"offers home-page placement in exchange for things such as exclusive access to new songs, special discount pricing or additional material such as interviews with stars. "
They're just doing the same thing WallyWorld does.
Hey, its all good:-) Its just that when I say you're confusing the substance (cotton or wool) with the things being made from it, its the same situation we run into all the time in programming, where people mistake the name of the thing (for example, the name of a variable) for the thing itself (or worse, a reference as being the thing).
People who confuse the two have a really hard time when you start assigning functions to variables.
Back on-topic - coding is like having lice - you really get an itch to scratch...
While the elements are naturally occuring, the order of the molecules isn't natural at all - polyester doesn't just "occur in nature" without human intervention (there are no polyester analogues to the silkworm, for example), whereas cotton, hemp, and wool all occur naturally. BTW, lame attempt at confabulation of atoms with molecular structure...
WEll, they originally thought it would be a huge money-maker by using antimatter to clean teeth - eveyone wants a big white smile. However, trials proved that "tooth is stronger than fiction."
And human hands never "made" cotton or wool - these occur naturally, and existed before there were humans. Polyester, on the other hand, is artificial.
Reread my original post - you're confusing the material with the things made of the material. Its quite clear that I'm talking about the material or substance from which clothing is made. Fabrics can be made from cotton or wool or other naturally-occuring objects, or from polyester, which didn't exist until we made it.
Also, an artifact isn't necessarily something made with human hands, and also, you're confabulating artifact and article.
"All fabrics are artificial.. I don't think I've ever seen a blanket or a shirt tree."
You're confusing the thing with what its made of. While there aren't "blanket trees," there certainly ARE cotton plants, and wool occurs naturally as well - ask any sheep. So you can make blankets and clothing out of cotton, or wool, or any other naturally-occuring fibre - but you won't find any naturally-occuring polyester. And don't get me started on how many naugas you have to kill to get even one decent naugahide.
"I'd like to see a reply to his "documentary" called "Inconvenient Facts." Al Gore is nothing more or less than a phony, and I'd love to see him called on it. Of course, if it were made, it'd be almost impossible to get it publicized or into theaters because it wouldn't say what Hollywood Liberals want said."
Windows is a consumer OS - and even at that, its pretty piss-poor. Its not something I would want my bank manager to use when accessing my (or anyone else's) account info. Even those old green-screen terminals would make me feel better vis. security.
Its not a question of haw many valid keys Microsoft issued, as far as brute-forcing is concerned. All that is required is a sequence of leters and numbers that hashes to the same result when the activation code checks it. You don't have to get the "right" key - any sequence that gives the same result is "good enough" and will activate. For example, if "BBBBB CCCCC DDDDD EEEEE FFFFF" hashes to the same value as "12345 67890 12345 67890 12345", they're one and the same, as far as activation is concerned.
Brute-forcing IS feasible for small strings - and 25 is a small string.
The idea behind brute-forcing is your algorithm doesn't have to be smart. They can just keep trying combinations on the local machine until one gets accepted, and submit it as the new key. Who cares if it takes a month or two if the machine can go on and do other stuff at the same time? Of course, if you have a botnet kicking around...
Both my bank (for online banking) and my ISP offer "free" security/antivirus software - which I don't need, since I don't use Windows. Maybe I should ask for a discount/fee reduction?
Or maybe the bank should get a f$cking clue - I can't believe that they're running Windows and Internet Explorer in bank branches in this day and age.
Sure, I gotta pay redmond cash money, run three different "anti-bad" scanners, buy approved hardware, and upgrade my box every 6 months, but look, I came play Doom 7 with the medium resolution settings!!!!!!!!
... of course right now, and for the forseeable future*, Duke Nukem Forever plays just as well on a linux box...:-)
* forseeable future: the sun turns red giant | mutant ants rule us | whatever. Certain terms and contitions may apply. Your mileage may vary. Screen shots are not necessarily representative of the actual game on your hardware. Oops - remove the word "necessarily".
People complained about linux being harder to install than windows as a reason not to switch - that hasn't been true for a long time...
People complained about lousy hardware support - more hardware is supported than ever before - for example, I can connect to my cell phone without any special software, unlike windows. And stil people don't switch.
People complained that there wasn't a good office suite - OpenOffice works, and will even open docs that Word has mangled beyond repair. And still people don't switch.
"My machine's full of viruses." "Why not use linux?" "How much is the anti-virus software?" "You don't even need an anti-virus." And still people don't switch.
People complain that they "needed" Internet Explorer - and it now works just fine under wine. And still people don't switch.
... and then - "Vista costs how much??? F*ck that, I'm buying a mac!"
Some people won't take free for any price, and in not doing so, they give up their freedom. Go figure.
BTW - Since we're weeding out keys that wouldn't be generated by the authentication algorythm, the keyspace is much smaller than the 25-char limit... so collisions aren't just likely, they're inevitable.
Its like generating hash values for phrase lookup tables. a 32-bit unsigned crc (+4 billion) will not work for even a million phrases - you'll get lots of collisions (yes, I've tested this).
Now consider - you don't care about the 99.999...% who don't collide... in a large enough population, even a small percentage is a big problem.
I could see it affecting legit users, in the same way that the "same birthdya paradox" at first seems unlikely. With 100 million users, there are going to be some clashes, and some unhappy (ok, unhappier:-) users.
Activation doesn't stop the pirates, it just inconveniences the legit customers.
"as someone who has worked on systems such as these (oh the inhumanity!) we have looked at this particular attack vector. Yes, it is possible. But, when you consider the size of the activation code domain (quadrillions or more of combinations), with the number of legitimate keys (hundreds of millions), and the fact that each request takes some amount of time (a few seconds), it's not too big of a risk. A risk? yes. But there are lots of risks. This is just another one to be put on the list, watched, and mitigated against (as others have said, with blocked IPs and so forth)."
Obviously someone else who didn't read either the article OR all the other user comments - no net connection required to generate the keys - the attempts to change the key are done locally; after a successful local key change, submit the new key for activation.
Blocked IPs won't do jack shit for such a scheme.
Also, you're not trying to find a specific key that works, just one of many, so even with a huge wrong-key space, you'll get a favourable collision with a valid key sooner, rather than later. Its like the same-birthday problem.
"I can see it now: thousands of computers worldwide activating keys, just to make life miserable for Microsoft and users. It could be called the "annoy Microsoft Windows Users at home" project."
"
Surely Shawn has the right to decide who does and who doesn't supply him with oral pleasure? I have trouble seeing where my opinion or yours comes into it.
"
His wife Norma might have a different opinion... unless that's a lie too, because after all, he's already on the record that it doesn't matter whether you lie or not - its what you do.
Nice way to miss the point, that being a liar affects your credibility, and that of the projects you work on.
A lease includes an ownership interest in the system, a rental does not.
Bullshit! Go lease a car and look at the title - you don't have any so-called "ownership interest" in the car - at the end of the term, it goes back to its owner. Its not your car, but defaulting on the lease payments WILL affect your credit. Also, you have a LOT of restrictions when you lease a car - you may not modify it, remove it from the state or province in which you lease it to relocate in another state or province without the leasing company's permission, you're required to maintain insurance, etc., naming the leasing co as the beneficiary, you're required to make up any damage to the car at the end of the lease, any extra mileage, etc. You can't make extensive modifications (for exampe, a funky color scheme, lo-riders, engine swap, NOX kit). That's what a lease is. You have NO ownership rights. For example, you can't pledge your "ownership rights" in guarantee of a loan, or "lend" those ownership rights to someone else by transferring the car OR the lease contract to them, w/o the real owner's permission.
As for the lien on the house, look at the terms for transfering the unit - any new mortgage has to subrogate their rights. In other words, if you default, CitizenRe wants their money (the balance of the 25-year term) NOW, and can sell the house (as they come before the mortgage company).
As for expanding to Canada, CitizenRe won't - its current form of operation is illegal in pretty much all provinces of Canada . Our consumer protection laws are pretty clear - you can't offer a product for sale to the general public if you don't actually have reasonable stocks of the product on hand for delivery.
How about a lie like this (minor edit to story)...?
Wikipedia's Essjay has been representing himself as 'a talented callgirl originally from a private coed university in the eastern United States. My "Academic Degrees": Missionary Position, Anal, Oral, Doctorate in Feishes (BDSM sub-specialty).' His real identity came to light after slashdot user SSonnentag solicited him for a "blowjob": It turns out that he is really a fat 24 year old male living in his mother's basement in Louisville, KY. Shawn Sonnentag says 'I regard it as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with who sucks my dick.'
... so, is it okay to lie, as long as you "get the job done?" Enquiring minds want to know.
Slashdot Mirror
"offers home-page placement in exchange for things such as exclusive access to new songs, special discount pricing or additional material such as interviews with stars. "
They're just doing the same thing WallyWorld does.
Hey, its all good :-) Its just that when I say you're confusing the substance (cotton or wool) with the things being made from it, its the same situation we run into all the time in programming, where people mistake the name of the thing (for example, the name of a variable) for the thing itself (or worse, a reference as being the thing).
People who confuse the two have a really hard time when you start assigning functions to variables.
Back on-topic - coding is like having lice - you really get an itch to scratch ...
While the elements are naturally occuring, the order of the molecules isn't natural at all - polyester doesn't just "occur in nature" without human intervention (there are no polyester analogues to the silkworm, for example), whereas cotton, hemp, and wool all occur naturally. BTW, lame attempt at confabulation of atoms with molecular structure ...
WEll, they originally thought it would be a huge money-maker by using antimatter to clean teeth - eveyone wants a big white smile. However, trials proved that "tooth is stronger than fiction."
"an artifact is something made by human hands."
And human hands never "made" cotton or wool - these occur naturally, and existed before there were humans. Polyester, on the other hand, is artificial.
Reread my original post - you're confusing the material with the things made of the material. Its quite clear that I'm talking about the material or substance from which clothing is made. Fabrics can be made from cotton or wool or other naturally-occuring objects, or from polyester, which didn't exist until we made it.
Also, an artifact isn't necessarily something made with human hands, and also, you're confabulating artifact and article.
"All fabrics are artificial.. I don't think I've ever seen a blanket or a shirt tree."
You're confusing the thing with what its made of. While there aren't "blanket trees," there certainly ARE cotton plants, and wool occurs naturally as well - ask any sheep. So you can make blankets and clothing out of cotton, or wool, or any other naturally-occuring fibre - but you won't find any naturally-occuring polyester. And don't get me started on how many naugas you have to kill to get even one decent naugahide.
"One kind lived on human skin and hair, and the other preferred clothing and blankets and lived only in artificial fabrics. "
That's why you should never buy that tacky polyester K-Mart sh*t. Get natural fabrics.
"I'd like to see a reply to his "documentary" called "Inconvenient Facts." Al Gore is nothing more or less than a phony, and I'd love to see him called on it. Of course, if it were made, it'd be almost impossible to get it publicized or into theaters because it wouldn't say what Hollywood Liberals want said."
One name - Oliver Stone.
"I for one welcome our lying dumb-ass overlords ..."
Seriously, is the Wiki that hard up for talent that they have to knowingly hire liars? What next, pull a SCO and sue someone for 5 bazillions?
... he should be able to book a ride into space from these people - and they will guarantee he won't be vomiting.
Windows is a consumer OS - and even at that, its pretty piss-poor. Its not something I would want my bank manager to use when accessing my (or anyone else's) account info. Even those old green-screen terminals would make me feel better vis. security.
Its not a question of haw many valid keys Microsoft issued, as far as brute-forcing is concerned. All that is required is a sequence of leters and numbers that hashes to the same result when the activation code checks it. You don't have to get the "right" key - any sequence that gives the same result is "good enough" and will activate. For example, if "BBBBB CCCCC DDDDD EEEEE FFFFF" hashes to the same value as "12345 67890 12345 67890 12345", they're one and the same, as far as activation is concerned.
Brute-forcing IS feasible for small strings - and 25 is a small string.
The idea behind brute-forcing is your algorithm doesn't have to be smart. They can just keep trying combinations on the local machine until one gets accepted, and submit it as the new key. Who cares if it takes a month or two if the machine can go on and do other stuff at the same time? Of course, if you have a botnet kicking around ...
Both my bank (for online banking) and my ISP offer "free" security/antivirus software - which I don't need, since I don't use Windows. Maybe I should ask for a discount/fee reduction?
Or maybe the bank should get a f$cking clue - I can't believe that they're running Windows and Internet Explorer in bank branches in this day and age.
* forseeable future: the sun turns red giant | mutant ants rule us | whatever. Certain terms and contitions may apply. Your mileage may vary. Screen shots are not necessarily representative of the actual game on your hardware. Oops - remove the word "necessarily".
People complained about linux being harder to install than windows as a reason not to switch - that hasn't been true for a long time ...
People complained about lousy hardware support - more hardware is supported than ever before - for example, I can connect to my cell phone without any special software, unlike windows. And stil people don't switch.
People complained that there wasn't a good office suite - OpenOffice works, and will even open docs that Word has mangled beyond repair. And still people don't switch.
"My machine's full of viruses." "Why not use linux?" "How much is the anti-virus software?" "You don't even need an anti-virus." And still people don't switch.
People complain that they "needed" Internet Explorer - and it now works just fine under wine. And still people don't switch.
Some people won't take free for any price, and in not doing so, they give up their freedom. Go figure.
BTW - Since we're weeding out keys that wouldn't be generated by the authentication algorythm, the keyspace is much smaller than the 25-char limit ... so collisions aren't just likely, they're inevitable.
Its like generating hash values for phrase lookup tables. a 32-bit unsigned crc (+4 billion) will not work for even a million phrases - you'll get lots of collisions (yes, I've tested this).
Now consider - you don't care about the 99.999...% who don't collide ... in a large enough population, even a small percentage is a big problem.
... except that the key doesn't have to be already issued to be valid - it just has to match one that would be generated by Microsofts' algorithm.
How do you think all those keygens work?
I could see it affecting legit users, in the same way that the "same birthdya paradox" at first seems unlikely. With 100 million users, there are going to be some clashes, and some unhappy (ok, unhappier :-) users.
Activation doesn't stop the pirates, it just inconveniences the legit customers.
"as someone who has worked on systems such as these (oh the inhumanity!) we have looked at this particular attack vector. Yes, it is possible. But, when you consider the size of the activation code domain (quadrillions or more of combinations), with the number of legitimate keys (hundreds of millions), and the fact that each request takes some amount of time (a few seconds), it's not too big of a risk. A risk? yes. But there are lots of risks. This is just another one to be put on the list, watched, and mitigated against (as others have said, with blocked IPs and so forth)."
Obviously someone else who didn't read either the article OR all the other user comments - no net connection required to generate the keys - the attempts to change the key are done locally; after a successful local key change, submit the new key for activation.
Blocked IPs won't do jack shit for such a scheme.
Also, you're not trying to find a specific key that works, just one of many, so even with a huge wrong-key space, you'll get a favourable collision with a valid key sooner, rather than later. Its like the same-birthday problem.
"I can see it now: thousands of computers worldwide activating keys, just to make life miserable for Microsoft and users. It could be called the "annoy Microsoft Windows Users at home" project."
Yes, but does it run under linux :-)
"That would be ideal. Unfortunately in the real world you probably won't have the opportunity to show such merit without claims to a piece of paper."
"Piece of paper"? That is SO 20th century :-)
" Surely Shawn has the right to decide who does and who doesn't supply him with oral pleasure? I have trouble seeing where my opinion or yours comes into it. "
His wife Norma might have a different opinion ... unless that's a lie too, because after all, he's already on the record that it doesn't matter whether you lie or not - its what you do.
Nice way to miss the point, that being a liar affects your credibility, and that of the projects you work on.
If its what you do that's so important, why lie?
How about a lie like this (minor edit to story) ...?