Regarding your P2P network of friends... have you heard of WASTE? If I understand you correctly, it's more or less what you're suggesting. At any rate, its Wikipedia page is worth reading. It has some interesting information, and a lot of links to follow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASTE
Under normal conditions, that's correct. If a player has loaded the key into memory somewhere in order to use it, you can probably isolate the location in memory and retrieve the key. Which is what has been done to retrieve the AACS keys.
But the pathological case, the case dealing with rootkits, changes the game. How do you track the contents of your physical memory? Typically, through OS mechanisms. What happens if a rootkit (or a software media player using rootkit technology) subverts the OS mechanisms? You can't be assured of reliably tracking the contents of memory any more; maybe your OS is LYING to you! What is really in memory is not what you're being told is in memory, and maybe you can't find that key any longer.
Which brings us back to the article. Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a way of taking the responsibility for managing physical memory access (reading, writing, whatever) away from the processor and moving it to some other place in hardware (presumably some place that you can trust). And that's what hardware-based rootkit detection is about. Use hardware with DMA (which you trust) to access memory instead of letting the processor do the work and relying on the OS to tell you the truth.
The problem is that the way computers are currently designed, there's no way of starting DMA without having to talk to the processor (by way of the OS) first. Your DMA hardware has to ask "Hey, can I access memory?" and the OS has to say "Sure thing! You do it, and we won't bother the processor any more!"
But if the (subverted-by-a-rootkit) OS has a vested interest in you NOT being able to get true results using DMA, well, what are you going to do? The OS will just interfere. That's why Rutkowska is suggesting a direct, non-subvertable hardware port that you can jack into to use DMA without having to go through the OS first.
I'm clearly not a typical case, but I can tell you why _I_ want to do just that.
I do a lot of research and experimentation with hardware and software to understand security implications. I am also a Mac fan (though I do work on a number of platforms), and I have a personal interest in Mac security. Being able to load OS X into a VM would give me a lot of flexibility. I'd be able to quickly reset OS X to known, clean states, and simulate particular network environments.
He doesn't work for Firebird, it's an Internet cliche. It follows the standard form:
"I work for (insert company name); So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies. Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about. But trust me.... You don't. I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don't know what you are talking about. This is how bad info gets passed around. If you dont know about the topic....Dont make yourself sound like you do. Cos some (insert target group) believe anything they hear."
According to this Wikipedia article on Fark.com cliches, it originated in this Fark forum thread (search for "I work for the U.S. Mint" about halfway down the page), but I've seen in take different forms in different places.
No. Guitar Hero is not about playing a guitar. It is about being a GUITAR HERO. It isn't about making your own music, or adding your own personal touch to music you love. It is about putting yourself in the shoes of rock stars, on the stage, in front of a crowd, rocking out. And the gameplay is built around that concept.
Don't misunderstand me. Mastering Guitar Hero probably isn't as personally fulfilling as mastering a real guitar. To be able to creating something--music, sculpture, code, or anything else--is something truly wonderful. But that's not what the game is about, and people shouldn't pretend that it is.
The gist of it is that there's no open specification for the Broadcom chipset that Airport Extreme uses. In order to write the software, you need to know how the hardware works. And you do that either by being given a specification, or by reverse engineering the hardware and making one.
With that in mind, I was just doing some googling and I came across this Digg.com link:
Of course, standard disclaimer here: I could be totally wrong about why. I don't do much hardware hacking, and I've never had much interest in a Linux driver for Airport Extreme. Some months ago, however, I was looking into reasons why KisMAC didn't support passive scanning with Airport Extreme, and this was the reason I came across.
The Onion AV Club does serious reviews, previews, interviews, some original content, and the like. The satire is left for the main Onion site. It covers the full spectrum of Audio/Visual entertainment: books, music, movies, games, DVDs... they've even got some comics, I think.
Seeing this article summary sparked something in my memory. I seemed to remember hearing once upon a time that Link, from the Legend of Zelda, is left-handed.
I think it should be noted that for all the freedom we have in life (ideally), we still have goals.
These may be set by ourselves: "I'm going to learn to ski!"
These may be decided for us: "Well, I need to eat or I'm going to die. I should find food."
And they may change organically over time: "I need to do well in high school so I can get into a good college" changes to "I need to do well in college so I can get a good job" changes to "I need to get a better job so we can afford to live somewhere with a good school system for my daughter to attend."
I think the real trick lies in providing players with a variety of goals, but also letting the players deviate from these goals in personally meaningful ways. Provide a framework, a place to start. And then provide a way--in-game--for players to make the experience their own.
We do it in real life. Society (at least, white-collar American society) tells us we should go to college so we can get a good job. But looking at a cross section of Slashdotters, you'll see that a lot of them will have skipped straight to "get a good job." Because it was more meaningful to skip that college thing.
Of course, if I knew how to balance free-form and goal oriented gameplay in the ways I'm suggesting, I'd be rich, famous, or maybe just suicidal from having all of my ideas stifled in the name of corporate risk avoidance.
On the topic of low-budget, does anyone know if the sequel will have the same price point? Or will the expanded content necessitate a pricier game?
I don't think I would have bought the first game if it hadn't been so cheap, even with all of the hype. I could see paying 30 bucks, maybe, for a new copy of the sequel, but anything more than that and I'd probably just decide to wait for a used copy.
If you're talking about the version of Solitaire that comes with Windows (I can't see how you'd be talking about any other version), you can certainly play it using only a keyboard.
Tab and arrow keys to move the cursor between stacks of cards, and space button to select or flip over a card.
I knew of the merchandising and Keenspot Premium service, but not really how the profit sharing breaks down where they're concerned. I didn't feel qualified to bring them up.
As for Keenspace, some very good comics have come from that service, and continue to come from that service. But there are so many Keenspace comics, how do you find what's good? Outside of going through each comic, one by one, I think word of mouth (or waiting for them to get promoted to Keenspot) seems your best bet.
See my previous comment: "One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers...."
That's why I said "otherwise rightfully". It's like a two-person project at school where one person does 90% of the work and both get 50% of the credit. The understanding before the project starts is that they'll share credit equally, but the one who put more effort into the final result ends up feeling kind of bitter.
Keenspot makes money off of advertisement (and maybe other things, but I only know of the advertising part), but they need good webcomics to lure advertisers.
All I meant by that comment is that I recall that some of the webcartoonists have felt like the guy doing 90% of the work.
Beyond that, I wholly concede your point.
And the "ideally" comment was more a shot at people who start webcomics only because they've seen the success that a few have attained and want to achieve the same success. It happens a lot, and the general concensus amongst webcartoonists (based on various rants I've read and webcomic panels I've attended) seems to be that if you're doing it solely for the fame, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.
I usually fall on the side of "love of your craft," but I can certainly appreciate the other side too.
I've really got no problem with a webcartoonist who runs his webcomic like a business, because art supplies, bandwidth and hosting do cost a lot of money. And if you're making a living off of your strip it costs that much more.
The short version--for a longer version, see my post just below this--is that people who belong to Keenspot lose some control over their comic.
They:
-Have to share any profits they make off of the success of their strip with Keenspot -Don't really get to decide who advertises on their site, Keenspot does (I think that's right) -Have to format their page in a certain way to meet Keenspot's requirements (which includes a large adbox that points to other Keenspot comics)
For some webcartoonists, this loss of control is a dealbreaker. But for others, having the backing of a large-ish organization (which handles some of the more annoying details) and belonging to an established community are very nice benefits.
There are a lot of webcomics out there. And I mean a lot. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers (though I might argue that not having any discernable talent should be a barrier).
So how do you find a good webcomic? Well, Keenspot is an option. It's a portal that links to a variety of strips. It has certain standards of quality. It's been around for a long time, and it's well known. So if you're looking for something to read, you can always head for Keenspot.
On the flip side, if you're an aspiring webcartoonist and want to get known, getting accepted by Keenspot is a good bet for exactly the same reasons.
From a business perspective, Keenspot is okay. They sell advertising, and some of the money goes to the webcartoonists. Keenspot has done some work to get into newspapers, too, though I admit I don't know many of the details.
And Keenspot also handles the technical side. They provide the servers and all the website code necessary for a webcomic to function (if I recall correctly, that is). In exchange, you, as a webcartoonist, agree to brand your website with a little bit of advertising.
But Keenspot isn't the be-all and end-all of webcomics. Even though there are so many webcomics out there, the webcomic "community" is pretty small. Many of the artists/writers talk to each other. They see each other at conventions. They hang out. And they link to other comics in their rants. If you're looking for a good webcomic, it's almost as if it's a game of follow the links. All you have to do is find one good strip and read it for a while, and if you pay attention, you'll find out what some other good comics are. Word of mouth seems to be the best way to get known in the webcomic community.
And, as I understand it, Keenspot webcartoonists don't get paid as well as they could. Keenspot is a for-profit venture. It's the same as with any label you might sign with... some of the money that would otherwise rightfully be yours is going to go to the umbrella organization that's sponsoring you. Going independent might make you more money, if you're willing to deal with the financials yourself. (Ideally, you wouldn't care because you'd be doing it for the love of your craft... but when you become more popular, the bandwidth and hosting costs more money.)
I've got work tomorrow, so I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of webcomics that have my highest recommendation (not that you'd care, given that you don't know anything about my comic preferences). Both webcartoonists are independent.
Something Positive: It's pretty damn mean spirited a lot of the time, and sometimes gets a bit wordy, but it's consistently funny, and the characters come across as being very human. They have hopes and fears. They grow as time goes on. I think they're pretty believable.
Schlock Mercenary: This is a fine piece of science fiction (certainly much more deserving of the label than is Star Wars), and very funny to boot. It also has very good characterization, and wonderfully twisty, entertaining plotlines. This is probably the first comic I check every night, and I read some 30+ webcomics. I think many Slashdotters will appreciate it too. Incidentally, this strip, like the ones mentioned in TFA, recently split from Keenspot.
Slashdot Mirror
Regarding your P2P network of friends ... have you heard of WASTE? If I understand you correctly, it's more or less what you're suggesting. At any rate, its Wikipedia page is worth reading. It has some interesting information, and a lot of links to follow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASTE
Well, no. Not entirely.
Under normal conditions, that's correct. If a player has loaded the key into memory somewhere in order to use it, you can probably isolate the location in memory and retrieve the key. Which is what has been done to retrieve the AACS keys.
But the pathological case, the case dealing with rootkits, changes the game. How do you track the contents of your physical memory? Typically, through OS mechanisms. What happens if a rootkit (or a software media player using rootkit technology) subverts the OS mechanisms? You can't be assured of reliably tracking the contents of memory any more; maybe your OS is LYING to you! What is really in memory is not what you're being told is in memory, and maybe you can't find that key any longer.
Which brings us back to the article. Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a way of taking the responsibility for managing physical memory access (reading, writing, whatever) away from the processor and moving it to some other place in hardware (presumably some place that you can trust). And that's what hardware-based rootkit detection is about. Use hardware with DMA (which you trust) to access memory instead of letting the processor do the work and relying on the OS to tell you the truth.
The problem is that the way computers are currently designed, there's no way of starting DMA without having to talk to the processor (by way of the OS) first. Your DMA hardware has to ask "Hey, can I access memory?" and the OS has to say "Sure thing! You do it, and we won't bother the processor any more!"
But if the (subverted-by-a-rootkit) OS has a vested interest in you NOT being able to get true results using DMA, well, what are you going to do? The OS will just interfere. That's why Rutkowska is suggesting a direct, non-subvertable hardware port that you can jack into to use DMA without having to go through the OS first.
I'm clearly not a typical case, but I can tell you why _I_ want to do just that.
I do a lot of research and experimentation with hardware and software to understand security implications. I am also a Mac fan (though I do work on a number of platforms), and I have a personal interest in Mac security. Being able to load OS X into a VM would give me a lot of flexibility. I'd be able to quickly reset OS X to known, clean states, and simulate particular network environments.
He doesn't work for Firebird, it's an Internet cliche. It follows the standard form:
According to this Wikipedia article on Fark.com cliches, it originated in this Fark forum thread (search for "I work for the U.S. Mint" about halfway down the page), but I've seen in take different forms in different places.
Just thought you should know.
No. Guitar Hero is not about playing a guitar. It is about being a GUITAR HERO. It isn't about making your own music, or adding your own personal touch to music you love. It is about putting yourself in the shoes of rock stars, on the stage, in front of a crowd, rocking out. And the gameplay is built around that concept.
Don't misunderstand me. Mastering Guitar Hero probably isn't as personally fulfilling as mastering a real guitar. To be able to creating something--music, sculpture, code, or anything else--is something truly wonderful. But that's not what the game is about, and people shouldn't pretend that it is.
The gist of it is that there's no open specification for the Broadcom chipset that Airport Extreme uses. In order to write the software, you need to know how the hardware works. And you do that either by being given a specification, or by reverse engineering the hardware and making one.
r _for_the_Airport_Extreme_
With that in mind, I was just doing some googling and I came across this Digg.com link:
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Finally,_a_linux_drive
Of course, standard disclaimer here: I could be totally wrong about why. I don't do much hardware hacking, and I've never had much interest in a Linux driver for Airport Extreme. Some months ago, however, I was looking into reasons why KisMAC didn't support passive scanning with Airport Extreme, and this was the reason I came across.
Nope, no funny.
... they've even got some comics, I think.
The Onion AV Club does serious reviews, previews, interviews, some original content, and the like. The satire is left for the main Onion site. It covers the full spectrum of Audio/Visual entertainment: books, music, movies, games, DVDs
Seeing this article summary sparked something in my memory. I seemed to remember hearing once upon a time that Link, from the Legend of Zelda, is left-handed.
a )
This Wikipedia article tells me I remembered correctly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_(Legend_of_Zeld
Seems pretty obvious to me that Shigeru Miyamoto's being a southpaw has something to do with it.
(I'm a lefty too, which is why it stayed in my memory.)
I think it should be noted that for all the freedom we have in life (ideally), we still have goals.
These may be set by ourselves: "I'm going to learn to ski!"
These may be decided for us: "Well, I need to eat or I'm going to die. I should find food."
And they may change organically over time: "I need to do well in high school so I can get into a good college" changes to "I need to do well in college so I can get a good job" changes to "I need to get a better job so we can afford to live somewhere with a good school system for my daughter to attend."
I think the real trick lies in providing players with a variety of goals, but also letting the players deviate from these goals in personally meaningful ways. Provide a framework, a place to start. And then provide a way--in-game--for players to make the experience their own.
We do it in real life. Society (at least, white-collar American society) tells us we should go to college so we can get a good job. But looking at a cross section of Slashdotters, you'll see that a lot of them will have skipped straight to "get a good job." Because it was more meaningful to skip that college thing.
Of course, if I knew how to balance free-form and goal oriented gameplay in the ways I'm suggesting, I'd be rich, famous, or maybe just suicidal from having all of my ideas stifled in the name of corporate risk avoidance.
On the topic of low-budget, does anyone know if the sequel will have the same price point? Or will the expanded content necessitate a pricier game?
I don't think I would have bought the first game if it hadn't been so cheap, even with all of the hype. I could see paying 30 bucks, maybe, for a new copy of the sequel, but anything more than that and I'd probably just decide to wait for a used copy.
What, you mean like Gamefly?
If you're talking about the version of Solitaire that comes with Windows (I can't see how you'd be talking about any other version), you can certainly play it using only a keyboard.
Tab and arrow keys to move the cursor between stacks of cards, and space button to select or flip over a card.
I knew of the merchandising and Keenspot Premium service, but not really how the profit sharing breaks down where they're concerned. I didn't feel qualified to bring them up.
As for Keenspace, some very good comics have come from that service, and continue to come from that service. But there are so many Keenspace comics, how do you find what's good? Outside of going through each comic, one by one, I think word of mouth (or waiting for them to get promoted to Keenspot) seems your best bet.
See my previous comment: "One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers...."
*grin*
That's why I said "otherwise rightfully". It's like a two-person project at school where one person does 90% of the work and both get 50% of the credit. The understanding before the project starts is that they'll share credit equally, but the one who put more effort into the final result ends up feeling kind of bitter.
Keenspot makes money off of advertisement (and maybe other things, but I only know of the advertising part), but they need good webcomics to lure advertisers.
All I meant by that comment is that I recall that some of the webcartoonists have felt like the guy doing 90% of the work.
Beyond that, I wholly concede your point.
And the "ideally" comment was more a shot at people who start webcomics only because they've seen the success that a few have attained and want to achieve the same success. It happens a lot, and the general concensus amongst webcartoonists (based on various rants I've read and webcomic panels I've attended) seems to be that if you're doing it solely for the fame, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.
I usually fall on the side of "love of your craft," but I can certainly appreciate the other side too.
I've really got no problem with a webcartoonist who runs his webcomic like a business, because art supplies, bandwidth and hosting do cost a lot of money. And if you're making a living off of your strip it costs that much more.
A few artists who live off of their webcomics:
Penny Arcade
Sluggy Freelance
MegaTokyo
8-Bit Theatre
Player vs Player
Schlock Mercenary
Something Positive
Ctrl-Alt-Delete
And those are just some of the ones that I read and can remember.
The short version--for a longer version, see my post just below this--is that people who belong to Keenspot lose some control over their comic.
They:
-Have to share any profits they make off of the success of their strip with Keenspot
-Don't really get to decide who advertises on their site, Keenspot does (I think that's right)
-Have to format their page in a certain way to meet Keenspot's requirements (which includes a large adbox that points to other Keenspot comics)
For some webcartoonists, this loss of control is a dealbreaker. But for others, having the backing of a large-ish organization (which handles some of the more annoying details) and belonging to an established community are very nice benefits.
The thing is, Keenspot does have its place.
... some of the money that would otherwise rightfully be yours is going to go to the umbrella organization that's sponsoring you. Going independent might make you more money, if you're willing to deal with the financials yourself. (Ideally, you wouldn't care because you'd be doing it for the love of your craft ... but when you become more popular, the bandwidth and hosting costs more money.)
There are a lot of webcomics out there. And I mean a lot. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers (though I might argue that not having any discernable talent should be a barrier).
So how do you find a good webcomic? Well, Keenspot is an option. It's a portal that links to a variety of strips. It has certain standards of quality. It's been around for a long time, and it's well known. So if you're looking for something to read, you can always head for Keenspot.
On the flip side, if you're an aspiring webcartoonist and want to get known, getting accepted by Keenspot is a good bet for exactly the same reasons.
From a business perspective, Keenspot is okay. They sell advertising, and some of the money goes to the webcartoonists. Keenspot has done some work to get into newspapers, too, though I admit I don't know many of the details.
And Keenspot also handles the technical side. They provide the servers and all the website code necessary for a webcomic to function (if I recall correctly, that is). In exchange, you, as a webcartoonist, agree to brand your website with a little bit of advertising.
But Keenspot isn't the be-all and end-all of webcomics. Even though there are so many webcomics out there, the webcomic "community" is pretty small. Many of the artists/writers talk to each other. They see each other at conventions. They hang out. And they link to other comics in their rants. If you're looking for a good webcomic, it's almost as if it's a game of follow the links. All you have to do is find one good strip and read it for a while, and if you pay attention, you'll find out what some other good comics are. Word of mouth seems to be the best way to get known in the webcomic community.
And, as I understand it, Keenspot webcartoonists don't get paid as well as they could. Keenspot is a for-profit venture. It's the same as with any label you might sign with
I've got work tomorrow, so I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of webcomics that have my highest recommendation (not that you'd care, given that you don't know anything about my comic preferences). Both webcartoonists are independent.
Something Positive: It's pretty damn mean spirited a lot of the time, and sometimes gets a bit wordy, but it's consistently funny, and the characters come across as being very human. They have hopes and fears. They grow as time goes on. I think they're pretty believable.
Schlock Mercenary: This is a fine piece of science fiction (certainly much more deserving of the label than is Star Wars), and very funny to boot. It also has very good characterization, and wonderfully twisty, entertaining plotlines. This is probably the first comic I check every night, and I read some 30+ webcomics. I think many Slashdotters will appreciate it too. Incidentally, this strip, like the ones mentioned in TFA, recently split from Keenspot.
This page has some information about it. You're pretty much on the money.
http://www.teraskasi.net/about_tk.html