The problem is that the range is entirely dependent on the receiving equipment. These are only intended to be read from a few inches/cm away. But the way that RFID works leaves gaping holes for exploitation and abuse.
Basically, an RFID "chip" is a passive, unpowered radio tranceiver. When it receives a radio transmission of a certain power level and frequency, the antenna resonates, inducing a current within the circuitry. This current is passed through filters - AND/OR/XOR/NOT gates or what not, I'm nott 100% sure - which are unique to the data contained on the chip. By this process, the output power levels and frequency can be modified in accordance with what information the implementers want to be transmitted back. (This is nearly identical technology to the proximity cards and readers many of us have used at work, parking garages, dormitories, etc.)
The problem is, the chip will respond to any proper wavelength and dB, so there is no practical way (not yet anyway, though the technology is being developed for crypto-enabled RFID) to control to whom the chip will respond. This means that anybody can request the data contained on the chip (or perhaps more importantly, whether or not a chip is present!).
What's more, the chip simply outputs a certain radio frequency which any radio receiver in the propagation sphere can receive. It's been demonstrated that a properly tuned and sensitive receiver can read the resulting broadcast from an RFID chip from several, if not tens, of meters away.
There's a rather good article on the subject of RFID passports at Bruce Schneier's blog.
Maybe I'm wrong here, but doesn't refraction have to do with the absorption and re-emission of photons by atoms? It's my understanding that the presence of a color means that all other wavelengths have been absorbed by the material, leaving only those that constitute the color in question. So isn't this subject to the same inherent photon-manipulating characteristics as other carbon atoms?
AFAIK, nitrates/nitrites don't occur naturally in mammilian organisms. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) They are added for their preservative qualities during processing, which is why certain meats (esp. bacon, hot dogs, some sausages, etc.) will cause false positives, while others (steaks, chicken, etc.) will not.
Incidentally, it's a good idea to stay away from nitrate/nitrite-laced meats anyway; they're really not good for you. Having a diet coke and a hot dog? The aspartame in the diet coke reacts with the nitrates in the hot dog and forms formaldehyde and methanol (wood alcohol, a neurotoxin) inside the body. Better off with nitrate-free hot dogs (they do sell them, you just have to be careful what you get) to avoid pickling yourself prematurely.
The Sands of Time is the game that has set the bar for playability for all other games for me. The controls were so incredibly easy and intuitive, it was possible to do complex maneouvers without taking hours to master the controls. The smoothness of rendering and control makes it a welcome addition to the PoP series, which I think is one of the most playable of all time.
The camera work was also very good - not perfect, but very good - the ability to control the zoom and scope of the cameras was a wonderful addition. Compare that to games like Burnout 3 (whose camera work is some of the most frustrating ever!), and it comes out heads-and-shoulders better than most others.
I go back and play PoP regularly (and I almost never repeat-play games) just because it is so refreshing and fun to play. I am very much looking forward to the next installment.
If there are more of "us" that have them than there are "them" that have them, then you bet.
What's scary is that we're most likely below the critical mass required to be able to stage a rebellion if one were needed against a truly oppressive government.
"People will not rebel until not rebelling becomes more painful than rebelling." So we have a ways to go, for better or for worse...
I've taken to carrying a set of "dummy" alkaline batteries in the device (which serve to maintain the time/date/etc. in the camera), and carrying my Li-ion batteries separately. When I need a quick shot, I simply replace the batteries and go - takes less than 30 seconds. So long as I'm in a situation where 30 seconds isn't a big deal, it's no problem... YMMV.
So now do us the favor of defining "unathorized" sharing of files, would you please?
I figure we can start with the decision of the courts that companies are "authorized" to create and distribute software that facilitates sharing.
Then we can move on to the concepts of "fair use" and "first sale" which "authorize" users to make copies for their own use; let their friends and relatives read, listen to, or watch them; and resell copies they have legally purchased without paying royalties.
Oh, on the way I think we should touch on the "No Electronic Theft Act" which "authorizes" users to legally share up to $2500 worth of material with anyone*.
So, please enlighten us, oh great master of copyright wisdom!
-- *(Note: the DMCA may have superceded some or most of the provisions of the NETA. IANAL, etc.)
You make it sound so simple - "network connectivity and security". Oh, is that all?
Netowrk connectivity is easy. Security is not. There are three basic goals of security - integrity, confidentiality, and availability. One must choose which pieces of that triangle one wants to enforce. In the case of national security, the most important thing to them is availability - knowing that the infrastructure won't be damaged (planes don't blow up, people don't get panicked, etc.). Confidentiality is second, hiding those parts of the puzzle which would allow attackers to know how availability is being maintained.
Which leaves integrity as the smallest piece. Do you really think it should have taken Senator Kennedy THREE WEEKS to get cleared to fly because his NAME appeared on a do-not-fly list? Who maintains the integrity of the data used to detain people?
Senator Kennedy has a card that says he's not one of the people they're looking for - he's a member of the United States Senate! And if they can't get enforcement for the government leaders right, what makes you think they'll get yours right, national ID card or no??
Or you can drink brandy (or most liquors), which has the effect of dilating the capillaries near the surface of the skin (IIRC). This carries heat away from the core of the body where it can more effectively be transferred to the outside air.
All they did was do this technically and put the person next to an air conditioner, really.
As an aside, this is the reason you don't want liquor when you're battling the cold - St. Bernards should have their flasks filled with wine instead, which has the opposite effect. (I have no idea why. Anyone care to shed light on the subject?)
The USSR's economic policy was built on a house of cards - which is what eventually caused their demise. At the height of the cold war, the Soviet Union spent more than 70% of their GNP on war materiel (not a misspelling) and military operations. The United States never spent more than 10% of its GNP on the same. And when U.S. weapons finally went head-to-head with Soviet weapons during the liberation of Kuwait, Moscow knew that our M1s could kick the snot out of the Russian T72s, for example. Everything they threw at us was easily defeated by the advanced weaponry we had. That was what precipitated the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of the communist state.
The Soviets kicked ass in WWII? The USSR lost almost 28 million lives (9 million military and 19 million civilian) - compare that to Germany's losses at 5.5 million (3.5 military/2 civvy). I'd say the Germans came out on the better end of that deal. It was only the fact that Germany was fighting the war on four fronts (Eastern Front, Western Front, African Front, Italian Front) and Stalin's paranoia that allowed the Soviets to make the progress they did toward Berlin at the end of the war.
Another example would be Kruschev's first visit to a U.S. supermarket. It took a lot of convincing before he would accept that it wasn't just for show, that it hadn't been set up just to impress him. The ordinariness of it was the kicker, the fact that there are tens of thousands of supermarkets just like it across the U.S. He held his head in his hands the entire flight back, as the enormity of the disparity between western prosperity and Soviet survival came crashing down on him.
Did you know it used to take two to five years to get an apartment in the USSR? There was a waiting list for almost anything you could afford to buy - cars (6-12 months), refrigerators (3 months), vacuums (3 months), etc. A friend of my fathers said that their lettuce used to look all the way through like the sometimes brown outer layer we throw away.
So I think we can safely say that the capitalist and Soviet-style communist economies isn't really equivalent.
Now, if you want to have an interesting discussion, consider the differences between Chinese and Russian communist economies. (Though the Chinese economy is starting to look more and more capitalist...)
I have to disagree strongly with this. I just passed my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) examination after taking a week-long boot camp from The Training Camp. I might have passed the examination anyway, but the class was a real help in learning the terminology and character of the exam, which was instrumental in passing.
While perhaps I could have gotten the same results studying on my own, it was much easier and more concise to have instructors that not only knew the field, but the nature of the questions on the test. I also got additional knowledge outside of my realm of expertise which will help me tremendously in the future as I continue my infosec work. So the class was worth every penny.
Further, the certification opens doors which might not otherwise be open. The CISSP requires a minimum of four years' technical work in the field before the certification can be applied for. This is not your standard MCSD that any monkey can take. (Apologies to those of you who worked hard to pass the MCSD/MSCE - but IIRC you aren't requird to have any practical experience to get the cert.)
My '96 dodge caravan (I'm a musician, it's my gear-hauler) will do in excess of 95 (actually got a speeding ticket once at 95) but won't set the cruise control above that. The engine's not speed-regulated (like some BMW's and such, electronically limited to 130mph or something), but the cruise control is.
I've also had problems similar to the Civic owner above, only my CC is not aftermarket - it's standard factory. But it will still accelerate wildly sometimes for no apparent reason. Disengaging the CC fixes the problem.
As an aside, I sometimes have trouble with my transmission getting out of 2nd, requiring - get this - a rolling restart (shift to neutral and turn the engine off and on). Which leaves me wondering - did Microsoft somehow get into Chrysler vehicles??
...except that Episode 3 is being directed by Lucas himself, who was personally responsible for the shit that was Episodes 1 & 2. And if you're waiting for another "Empire Strikes Back", don't - Lucas didn't direct that one, which is at least partially why it remains the best of the series.
Lucas had a great idea in Star Wars, but he is not a great director. He can't cast, he can't direct, and he shouldn't be taken seriously as a director. (Just like M. Night Shyamalan)
Sadly, because in some states (North Carolina, for one), you can't write anyone in on the ballot who isn't an approved write-in candidate. If you do, your vote will be thrown out.
Q:What are the differences between kernel versions? A:Features and bug fixes.
Features add bloat, and bug fixes can be incorporated without the additional features. So unless there is a compelling reason to use a particular kernel (multithreading on a 68040 for instance;-) there's no real reason to use the 'latest and greatest'.
Did you even RTFA? The MST3K owners don't even want them to stop doing the show - they just want them to use a different name, one that isn't so close to the original!
This isn't about copyright AT ALL - it's about trademark infringement, which is a wholly different beast!
Not so fast... In (Mandarin) Chinese, for example, even though individual words/phonemes don't carry multiple forms for pluralization, the number referred to is almost always explicit, along with a measure word denoting the type of thing being referred to.
For example, to say "two people" in Mandarin, one would say, "liang ge ren" (obviously this isn't unicode, so I can't print the tone marks for pinyin). This translates to "a couple (liang) of something (ge) person (ren)".
Or, to say "three blankets", one would say, "san zhang beizi", which means, "three (san) flat objects (zhang) blanket/quilt (beizi)".
So you can see that, in Mandarin at least, the number and type of object being referred to is explicit, not implied. So even though the plurality is not carried in the word itself, often the actual number is more precise than English's one/many shortcut!
This is an example of bad reasoning. You can certainly have your cake and eat it too!
Let's say that I've been eating cake for 25 years, thinking it's good for me (as the company who sold it to me put in their marketing literature). I enjoy it, and never suspect that it's actually killing me.
Then I find out one morning on the news that cake is bad for me. Really bad. So bad that every bite is reducing my life expectency by five minutes. I'm outraged, then depressed, then finally resigned. By this time I figure I'm already fucked, so I might as well keep doing it.
So my kid comes into the world and sees me, every day, eating my cake - sometimes two or three times or more a day, especially when I'm stressed! He gets used to the smell, the crumbs, the chocolate that sometimes ends up in his clothes... For years - his most formative - before he understands the full import of the words "don't do what daddy does, it's bad for you", he sees that I'm - at least on the surface - no worse for the wear.
By the time he's 12 he's fully aware of the risks associated, but I've always got cake in the house, and some of his friends have tried it and liked it... And he figures his old man does it, so it can't be too bad, 'cause I'm not a complete idiot in his eyes and he hasn't gotten to the "dad doesn't know anything" years yet... So he tries it. And hey, he likes it! (After he manages to get a few bites down without choking, anyway.) But he discovers how addictive it is, and how much it's been ingrained into his psyche, since it's been around all his life.
And so the cycle continues. Even though he knows it's bad for him, he still starts, and can't seem to stop. So he figures he's already fucked, might as well enjoy it. Then _his_ kid grows up and...
So do the smokers bring it on themselves? Yeah, by resigning themselves (and perhaps unwittingly, their children) to their "fate". But I think there's more than an equal share of the tobacco companies in this.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that the range is entirely dependent on the receiving equipment. These are only intended to be read from a few inches/cm away. But the way that RFID works leaves gaping holes for exploitation and abuse.
Basically, an RFID "chip" is a passive, unpowered radio tranceiver. When it receives a radio transmission of a certain power level and frequency, the antenna resonates, inducing a current within the circuitry. This current is passed through filters - AND/OR/XOR/NOT gates or what not, I'm nott 100% sure - which are unique to the data contained on the chip. By this process, the output power levels and frequency can be modified in accordance with what information the implementers want to be transmitted back. (This is nearly identical technology to the proximity cards and readers many of us have used at work, parking garages, dormitories, etc.)
The problem is, the chip will respond to any proper wavelength and dB, so there is no practical way (not yet anyway, though the technology is being developed for crypto-enabled RFID) to control to whom the chip will respond. This means that anybody can request the data contained on the chip (or perhaps more importantly, whether or not a chip is present!).
What's more, the chip simply outputs a certain radio frequency which any radio receiver in the propagation sphere can receive. It's been demonstrated that a properly tuned and sensitive receiver can read the resulting broadcast from an RFID chip from several, if not tens, of meters away.
There's a rather good article on the subject of RFID passports at Bruce Schneier's blog.
Maybe I'm wrong here, but doesn't refraction have to do with the absorption and re-emission of photons by atoms? It's my understanding that the presence of a color means that all other wavelengths have been absorbed by the material, leaving only those that constitute the color in question. So isn't this subject to the same inherent photon-manipulating characteristics as other carbon atoms?
What am I missing here?
AFAIK, nitrates/nitrites don't occur naturally in mammilian organisms. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) They are added for their preservative qualities during processing, which is why certain meats (esp. bacon, hot dogs, some sausages, etc.) will cause false positives, while others (steaks, chicken, etc.) will not.
Incidentally, it's a good idea to stay away from nitrate/nitrite-laced meats anyway; they're really not good for you. Having a diet coke and a hot dog? The aspartame in the diet coke reacts with the nitrates in the hot dog and forms formaldehyde and methanol (wood alcohol, a neurotoxin) inside the body. Better off with nitrate-free hot dogs (they do sell them, you just have to be careful what you get) to avoid pickling yourself prematurely.
Here's the Wikipedia article.
The Sands of Time is the game that has set the bar for playability for all other games for me. The controls were so incredibly easy and intuitive, it was possible to do complex maneouvers without taking hours to master the controls. The smoothness of rendering and control makes it a welcome addition to the PoP series, which I think is one of the most playable of all time.
The camera work was also very good - not perfect, but very good - the ability to control the zoom and scope of the cameras was a wonderful addition. Compare that to games like Burnout 3 (whose camera work is some of the most frustrating ever !), and it comes out heads-and-shoulders better than most others.
I go back and play PoP regularly (and I almost never repeat-play games) just because it is so refreshing and fun to play. I am very much looking forward to the next installment.
If there are more of "us" that have them than there are "them" that have them, then you bet.
What's scary is that we're most likely below the critical mass required to be able to stage a rebellion if one were needed against a truly oppressive government.
"People will not rebel until not rebelling becomes more painful than rebelling." So we have a ways to go, for better or for worse...
I've taken to carrying a set of "dummy" alkaline batteries in the device (which serve to maintain the time/date/etc. in the camera), and carrying my Li-ion batteries separately. When I need a quick shot, I simply replace the batteries and go - takes less than 30 seconds. So long as I'm in a situation where 30 seconds isn't a big deal, it's no problem... YMMV.
So now do us the favor of defining "unathorized" sharing of files, would you please?
I figure we can start with the decision of the courts that companies are "authorized" to create and distribute software that facilitates sharing.
Then we can move on to the concepts of "fair use" and "first sale" which "authorize" users to make copies for their own use; let their friends and relatives read, listen to, or watch them; and resell copies they have legally purchased without paying royalties.
Oh, on the way I think we should touch on the "No Electronic Theft Act" which "authorizes" users to legally share up to $2500 worth of material with anyone*.
So, please enlighten us, oh great master of copyright wisdom!
--
*(Note: the DMCA may have superceded some or most of the provisions of the NETA. IANAL, etc.)
You make it sound so simple - "network connectivity and security". Oh, is that all?
Netowrk connectivity is easy. Security is not. There are three basic goals of security - integrity, confidentiality, and availability. One must choose which pieces of that triangle one wants to enforce. In the case of national security, the most important thing to them is availability - knowing that the infrastructure won't be damaged (planes don't blow up, people don't get panicked, etc.). Confidentiality is second, hiding those parts of the puzzle which would allow attackers to know how availability is being maintained.
Which leaves integrity as the smallest piece. Do you really think it should have taken Senator Kennedy THREE WEEKS to get cleared to fly because his NAME appeared on a do-not-fly list? Who maintains the integrity of the data used to detain people?
Senator Kennedy has a card that says he's not one of the people they're looking for - he's a member of the United States Senate! And if they can't get enforcement for the government leaders right, what makes you think they'll get yours right, national ID card or no??
I don't know - which of those have half-black sheep you can see from the passenger compartment?
Is there such a thing?
I'm not trolling here - I've never heard of it, and I've often thought there should be... Does such a statute exist?
Or you can drink brandy (or most liquors), which has the effect of dilating the capillaries near the surface of the skin (IIRC). This carries heat away from the core of the body where it can more effectively be transferred to the outside air.
All they did was do this technically and put the person next to an air conditioner, really.
As an aside, this is the reason you don't want liquor when you're battling the cold - St. Bernards should have their flasks filled with wine instead, which has the opposite effect. (I have no idea why. Anyone care to shed light on the subject?)
The USSR's economic policy was built on a house of cards - which is what eventually caused their demise. At the height of the cold war, the Soviet Union spent more than 70% of their GNP on war materiel (not a misspelling) and military operations. The United States never spent more than 10% of its GNP on the same. And when U.S. weapons finally went head-to-head with Soviet weapons during the liberation of Kuwait, Moscow knew that our M1s could kick the snot out of the Russian T72s, for example. Everything they threw at us was easily defeated by the advanced weaponry we had. That was what precipitated the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of the communist state.
The Soviets kicked ass in WWII? The USSR lost almost 28 million lives (9 million military and 19 million civilian) - compare that to Germany's losses at 5.5 million (3.5 military/2 civvy). I'd say the Germans came out on the better end of that deal. It was only the fact that Germany was fighting the war on four fronts (Eastern Front, Western Front, African Front, Italian Front) and Stalin's paranoia that allowed the Soviets to make the progress they did toward Berlin at the end of the war.
Another example would be Kruschev's first visit to a U.S. supermarket. It took a lot of convincing before he would accept that it wasn't just for show, that it hadn't been set up just to impress him. The ordinariness of it was the kicker, the fact that there are tens of thousands of supermarkets just like it across the U.S. He held his head in his hands the entire flight back, as the enormity of the disparity between western prosperity and Soviet survival came crashing down on him.
Did you know it used to take two to five years to get an apartment in the USSR? There was a waiting list for almost anything you could afford to buy - cars (6-12 months), refrigerators (3 months), vacuums (3 months), etc. A friend of my fathers said that their lettuce used to look all the way through like the sometimes brown outer layer we throw away.
So I think we can safely say that the capitalist and Soviet-style communist economies isn't really equivalent.
Now, if you want to have an interesting discussion, consider the differences between Chinese and Russian communist economies. (Though the Chinese economy is starting to look more and more capitalist...)
I have to disagree strongly with this. I just passed my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) examination after taking a week-long boot camp from The Training Camp. I might have passed the examination anyway, but the class was a real help in learning the terminology and character of the exam, which was instrumental in passing.
While perhaps I could have gotten the same results studying on my own, it was much easier and more concise to have instructors that not only knew the field, but the nature of the questions on the test. I also got additional knowledge outside of my realm of expertise which will help me tremendously in the future as I continue my infosec work. So the class was worth every penny.
Further, the certification opens doors which might not otherwise be open. The CISSP requires a minimum of four years' technical work in the field before the certification can be applied for. This is not your standard MCSD that any monkey can take. (Apologies to those of you who worked hard to pass the MCSD/MSCE - but IIRC you aren't requird to have any practical experience to get the cert.)
My '96 dodge caravan (I'm a musician, it's my gear-hauler) will do in excess of 95 (actually got a speeding ticket once at 95) but won't set the cruise control above that. The engine's not speed-regulated (like some BMW's and such, electronically limited to 130mph or something), but the cruise control is.
I've also had problems similar to the Civic owner above, only my CC is not aftermarket - it's standard factory. But it will still accelerate wildly sometimes for no apparent reason. Disengaging the CC fixes the problem.
As an aside, I sometimes have trouble with my transmission getting out of 2nd, requiring - get this - a rolling restart (shift to neutral and turn the engine off and on). Which leaves me wondering - did Microsoft somehow get into Chrysler vehicles??
I think that's a great idea for the most part.
I especially like the bit where we get rid of income taxes. They're not covered in the constitution either...
...except that Episode 3 is being directed by Lucas himself, who was personally responsible for the shit that was Episodes 1 & 2. And if you're waiting for another "Empire Strikes Back", don't - Lucas didn't direct that one, which is at least partially why it remains the best of the series.
Lucas had a great idea in Star Wars, but he is not a great director. He can't cast, he can't direct, and he shouldn't be taken seriously as a director. (Just like M. Night Shyamalan)
Sadly, because in some states (North Carolina, for one), you can't write anyone in on the ballot who isn't an approved write-in candidate. If you do, your vote will be thrown out.
Grrrr....
Q:What are the differences between kernel versions?
;-) there's no real reason to use the 'latest and greatest'.
A:Features and bug fixes.
Features add bloat, and bug fixes can be incorporated without the additional features. So unless there is a compelling reason to use a particular kernel (multithreading on a 68040 for instance
Nope, they gave those back years ago, and lots of people have been using them ever since. :-p
Did you even RTFA? The MST3K owners don't even want them to stop doing the show - they just want them to use a different name, one that isn't so close to the original!
This isn't about copyright AT ALL - it's about trademark infringement, which is a wholly different beast!
So humans could not have possibly evolved? I know quite a few biologists who would argue that point.
Further, God is not dependent on faith. "You have faith in me, Thomas, because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe."
Adams' is a spurious argument, without true logical basis. It is funny as hell, though.
Not so fast... In (Mandarin) Chinese, for example, even though individual words/phonemes don't carry multiple forms for pluralization, the number referred to is almost always explicit, along with a measure word denoting the type of thing being referred to.
For example, to say "two people" in Mandarin, one would say, "liang ge ren" (obviously this isn't unicode, so I can't print the tone marks for pinyin). This translates to "a couple (liang) of something (ge) person (ren)".
Or, to say "three blankets", one would say, "san zhang beizi", which means, "three (san) flat objects (zhang) blanket/quilt (beizi)".
So you can see that, in Mandarin at least, the number and type of object being referred to is explicit, not implied. So even though the plurality is not carried in the word itself, often the actual number is more precise than English's one/many shortcut!
Yeah, and Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier what, 50 years ago? And where is my supersonic flying car?? Dammit!
This is an example of bad reasoning. You can certainly have your cake and eat it too!
Let's say that I've been eating cake for 25 years, thinking it's good for me (as the company who sold it to me put in their marketing literature). I enjoy it, and never suspect that it's actually killing me.
Then I find out one morning on the news that cake is bad for me. Really bad. So bad that every bite is reducing my life expectency by five minutes. I'm outraged, then depressed, then finally resigned. By this time I figure I'm already fucked, so I might as well keep doing it.
So my kid comes into the world and sees me, every day, eating my cake - sometimes two or three times or more a day, especially when I'm stressed! He gets used to the smell, the crumbs, the chocolate that sometimes ends up in his clothes... For years - his most formative - before he understands the full import of the words "don't do what daddy does, it's bad for you", he sees that I'm - at least on the surface - no worse for the wear.
By the time he's 12 he's fully aware of the risks associated, but I've always got cake in the house, and some of his friends have tried it and liked it... And he figures his old man does it, so it can't be too bad, 'cause I'm not a complete idiot in his eyes and he hasn't gotten to the "dad doesn't know anything" years yet... So he tries it. And hey, he likes it! (After he manages to get a few bites down without choking, anyway.) But he discovers how addictive it is, and how much it's been ingrained into his psyche, since it's been around all his life.
And so the cycle continues. Even though he knows it's bad for him, he still starts, and can't seem to stop. So he figures he's already fucked, might as well enjoy it. Then _his_ kid grows up and...
So do the smokers bring it on themselves? Yeah, by resigning themselves (and perhaps unwittingly, their children) to their "fate". But I think there's more than an equal share of the tobacco companies in this.