There seem to be a lot of people saying this is BS. Their examples are modern DSL/Cable models where the light blinks once for a large packet. I think you may have want to read the article. This only worked on 36% of the devices they tested. The LED has to be connected through logic circutry that is the same as the data transmision circutry just more powerfull to light it up. Not all activity LEDs are hooked up this way some blink on a per-packet basis or with other factors. If you look at the devices tested the most successfull tests were on older modems and slower token ring network hubs. This is very obviously a possible technique to read data. As speeds increase though the feasability drops since the responce time of the LED and the "dirty" circutry degrade the signal into a single blip on the LED. As for security... unless someone really wants your data I doubt you have to worry.
To a point I can understand that the CIA and such may not think that open public information isn't usefull but for some reason I just don't completely believe this article. As we continuously find out all the stuff our government was doing 20 or 30 years ago that no one though they were doing or was even possible the more I think we should doubt people who put such strong numbers on our govertments secret practices. Most people accept that the CIA is probably at least 10 years ahead of the times technology wise (mail for cryptographic reasons I'd assume). If these are the same people that are gathering intelegence I doubt they would be so hard nosed as to ignore anything but "relevent sources of information"
Very true, all of these companies deserve a huge amount of credit for standing up to this. Hopefully many more will follow and give the RIAA & MPAA a good beating... not to be violent but after all the dumb shit they have been trying to do and getting away with they deserve a public humuliation. Too bad that will never happen but at least they might stop their insane grabs for cencorship & digital influence.
I'm glad to see some of the big players in the tech industry are standing up for consumers. I hope AMD and other companies will follow suit and maybe make Hollywood realize that they can't change technology and the internet, they will have to change their buisness model to adapt to this new medium. After reading all the pushing the media industry was doing it sure makes me feel better that someone with some money and power is standing up for end user rights and even going so far as to express their dislike of the DMCA.
The more and more we hear about restriction of the end consumer's rights the more scared I am of our government. All it takes is one bad precident to start years of screwing people over for what used to be legitimate practices. Unfortunatly what really NEEDS to be done is replace the people in power at the big corperations with people who have a better understanding of the digital world and possible buisness modles for the internet. My one hope is this will happen with time. I like to think that the current people comming out of our nations buisness programs realize that turning your customer base into criminals and trying to restrict their rights to increase profit margins is not the way to go. Yes there will always be the piracy, it sucks but it's true. Big corporations just need to learn the way to fight it is not to out law it but make it too much work. If there was a network out there where I could logon, download a song for $1 to $3 a piece encoded at a nice high quality (320K or some such) I would be spending $20 - $35 a month right now. As it is though I spend $20 every other month on one CD from which I listen to 2 maybe 3 songs. Yes the music could be pirated but it would be more work with lower quality products.
Opps, my bad. I knew you could get the ASP.NET framework but hadn't gone through MS's website well enough to find the free.NET framework. Thanks for the info.
I know that here at Michigan Tech our CS department is entirly *nix. Starting 3 years ago Java was the language taught to incoming freshman. Before that it was C++ on a compeltely SunOS Unix platform. I don't ever see Micrsoft taking over in good CS programs as a good learning platform. I know a bit of VB and have used.NET and it just doesn't seem to have the ease of use and methods for demonstrating the fundamentals of Computer Science that Java and C++ do. Learning to deal with pointers or memory or such it a development platform that abstracts you so far away from the system just doesn't work.
Another big problem with.NET is it's not free. gcc and the JDK are free. MS is never going to give.NET away. At least not while that have medium to large corporations and schools paying huge licence fees to use it in their IT departments.
I have been searching congress.org and all over the web for a bill number or such for this whole SSSCA deal. Writing letters to your senators & congressman will help but they will help even more if you have researched the topic and are citing a reference that they can easily look up and address. I would recommend that ALL OF YOU go to congress.org and write a letter. Read a few others that people have sent for ideas and basis if need be.
We have such a large user base here at Slashdot. I really think it's time we organize our ranting against bills like this and big corporations that are trying to get legislation that only puts money in their pocket. To be effective everyone must participate. The letters must be eloquent, to the point and have good support! I encourage all of you to write to the people who are representing you and express your opinion!
Slashdot Mirror
There seem to be a lot of people saying this is BS. Their examples are modern DSL/Cable models where the light blinks once for a large packet. I think you may have want to read the article. This only worked on 36% of the devices they tested. The LED has to be connected through logic circutry that is the same as the data transmision circutry just more powerfull to light it up. Not all activity LEDs are hooked up this way some blink on a per-packet basis or with other factors. If you look at the devices tested the most successfull tests were on older modems and slower token ring network hubs. This is very obviously a possible technique to read data. As speeds increase though the feasability drops since the responce time of the LED and the "dirty" circutry degrade the signal into a single blip on the LED. As for security ... unless someone really wants your data I doubt you have to worry.
To a point I can understand that the CIA and such may not think that open public information isn't usefull but for some reason I just don't completely believe this article. As we continuously find out all the stuff our government was doing 20 or 30 years ago that no one though they were doing or was even possible the more I think we should doubt people who put such strong numbers on our govertments secret practices. Most people accept that the CIA is probably at least 10 years ahead of the times technology wise (mail for cryptographic reasons I'd assume). If these are the same people that are gathering intelegence I doubt they would be so hard nosed as to ignore anything but "relevent sources of information"
Very true, all of these companies deserve a huge amount of credit for standing up to this. Hopefully many more will follow and give the RIAA & MPAA a good beating ... not to be violent but after all the dumb shit they have been trying to do and getting away with they deserve a public humuliation. Too bad that will never happen but at least they might stop their insane grabs for cencorship & digital influence.
I'm glad to see some of the big players in the tech industry are standing up for consumers. I hope AMD and other companies will follow suit and maybe make Hollywood realize that they can't change technology and the internet, they will have to change their buisness model to adapt to this new medium.
After reading all the pushing the media industry was doing it sure makes me feel better that someone with some money and power is standing up for end user rights and even going so far as to express their dislike of the DMCA.
The more and more we hear about restriction of the end consumer's rights the more scared I am of our government. All it takes is one bad precident to start years of screwing people over for what used to be legitimate practices. Unfortunatly what really NEEDS to be done is replace the people in power at the big corperations with people who have a better understanding of the digital world and possible buisness modles for the internet. My one hope is this will happen with time.
I like to think that the current people comming out of our nations buisness programs realize that turning your customer base into criminals and trying to restrict their rights to increase profit margins is not the way to go. Yes there will always be the piracy, it sucks but it's true. Big corporations just need to learn the way to fight it is not to out law it but make it too much work. If there was a network out there where I could logon, download a song for $1 to $3 a piece encoded at a nice high quality (320K or some such) I would be spending $20 - $35 a month right now. As it is though I spend $20 every other month on one CD from which I listen to 2 maybe 3 songs. Yes the music could be pirated but it would be more work with lower quality products.
my $.02
Opps, my bad. I knew you could get the ASP.NET framework but hadn't gone through MS's website well enough to find the free .NET framework. Thanks for the info.
I know that here at Michigan Tech our CS department is entirly *nix. Starting 3 years ago Java was the language taught to incoming freshman. Before that it was C++ on a compeltely SunOS Unix platform. I don't ever see Micrsoft taking over in good CS programs as a good learning platform. I know a bit of VB and have used .NET and it just doesn't seem to have the ease of use and methods for demonstrating the fundamentals of Computer Science that Java and C++ do. Learning to deal with pointers or memory or such it a development platform that abstracts you so far away from the system just doesn't work.
.NET is it's not free. gcc and the JDK are free. MS is never going to give .NET away. At least not while that have medium to large corporations and schools paying huge licence fees to use it in their IT departments.
Another big problem with
-Eric Dalquist
I have been searching congress.org and all over the web for a bill number or such for this whole SSSCA deal. Writing letters to your senators & congressman will help but they will help even more if you have researched the topic and are citing a reference that they can easily look up and address. I would recommend that ALL OF YOU go to congress.org and write a letter. Read a few others that people have sent for ideas and basis if need be. We have such a large user base here at Slashdot. I really think it's time we organize our ranting against bills like this and big corporations that are trying to get legislation that only puts money in their pocket. To be effective everyone must participate. The letters must be eloquent, to the point and have good support! I encourage all of you to write to the people who are representing you and express your opinion!