Did you take into account multiple spaceships traveling at different speeds that could bounce the information around between them? Did you include ships going slower than the earth / alpha centari pair?
Printing a PDF, exactly as intended: 1.) Probably more than 95% of actively used personal computers either have a PDF viewer installed or could have one installed at no cost. All PDF viewers will print a PDF file perfectly.
Printing a Microsoft Word.doc file: 1.) How many machines Microsoft Word installed, or can install it at no cost. 50%? Less? 2.) Now remember that.doc files are not 100% backwards or forwards compatible. You'll probably do fine going between Word 2000 for Windows and Word XP for Windows, as long as you don't use any XP specific features, but Word XP definately won't interoperate with Word '97 well enough for them to print 100% the same on a complex document. -- For simple documents this doesn't matter, but on the other hand, for simple documents you could have exported to ASCII text and then recreated the formatting later.
Did you just use RTF as an example with the intent of proving software interoperability. Worst. Example. Ever.
RTF was designed by one of Microsoft/Corel as a least common denominator format for word processors. It doesn't have any page formatting features, no tables, no embedded images, nothing. The only application it might be useful for is email, but it doesn't even do hyperlinks.
Legitimately, even if you're going from Abiword to Word Perfect or similar, you'll get a better document transfer using MS Word.doc format files that you will with RTF.
The closest things that exist to standard formats for word processing are plain 7bit ASCII text, HTML, and PDF.
I don't know how good the MS Word "Export as PDF" function is, but that's probably the only way you're going to get near-universally viewable/printable documents out of MS Word.
Using some key based cryptography scheme improperly could result in a security through obscurity style security model.
You could set up an office building where every door used the same key - which happens to be the size and shape of a standard BIC cigarette lighter. That would be pretty insecure too - even though it uses "secure" door lock technology.
Gentoo's great for a bunch of applications, but I'd be afraid to put it in front of someone without UNIX knowledge. Like you said, etc-update might do something silly (like replace the file that autoloads kernel modules). Gentoo is really oriented towards a non-newb audience. Even Debain would probably be better for Joe Sixpack's Grandmother.
It depends. If they are writing an aimbot that works entirely off of the I/O drivers, then you are correct - there's no answer to aimbots on general purpose computers.
On the other hand, the aimbots actually work by reading and manipulating the program's memory state, and therefore have more information to work with than the user would have. Given that, there are a number of ways to secure games from that class of attacks, the simplest with current technology being PunkBuster.
An example of another technique that can be used is having server-controlled constantly moving enviornments. If there is grass everywhere blowing in the wind, and insects flying around, and birds, etc, and there is no difference in the in-memory data structures between a bird and a player, then anyone who kills every bird in thier LOS in twitch-time is obviously using an aimbot.
"Security through obscurity" is a phrase, in english, that refers to a specific class of security designs - where the system is secure because the attacker doesn't know how it works. That type of system is frowned upon by security experts because of one or more of the following: A.) The user needs to know how the system works to operate it, thus making the system insecure to anyone who has ever been a legitimate user. B.) The system can be reverse-engineered, at which point the attacker will understand the system - thus breaking any security. C.) Obscuring the method of security prevents any security review, therefore making it impossible to know if the system is secure or not.
In an obscurity-free security system you create a system where even if how it works is known security hasn't been comprimised. A good example of this would be key based cryptography. If two people who are communicating using a key based cyrptosystem (such as RSA, Blowfish, DES, etc) keep their keys safe, their message cannot be read by an attacker - even an attacker who knows how RSA works. If they reveal their keys, then anyone can read their messages - but the cryptosystem itself won't be broken; other people who have not revealed their keys will still have security.
Now you seem to be claiming that since the keys have to be kept secret that key based cryptography is "security through obscurity". That's misusing a well-defined english phrase - which properly refers to the first class of security systems that I describe above.
I'm a giant fan of Linux, and will argue all day that a linux distro can be designed to be way easier to setup/configure than Windows.
On the other hand, Gentoo made me type in/etc/fstab by hand. There's no way that qualifies as "encapsulating all of the software installation and configuration away from the user".
SuSE is pretty good at that, Mandrake I've heard good things about, perhaps RedHat, or even Debian (stretching), but not Gentoo.
Unix makes easy tasks hard and hard tasks possible. Windows makes easy tasks easy and hard tasks $29.95.
In response to your sig: I'd have put it as follows:
Unix makes both easy and hard tasks possible. Windows makes hard tasks harder, and easy tasks $29.95.
Debian unstable is relitively cutting edge, and is about as stable as a "stable" gentoo system in my experiance. If it's a desktop system, it's definately time to upgrade.
I end up driving at 3 to 4 in the morning on backroad state highways almost all the time. On roads like that, the highways are usually marked at 15 to 20 mph below the reasonable driving speed for the road due to the useless small towns and cities the road goes through. If you're only going the speed limit with no other cars on the road except one person 8 feet behind you, you're probably drunk.
There's less data in those couple hundred pages than there is (potentially?) shipped into your house in 30 seconds of digital cable - probably by several orders of magnitude.
A society that allowed private ownership of nuclear weapons might be more useful to live in than one that restricted box cutters from public transportation.
I mostly object to filtering software on public school/public library machines, but I really don't see any reason why filtering software is nessisary at all.
Parents should be able to sit down with their children and discuss any topic that they might learn about on the internet (or from a book, or from TV, or whatever) - there is no need for parents to deny their children access to information on any topic.
The number on your bank statement represents the number of little green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them that the bank is holding for you. These pieces of paper are "Money", and are the basis of a capitolist economy - "Money" can be exchanged for goods and services.
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Did you take into account multiple spaceships traveling at different speeds that could bounce the information around between them? Did you include ships going slower than the earth / alpha centari pair?
Printing a PDF, exactly as intended:
.doc file: .doc files are not 100% backwards or forwards compatible. You'll probably do fine going between Word 2000 for Windows and Word XP for Windows, as long as you don't use any XP specific features, but Word XP definately won't interoperate with Word '97 well enough for them to print 100% the same on a complex document.
1.) Probably more than 95% of actively used personal computers either have a PDF viewer installed or could have one installed at no cost. All PDF viewers will print a PDF file perfectly.
Printing a Microsoft Word
1.) How many machines Microsoft Word installed, or can install it at no cost. 50%? Less?
2.) Now remember that
-- For simple documents this doesn't matter, but on the other hand, for simple documents you could have exported to ASCII text and then recreated the formatting later.
Did you just use RTF as an example with the intent of proving software interoperability.
.doc format files that you will with RTF.
Worst. Example. Ever.
RTF was designed by one of Microsoft/Corel as a least common denominator format for word processors. It doesn't have any page formatting features, no tables, no embedded images, nothing. The only application it might be useful for is email, but it doesn't even do hyperlinks.
Legitimately, even if you're going from Abiword to Word Perfect or similar, you'll get a better document transfer using MS Word
The closest things that exist to standard formats for word processing are plain 7bit ASCII text, HTML, and PDF.
I don't know how good the MS Word "Export as PDF" function is, but that's probably the only way you're going to get near-universally viewable/printable documents out of MS Word.
Using some key based cryptography scheme improperly could result in a security through obscurity style security model.
You could set up an office building where every door used the same key - which happens to be the size and shape of a standard BIC cigarette lighter. That would be pretty insecure too - even though it uses "secure" door lock technology.
Gentoo's great for a bunch of applications, but I'd be afraid to put it in front of someone without UNIX knowledge. Like you said, etc-update might do something silly (like replace the file that autoloads kernel modules). Gentoo is really oriented towards a non-newb audience. Even Debain would probably be better for Joe Sixpack's Grandmother.
It depends. If they are writing an aimbot that works entirely off of the I/O drivers, then you are correct - there's no answer to aimbots on general purpose computers.
On the other hand, the aimbots actually work by reading and manipulating the program's memory state, and therefore have more information to work with than the user would have. Given that, there are a number of ways to secure games from that class of attacks, the simplest with current technology being PunkBuster.
An example of another technique that can be used is having server-controlled constantly moving enviornments. If there is grass everywhere blowing in the wind, and insects flying around, and birds, etc, and there is no difference in the in-memory data structures between a bird and a player, then anyone who kills every bird in thier LOS in twitch-time is obviously using an aimbot.
"Security through obscurity" is a phrase, in english, that refers to a specific class of security designs - where the system is secure because the attacker doesn't know how it works. That type of system is frowned upon by security experts because of one or more of the following:
A.) The user needs to know how the system works to operate it, thus making the system insecure to anyone who has ever been a legitimate user.
B.) The system can be reverse-engineered, at which point the attacker will understand the system - thus breaking any security.
C.) Obscuring the method of security prevents any security review, therefore making it impossible to know if the system is secure or not.
In an obscurity-free security system you create a system where even if how it works is known security hasn't been comprimised. A good example of this would be key based cryptography. If two people who are communicating using a key based cyrptosystem (such as RSA, Blowfish, DES, etc) keep their keys safe, their message cannot be read by an attacker - even an attacker who knows how RSA works. If they reveal their keys, then anyone can read their messages - but the cryptosystem itself won't be broken; other people who have not revealed their keys will still have security.
Now you seem to be claiming that since the keys have to be kept secret that key based cryptography is "security through obscurity". That's misusing a well-defined english phrase - which properly refers to the first class of security systems that I describe above.
What?!??!?
/etc/fstab by hand. There's no way that qualifies as "encapsulating all of the software installation and configuration away from the user".
I'm a giant fan of Linux, and will argue all day that a linux distro can be designed to be way easier to setup/configure than Windows.
On the other hand, Gentoo made me type in
SuSE is pretty good at that, Mandrake I've heard good things about, perhaps RedHat, or even Debian (stretching), but not Gentoo.
In response to your sig: I'd have put it as follows:
Unix makes both easy and hard tasks possible. Windows makes hard tasks harder, and easy tasks $29.95.
How is piracy not defensible? Freeing slaves wasn't defensible in 1799.
If recipies can't be copyrighted, then why can computer programs / computer source code?
That makes absolutely no sense.
I had no trouble making this happen a couple years ago. It should still work now.
Debian unstable is relitively cutting edge, and is about as stable as a "stable" gentoo system in my experiance. If it's a desktop system, it's definately time to upgrade.
Take a look at http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=6282&page= 1
Studies have shown that for people with little or no previous computer experience - useful proficency is reached faster in leaning a CLI than a GUI.
I end up driving at 3 to 4 in the morning on backroad state highways almost all the time. On roads like that, the highways are usually marked at 15 to 20 mph below the reasonable driving speed for the road due to the useless small towns and cities the road goes through. If you're only going the speed limit with no other cars on the road except one person 8 feet behind you, you're probably drunk.
What I want to know, is what market place need does Java meet that isn't better met by Python or C++...?
Snow on the ground doesn't make it much harder to drive, you just have to remember that speed and direction changes need to be planned out beforehand.
Usually a half inch or so of snow on the ground doesn't slow me down at all - passing the plows can be annoying though.
The last time someone did this to me I just passed them on the sidewalk, and did it to them - at 5mph instead of the speed limit, and for 15 minutes.
If you are being tailgated, it's probably a sign that you should speed up or pull over.
Some of the military hardware stuff is still super-secret, but the rest is true.
There's less data in those couple hundred pages than there is (potentially?) shipped into your house in 30 seconds of digital cable - probably by several orders of magnitude.
Being able to do anything beyond operating Front Page is a higher level of skill than is expected from the average web monkey.
A society that allowed private ownership of nuclear weapons might be more useful to live in than one that restricted box cutters from public transportation.
I mostly object to filtering software on public school/public library machines, but I really don't see any reason why filtering software is nessisary at all.
Parents should be able to sit down with their children and discuss any topic that they might learn about on the internet (or from a book, or from TV, or whatever) - there is no need for parents to deny their children access to information on any topic.
The number on your bank statement represents the number of little green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them that the bank is holding for you.
These pieces of paper are "Money", and are the basis of a capitolist economy - "Money" can be exchanged for goods and services.