If it didn't break the space, you could potentially make the webpage really wide by having one very, very long URL. This makes everything harder to read because text is wrapped somewhere past the end of the screen.
I want to second this request. I'm seeing way to much ranting on this topic, and not enough hard data. How can anyone evaluate this system or claim to have broken it without a CD using SafeAudio to test it on? Therefore, identifying such a CD should be our first priority, not talking out our posterior.
And to all of you people who replied sarcastically to this poster: You're all idiots. If the only evidence for the earth's roundness or the Holocaust was press releases, fluffy news articles, and Slashdot posts, I'd have a hard time drawing any conclusions too.
So let me repeat my plea:
DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY FIRST-HAND INFORMATION ON THESE DISKS?
I don't care about how this makes you feel, or what your friend told you. Thanks.
You are describing what they call a "Man in the Middle Attack" in cryptography books.
There are ways of combatting this, but I haven't read the SSH protocol docs in detail, so I can't tell you what they do to deal with it. I can tell you that a Server fingerprinting mechanism exists which allows you to positively identify the server you are talking to if you already know what the fingerprint is supposed to be. Most SSH clients cache the fingerprint from each server you access the first time you connect. If it changes, you are warned. Of course, if the Man in the Middle attack occurs the first time you connect, you are screwed.
I also can tell you that the answer to the last question is "No, so far." The magic of the RSA algorithm is that you can give an attacker your public key (from which he can generate as many encrypted/unencrypted challenge pairs as he likes), and so far no one has a good (i.e. "fast") way to get the private key.
Ah, the wonders of communication. In an abstract sense, communication sounds like a wonderful thing. "Oh! The Internet shall usher in a new era of understanding and cooperation. We shall all sign campfire songs and feel a kindred spirit with our fellow humans."
Then you find out what your fellow humans actually think. Wow. Scary. Depression and anger are a natural outcome of this process.
I'm reminded of the alien race from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who were telepathic, but couldn't stand being able to hear the thoughts of their neighbors. The aliens became avid fans of mind-crushingly loud rock music in order to drown out the thoughts of others.
Older, used SCSI scanners work great. Unlike many other computer parts, scanners really topped out the requirements of the average consumer 4 years ago. You can buy a SCSI scanner and card from Ebay or Half.com and, after shipping and all, still be out less than $80. Check out the hardware compatability before you buy, and you'll be in scanning bliss soon enough. SANE and XSANE are for me infinitely more useful than the crappy TWAIN drivers you are forced to use in Windows.
It looks like nobody cared about the "pro-Windows" comment. Well, other than the guy who decided to post a way-too long explanation of why he uses Linux. Like anyone actually cares why you use an operating system...
And at the risk of perpetuating this off-topic thread:
Yes, the condom provides a possible solution the social problem of unwanted pregnancy. And yet, unwanted pregnancy happens a lot still. Why? Because the technological solution isn't used. Technology provides the tools to solve problems, but not the motivation for using them. The sociological solution of teaching people about the implications of sex and their options for preventing its unwanted side-effects (and convincing them to believe you) will solve the problem. The existence of the condom does nothing unless the social issues surrounding its use are dealt with.
If you see a pattern in something, there are two possibilities:
The pattern is a result of your measurement technique.
The pattern is a result of something external. (i.e., something you actually care about.)
That is to say, science articles (and especially Slashdot articles) tend to exaggerate either the scope of someone's research or their confidence in it. Actual articles in science journals tend to be very conservative in their claims, often mind-numbingly so. Conjectures and guesses get inflated in popular science articles to the level of "scientific truth", when in fact actual scientists in the field aren't entirely convinced.
It is quite possible that science articles seem so contradictory because that is the way they are written. Contradiction and conflict are dramatic and interesting. I think science writers emphasize this to make their articles more appealing. This skewed presentation may be the cause of what you are observing.
That isn't to say that the body of scientific knowledge never changes. It usually changes in a much more laid-back and boring way than portrayed in the media, however.
I'm not talking about tech support calls like "how do I start Netscape?". I'm talking about stuff like my parent poster where you are talking people through troubleshooting a complex problem that requires editing random config files. It is extremely difficult and frustrating for everyone involved because the person on site DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE/SHE IS DOING! (That isn't a bad thing, I don't know how to fix washing machines either.)
The washing machine/car analogy is quite appropriate, I think, for these type of problems because they require specialized knowledge to repair which you cannot communicate through the phone. You might tell them what to do, but you can't necessarily teach all they need to know to solve the problem themselves. Moreover, in all of these situations, an efficient diagnosis requires more sensory input than you can get through the phone.
And yes, they get away with this sort of stuff because no one will die if phone support fails.:)
You know what I never understood: Why did it become expected that technical support people should be able to fix any software problem through the phone?
I can't call up Toyota and ask them to walk me through replacing the starter on the car, especially if I don't know what a wrench is. They'll tell me to bring it to the repair shop. I can't demand that Maytag explain to me how to repair a washing machine through the phone, even if it is under warranty!
I suppose that this is because computers are fairly unreliable, and the tech support sort of offsets what would otherwise be a really high failure rate or a massive network of on-site repair people. But still, helping people fix a computer through the phone is a horrible experience.
As a long time reader here, I'd have to say that this site used to be a Linux clubhouse, and it was more fun then. Now it is a site for proving how stupid everyone else is. Everything (Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, BSD, etc.) sucks and everyone is dumb and/or evil.
Perhaps the editors (who initially fostered the Linux clubhouse atmosphere) still act like Slashdot is the way it was circa 1998, but if you read the comments, it sure is different. This is more of a war-zone than anything.
Bonus points to Ximian for punning the Spanish word "mono" for monkey (an animal that looks sort of like the Ximian mascot) with the disease "mono" (which is apparently similar to the "viral" Linux operating system).
I wrestled with this question about a year ago. I wrote C code to allow LabVIEW (a very odd graphical programming system) to interface to an obsolete multichannel analyzer card. I wanted to release my code under the GPL, so I checked up on the rules at Arizona State University (your Uni may vary).
Their basic policy was that you retain all the rights to your work (including the choice of how to license it) if you did it as an "assignment." This even applied if you used generally-available university resources, like computer labs, to do the work. ASU, however, retained the rights to work that you did as a paid employee of the university. Since I was working as a programmer/sysadmin/whatever for a lab at ASU, I fell into the second category, and therefore could not immediately release my work.
However, not all was lost. ASU (and perhaps your university does as well) and a nice and long form you could fill out to officially declare your intellectual property to the head honcho in charge of IP. If on the form you could convince the IP-honcho that the work had no "significant market value", you could get permission to release it. I decided that this was not worth the trouble, but perhaps you would be willing to go through such a process.
As a point of clarification: You do not have to use the Java client. There are native clients for Windows 9x/NT/2000/CE, Linux, Mac, and other OS's. The clients are small and compact (the Windows client is approx. 200kB and is just a single.EXE file). The Java client is handy if you are trapped behind a machine that does not allow you to run arbitrary programs, but gives you a web browser (such as most web kiosk type machines).
I would imagine they didn't test against NTFS because the kernel drivers are very unstable for it. Sure, they could have installed Win2K and tested that way, but then OS differences would affect the results. A pure filesystem test should use the same kernel setup with only the fs drivers changing.
A "green threads VM" is a Java Virtual Machine that does not use the native operating system threading mechanisms to implement the Java threads. Instead, the JVM acts like one single threaded process to the operating system and threads the Java app internally. Green threads VMs are generally slower (cuz the OS can manage task switch more efficiently), but since they are just a single process, they can migrate to a new box without any problems.
Actually, the ranking system is equivalent to finding the principle eigenvector of a matrix with a billion rows and columns. Fortunately, there is a nice, iterative algorithm to do this. Each iteration performs a multiplication between a vector and a matrix, so it is at least n^2, and probably something like O(n^2 log n).
For the curious: PageRank does not depend on your query; it is a global property of the link structure of the web. So Google does a normal keyword search and combines a keyword similarity value with the PageRank value, and sorts on this magic value.
In my Software Engineering course, our teacher was explaining different degrees of "code coverage" required for various test cases. You usually shoot for statement coverage (every line of code gets executed in one of your tests) and condition coverage (ever conditional takes on both true and false in one of the tests).
He pointed out that the software that controls nuclear arms is required to have "path coverage" testing, where every possible execution path through the code has been tested. That is a combinatorial nightmare. (Not to mention that I have no idea how loops work with this sort of testing.)
Slashdot Mirror
If it didn't break the space, you could potentially make the webpage really wide by having one very, very long URL. This makes everything harder to read because text is wrapped somewhere past the end of the screen.
And thermodynamics isn't violated because you're not getting any energy from these moving electrons.
If that were my job, I'd always be nervous. :)
I'm running it on a Pentium 200 MMX, and I don't have any problems.
You're paraphrasing Arthur C. Clarke, the other great Sci-Fi author.
And to all of you people who replied sarcastically to this poster: You're all idiots. If the only evidence for the earth's roundness or the Holocaust was press releases, fluffy news articles, and Slashdot posts, I'd have a hard time drawing any conclusions too.
So let me repeat my plea:
I don't care about how this makes you feel, or what your friend told you. Thanks.
Fraunhofer/Thompson: MP3 patent
Both of those were probably instances of silently permitting use for a while, so I guess it is legal.
There are ways of combatting this, but I haven't read the SSH protocol docs in detail, so I can't tell you what they do to deal with it. I can tell you that a Server fingerprinting mechanism exists which allows you to positively identify the server you are talking to if you already know what the fingerprint is supposed to be. Most SSH clients cache the fingerprint from each server you access the first time you connect. If it changes, you are warned. Of course, if the Man in the Middle attack occurs the first time you connect, you are screwed.
I also can tell you that the answer to the last question is "No, so far." The magic of the RSA algorithm is that you can give an attacker your public key (from which he can generate as many encrypted/unencrypted challenge pairs as he likes), and so far no one has a good (i.e. "fast") way to get the private key.
Then you find out what your fellow humans actually think. Wow. Scary. Depression and anger are a natural outcome of this process.
I'm reminded of the alien race from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who were telepathic, but couldn't stand being able to hear the thoughts of their neighbors. The aliens became avid fans of mind-crushingly loud rock music in order to drown out the thoughts of others.
Older, used SCSI scanners work great. Unlike many other computer parts, scanners really topped out the requirements of the average consumer 4 years ago. You can buy a SCSI scanner and card from Ebay or Half.com and, after shipping and all, still be out less than $80. Check out the hardware compatability before you buy, and you'll be in scanning bliss soon enough. SANE and XSANE are for me infinitely more useful than the crappy TWAIN drivers you are forced to use in Windows.
It looks like nobody cared about the "pro-Windows" comment. Well, other than the guy who decided to post a way-too long explanation of why he uses Linux. Like anyone actually cares why you use an operating system...
Yes, the condom provides a possible solution the social problem of unwanted pregnancy. And yet, unwanted pregnancy happens a lot still. Why? Because the technological solution isn't used. Technology provides the tools to solve problems, but not the motivation for using them. The sociological solution of teaching people about the implications of sex and their options for preventing its unwanted side-effects (and convincing them to believe you) will solve the problem. The existence of the condom does nothing unless the social issues surrounding its use are dealt with.
That is to say, science articles (and especially Slashdot articles) tend to exaggerate either the scope of someone's research or their confidence in it. Actual articles in science journals tend to be very conservative in their claims, often mind-numbingly so. Conjectures and guesses get inflated in popular science articles to the level of "scientific truth", when in fact actual scientists in the field aren't entirely convinced.
It is quite possible that science articles seem so contradictory because that is the way they are written. Contradiction and conflict are dramatic and interesting. I think science writers emphasize this to make their articles more appealing. This skewed presentation may be the cause of what you are observing.
That isn't to say that the body of scientific knowledge never changes. It usually changes in a much more laid-back and boring way than portrayed in the media, however.
Try reading a Napster discussion some time. :)
I'm not talking about tech support calls like "how do I start Netscape?". I'm talking about stuff like my parent poster where you are talking people through troubleshooting a complex problem that requires editing random config files. It is extremely difficult and frustrating for everyone involved because the person on site DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE/SHE IS DOING! (That isn't a bad thing, I don't know how to fix washing machines either.)
The washing machine/car analogy is quite appropriate, I think, for these type of problems because they require specialized knowledge to repair which you cannot communicate through the phone. You might tell them what to do, but you can't necessarily teach all they need to know to solve the problem themselves. Moreover, in all of these situations, an efficient diagnosis requires more sensory input than you can get through the phone.
And yes, they get away with this sort of stuff because no one will die if phone support fails. :)
I can't call up Toyota and ask them to walk me through replacing the starter on the car, especially if I don't know what a wrench is. They'll tell me to bring it to the repair shop. I can't demand that Maytag explain to me how to repair a washing machine through the phone, even if it is under warranty!
I suppose that this is because computers are fairly unreliable, and the tech support sort of offsets what would otherwise be a really high failure rate or a massive network of on-site repair people. But still, helping people fix a computer through the phone is a horrible experience.
Perhaps the editors (who initially fostered the Linux clubhouse atmosphere) still act like Slashdot is the way it was circa 1998, but if you read the comments, it sure is different. This is more of a war-zone than anything.
Bonus points to Ximian for punning the Spanish word "mono" for monkey (an animal that looks sort of like the Ximian mascot) with the disease "mono" (which is apparently similar to the "viral" Linux operating system).
I've had Ghostscript gag on PDFs in the past. You probably want to use xpdf.
Their basic policy was that you retain all the rights to your work (including the choice of how to license it) if you did it as an "assignment." This even applied if you used generally-available university resources, like computer labs, to do the work. ASU, however, retained the rights to work that you did as a paid employee of the university. Since I was working as a programmer/sysadmin/whatever for a lab at ASU, I fell into the second category, and therefore could not immediately release my work.
However, not all was lost. ASU (and perhaps your university does as well) and a nice and long form you could fill out to officially declare your intellectual property to the head honcho in charge of IP. If on the form you could convince the IP-honcho that the work had no "significant market value", you could get permission to release it. I decided that this was not worth the trouble, but perhaps you would be willing to go through such a process.
As a point of clarification: You do not have to use the Java client. There are native clients for Windows 9x/NT/2000/CE, Linux, Mac, and other OS's. The clients are small and compact (the Windows client is approx. 200kB and is just a single .EXE file). The Java client is handy if you are trapped behind a machine that does not allow you to run arbitrary programs, but gives you a web browser (such as most web kiosk type machines).
...or at least generate email.
I would imagine they didn't test against NTFS because the kernel drivers are very unstable for it. Sure, they could have installed Win2K and tested that way, but then OS differences would affect the results. A pure filesystem test should use the same kernel setup with only the fs drivers changing.
A "green threads VM" is a Java Virtual Machine that does not use the native operating system threading mechanisms to implement the Java threads. Instead, the JVM acts like one single threaded process to the operating system and threads the Java app internally. Green threads VMs are generally slower (cuz the OS can manage task switch more efficiently), but since they are just a single process, they can migrate to a new box without any problems.
For the curious: PageRank does not depend on your query; it is a global property of the link structure of the web. So Google does a normal keyword search and combines a keyword similarity value with the PageRank value, and sorts on this magic value.
He pointed out that the software that controls nuclear arms is required to have "path coverage" testing, where every possible execution path through the code has been tested. That is a combinatorial nightmare. (Not to mention that I have no idea how loops work with this sort of testing.)