Re:Only makes sense
on
VoIP Wiretapping
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Well yes, that is mean... But it's somewhat less mean than murder and embezzlement...
But the point stands that this will only catch small-timers that aren't smart enough to set up encrypted communications.
Anyone who thinks that big organized crime doesn't have their own IT guys who know this stuff forwards and backwards, and set up secure communications and encrypted storage for their bosses is a fool.
Exactly. It would take less than five minutes to fake one of these. And I'd do it myself as a demo except that it's lame...
-Put camera on tripod -Take picture without computer in frame -Put computer in place with the desktop set to a solid green color -Load Photoshop and layer the images together with the "computer in place" image on top -Cut out the screen's solid green so the image underneath shows through -Adjust the image behind to be slightly offset and mess up the coloring a bit to fool people who fall for stuff like that -Flatten and enjoy
For the especially dedicated, you could take a screengrab of the mac desktop and load that rather than removing the green color so you get a better image.
One guy I talked to today says that the north american release of the PSP is using a screen that's inferior to the Japanese model. Not as bright or clear (different manufacturer).
Doesn't iTunes keep silently cranking up the digital restrictions with every new version they release?
-First it was only allowing people on your own subnet to listen to low-quality streams of your music.
-Then they changed it to only 5 people at a time could listen to low-quality streams.
-Now only 5 people PER DAY can listen to the same low quality streams.
Welcome to DRM! Where your rights are eroded by the software you use.
So before you go calling people hypocrites, maybe you should take into account that people are also seeing their rights for using MUSIC THEY PURCHASED being slowly eroded over time...
So... Hacking a bank machine and checking to see if you're admitted to a school are the same thing huh?
What a great world Americans live in...
Maybe spitting on the sidewalk will have the same legal penalties as murder next?
I seriously doubt they can confirm that every person who followed the instructions was infact the same as the application they checked.
N.
Re:This is not dumb...
on
DVHS on a Budget
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It's an interesting theory, but it may very well be wrong...
SVHS tapes have a higher coercitivity than regular tape, which means that it takes a stronger magnetic signal to write the information to the tape. It also means that on tapes with a low coercitivity, the signal can be too strong and will not record properly.
This was the case for drilled or modified VHS tapes. Sure, they'd record, but you'd often get artifacts and degredation after time has passed. I have some drilled VHS tapes that looked perfect when they were originally recorded back in the mid 90s. Now they're riddled with dropouts and defects where the brand-name (and more expensive) SVHS tapes still look fine.
Sometimes you DO get what you pay for. If you want to be a cheapskate, you take your chances... (note that digital VCRs use a completely different recording technology than the colour-under heterodyne VHS system, so they may work better with modified tapes/pins).
Not exactly the same. Epsons will stop printing when the ink recovery pad in the bottom of the printer is saturated (according to whatever calculation they use). The upside of this is that you don't have to worry about ink pouring out of the bottom of your printer because the pad overflows.
It's possible to reset the printer by pressing a combination of keys on the front panel. Of course, it's recommended that you remove and clean the ink sponge first (there are websites that show how to do this).
Virus writers could have great fun with this then, it seems. Just write a virus to set the clock ahead a couple years. Bang, whoever gets it and has a HP printer now needs a new cartridge.
Instant profit for HP! Who knows, maybe they'll write the virus themselves...
What happens if you set the date back on your computer hardware? Does it start working again, or is it a "kill code" that forever zaps the cart when it detects the date is past the expiration?
Well, maybe something that would help save Tivo is if they actually RELEASED their product in Canada... There's not one good PVR commercially available here... The nearest thing is the ExpressVu (same hardware as Dish network), and of course that only works if you have satellite.
I've always been puzzled by Tivo's refusal to enter the Canadian market and have never seen a good explanation from them on why they don't sell their products here. Hell, we love our TV up here and they'd sell like crazy...
Our wonderful "Telus Communications" is charging $80 Cdn/month for 3Mbps down, 640kbps up for their "Server" package, which you need if you want to run anything on standard ports (which are all otherwise blocked).
Ah yes, and they've decided to start enforcing a 20gb/month cap on that $80 plan and charge for going over. Nice huh? Apparently it may have something to do with preserving bandwidth for some sort of BS "television over DSL" plan they have in the works.
Here's a plan for them: Expand the farking infrastructure to support the additional bandwidth requirements rather than driving your paying customers to competitors!
Unlike asian countries that are leading the way with broadband to the home, north american companies are all about short-term profit rather than building high-speed, long term infrastructure. If a utility company (or ISP) could continue to charge you without providing any service whatsoever, they'd be overjoyed. The best customer to them is one that doesn't utilize hardly anything, but still pays for it.
I just keep CD images of all of the commercial software I install, as well as archives of the shareware I use, and all of my drivers sitting on a firewire HD. Since 2K and XP include the firewire drivers when they install, the drive is always accessible when the machine is reinstalled.
If I reinstall Windows, it's just a matter of running the installers, throwing the drivers back on, and a couple reboots. I can have my system go from a clean install to almost fully restored in a couple of hours.
We licensed Deepfreeze for our school last year and it's been extremely successful. Just set-up a workstation the way you want it, freeze it, then make an image.
Every time the computer is rebooted, it's completely clean. No viruses, no user tampering, etc. Great! You can also set it to automatically reboot or power-down the computer after an inactivity timeout. Ours are set to automatically reboot every night to ensure they're clean in the morning.
I wish more computer stores would use this on their display computers. Then they wouldn't have to have them password protected and unusable without a salesdrone around - just set them to auto-reboot after a certain inactivity period, or just reboot every few hours. Then the system is always a clean demo and people can play with it.
One of Trek's nicest guys played the B5 villain that everyone loved to hate! But I loved how JMS actually gave him a bit of a human side when you understood what made him the way he was...
Even villain need motives and factors that drive them - very few people are just inherently nasty for the sake of being mean:P
I have a feeling that it would be something amazing if JMS was to "reboot" Trek...
It's become increasingly obvious that the franchise has run out of steam in it's current incarnation. There's just nothing left that feels new or exciting... So I'd be happy to see this happen. That said, I think there's a number of obstacles, not the least of which is the fear of the star trek establishment to try something new for fear of "breaking something".
Here's a newsflash folks. It's already broken, and staying with the status-quo is going to ensure that it remains broken. I suppose they could always take another 5 year hiatus and come back with another rehash, but they'll know it, and so will we.
I quite enjoyed Voyager because they had more free reign in the series to try new things, and trying new things is what keeps the show fresh...
N.
Re:Now what do we use?
on
SHA-1 Broken
·
· Score: 1
Sounds like we need to get THEM to design a good secure hash function...
I would LOVE for ANY decent theatre (read: stadium seating) around here to have that.
Reserved seating is common in most of Asia. Makes a lot more sense to buy the seat(s) you want and just show-up a few minutes early for your show, rather than waiting in line.
If theatres want to reduce the number of people who decide to just skip the theatre experience (long lineups, high prices, people talking on cell phones, etc), then they'd better improve their customer experience.
Having reserved seating would go a long way to doing that in my books. The alternative would be a "gold card" that you could purchase for $100 a year or something that would allow you "pre-boarding" style seating to get into the theatre and choose your seats before the rest of the unwashed masses arrive.
Not yet... Give it time. With the US government in the hands of big business, I fully expect to see copyright infringment criminalized within the next few years... They'll probably be using the death penalty in a decade...
Now onto the subject of this debate:
I was a fairly active fansubber in the late 90s, but had to give it up because of time constraints (and because I got tired of poor-quality translations). I never digisubbed (old school SVHS subbing), but I still download stuff today and watch it.
I don't think the fansubbing is all bad, as it does provide a decent method of previewing series without shelling out $15-20 to buy DVDs that you might not like. And there's still far more anime produced in Japan than will ever be released in North America. Some series are too short to be cost-effective, and some just aren't suitable for distributers here.
That said, the trend of distributing full-resolution subs with high quality video and audio encoding is pretty dangerous. If the video was 1/2 res or lower, and audio was MP3 at less than 128kbps, then it wouldn't be of sufficient quality for people to archive/keep when DVDs are released. Sure you could watch it, but you'd definately prefer having the real thing.
I was doing a fair bit of encoding/releasing of JPOP concert material, but I'd make sure the video and audio quality was highly-compressed enough to "encourage" people to buy the original DVDs. I'd never release direct copies of the VOBs, even to my friends online.
In the end, it will be better for the fansubbers to find a way to help work with industry (and most reputable subbers WILL terminate their subbing of series when studios either announce acquisition of a series, or when they actively start distributing it).
And don't kid yourself that this is just a north american thing. There's a booming anime fansubbing industry in other asian countries as well (Korea for instance).
I recall reading somewhere that the Prius uses a stronger form of the key (64 bit?). Unfortunately I can't for the life of me find the webpage I saw it on...
Oh well, I have almost no concern my Prius will get stolen. Possibly broken-into (though I'm careful to never leave anything visible inside it), but not stolen.
Slashdot Mirror
Well yes, that is mean... But it's somewhat less mean than murder and embezzlement...
But the point stands that this will only catch small-timers that aren't smart enough to set up encrypted communications.
Anyone who thinks that big organized crime doesn't have their own IT guys who know this stuff forwards and backwards, and set up secure communications and encrypted storage for their bosses is a fool.
N.
Exactly. It would take less than five minutes to fake one of these. And I'd do it myself as a demo except that it's lame...
-Put camera on tripod
-Take picture without computer in frame
-Put computer in place with the desktop set to a solid green color
-Load Photoshop and layer the images together with the "computer in place" image on top
-Cut out the screen's solid green so the image underneath shows through
-Adjust the image behind to be slightly offset and mess up the coloring a bit to fool people who fall for stuff like that
-Flatten and enjoy
For the especially dedicated, you could take a screengrab of the mac desktop and load that rather than removing the green color so you get a better image.
N.
Like use photoshop to create fake screens? I could do it myself too, but I have better things to do...
N.
Guy I met at a store :P
That's why I'm curious to see if it's true or not.
N.
One guy I talked to today says that the north american release of the PSP is using a screen that's inferior to the Japanese model. Not as bright or clear (different manufacturer).
Anyone know more?
N.
Doesn't iTunes keep silently cranking up the digital restrictions with every new version they release?
-First it was only allowing people on your own subnet to listen to low-quality streams of your music.
-Then they changed it to only 5 people at a time could listen to low-quality streams.
-Now only 5 people PER DAY can listen to the same low quality streams.
Welcome to DRM! Where your rights are eroded by the software you use.
So before you go calling people hypocrites, maybe you should take into account that people are also seeing their rights for using MUSIC THEY PURCHASED being slowly eroded over time...
N.
It'd be interesting if Fiorina could continue her angel of death streak and manage to run MS into the ground as well.
Perhaps we should submit a resume for her?
N.
Yup, it's split up way too much for me to bother with.
Make one file that has everything and I'll take a look...
N.
Yup, there's nothing that would currently make me switch-away from Azureus. Heck, I even sent them money :P
;P.
For the people who complain it's too slow - get a faster computer
N.
So... Hacking a bank machine and checking to see if you're admitted to a school are the same thing huh?
What a great world Americans live in...
Maybe spitting on the sidewalk will have the same legal penalties as murder next?
I seriously doubt they can confirm that every person who followed the instructions was infact the same as the application they checked.
N.
It's an interesting theory, but it may very well be wrong...
SVHS tapes have a higher coercitivity than regular tape, which means that it takes a stronger magnetic signal to write the information to the tape. It also means that on tapes with a low coercitivity, the signal can be too strong and will not record properly.
This was the case for drilled or modified VHS tapes. Sure, they'd record, but you'd often get artifacts and degredation after time has passed. I have some drilled VHS tapes that looked perfect when they were originally recorded back in the mid 90s. Now they're riddled with dropouts and defects where the brand-name (and more expensive) SVHS tapes still look fine.
Sometimes you DO get what you pay for. If you want to be a cheapskate, you take your chances... (note that digital VCRs use a completely different recording technology than the colour-under heterodyne VHS system, so they may work better with modified tapes/pins).
N.
Unless something way better was to come along...
N.
Not exactly the same. Epsons will stop printing when the ink recovery pad in the bottom of the printer is saturated (according to whatever calculation they use). The upside of this is that you don't have to worry about ink pouring out of the bottom of your printer because the pad overflows.
It's possible to reset the printer by pressing a combination of keys on the front panel. Of course, it's recommended that you remove and clean the ink sponge first (there are websites that show how to do this).
N.
Virus writers could have great fun with this then, it seems. Just write a virus to set the clock ahead a couple years. Bang, whoever gets it and has a HP printer now needs a new cartridge.
Instant profit for HP! Who knows, maybe they'll write the virus themselves...
N.
What happens if you set the date back on your computer hardware? Does it start working again, or is it a "kill code" that forever zaps the cart when it detects the date is past the expiration?
N.
Well, maybe something that would help save Tivo is if they actually RELEASED their product in Canada... There's not one good PVR commercially available here... The nearest thing is the ExpressVu (same hardware as Dish network), and of course that only works if you have satellite.
I've always been puzzled by Tivo's refusal to enter the Canadian market and have never seen a good explanation from them on why they don't sell their products here. Hell, we love our TV up here and they'd sell like crazy...
N>
Our wonderful "Telus Communications" is charging $80 Cdn/month for 3Mbps down, 640kbps up for their "Server" package, which you need if you want to run anything on standard ports (which are all otherwise blocked).
Ah yes, and they've decided to start enforcing a 20gb/month cap on that $80 plan and charge for going over. Nice huh? Apparently it may have something to do with preserving bandwidth for some sort of BS "television over DSL" plan they have in the works.
Here's a plan for them: Expand the farking infrastructure to support the additional bandwidth requirements rather than driving your paying customers to competitors!
Unlike asian countries that are leading the way with broadband to the home, north american companies are all about short-term profit rather than building high-speed, long term infrastructure. If a utility company (or ISP) could continue to charge you without providing any service whatsoever, they'd be overjoyed. The best customer to them is one that doesn't utilize hardly anything, but still pays for it.
N.
I just keep CD images of all of the commercial software I install, as well as archives of the shareware I use, and all of my drivers sitting on a firewire HD. Since 2K and XP include the firewire drivers when they install, the drive is always accessible when the machine is reinstalled.
If I reinstall Windows, it's just a matter of running the installers, throwing the drivers back on, and a couple reboots. I can have my system go from a clean install to almost fully restored in a couple of hours.
N.
We licensed Deepfreeze for our school last year and it's been extremely successful. Just set-up a workstation the way you want it, freeze it, then make an image.
Every time the computer is rebooted, it's completely clean. No viruses, no user tampering, etc. Great! You can also set it to automatically reboot or power-down the computer after an inactivity timeout. Ours are set to automatically reboot every night to ensure they're clean in the morning.
I wish more computer stores would use this on their display computers. Then they wouldn't have to have them password protected and unusable without a salesdrone around - just set them to auto-reboot after a certain inactivity period, or just reboot every few hours. Then the system is always a clean demo and people can play with it.
N.
And more Walter Koenig :)
:P
One of Trek's nicest guys played the B5 villain that everyone loved to hate! But I loved how JMS actually gave him a bit of a human side when you understood what made him the way he was...
Even villain need motives and factors that drive them - very few people are just inherently nasty for the sake of being mean
I have a feeling that it would be something amazing if JMS was to "reboot" Trek...
It's become increasingly obvious that the franchise has run out of steam in it's current incarnation. There's just nothing left that feels new or exciting... So I'd be happy to see this happen. That said, I think there's a number of obstacles, not the least of which is the fear of the star trek establishment to try something new for fear of "breaking something".
Here's a newsflash folks. It's already broken, and staying with the status-quo is going to ensure that it remains broken. I suppose they could always take another 5 year hiatus and come back with another rehash, but they'll know it, and so will we.
I quite enjoyed Voyager because they had more free reign in the series to try new things, and trying new things is what keeps the show fresh...
N.
Sounds like we need to get THEM to design a good secure hash function...
N.
I would LOVE for ANY decent theatre (read: stadium seating) around here to have that.
Reserved seating is common in most of Asia. Makes a lot more sense to buy the seat(s) you want and just show-up a few minutes early for your show, rather than waiting in line.
If theatres want to reduce the number of people who decide to just skip the theatre experience (long lineups, high prices, people talking on cell phones, etc), then they'd better improve their customer experience.
Having reserved seating would go a long way to doing that in my books. The alternative would be a "gold card" that you could purchase for $100 a year or something that would allow you "pre-boarding" style seating to get into the theatre and choose your seats before the rest of the unwashed masses arrive.
N.
Not yet... Give it time. With the US government in the hands of big business, I fully expect to see copyright infringment criminalized within the next few years... They'll probably be using the death penalty in a decade...
Now onto the subject of this debate:
I was a fairly active fansubber in the late 90s, but had to give it up because of time constraints (and because I got tired of poor-quality translations). I never digisubbed (old school SVHS subbing), but I still download stuff today and watch it.
I don't think the fansubbing is all bad, as it does provide a decent method of previewing series without shelling out $15-20 to buy DVDs that you might not like. And there's still far more anime produced in Japan than will ever be released in North America. Some series are too short to be cost-effective, and some just aren't suitable for distributers here.
That said, the trend of distributing full-resolution subs with high quality video and audio encoding is pretty dangerous. If the video was 1/2 res or lower, and audio was MP3 at less than 128kbps, then it wouldn't be of sufficient quality for people to archive/keep when DVDs are released. Sure you could watch it, but you'd definately prefer having the real thing.
I was doing a fair bit of encoding/releasing of JPOP concert material, but I'd make sure the video and audio quality was highly-compressed enough to "encourage" people to buy the original DVDs. I'd never release direct copies of the VOBs, even to my friends online.
In the end, it will be better for the fansubbers to find a way to help work with industry (and most reputable subbers WILL terminate their subbing of series when studios either announce acquisition of a series, or when they actively start distributing it).
And don't kid yourself that this is just a north american thing. There's a booming anime fansubbing industry in other asian countries as well (Korea for instance).
N.
I recall reading somewhere that the Prius uses a stronger form of the key (64 bit?). Unfortunately I can't for the life of me find the webpage I saw it on...
Oh well, I have almost no concern my Prius will get stolen. Possibly broken-into (though I'm careful to never leave anything visible inside it), but not stolen.
N.