from point of Law enforcement that thinks that YOU help the Revolutionaries and are to be punished. Fidonet resolved it just by enforceable prohibition of any illegal or commercial activity. 5) If you are a Revolutionary then your cell traffic is monitored. And so all your contacts are known. It does not mean that your messages are intercepted but your contacts could be interrogated and they dislike it. It's quite difficult to monitor CB packet but it's possible too. You could invent some new ultra fast CB data protocol that THEY could not monitor - and then THEY just enter your org and obtain the protocol.
Amateur Radio has the severe legal usage limitation. It could be used for exchange of amateur radio and emergency related information ONLY. So it could be used as an experimental base ONLY and then the technology should be transferred to commercial or community area.
I could spend my money for creation of general use network that could continue to operate in emergency but I have no motivation to make a network that could be used exclusively for emergency.
Just getting people together create and maintain a wireless network is a lot of effort.
Not only an effort but it also exposes all the community to the Competent Organs (Russian euphemism for law enforcement). You could do it relatively securely in countries with strong legal system somewhere in Europe or in countries where Organs are integral part of the community (as is in Havana and as it was in Russia in 90s when Office of Internal Affairs kept a Fidonet hub). But I doubt that it should be done in modern Russia, USA or, say, Turkey.
... and each face should have a separate outdoor-class WiFi router that costs about 0.25 of average monthly income. But you increase antenna gain 4* giving distance only 2*. 500m instead of 250m are not a solution. The problem of only 4 separate 2.5 GHz channels (1 5 9 13; 3 channels in USA) is secondary.
Well, let us imagine for some time that we have unlimited WiFi spectrum. But let's assume that the dipole antennas give maximum 250 meters. So in order to traverse Moscow (Yes, I said Moscow!) (about 25 km in diameter according to Wikimapia) you need 100 hops which require all equipment to not only work but to be placed in good high places. The ping times also would be quite.....
You could install a 20dB dish to access a local mesh router and it would give you about 2.5 km of distance. But it does NOT solve the problem of these 100 hops.
In order to have something better you need not a mesh but a STRUCTURE of longlinks. 2 dishes could give you 25 km (really less due to obstructions and atmospheric loss). But this structure is 1) highly visible and very suspicious for Competent Organs 2) Very expensive. Basically every node should have at least 4 longlinks and a local mesh router. It's about 2 average Russian monthly incomes + installation + construction of antennas.
There ARE such networks in Athens, Barcelona and Havana since the price of Internet is quite high there. But please take in account that Athens and Barcelona are in countries with good legal systems, and in Havana the local Competent Organs are quite sober and don't object if you don't show your dislike of Castro. I prefer not to discuss USA or Russia from this aspect; it's a hint.
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Once upon a time I worked in some institution that had access to the corporate network only. We bought a new notebook, attached it to the network and did nothing more. It became infected in 15 minutes. Were we the other 0.0001%?
Some 15 years ago I worked in some institution. My policy is:
1) Install the new system on new HDD.
2) Copy all work files to the new HDD.
3) Hide the old HDD.
4) When it's known that everything works then save some critical work files somewhere, test and reuse the HDD.
I asked the management that I need a new HDD. The institution head told my boss to supply me with HDD. My boss left the resolution "You don't need a new HDD". I copied the work files, erased the HDD and reinstalled the system. Then it appeared that some program saves it's work files in c:\Program Files which was not expected. My boss had lots of unpleasant talks both with institution head and operator of this PC.
In the day of half inch 9-track tape the tape format was able to recover multiple single-track errors, be it NRZI or PE. But I have never seen the actual mini computer controller that could do this recovery. No wonder the success rate was near 50 per cent.
Sorry, but would it allow
1) Typing faster than on standard keyboard?
2) Typing with less errors than on standard keyboard?
3) Typing easier and with less health problems than on standard keyboard?
4) Typing at least not so expensively that on specialized ergo keyboards?
No. This keyboard is made for the single segment of market: Consumer, not professional.
And now I should remember the words of (then) education minister of Russia: Communists were not right when they tried to grow a creator-man. Now we should grow a qualified consumer of all the things the mankind has been created.
I have no patience to read all the comments, I have read about 1/4 of them. But:
1) I feel quite sad that the formalized rules are to be applied where it was enough for Ladies and Gentlemen to behave as in a good society.
2) I think it's necessary to be ready to the moment when the FreeBSD project is just closed due to the political correctness. Since FreeBSD is my main OS I think that the mirroring the FreeBSD project for emergency purposes becomes a necessity.
Full Disclosure: I live in Russia, and I have graduated from the University which before 1917 was a School for Noble Girls.
It should be not too difficult to use any cellular modem or modem module and a simple microcontroller that issues the AT-commands to the modem. As a bonus, you should be able to obtain some status info in order to detect the stingrays.
You cannot trust even the open OS. You cannot trust ANYTHING that could be changed without a hardware programmer, but the ability to load some commercial programs is the thing that makes a piece of hardware a smartphone. Either you retain this ability or you should rewrite all the ecosystem from scratch.
You should be worried about at least 3 things: 1) Intel Management Engine that could be present in some Intel-based books, 2) Something inside a BIOS, for instance a theft prevention mark that is automatically recognized by Windows (Have forgotten the exact name). I have such a Thinkpad and just don't care since I don't use Windows and have a proof of purchase, 3) BIOS password which in Thinkpads is NOT erased by CMOS battery removal.
It's exactly how the Russian specialists are educated in Russian universities.
Being a Russian I have seen the tests for exams of "Automatic control theory". And there was a test "There is a satellite with given moment of inertia and given torque from thrusters. Turn the satellite 30 degrees".
The NORMAL technical decision is "Give it some thrust and wait until it turns in position when it's expected to be slightly before the needed target position after braking. Then turn thrusters ON and OFF according to the expected deceleration curve until it's stopped on position". The turn is limited with available fuel and available time.
The "CORRECT" decision expected from the students was "Turn ON the thrusters and accelerate the satellite until it's almost late to brake it. Then turn ON the thrusters backwards". And it does NOT care that the fuel is extremely valuable and that any possible error is NOT to be corrected.
All this is an expected result of our education policy of our former education minister Fursenko: "The Communists were wrong trying to grow a creator. Our task is to grow a qualified consumer of all that has been already created".
But, Americans, if you think that this policy doesn't apply to you...
Ability to run your OS for years without reinstallation while retaining the ability to install new software
It was THE problem that caused me to switch to FreeBSD. I have installed some new software to Windows 98 and then Word stopped working just when I was to produce an extremely important and extremely urgent letter.
Also, I have produced the following ironclad principle: The HDD is NOT the computer part. It's a medium. So if you install something you do it on a fresh medium while your work medium remains intact. Then your work medium is replaced with the new one and comes to storage.
Can it do all of the Excel functions? Can the I.T. department managing 3,000 PCs with some off, some on, some in different configurations on Active Directory?
It's basically irrelevant from the very moment the Windows is caught with sending your precious data to Redmond and then to all 3-letter agencies that exist. And now we (I work in some Russian defense-related institution that should not be mentioned by name) have only 2 variants: Either conserve the Windows XP environment forever or use LibreOffice.
The Outlook is destined to die ONLY because the SMTP and POP protocols aren't secure anymore. And even if they use the secure transport their providers are obliged to store your correspondence for the Competent Organs.
I think the RetroShare mail subsystem has become operational enough to replace the SMTP.
Really, it's just easier to run and maintain Windows on the desktop for the vast majority of people..
1. The computer park on my workplace consists of 1 Windows-98 computer, 1 FreeBSD 6.1 computer, 6 computers with last versions of FreeBSD and one Windows XP computer. The only computer that requires maintenance is a Windows XP computer. All other computers just work.
2. The said Windows XP computer could be a FreeBSD one but some 10 years ago there was a management decision to use Windows XP because it's a development system for the client which performs the similar tasks. It appeared that the client just needs no such system: they use their own Windows programs and my FreeBSD programs.
3. 'Vast majority of people". I've written some Fortran program that produces some general scientific calculations. Then it was given to the specialist who should independently evaluate the results. And it appeared that she is not able to perform the following tasks, and I was to write every step on paper:
- to redirect the output of the program to some file with ">"
- to use Windows "find.exe" to extract some specific output lines from the loooooooong listing
- again to redirect the output of "find.exe"
- to load the results to Excel.
And she's NOT the only such specialist here. They all behave similarly, and they all have experience with Unix in 1980-th years and MS-DOS in 1990-s. But they all spent 22 years from 1995 (Windows-95) to today in Windows and as a result they degraded totally.
Just migrate to RetroShare. It uses SSL so attempts to block SSL would block just everything.
Also, RS has self-contained chats and forums needing no browser so the deanon attempts via browser usual for TOR are expected to fail.
Here in Siberia the winds blow mostly from West to East. For instance, if we want to know the weather for tomorrow we listen about current weather in some city some 1000 km in the West (Sorry, my exact location is classified).
So if you see a big spot of Ruthenium in South-West Siberia and North Kazakhstan then it's source is somewhere between Russia and the EU.
The Russian tourist asks a British cop: Sir, can I? - Cop: Yes, you can!
No, Sir, I mean, may I? No, you may not.
The cops MAY NOT force you to hand over your passcode, but they CAN.
Send it to us. We shall reprocess it and power our Dear Soviet Motherland with your waste for the millenia to come.
Your renewable energy requires storage. The cheapest energy storage is lead-acid. So the environment impact of lead mining, battery production and battery recycling, with occasional loss of the batteries into the environment, should be taken into account.
Or, if you prefer, there should be a big subsidy to replace lead-acid with anything less toxic which also is to be taken into account.
And while you Americans do it we Russians just improve our nuclear cycle.
Look, there are at least 3 styles of programming:
1) int a[16]; index=something(); SOMECODE; b=a[index];
2) int a[16]; SOMECODE; index=something(); b=a[index&0x0f];
3) int a[16]; SOMECODE; index=something(); if((index=16)) process_error(); b=a[index];
The first one is a disaster waiting to happen because you rely on something() to return proper values and on SOMECODE to not change index and not to allow jumps inside it. And as I understand the problem it was closed by 1st way.
The next batch of rebels were allowed by Assad to leave Damascus district Qaboon for Idlib with their wives, children, guns and possessions. I could not imagine that Stalin could allow Nazis to be evacuated to Berlin after they are caught in Stalingrad. I also could not imagine the same about Japanese and USA in WWII, Saddam and USA, Gadhafi and USA, Chechnya and Russia in 2000 and Taliban and USA after 911.
Or, in other words, the society you know needs the law enforcement because without law enforcement it could not self-organize and inevitably falls into chaos. Next question is where you should find the law enforcement personnel that is NOT the part of your society.
It's trivial to implement, but:
1) You have absolutely no motivation to do it during peace times (in condition that you are not a Revolutionary)
2) When the substance hits the fan you have absolutely no time and equipment to do it.
3) During the unrest the cell networks shall be blocked. So the only means of distant communications are CB radios.
4) You should resolve the legal conflict between you (the law abiding citizen) and Revolutionaries that use your node - both from your point of view that they use YOUR equipment for THEIR revolution you don't want and from point of Law enforcement that thinks that YOU help the Revolutionaries and are to be punished. Fidonet resolved it just by enforceable prohibition of any illegal or commercial activity.
5) If you are a Revolutionary then your cell traffic is monitored. And so all your contacts are known. It does not mean that your messages are intercepted but your contacts could be interrogated and they dislike it. It's quite difficult to monitor CB packet but it's possible too. You could invent some new ultra fast CB data protocol that THEY could not monitor - and then THEY just enter your org and obtain the protocol.
Amateur Radio has the severe legal usage limitation. It could be used for exchange of amateur radio and emergency related information ONLY. So it could be used as an experimental base ONLY and then the technology should be transferred to commercial or community area.
I could spend my money for creation of general use network that could continue to operate in emergency but I have no motivation to make a network that could be used exclusively for emergency.
Just getting people together create and maintain a wireless network is a lot of effort.
Not only an effort but it also exposes all the community to the Competent Organs (Russian euphemism for law enforcement). You could do it relatively securely in countries with strong legal system somewhere in Europe or in countries where Organs are integral part of the community (as is in Havana and as it was in Russia in 90s when Office of Internal Affairs kept a Fidonet hub). But I doubt that it should be done in modern Russia, USA or, say, Turkey.
... and each face should have a separate outdoor-class WiFi router that costs about 0.25 of average monthly income. But you increase antenna gain 4* giving distance only 2*. 500m instead of 250m are not a solution. The problem of only 4 separate 2.5 GHz channels (1 5 9 13; 3 channels in USA) is secondary.
Well, let us imagine for some time that we have unlimited WiFi spectrum. But let's assume that the dipole antennas give maximum 250 meters. So in order to traverse Moscow (Yes, I said Moscow!) (about 25 km in diameter according to Wikimapia) you need 100 hops which require all equipment to not only work but to be placed in good high places. The ping times also would be quite.....
You could install a 20dB dish to access a local mesh router and it would give you about 2.5 km of distance. But it does NOT solve the problem of these 100 hops.
In order to have something better you need not a mesh but a STRUCTURE of longlinks. 2 dishes could give you 25 km (really less due to obstructions and atmospheric loss). But this structure is 1) highly visible and very suspicious for Competent Organs 2) Very expensive. Basically every node should have at least 4 longlinks and a local mesh router. It's about 2 average Russian monthly incomes + installation + construction of antennas.
There ARE such networks in Athens, Barcelona and Havana since the price of Internet is quite high there. But please take in account that Athens and Barcelona are in countries with good legal systems, and in Havana the local Competent Organs are quite sober and don't object if you don't show your dislike of Castro. I prefer not to discuss USA or Russia from this aspect; it's a hint.