So what is the attraction of high-density video disks? HD content, of course... But where has HD content gone so far? Basically nowhere... Why? Competing standards, conflicting hardware, confusing specs... All for content that's better than conventional content, but not to the degree to really capture any significant market. So why is this?
It's all about TV, right? I don't know about you, but for me, I'm watching less TV, not more. HD quality doesn't really make the material any better. Why would I care if a crappy program looks better?
My prediction? Both formats will fall on disinterested comsumers, simply because they really don't care that much about HD. When the industry shakes out to the point that HD gear is as easy to use as conventional, then maybe this stuff will get a foothold. Until then, most consumers don't want to go through the hassle of HD, even if it means that their movies look better.
Can't imagine why I think this? Consider the DVD-Audio market and you'll see the same issue. CD's are "good enough". Why mess with DVD-Audio? (Fold in some DRM nonsense, and it looks even bleaker for HD...)
Your idea is quite good/clever, but the effort of downloading knoppix and burning it (if you don't have it) vs the annoyance of losing a 0kb text file on your desktop...
Oh, I agree with you, but I figure quite a few of us already have Knoppix. In fact, since I seem to like to burn a new disk with every update, I bet I could find six different versions on my desk right now... Did anyone else catch that I should have used sudo instead of su in the example? I saw it after I hit submit, I'm afraid...
Since there was some confusion about how you can tell if this rootkit is installed, remember that it hides files beginning with '$sys$' -
1) If you're not using windows, you're fine. 2) Create a file on your desktop ('test.txt' should be fine). Rename the file to '$sys$test.txt'.
If the file is gone, you're vulnerable.
How about a "read-only" way? Boot with Knoppix At the command prompt: $su bash #mkdir cdrive #mount/dev/hdc cdrive -o ro,noexec #find cdrive -name $sys$* -print
Don't they need rye bread to breed the ergot that fuels the management / marketing team?
I laughed at this and wondered why it wasn't modded up... Then I remembered the youth of typical/.'ers...
Clue: Ergot mold (from rye bread) is the precursor component to LSD. Here's a wikipedia article on ergotism, a malady caused by eating moldy rye bread... ("Dancing on hot tiles!")
Most times a police department cannot even ANALYZE data properly if a machine is not running some modern form of Microsoft Windows on an x86 platform.
While largely correct, the situation changes if you get the attention of the three letter organizations. Of course, if they were on to you, the 90 day thing wouldn't mean anything, as you are more likely to just have your drive imaged and your keyboard bugged. If you got wise to the black bag job, you'd simply disappear...
I can understand the 90 day thing actually working, though, because if you didn't rate the attention of the previously mentioned three letter organizations, you're not really that important. Remember, kids, it's not cracking the encryption that gets the bad guys busted; it's poor key management. Keyboard bugs just make it easier...
I've always wondered why the RIAA doesn't go after this. I appreciate the structure of usenet means that the newsgroups can't be shut down, but surely they could sue ISPs and posters based in the US. Is there some technical or legal reason, or is usenet just too far away from the mainstream?
Two words: Common Carrier. It's the same reason the phone company can't be held liable for obscene phone calls. As long as you carry everything without blocking, you can be (legally) ignorant of what's there. The poster, however, can still be held liable. And posters have, in fact, been prosecuted for their usenet postings, generally for illegal content though, not copyright violations...
They didn't sell me a CD. I says it's a CD and it plays on (most) CD players, but if the disk itself does not conform to Philip's redbook audio spec, it ain't a CD... (If it were, I wouldn't need this DRM crap to exercise my "fair use" rights...)
Re:"Ma Bell" should be called "Big Brother" instea
on
Ma Bell is Back
·
· Score: 1
I had a situation where at college, a friend and I were sitting playing video games with our door open, when two cops came up, and one used the door for cover with his gun drawn
That's because they are pretty much broke after the "Enron thing" - just look at their name: PriceWaterhouseCoopersWhatALongFuckingNameTooCheap ToBuyAFuckingHyphen
Funny that, but notice this was PwC Japan. That would never fly in the US 'cause PwC, being one of the big four, is beholden to many corporate power brokers, Brother Bill included. The only problem with BSD from PwC's perspective is that there are no deep pockets to bill...
I found a site one day ( pictures and everything ) of a guy who built a mirror 'sun ray'. The only way he got it to work, however, was to have the target about a foot in front of the mirrors.
Considering the amounts of $$$ involved, it would be a misdomeaner. Obviously, the cops aren't going to do anything about it, but how about asking the clerk at the music store if the disc you're about to purchase is a CD? Now you have "Fitness for intended purpose" issues... Sue them for $15. Oh, and reasonable attorney fees... Or far simpler, just keep purchasing and returning the same disk over and over. Let them eat the cost of your shenanigans. It's all about money; start taking some of theirs...
Not quite. You can't easily break a hardware protection scheme unless you are willing to spend millions of dollars on hacking the hardware. If you use strong encryption that is well-implemented and uses hardware, it will not be possible to crack.
Not quite not quite... In the classic encryption scenario, Alice encrypts a message for Bob, the receipient, to keep it from Charles, the attacker. What if Bob and Charles are the same person? That's what you have with DRM. Since the "legitimate" user has to have the ability to decrypt content, you just have to figure out how to "grab the stream" after its decrypted. Relatively easy in software, harder (but far from impossible) in hardware...
>>I often wonder how insurance companies and stores handle items that weren't necessarily damaged. Suppose you have several 42" LCD TVs that have boxes that are slightly wet but the actual product isn't damaged. Are these sold as new or sold at a discount? If they're written off as a loss or as damaged goods, then what happens?
>They don't cover undamaged items. Other items depend on your insurance coverage; e.g water damaged clothing may be replaced if you're covered for that, but plates/glasses whose packaging is destroyed might be exempted from coverage seeing as the product is undamaged.
But the product is damaged, as the box and related material are a substantial part of the product's value...
Well, I've thought about how to get out from under restrictive TiVo terms with the least pain for a couple of years now. Seems to me that there is no reason (well, a minor technical reason, easily overcome) why you couldn't run a totally custom version of software on the TiVo hardware. TiVo hackers have been expanding the capability of their TiVos for quite some time. The general feel for TiVo hacking at the moment is to go ahead and hack it however you want, but don't step on TiVo (or, more correctly, their monthly fee) and TiVo will turn a blind eye to it. So far, that's how it has worked.
But I guarantee that the moment TiVo becomes the "screw the customer, we represent the illogical corporate interests of content providers" company this article implies, all TiVo hacking gloves will come off and their will be a highly successful port of MythTV or FreeVo for the actual TiVo hardware. TiVo knows this. If something like this hits the streets, TiVo is screwed. They don't want this (obviously), so they are highly motivated to balance the interests of their customers and content providers.
BTW- The examples cited in the article are mistakes. Nobody really intended to restrict access to a syndicated rerun, for crying out loud. The restrictions were only supposed to apply to OnDemand and Pay-Per-View content. Somewhere, sombody/something screwed up. The actual circumstances were unintended, but boy did it fire up a lot of TiVo owners! I hope TiVo responds to this in some fashion...
Now, get real: Want to know the BIGGEST, best-kept secret in data forensics? The most effective way to forever put your data beyond the reach of cops and courts is:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
/dev/urandom is a better source... With zero, analog analysis can be used to determine the drive's prior contents. Of course, if somebody is willing to do that to recover data, they already have your house bugged...
No. Win2k was only for business use and was not targeted at the home market. That's what WinME was for. WinXP was MS attempt at building both the Home and Business versions off the same core.
Well, unlike the difference between workstation and server versions, there is no technical difference between home and business markets. To split them is artificial and only to confuse/fragment/exploit the market. We'll never know if the strategy is valid, because WinME sucked.
I still run Win2K (when I have to run Windows) because it is still the best version out there...
This is the same putz that, in Risk Digest, denied what he wrote in his own book! Hey Ranum, go get some Ritalin then write something. There's a great mind there, it's just trapped.
My post captcha is "uncouth"... Ain't that the truth!:)
Slashdot Mirror
They're yanking them from the shelves? Quick! Go get one so you can be harmed!*
(* "In a very real, and legally binding sense.")
So what is the attraction of high-density video disks? HD content, of course... But where has HD content gone so far? Basically nowhere... Why? Competing standards, conflicting hardware, confusing specs... All for content that's better than conventional content, but not to the degree to really capture any significant market. So why is this?
It's all about TV, right? I don't know about you, but for me, I'm watching less TV, not more. HD quality doesn't really make the material any better. Why would I care if a crappy program looks better?
My prediction? Both formats will fall on disinterested comsumers, simply because they really don't care that much about HD. When the industry shakes out to the point that HD gear is as easy to use as conventional, then maybe this stuff will get a foothold. Until then, most consumers don't want to go through the hassle of HD, even if it means that their movies look better.
Can't imagine why I think this? Consider the DVD-Audio market and you'll see the same issue. CD's are "good enough". Why mess with DVD-Audio? (Fold in some DRM nonsense, and it looks even bleaker for HD...)
Dupe! ;)
Your idea is quite good/clever, but the effort of downloading knoppix and burning it (if you don't have it) vs the annoyance of losing a 0kb text file on your desktop...
Oh, I agree with you, but I figure quite a few of us already have Knoppix. In fact, since I seem to like to burn a new disk with every update, I bet I could find six different versions on my desk right now... Did anyone else catch that I should have used sudo instead of su in the example? I saw it after I hit submit, I'm afraid...
Since there was some confusion about how you can tell if this rootkit is installed, remember that it hides files beginning with '$sys$' -
/dev/hdc cdrive -o ro,noexec
1) If you're not using windows, you're fine.
2) Create a file on your desktop ('test.txt' should be fine). Rename the file to '$sys$test.txt'.
If the file is gone, you're vulnerable.
How about a "read-only" way?
Boot with Knoppix
At the command prompt:
$su bash
#mkdir cdrive
#mount
#find cdrive -name $sys$* -print
Any hits? You got da SonySyph...
"This idea would not only be cheaper, but have a much higher chance of success, due to not having to actually land on the asteroid's surface."
... and blow it up!
Don't they need rye bread to breed the ergot that fuels the management / marketing team?
/.'ers...
I laughed at this and wondered why it wasn't modded up... Then I remembered the youth of typical
Clue: Ergot mold (from rye bread) is the precursor component to LSD. Here's a wikipedia article on ergotism, a malady caused by eating moldy rye bread... ("Dancing on hot tiles!")
So now that they proved it is all wrong and stuff... will i get to pass my quantum phys exam again!?
Just don't look at your grade... Until you do, your grade is all possible states...
Most times a police department cannot even ANALYZE data properly if a machine is not running some modern form of Microsoft Windows on an x86 platform.
While largely correct, the situation changes if you get the attention of the three letter organizations. Of course, if they were on to you, the 90 day thing wouldn't mean anything, as you are more likely to just have your drive imaged and your keyboard bugged. If you got wise to the black bag job, you'd simply disappear...
I can understand the 90 day thing actually working, though, because if you didn't rate the attention of the previously mentioned three letter organizations, you're not really that important. Remember, kids, it's not cracking the encryption that gets the bad guys busted; it's poor key management. Keyboard bugs just make it easier...
I've always wondered why the RIAA doesn't go after this. I appreciate the structure of usenet means that the newsgroups can't be shut down, but surely they could sue ISPs and posters based in the US. Is there some technical or legal reason, or is usenet just too far away from the mainstream?
Two words: Common Carrier. It's the same reason the phone company can't be held liable for obscene phone calls. As long as you carry everything without blocking, you can be (legally) ignorant of what's there. The poster, however, can still be held liable. And posters have, in fact, been prosecuted for their usenet postings, generally for illegal content though, not copyright violations...
I, too, will challenge your hypothesis:
They didn't sell me a CD. I says it's a CD and it plays on (most) CD players, but if the disk itself does not conform to Philip's redbook audio spec, it ain't a CD... (If it were, I wouldn't need this DRM crap to exercise my "fair use" rights...)
I had a situation where at college, a friend and I were sitting playing video games with our door open, when two cops came up, and one used the door for cover with his gun drawn
Doors make particularly poor cover... (Bad cop, no donut.)
That's because they are pretty much broke after the "Enron thing" - just look at their name: PriceWaterhouseCoopersWhatALongFuckingNameTooCheap ToBuyAFuckingHyphen
Funny that, but notice this was PwC Japan. That would never fly in the US 'cause PwC, being one of the big four, is beholden to many corporate power brokers, Brother Bill included. The only problem with BSD from PwC's perspective is that there are no deep pockets to bill...
At that point you might as well save yourself the trouble and pirate the damn thing
Actually, if you get on their mailing list, they will invite you to one of their half-day pep rallies and give you a free copy of Workstation...
I found a site one day ( pictures and everything ) of a guy who built a mirror 'sun ray'. The only way he got it to work, however, was to have the target about a foot in front of the mirrors.
I believe you are looking for the Solar Death Ray...
Hey, didn't MythBusters do this and declare it busted? I guess Adam and Jamie didn't go to MIT!
Three words...
"Theft By Deception"
Considering the amounts of $$$ involved, it would be a misdomeaner. Obviously, the cops aren't going to do anything about it, but how about asking the clerk at the music store if the disc you're about to purchase is a CD? Now you have "Fitness for intended purpose" issues... Sue them for $15. Oh, and reasonable attorney fees... Or far simpler, just keep purchasing and returning the same disk over and over. Let them eat the cost of your shenanigans. It's all about money; start taking some of theirs...
Not quite. You can't easily break a hardware protection scheme unless you are willing to spend millions of dollars on hacking the hardware. If you use strong encryption that is well-implemented and uses hardware, it will not be possible to crack.
Not quite not quite... In the classic encryption scenario, Alice encrypts a message for Bob, the receipient, to keep it from Charles, the attacker. What if Bob and Charles are the same person? That's what you have with DRM. Since the "legitimate" user has to have the ability to decrypt content, you just have to figure out how to "grab the stream" after its decrypted. Relatively easy in software, harder (but far from impossible) in hardware...
Saying that the King of the Hill issue was noise smacks of B.S.
:)
yeah? You ever watch "King Of The Hill"?
(Kidding! I love the show! It has the added benefit of driving my wife nuts!
>>I often wonder how insurance companies and stores handle items that weren't necessarily damaged. Suppose you have several 42" LCD TVs that have boxes that are slightly wet but the actual product isn't damaged. Are these sold as new or sold at a discount? If they're written off as a loss or as damaged goods, then what happens?
>They don't cover undamaged items. Other items depend on your insurance coverage; e.g water damaged clothing may be replaced if you're covered for that, but plates/glasses whose packaging is destroyed might be exempted from coverage seeing as the product is undamaged.
But the product is damaged, as the box and related material are a substantial part of the product's value...
Well, I've thought about how to get out from under restrictive TiVo terms with the least pain for a couple of years now. Seems to me that there is no reason (well, a minor technical reason, easily overcome) why you couldn't run a totally custom version of software on the TiVo hardware. TiVo hackers have been expanding the capability of their TiVos for quite some time. The general feel for TiVo hacking at the moment is to go ahead and hack it however you want, but don't step on TiVo (or, more correctly, their monthly fee) and TiVo will turn a blind eye to it. So far, that's how it has worked.
But I guarantee that the moment TiVo becomes the "screw the customer, we represent the illogical corporate interests of content providers" company this article implies, all TiVo hacking gloves will come off and their will be a highly successful port of MythTV or FreeVo for the actual TiVo hardware. TiVo knows this. If something like this hits the streets, TiVo is screwed. They don't want this (obviously), so they are highly motivated to balance the interests of their customers and content providers.
BTW- The examples cited in the article are mistakes. Nobody really intended to restrict access to a syndicated rerun, for crying out loud. The restrictions were only supposed to apply to OnDemand and Pay-Per-View content. Somewhere, sombody/something screwed up. The actual circumstances were unintended, but boy did it fire up a lot of TiVo owners! I hope TiVo responds to this in some fashion...
Do you know how much time this takes, and how many CPU cycles are wasted?
/dev/random with /dev/urandom...
Me thinks you're confusing
Now, get real: Want to know the BIGGEST, best-kept secret in data forensics? The most effective way to forever put your data beyond the reach of cops and courts is:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
/dev/urandom is a better source... With zero, analog analysis can be used to determine the drive's prior contents. Of course, if somebody is willing to do that to recover data, they already have your house bugged...
No. Win2k was only for business use and was not targeted at the home market. That's what WinME was for. WinXP was MS attempt at building both the Home and Business versions off the same core.
Well, unlike the difference between workstation and server versions, there is no technical difference between home and business markets. To split them is artificial and only to confuse/fragment/exploit the market. We'll never know if the strategy is valid, because WinME sucked.
I still run Win2K (when I have to run Windows) because it is still the best version out there...
Just follow the Amazon link to his book from his home page... Read the reviews, then search Google Groups and Risk Digest.
This is the same putz that, in Risk Digest, denied what he wrote in his own book! Hey Ranum, go get some Ritalin then write something. There's a great mind there, it's just trapped.
:)
My post captcha is "uncouth"... Ain't that the truth!