A high-impedance tap would go undetected. Making one with 100 M ohms impedance is easy, and the phone circuit is 600 ohms - you'd not see it. You don't even have to break the wire, you can pick up the signal inductively. Long bridging pairs can be detected via reflectometry, so don't use them.
You've never heard of junction boxes and extra pairs? Many apartment junction boxes are outdoors and unsecured. Just cut one pair over to another. Yes, it's incriminating evidence if it gets found, but lots of people have other people's pairs coming up in their houses by accident. Also keep in mind that I was a 6th grader:-)
One capacitor. 250 volts or better, non-polarized, 0.1 to 0.5 uF (this is going by memory, but that will probably work). Put it in series with the red wire on a phone. Connect it to the target pair, pick up the phone, and listen.
I used to tap phones when I was a kid in 6th grade. It's the simplest thing to do, who needs a government to do that? I also made covert taps for my police friends. Telephone taps take exactly one part to make (a capacitor, big deal), or you can buy a pre-made one in the Radio Shack. They are not detectable. So-called "tap detectors" are generally B.S., and when they work at all they only detect radio transmitters, which isn't much help if the tap doesn't use one. Taps also don't put any sounds into your phone - the stories about being able to hear clicks when your line is tapped are B.S. too.
All communications should be considered to be broadcasts. If you don't encrypt and carefully protect your key, you must assume you're being listened to.
Some number of you are saying things like don't tell RMS. That's silly. RMS is not against making money while producing free software. In fact, RMS was under contract to Intel, writing free software, a few years ago. RMS paid Ian Murdock a salary for 6 months while Ian was working on Debian. He's paid lots of other programmers, too.
I don't know about other authors, but before I do a minute's work for any of these groups, I'd have the license stated in my contract.
It doesn't matter much who owns the code as long as the license is fair. You can't take back the BSD license or the GPL.
Don't forget the non-profits like SPI and FSF. You can fund free software through them, and write it off your taxes, too. And I think they are more appropriate stewards of free software projects than companies like O'Reilly and Associates. Given O'Reilly's recent anti-GPL agitation, a lot of free software authors would not want to do business with them. It's a shame that HP chose them for an associate.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
P.S. use bruce@va.debian.org for email, my DSL provider went out of business and thus perens.com is down.
Are you really reading the licenses? Netscape might want to control it's source, but they don't prevent you from making a fork of the program that you control. Their license grants you that privilege.
I've been working hard to get the licenses to the point that they're fair for us. I wouldn't dream of claiming these are my successes alone, but we saw a lot of improvement in the Qt 2.0 license, the APSL 1.1, and there are more coming, big ones. Sure, the companies get some benefit from this. But there's a quid-pro-quo, a balance between what we give and what we get back.
Let's be a bit more constructive with specific complaints about the licenses, not vague ones, please.
IBM has not yet released the license. Let's wait for them to release it.
By the way, if you've been looking for me or my net sites, my darned DSL provider, "Dspeed", went out of business. It's just as well, considering how many outages I had. Covad now has to switch all of their dspeed.net customers elsewhere, and might take a week to get that done.
My chapter was Open Source before, by the OSD, not by O'Reilly's definition, whatever that is. So was ESR's and RMS. I don't know about the others, but O'Reilly doesn't own the copyrights, the authors do.
I haven't heard back regarding whether or not the LinuxWorld show wants to host a bake-off, but it sounds like we should go ahead with this even if they don't.
I'm typing this in one of those $0.38/minute internet booths in Chicago airport on the way to the Dayton Hamvention (ham radio conference). May have spotty net access this weekend. I'll be back on Monday night, call me Tuesday at 510-526-1165 or email if you want to discuss this issue.
A quick grep through/usr/src/linux/drivers/net/*.c reveals the following.
Thanks
Bruce
3c501.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and 3c503.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and 3c507.c: Director, National Security Agency. 3c509.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and 82596.c: National Security Agency. This software may only be used and distributed 8390.c: Director, National Security Agency. ac3200.c: National Security Agency. This software may only be used and distributed arc-rimi.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used arcnet.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used at1700.c: Director, National Security Agency. atp.c: Director, National Security Agency. com20020.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used com90io.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used com90xx.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used cops.c: * Director, National Security Agency. daynaport.c: Director, National Security Agency. depca.c: (as represented by the Director, National Security Agency). e2100.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and fmv18x.c: Director, National Security Agency. hp.c: Director, National Security Agency. ipddp.c: * Director, National Security Agency. lance.c: Director, National Security Agency. ne.c: Director, National Security Agency. ne2k-pci.c: by the Director, National Security Agency. pcnet32.c: * Director, National Security Agency. skeleton.c: * Director, National Security Agency. smc-ultra.c: Director, National Security Agency. wd.c: Director, National Security Agency.
FSF/GNU only owns software when the copyright has been explicitly assigned to it. It does not own software just because you use the GPL. That software is still owned by the copyright owner, who is most often not FSF but the software author or the entity that funded the work.
The software is owned by its individual authors or their funding agency. For example, many of the networking drivers in the Linux kernel are declared to be owned by the United States Government as represented by the director of the National Security Agency. That is the copyright owner for most of Donald Becker's work. Fortunately, those drivers are under the GPL, and the government can't take the GPL back.
I actually have some question regarding whether the Government's copyright is legitimate and whether or not the networking drivers are in the public domain. However, they are very definitely U.S.-produced software regardless of their copyright status.
If your government is cooperating in a U.S. trade embargo on Iran, they've signed a treaty that says they'll do so, and they're likely to take their export restrictions seriously. I suspect that there is more than 10% U.S. content in a Linux distribution, but I'd have to audit one to make sure.
A recent U.S. court decision supported that some software was protected free speech, but I don't think it went far enough to help overturn a trade embargo.
Axel, We should fight software patents on prinicple. If W3C has now concluded that software patents are bad, we should encourage them in that conclusion. If you want to fight P3P, that's a separate issue. I'd rather have it open than closed, so that I can write a browser that sends random data or ignores the protocol. Bruce
We went through this when Bill Gates dissed Linux, too. Folks, when the representative of a company that makes its money on product "A" says that competing product "B" is no big deal, that's to be expected, and ignored. What else would he say?
Here's a more important news story. Read this press release and see if you can help the W3C by finding prior art to overturn a patent.
Bruce, this is not true. It's users who fit between some threshold of posting enough, yet not too much, who have lower user numbers, and positive alignment (average score of postings).
Oh, sorry! I haven't been keeping up with CT's latest tweaks. I do notice that my posts started coming in at +2 again.
Consider the protein-folding problem, it's in the domains of physics, mathematics, and computer science, and I'd say it is more than just application. We don't have a good theory yet.
You may now do something about your complaint. Get a login. All non-anonymous users are moderators. Demote my comments as you see fit. Be honest and promote the ones you like, too. Join the crowd.
So far, it looks as if the vector sum likes me, but your vote is not being counted!
Your last sentence destroys your own argument. Nanotechnology is largely mechanical engineering and computer science. Genetics is computer science: DNA encodes the program.
From 1981-1986 I was worked at the NYIT Computer Graphics Laboratory, predecessor of Pixar. We had these two really hot researchers who just moped around all day and played lots of video games. They'd convinced themselves that all of the real innovations in CG had already been done, and that they really had no chance to make a major contribution. Lots of major contributions in CG were made during the subsequent decade, but not by those two.
I agree about X being not so great, fortunately we are getting some new window systems.
The main failure of X was that it deliberately did not have a canonical widget set. Motif came along much too late. If HP/Sun/Dec/ etc. could have looked up from their efforts to differentiate themselves, they would have avoided handing their business over to Microsoft.
So, why would he have said that? The rest of the interview was OK. His comments about Linux could only come from ignorance or bitterness - I can find no other rational explanation. His comment about computer science being mostly done was off the wall, too. I could give you a list of things we're just starting to work on, that will not be done before I'm dead.
I think that it's not unusual for an OS researcher to have some resentment about OS practice.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't trust the security of your phone!
Thanks
Bruce
One capacitor. 250 volts or better, non-polarized, 0.1 to 0.5 uF (this is going by memory, but that will probably work). Put it in series with the red wire on a phone. Connect it to the target pair, pick up the phone, and listen.
Bruce
All communications should be considered to be broadcasts. If you don't encrypt and carefully protect your key, you must assume you're being listened to.
Bruce
I don't know about other authors, but before I do a minute's work for any of these groups, I'd have the license stated in my contract.
It doesn't matter much who owns the code as long as the license is fair. You can't take back the BSD license or the GPL.
Don't forget the non-profits like SPI and FSF. You can fund free software through them, and write it off your taxes, too. And I think they are more appropriate stewards of free software projects than companies like O'Reilly and Associates. Given O'Reilly's recent anti-GPL agitation, a lot of free software authors would not want to do business with them. It's a shame that HP chose them for an associate.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
P.S. use bruce@va.debian.org for email, my DSL provider went out of business and thus perens.com is down.
Are you really reading the licenses? Netscape might want to control it's source, but they don't prevent you from making a fork of the program that you control. Their license grants you that privilege.
I've been working hard to get the licenses to the point that they're fair for us. I wouldn't dream of claiming these are my successes alone, but we saw a lot of improvement in the Qt 2.0 license, the APSL 1.1, and there are more coming, big ones. Sure, the companies get some benefit from this. But there's a quid-pro-quo, a balance between what we give and what we get back.
Let's be a bit more constructive with specific complaints about the licenses, not vague ones, please.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
By the way, if you've been looking for me or my net sites, my darned DSL provider, "Dspeed", went out of business. It's just as well, considering how many outages I had. Covad now has to switch all of their dspeed.net customers elsewhere, and might take a week to get that done.
Use bruce@va.debian.org until further notice.
Thanks
Bruce
Thanks
Bruce
I'm typing this in one of those $0.38/minute internet booths in Chicago airport on the way to the Dayton Hamvention (ham radio conference). May have spotty net access this weekend. I'll be back on Monday night, call me Tuesday at 510-526-1165 or email if you want to discuss this issue.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
I'm glad I don't have to ask you for cookies :-)
Bruce
I don't think it would be tremendously difficult to port it to NT.
Bruce
A quick grep through /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/*.c
reveals the following.
Thanks
Bruce
3c501.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and
3c503.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and
3c507.c: Director, National Security Agency.
3c509.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and
82596.c: National Security Agency. This software may only be used and distributed
8390.c: Director, National Security Agency.
ac3200.c: National Security Agency. This software may only be used and distributed
arc-rimi.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used
arcnet.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used
at1700.c: Director, National Security Agency.
atp.c: Director, National Security Agency.
com20020.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used
com90io.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used
com90xx.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may only be used
cops.c: * Director, National Security Agency.
daynaport.c: Director, National Security Agency.
depca.c: (as represented by the Director, National Security Agency).
e2100.c: Director, National Security Agency. This software may be used and
fmv18x.c: Director, National Security Agency.
hp.c: Director, National Security Agency.
ipddp.c: * Director, National Security Agency.
lance.c: Director, National Security Agency.
ne.c: Director, National Security Agency.
ne2k-pci.c: by the Director, National Security Agency.
pcnet32.c: * Director, National Security Agency.
skeleton.c: * Director, National Security Agency.
smc-ultra.c: Director, National Security Agency.
wd.c: Director, National Security Agency.
The software is owned by its individual authors or their funding agency. For example, many of the networking drivers in the Linux kernel are declared to be owned by the United States Government as represented by the director of the National Security Agency. That is the copyright owner for most of Donald Becker's work. Fortunately, those drivers are under the GPL, and the government can't take the GPL back.
I actually have some question regarding whether the Government's copyright is legitimate and whether or not the networking drivers are in the public domain. However, they are very definitely U.S.-produced software regardless of their copyright status.
If your government is cooperating in a U.S. trade embargo on Iran, they've signed a treaty that says they'll do so, and they're likely to take their export restrictions seriously. I suspect that there is more than 10% U.S. content in a Linux distribution, but I'd have to audit one to make sure.
A recent U.S. court decision supported that some software was protected free speech, but I don't think it went far enough to help overturn a trade embargo.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
Axel, We should fight software patents on prinicple. If W3C has now concluded that software patents are bad, we should encourage them in that conclusion. If you want to fight P3P, that's a separate issue. I'd rather have it open than closed, so that I can write a browser that sends random data or ignores the protocol. Bruce
Bruce
It would be nice if we really had knocked over this one and could go on to software patents.
Thanks
Bruce
Here's a more important news story. Read this press release and see if you can help the W3C by finding prior art to overturn a patent.
Thanks
Bruce
I wonder though if it could be like physics in the 1920's, when people thought the fundamentals were done, just before quantum mechanics happened.
Thanks
Bruce
Oh, sorry! I haven't been keeping up with CT's latest tweaks. I do notice that my posts started coming in at +2 again.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce
So far, it looks as if the vector sum likes me, but your vote is not being counted!
Bruce
Bruce
Bruce
From 1981-1986 I was worked at the NYIT Computer Graphics Laboratory, predecessor of Pixar. We had these two really hot researchers who just moped around all day and played lots of video games. They'd convinced themselves that all of the real innovations in CG had already been done, and that they really had no chance to make a major contribution. Lots of major contributions in CG were made during the subsequent decade, but not by those two.
Bruce
The main failure of X was that it deliberately did not have a canonical widget set. Motif came along much too late. If HP/Sun/Dec/ etc. could have looked up from their efforts to differentiate themselves, they would have avoided handing their business over to Microsoft.
Bruce
I think that it's not unusual for an OS researcher to have some resentment about OS practice.
Bruce