Because saying "I forgot" is specifically NOT a defense under the UK Act.
One of the big 'weaknesses' of the act, as argued before it was passed, is that if someone was to spam you with a block of random data, the police could demand that you hand over the encryption key or face 5 years jail. You don't know anything about it, so you don't have the key...
Oh, and under the bill currently going through Parliament, they (the govt) get all a copy of all email.
2020 is only 12 years away. I don't think Putin intends to be out of officed by then; he's just resting as Prime Minister for a term, pulling the strings in the background and pretending not to be President. I don't think anyone in Russia is fooled.
If Microsoft wanted the Office 20xx standard to be an open standard, it could have joined the ODF forum, when everyone wanted it to, and pushed the DOC format into ODF. As OpenOffice, etc. currently read.doc files, etc. anyway, it would have been easier for everyone, rather than make a new standard. Along the way, problems with the Office (OOXML) standard would have been sorted out by all.
Instead, MS didn't join OASIS / ODF. It pushed forward a standard that even it doesn't adhere to, why?
Because MS only makes money if people buy new software. It needs to keep changing the format, as it has done continuously, to make everyone buy the new code. MS loses if any open standard is used; both because they could buy non-MS software, and because there is little need to but new software in the first place, if you have an old version of Office around.
We need to understand this, and avoid infighting with the ISO. ISO is the target that MS is trying to corrupt and destroy. We need to help root out the corruption, but strengthen, not destroy, ISO in the process.
I've never had any problems buying cold medicine without ID, but then, I'm Irish, not American. (Hint:.ie = Ireland). The only 'single point of failure' here is the protocol, which has been studied. Examine it for weaknesses. Same problem as for, eg. SSL. Are you advocating multiple protocols?
Govt insisting on one trackable OpenID: yes it is rediculous. You need to think the protocol through. I connect to a website https://www.foo.ie./ Do something. Then I connect to https://www.bar.com/ foo.com and bar.com may communicate, using encrypted comms. For the (US) govt to even know that some OpenID is involved means reading all the encrypted communications. Insisting that the openid I have at foo.ie authenticate against a govt server', how? foo.com is my server in Ireland. No jurisdiction.
Not only can you get plenty of openid accounts outside the US (or wherever), any attempt to enforce one openid will backfire. The protocol specifically allows sites to reject 'valid' openids. Just because you have a valid openid 'gov.us/John.Smith' doesn't mean it will be accepted by my website: I can reject you saying "Please get a non-government ID; free IDs available at https://overseas.com/"
And I will do so. I am not beholden to the US government, and neither is the internet.
I think you haven't grasped what this is. It Isn't like MS Passport, where one other service knows your password and can pretend to be you. Its a protocol that anyone can implement. For example, I've implemented it on my blog: when I login, I authenticate myself (e.g. enter my password) on my blog and it identifies me to whatever website or service I log into.
Secondly, don't take "single sign on" too literally. You can, and are expected to, have multiple accounts, just not the practically 'infinite number' on each web site.
Right now, I have a slashdot account, which has my name, etc. I the openid world, I might use my openid identity "http://blog.sceal.ie/Alastair" to log into slashdot, and technorati, and gmail, etc. None of them see my password. When I login to slashdot, it 'redirects' to blog.sceal.ie, which (does something to verify me) and then redirects back, with a message of 'hes Alastair, ok'. Only my website, blog.sceal.ie gets to see how I identify myself.
Now, I may also have other OpenID 'IDs', such as "openid.net/anon1234" or whatever, which I can use for porn sites, anywhere I don't trust, etc. They don't get to see my real name, or tie me back to any other IDs.
I might also get some IDs via organisations I work for. E.g. If I work for Oracle, then I could also have an openid "oracle.com/Alastair.McKinstry" to login to Oracle websites. When I leave Oracle, then they can get to cancel that account.
But its called OpenID because its not based on trusting one organisation.
They are not contradictory (The EU directive is European law, SOx is USanian...)
The directive on mandatory data retention requires the data to be kept for law enforcement purposes. After the 18 month (typical; it varies from country to country) deadline, it would typically be deleted, as there is a liability to the holder in the event of the data becoming public; In Germany, for example, the data can only be kept as long as it is required for billing purposes (billing the ISP's user).
You can argue that good practice would be to delete ASAP anyway: if you hold the data longer than necessary, and the data is leaked / stolen in a web breakin, etc. the company would be liable for contributory negligence in holding the data and making it available for theft.
But the main point: there is no law in Europe to require a web company to disclose the IP addresses to advertisers to prove anything. How they prove they have real traffic is up to them: e.g. logging a hash of (IP address, client browser, etc.)
People have already factored in a release of the iPhone, or an "iPhone class" phone into their decisions.
I for example have an aging phone. I've been looking for a replacement (in Ireland). Were it not for the iPhone, I would probably have bought one by now. But the current range of replacements look poor in comparison (in the iPhones range, ie. a smart-phone). Hence I'm holding off purchasing until the iPhone, or an iPhone-class-competitor is available, probably next year.
Hence the telcos are hurting despite the iPhone not being available yet.
Speed to orbit? Why do you need to go fast? People used to take months to cross the Atlantic, and the treasures offered by cheep space travel are massive compared to the treasures of the New World. Or just send up cargo on the elevator and send people on a rocket (expensive and dangerous in comparison, but quick).
The reason speed to orbit is important is the Van Allen radiation belts. You can't afford to spend several days passing through them to orbit. You also can't afford to put much shielding on the lift climbers - they're severely weight constrained. This makes space elevators useful for cargo, maybe, but not humans, unless you come up with a Magic Wand ( (TM) Charlie Stross) breakthrough.
Now on the Moon, or Mars, the situation looks a lot better...
This puts the burden of proof onto the defendant: they have to explain why they turned off the life recorder.
Read up as to why we have "Innocent until proven Guilty": there are a lot of circumstances that are not illegal, but frowned on by society. (e.g. being Gay and in the US Military, etc.) : especially where you have politically-motivated prosecutors such as in the US (less so in Britain and Ireland where there is a higher degree of independence for the Director of Public Prosecutions) the law can become a tool of persection. You can be in deep trouble when doing something perfectly legal but frowned on my a majority (or vocal/powerful minority) of your community.
Other issues of the panopticon society: imagine setting up a business (in your spare time,or whatever). Your employer / competitor could bring a frivolous lawsuit just to see what you were doing on day X.
Well, funny you should mention it. For scientific missions to Antarctica, which also have long-term implications (ie. we can't get you out in a hurry in Winter), the Germans took the approach of single-sex teams, either male or female.
(Nights are Long in Antartica, and pregnancy is Not An Option.)
Not necessarily - in my first job I was hired specifically to replace a contract programmer who had moved country. Six months later he was still on the payroll, working remotely, as it was not possible to fix his code - only he could effectively maintain it, so I had to rewrite from scratch.
Note: he was hired first as the only IT person in a telecoms reseller; he was hired to create some software as part of a contract they had won. Only later was a second computer professional hired: a manager to expand the role of the new 'software department', who realised the state of the code.
The danger of this (and reason its a seperate directory) is unpacking files, downloaded files, etc:
if you donwload a file, it puts in on the desktop. easy for beginners. You can also unzip, etc. files there. if there was a hidden.login in that zip file, you'd be 0wned, as it just overwrote your existing one. Instead its relatively safe for beginners to use.
Ireland has the lowest rate of corporate tax in Europe, and so declares all its profits (and pays all its taxes) in Ireland. Its the lowest tax deal for Microsoft, but given Microsofts size, its significant for Irish taxes: I've heard that MS provides several % of Irish Corporate Tax take on its own.
MS also allows Ireland to boast its 'the worlds largest software exporter': 'exporting' all that MS software to the rest of Europe. Good for attracting other Software industry.
The primary Debian machines are in colo facilities in the US and Netherlands (there are buildd machines available to debian developers in various locations). The machines are beefy enough - HP recently donated a server with 48 GB RAM, for example. I believe the bandwidth out of ftp.debian.org is Gigabit ethernet (and having only that to the mirrors will be a bottleneck when sarge is released!)
So, no, they're not in some dudes basement; we have good facilities courtesy of our sponsors.
Debian Unstable is not that out of date: Its got Gnome 2.4, OpenOffice 1.0, Sodipodi 0.32+'
Check your apt-get setup, and update.
If you want a newer stable Debian, help. Debian is a volunteer organisation, after all; you don't even need to be a DD. Just look at http://www.debian.org/devel, look at the list of RC bugs, and post fixes to the BTS!
The new debian-installer uses the discover tool (used in knoppix, IIRC) to do its hardware detection.
The d-i team has priorised
(1) Getting a stable installer working, to release sarge;
(2) Supporting the currently supported architectures ; then
(3) making it easy to use, finally,
(4) Graphical would be nice.
For the next release, we are not going to get a graphical installer working in time; the first 3 are more important. The task of supporting multiple architectures, particularly in small environments, means anaconda was not a good starting base (see other threads).
A Graphical installer would be a good thing (and coming eventually), but making it easy to use is the real goal. With autodetection of hardware, the d-i installer as currently used in skolelinux, for example, requires you to answer 3 questions: (1) What language do you want to use first (2) Do you mind if I use the whole disk (with an option to say no and manally configure) (3) Whats the root password going to be?
It may not be flashy, but simple, yes.
It also allows kickstart-type configurations and simple adaptation for new flavours/variants of Debian.
While the anaconda work by PGI looks good, I can't help but wish they had joined the underesourced d-i team and helped get the graphical installer stable in time for Sarge.
While I agree that this is a good thing to do, and the mechanism of labelling dependencies is a good idea, the practice of running/etc/rc.d scripts in parallel gives me shivers.
Debugging race conditions in the shell scripts is going to be fun. And I'm not sure I want my server to do it: I'd want the option of a safe, slow, serial booting order for my servers.
The booting/etc/rc.d can change a fair amount: catching correct dependencies may not be as easy, or as static a task as it sounds. And you have the fun prospect that the expert linux users, who are the most useful to help you debug these issues, don't reboot: only newbies do, so getting good error reports will take time.
The number of parties depends on the type of electoral system.
In a plurality-system (eg the US), it is easier to take one of the existing parties and bend it to your goals than make progress with a new party. Witness the (lack of) success of the greens. It is tactically easier to produce a rainbow coalition within the democrats , and shift the democrats to left-wing goals than make a new party. Similarly with the religious right in the Republicans.
If you have a run-off system, eg in France, then 3 parties can achieve significant numbers. If you have straightforward proportional representation and coalitions, then you end up with more parties.
They started out that way, but the Nazi party that came to power was far right wing.
Hitler was (one of a number of) people who, working for the German secret service at the time, subverted the NDSAP in the early 20's, when it was a left-wing party.
As a consequence, he found himself in power in a political party. The found support from right-wing backers (see other posts) and the rest is history.
There are two reasons why you should always report the problem to the distro producer (Redhat, Debian, Mandrake,whatever).
(1) The distros typically add their own patches to packages to ensure they meet distro standards. The developer of the original program may not be aware of what changes were made to their program, and be able to reproduce the bug.
(2) The distro needs to track bugs in the software they distribute! if you bypass them, how can they know the code is buggy? they've seen no complaints.
Thats why you should use a tool supplied with the distro to report bugs (eg 'reportbug'in Debian). The distro will forward bugs to upstream if necessary. If you look at the Bug Tracking system in Debian (http://bugs.debian.org) you can see bugs marked 'forwarded' for packages.
Unfortunately, censorship increasingly is becoming easy (with Palladium, etc.). As information transfer gets increasingly automated (ie happens via the internet) then censorship becomes automated, too.
We get forced to a hard choice: either censorship, or freedom. Freedom means not being able to censor the stuff we don't like (racism, paedophilia, etc). We have to look to other ways to fight these.
If you believe in freedom of speech, then your're defending that right for your enemies, too. Free speech means spending some of the rest of my life countering the arguments of holocaust deniers,etc.
But I'd rather do that than live without whistleblowers, in a world where employers, politicians, etc can use technologies like palladium to convince us all is right in the world, and stop us from hearing about, and _fixing_ the cruelties that exist. I don't believe for a second that most CEO's, etc. out there, given the tech. to prevent bad news of toxic waste , pollution, etc. problems in their factories killing people, would actually fix these problems if they could guarantee their workers could never tell anyone.
Our daily quality of life is guaranteed by freedom of speech. Its not just for wierdo politicos.
Re:Okay, hate to be the first "help me post"...
on
Freenet 0.5 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
You're not supposed to bind it to other addresses. The point is that everything is proxyed through your local server (on 127.0.0.1); then traffic analysis can't tell the difference between traffic from your node and traffic proxy'd by your node (which communicates with the other servers).
Yes, ideally in freenet there is a server on every computer in the network. (at the moment due to transient nodes, some/most aren't true servers), but of course, you're not running them, just your one.
The article was vague with the 'souped-up beowulf'. These AlphaServer SC machines are not just connected by fast ethernet, they share a Quadrics switch that provides ~200 MB/s bandwidth with 5us latency per node.
These machines are basically MPI boxes: they run an optimized MPI implementation (not on top of TCP/IP) that takes advantage of the special features of the underlying switch , such as reflective memory, where memory writes on one node automatically appear on all other nodes, hardware broadcasts to all nodes, etc.
Alastair McKinstry,
AlphaServer SC Engineering (who make these machines)
Compaq.
Slashdot Mirror
Because saying "I forgot" is specifically NOT a defense under the UK Act.
One of the big 'weaknesses' of the act, as argued before it was passed, is that if someone was to spam you with a block of random data, ...
the police could demand that you hand over the encryption key or face 5 years jail. You don't know anything about it, so you don't
have the key
Oh, and under the bill currently going through Parliament, they (the govt) get all a copy of all email.
Yep. A Slightly better phrasing I've seen, every time our old Windows Exchange 4.0 box came up"
Warning: An unexpected condition occured:
Exchange started successfully.
As explained, its a race condition calling GetLastError().
2020 is only 12 years away. I don't think Putin intends to be out of officed by then; he's just resting as Prime Minister for a term, pulling the strings in the background and pretending not to be President. I don't think anyone in Russia is fooled.
If Microsoft wanted the Office 20xx standard to be an open standard, it could have joined the ODF forum, when everyone wanted it to, and pushed the DOC format into ODF. As OpenOffice, etc. currently read .doc files, etc. anyway, it would have been easier for everyone, rather than make a new standard. Along the way, problems with the Office (OOXML) standard would have been sorted out by all.
Instead, MS didn't join OASIS / ODF. It pushed forward a standard that even it doesn't adhere to, why?
Because MS only makes money if people buy new software. It needs to keep changing the format, as it has done continuously, to make everyone buy the new code. MS loses if any open standard is used; both because they could buy non-MS software, and because there is little need to but new software in the first place, if you have an old version of Office around.
We need to understand this, and avoid infighting with the ISO. ISO is the target that MS is trying to corrupt and destroy. We need to help root out the corruption, but strengthen, not destroy, ISO in the process.
I've never had any problems buying cold medicine without ID, but then, I'm Irish, not American. (Hint: .ie = Ireland).
The only 'single point of failure' here is the protocol, which has been studied. Examine it for weaknesses.
Same problem as for, eg. SSL. Are you advocating multiple protocols?
Govt insisting on one trackable OpenID: yes it is rediculous. You need to think the protocol through.
I connect to a website https://www.foo.ie./ Do something. Then I connect to https://www.bar.com/
foo.com and bar.com may communicate, using encrypted comms.
For the (US) govt to even know that some OpenID is involved means reading all the encrypted communications.
Insisting that the openid I have at foo.ie authenticate against a govt server', how?
foo.com is my server in Ireland. No jurisdiction.
Not only can you get plenty of openid accounts outside the US (or wherever), any attempt to enforce one
openid will backfire. The protocol specifically allows sites to reject 'valid' openids.
Just because you have a valid openid 'gov.us/John.Smith' doesn't mean it will be accepted by my website:
I can reject you saying "Please get a non-government ID; free IDs available at https://overseas.com/"
And I will do so. I am not beholden to the US government, and neither is the internet.
I think you haven't grasped what this is. It Isn't like MS Passport, where one other service knows your
password and can pretend to be you. Its a protocol that anyone can implement. For example, I've implemented it
on my blog: when I login, I authenticate myself (e.g. enter my password) on my blog and it identifies
me to whatever website or service I log into.
Secondly, don't take "single sign on" too literally. You can, and are expected to, have multiple accounts,
just not the practically 'infinite number' on each web site.
Right now, I have a slashdot account, which has my name, etc. I the openid world, I might use my
openid identity "http://blog.sceal.ie/Alastair" to log into slashdot, and technorati, and gmail, etc.
None of them see my password. When I login to slashdot, it 'redirects' to blog.sceal.ie, which (does something to verify me)
and then redirects back, with a message of 'hes Alastair, ok'.
Only my website, blog.sceal.ie gets to see how I identify myself.
Now, I may also have other OpenID 'IDs', such as "openid.net/anon1234" or whatever, which I can use for
porn sites, anywhere I don't trust, etc. They don't get to see my real name, or tie me back to any other IDs.
I might also get some IDs via organisations I work for. E.g. If I work for Oracle, then I could also have an openid
"oracle.com/Alastair.McKinstry" to login to Oracle websites. When I leave Oracle, then they can get to cancel that
account.
But its called OpenID because its not based on trusting one organisation.
They are not contradictory (The EU directive is European law, SOx is USanian ...)
The directive on mandatory data retention requires the data to be kept for law enforcement purposes.
After the 18 month (typical; it varies from country to country) deadline, it would typically be deleted,
as there is a liability to the holder in the event of the data becoming public; In Germany, for example,
the data can only be kept as long as it is required for billing purposes (billing the ISP's user).
You can argue that good practice would be to delete ASAP anyway: if you hold the data longer than necessary,
and the data is leaked / stolen in a web breakin, etc. the company would be liable for contributory
negligence in holding the data and making it available for theft.
But the main point: there is no law in Europe to require a web company to disclose the IP addresses to advertisers
to prove anything. How they prove they have real traffic is up to them: e.g. logging a hash of (IP address, client browser, etc.)
People have already factored in a release of the iPhone, or an "iPhone class" phone into their decisions.
I for example have an aging phone. I've been looking for a replacement (in Ireland). Were it not for
the iPhone, I would probably have bought one by now. But the current range of replacements look poor
in comparison (in the iPhones range, ie. a smart-phone).
Hence I'm holding off purchasing until the iPhone, or an iPhone-class-competitor is available,
probably next year.
Hence the telcos are hurting despite the iPhone not being available yet.
The reason speed to orbit is important is the Van Allen radiation belts. You can't afford to spend several days passing through them to orbit.
You also can't afford to put much shielding on the lift climbers - they're severely weight constrained. This makes space elevators useful for cargo, maybe,
but not humans, unless you come up with a Magic Wand ( (TM) Charlie Stross) breakthrough.
Now on the Moon, or Mars, the situation looks a lot better
This puts the burden of proof onto the defendant: they have to explain why they turned off the life recorder.
Read up as to why we have "Innocent until proven Guilty": there are a lot of circumstances that are not illegal, but frowned on
by society. (e.g. being Gay and in the US Military, etc.) : especially where you have politically-motivated prosecutors
such as in the US (less so in Britain and Ireland where there is a higher degree of independence for the Director of Public Prosecutions)
the law can become a tool of persection. You can be in deep trouble when doing something perfectly legal but frowned on
my a majority (or vocal/powerful minority) of your community.
Other issues of the panopticon society: imagine setting up a business (in your spare time,or whatever). Your employer / competitor
could bring a frivolous lawsuit just to see what you were doing on day X.
Well, funny you should mention it. For scientific missions to Antarctica, which also have long-term
implications (ie. we can't get you out in a hurry in Winter), the Germans took the approach of
single-sex teams, either male or female.
(Nights are Long in Antartica, and pregnancy is Not An Option.)
Not necessarily - in my first job I was hired specifically to replace a contract programmer who had moved country. Six months later he was still on the payroll, working remotely, as it was not possible to fix his code - only he could effectively maintain it, so I had to rewrite from scratch.
Note: he was hired first as the only IT person in a telecoms reseller; he was hired to create
some software as part of a contract they had won. Only later was a second computer professional hired: a manager to expand the role of the new 'software department', who realised the state of the code.
The danger of this (and reason its a seperate directory) is unpacking files, downloaded files, etc:
.login in that zip file, you'd be 0wned, as it just overwrote your existing one. Instead its relatively safe for
if you donwload a file, it puts in on the desktop. easy for beginners. You can also unzip, etc. files there. if there was a hidden
beginners to use.
Microsofts European headquarters are in Dublin.
Ireland has the lowest rate of corporate tax in Europe, and so declares all its profits (and pays all its taxes) in Ireland. Its the lowest tax deal for Microsoft, but given Microsofts size, its significant for Irish taxes: I've heard that MS provides several % of Irish Corporate Tax take on its own.
MS also allows Ireland to boast its 'the worlds largest software exporter': 'exporting' all that MS software to the rest of Europe. Good for attracting other Software industry.
- Alastair
The primary Debian machines are in colo facilities
in the US and Netherlands (there are buildd machines available to debian developers in various locations). The machines are beefy enough - HP
recently donated a server with 48 GB RAM, for example. I believe the bandwidth out of ftp.debian.org is Gigabit ethernet (and having only that to the mirrors will be a bottleneck
when sarge is released!)
So, no, they're not in some dudes basement; we have good facilities courtesy of our sponsors.
- Alastair
Debian Unstable is not that out of date: Its got
Gnome 2.4, OpenOffice 1.0, Sodipodi 0.32+'
Check your apt-get setup, and update.
If you want a newer stable Debian, help. Debian is a volunteer organisation, after all; you don't
even need to be a DD. Just look at
http://www.debian.org/devel, look at the list of RC bugs, and post fixes to the BTS!
Regards,
Alastair McKinstry
The new debian-installer
;
uses the discover tool (used in knoppix, IIRC) to
do its hardware detection.
The d-i team has priorised
(1) Getting a stable installer working, to release sarge
(2) Supporting the currently supported architectures ; then
(3) making it easy to use, finally,
(4) Graphical would be nice.
For the next release, we are not going to get a graphical installer working in time; the first 3 are more important. The task of supporting multiple architectures, particularly in small environments, means anaconda was not a good starting base (see other threads).
A Graphical installer would be a good thing (and
coming eventually), but making it easy to use is the real goal. With autodetection of hardware, the
d-i installer as currently used in skolelinux, for
example, requires you to answer 3 questions:
(1) What language do you want to use first
(2) Do you mind if I use the whole disk (with an option to say no and manally configure)
(3) Whats the root password going to be?
It may not be flashy, but simple, yes.
It also allows kickstart-type configurations and
simple adaptation for new flavours/variants of
Debian.
While the anaconda work by PGI looks good, I can't help but wish they had joined the underesourced d-i team and helped get the graphical installer stable in time for Sarge.
- Alastair McKinstry
While I agree that this is a good thing to do, and the mechanism of labelling dependencies is a good idea, the practice of running /etc/rc.d
/etc/rc.d can change a fair amount: catching correct dependencies may not be as easy, or as static a task as it sounds. And you have the fun prospect that the expert linux users, who are the most useful to help you debug these issues, don't reboot: only newbies do, so getting good error reports will take time.
scripts in parallel gives me shivers.
Debugging race conditions in the shell scripts is going to be fun. And I'm not sure I want my server to do it: I'd want the option of a safe, slow, serial booting order for my servers.
The booting
- Alastair
The number of parties depends on the type of electoral system.
In a plurality-system (eg the US), it is easier to take one of the existing parties and bend it to your goals than make progress with a new party. Witness the (lack of) success of the greens. It is tactically easier to produce a rainbow coalition within the democrats , and shift the democrats to left-wing goals than make a new party. Similarly with the religious right in the Republicans.
If you have a run-off system, eg in France, then 3 parties can achieve significant numbers. If you have straightforward proportional representation and coalitions, then you end up with more parties.
They started out that way, but the Nazi party that came to power was far right wing.
Hitler was (one of a number of) people who, working for the German secret service at the time, subverted the NDSAP in the early 20's, when it was a left-wing party.
As a consequence, he found himself in power in a political party. The found support from right-wing backers (see other posts) and the rest is history.
There are two reasons why you should always report the problem to the distro producer (Redhat, Debian, Mandrake,whatever).
(1) The distros typically add their own patches to packages to ensure they meet distro standards. The developer of the original program may not be aware of what changes were made to their program, and be able to reproduce the bug.
(2) The distro needs to track bugs in the software they distribute! if you bypass them, how can they know the code is buggy? they've seen no complaints.
Thats why you should use a tool supplied with the distro to report bugs (eg 'reportbug'in Debian).
The distro will forward bugs to upstream if necessary. If you look at the Bug Tracking system in Debian (http://bugs.debian.org) you can see bugs marked 'forwarded' for packages.
Yes, its not so simple.
.
Unfortunately, censorship increasingly is becoming easy (with Palladium, etc.). As information transfer gets increasingly automated (ie happens via the internet) then censorship becomes automated, too.
We get forced to a hard choice: either censorship, or freedom. Freedom means not being able to censor the stuff we don't like (racism, paedophilia, etc). We have to look to other ways to fight these
If you believe in freedom of speech, then your're defending that right for your enemies, too. Free speech means spending some of the rest of my life countering the arguments of holocaust deniers,etc.
But I'd rather do that than live without whistleblowers, in a world where employers, politicians, etc can use technologies like palladium to convince us all is right in the world, and stop us from hearing about, and _fixing_ the cruelties that exist. I don't believe for a second that most CEO's, etc. out there, given the tech. to prevent bad news of toxic waste , pollution, etc. problems in their factories killing people, would actually fix these problems if they could guarantee their workers could never tell anyone.
Our daily quality of life is guaranteed by freedom of speech. Its not just for wierdo politicos.
You're not supposed to bind it to other addresses.
The point is that everything is proxyed through your local server (on 127.0.0.1); then traffic analysis can't tell the difference between traffic from your node and traffic proxy'd by your node (which communicates with the other servers).
Yes, ideally in freenet there is a server on every computer in the network. (at the moment due to transient nodes, some/most aren't true servers), but of course, you're not running them, just your one.
The article was vague with the 'souped-up beowulf'. These AlphaServer SC machines are not just connected by fast ethernet, they share a Quadrics switch that provides ~200 MB/s bandwidth with 5us latency per node.
Alastair McKinstry
AlphaServer SC Engineering, Compaq.
These machines are basically MPI boxes: they run an optimized MPI implementation (not on top of TCP/IP) that takes advantage of the special features of the underlying switch , such as reflective memory, where memory writes on one node automatically appear on all other nodes, hardware broadcasts to all nodes, etc.
Alastair McKinstry,
AlphaServer SC Engineering (who make these machines)
Compaq.