Even if its crackable somehow, its a LOT more secure than current systems based on passwords and "secret questions" and costs a lot less to implement than keyfobs and other similar external hardware devices.
Plus, if it does get cracked in a way that renders PassWindow vulnerable (rather than a crack that allows access to just one PassWindow card), it can be changed to make it more secure (just as many other security mechanisms that have been cracked have since been upgraded to be more security)
If you read the site and understand the way PassWindow works you would see that it is not possible to correctly decode the PassWindow without the exact combination of lines that is present on the physical PassWindow enabled card.
There are solutions out there for this, all of which will be secure even if someone deliberatly set up a system with the goal of capturing bank account info (such as hacker messing with machines at an internet cafe): Little calculator type devices where you enter transaction details and it gives you a 1-time-use code that goes into the online bank form One-time-use codes sent by SMS or snail mail (or by picking them up directly from the bank) Keyfobs that display codes you enter into your online bank form USB keypads where you enter your ATM PIN (possibly inserting your chip enabled card into it also), the data encrypted by the keypad and sent to your PC via USB that then sends it on to the bank.
One of the best systems I have seen is PassWindow which doesn't require extra hardware. http://www.passwindow.com/ (no I have no connection to these guys, I just really like their product and think its far more secure than the methods most banks are trying like challenge questions, pictorial passwords/challenges whilst not having the extra costs of PIN pads, keyfobs or calculator devices. Its more reliable than the one-time use codes (SMSs may not always make it through, people may accidentally erase the SMS and loose the codes, people may misplace the physical letter with the codes on it, whatever)
And it can work on essentially any device with a full web browser that can display images including mobile phones, games consoles, internet kiosk terminals, locked down corporate PCs
All of these solutions (with the exception of the USB pin pad) do not require any installation or use of software which mean they can be used for internet cafes/kiosks, locked down corporate PCs or anywhere else where internet access is available but using "unauthorized" software or hardware is not permitted.
This "live CD" solution will only work in situations where the end user is able to run whatever software they like (and where the PC has an optical drive). And it assumes that the "live CD" has drivers for all the hardware in the PC its being used on (given the state of linux wireless, I doubt its even possible, especially if you need support for WEP, WPA etc)
Has anyone done one of those "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "sicko" style documentaries exposing American agribusiness and all the stuff they dont want you to know?
Nokia N900. Can replace the kernel and root FS out of the box without the need for hacks. Nice beefy hardware.
If Nokia sold an N900 with OVI Maps for Australia bundled with the phone (like they do now with various Symbian phones) and with 2100/900 3G bands for Vodafone Australia, I would seriously jump on it as my next phone.
Conversely, if someone made an Android handset with Google Navigator for Australia (especially if it integrated with Google Transit so I could say "I want to from where I am now to this location, tell me what transport options to take") and that was as hackable as the N900, I would go that route.
But since it doesn't look like any manufacturer plans to release a phone with the combination of "really hackable" and "GPS navigation that doesn't cost big bucks", I will stick with my Motorola Z6.
Presumably if you obtained the GPL binaries/source from SUN, its legal to redistribute those patches. But there is nothing in the GPL requiring SUN to give you those patches, code or binaries.
If they give you the binaries, they need to give you the source. But if they choose not to give you the binaries (i.e. you elect not to pay for a Solaris contract), they are not obligated to give you anything (binaries or source)
Where I live, school kids use the regular Transperth bus/train system to get to school. Some schools (especially the larger private schools that have students comming from all over the city) have extra School Special buses that run various routes (depending on demand and how many students live where). All the buses used for these are the same route service buses used everywhere else on the system.
I see school kids on the bus and train all the time.
I dont understand why the Americans (in cities with existing public transport anyway) need special "school buses" and why they need all those regulations governing what a "school bus" is legally required to carry/have/look like/etc.
Should the GPS fail for whatever reason, there are plenty of backup systems that will keep things going.
Airplanes (at least the big ones) have various collision avoidance systems that will sound an alarm anytime one flies too close to an obstacle (be it mountains, tall buildings, other airplanes or whatever) and will allow the pilot to navigate around the obstacle.
There are many layers of backup systems that would allow a pilot to safety navigate and land (either at the intended destination or at the closest suitable airport depending on the conditions and situation) even if GPS was non functional. Landing is going to use runway lights, instrument landing system, primary radar and the pilots eyeballs anyway and not GPS (which doesn't have enough accuracy to reliably tell the difference between the center of the runway and the edge of it, hence the need for ILS and the glide slope)
There are all kinds of situations where pilots have been able to land airplanes of all kinds with NO electrical power in the aircraft whatsoever. And the response in these situations wont change because of the introduction of GPS.
The more likely option for China would be to do keyword filtering on searches made through Google. So if someone searches for a keyword the chinese government doesn't like, the firewall can pick that up via parsing the Google URLs and will block things.
.NET apps DO use a virtual machine, the Common Language Runtime and support.NET IL. However, the Virtual Machine DOES use just-in-time compiling and precompiling to compile the code to native code before it runs it.
Same as any halfway decent desktop Java Virtual Machine implementation does now (mobile JVMs usually use hardware features like ARM Jazzelle to run the Java code faster)
Obvious answer is for the lawyers to stop accepting personal cheques and insist on money orders, bank cheques, cash, credit cards, wire transfer or other methods that cant bounce.
The problem is that the drivers typically installed by Windows (and that exist on many machines) dont include all the OpenGL bits that the proper vendor drivers contain, hence the need to download drivers from the ATI or NVIDIA or Intel site to get good OpenGL support.
no-one wants to do things that will actually help
on
Health Care Reform
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· Score: 1
If I walk into a store and buy a shirt off the rack, it costs a certain amount no matter how I choose to pay (cash, card, whatever). Same for most goods and services.
Health care should be the same. The government should mandate that a given item must cost the same amount no matter how its being paid for. Medicare. Corporate health plan. Individual health plan. Cash payments. Also, ban insurance companies from saying "we will only give benefit if you go to OUR hospital or see OUR doctor". And ban insurance companies from saying that they will give benefit for treatment X but not for treatment Y (even when treatment Y may be a better option or in fact a cheaper option than treatment X). Oh and this applies to drugs, operations, surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, tests, x-rays/CTs/MRIs/etc, implants, prosthetics, transplants, everything that the health care provider provides.
Change and simplify the tax rules for health care. Every American would be allowed to take up to $x in pre-tax income (the amount would be the same for everyone no matter their actual income) and that amount would be able to be used to buy any health insurance policy anywhere OR to put into a special health savings account that can only be used to pay for health expenses. The amount would be identical no matter whether you are earning hourly wages, fixed yearly salary, commissions, self-employed, business owner or any other source of income.
Right now many medical tests are done that are likely not necessary due to the risk of lawsuits. Pass whatever laws are required to put an end to these unnecessary tests, if that means medical malpractice reform, so be it.
Make it easier for people to switch providers without penalty. Ban providers from declaring something as a "pre-existing condition" if you have had health coverage for that item in the past year from any provider (Medicare included). They can still stop someone who hasn't had health coverage in years getting hit with something major and signing up for insurance just to get coverage for their sudden injury/illness.
Make it easy for people to choose from any insurance company anywhere in the US. Remove red tape and paperwork required in the running of health insurance and make it easier for new providers to enter the market. Put pressure on the states to remove or reform any state legislation that applies to health care and insurance. Remove any rules governing what insurance companies are allowed to charge, who they are allowed to insure and what they are allowed to give coverage for.
And finally, eliminate the corporate health plan. If all the other stuff is done, it should be possible for people to get insurance on their own without a corporate health plan. With my points about increasing competition, it encourages new players to enter the market that can offer better service (including actually paying decent benefits when people get injured or sick and giving coverage to people who have been rejected in the past due to previous illness which may or may not still be a problem)
No need to force people to get insurance, if the market is opened to competition (anyone who thinks the health system is anything like a free market right now has no clue about economics) it will solve a lot of the problem.
People who cant get insurance right now (the "uninsurable") may be able to get insurance from a new player. Or they could opt for a health savings account instead if they think the amount they could put in (both the allowed pre-tax amount and any extra post-tax amount they can afford to put into it) would be enough to cover health costs in the future.
To cover those unable to afford regular insurance, the government could run a subsidized insurance scheme for these people that provides them coverage. Anyone who can demonstrate a low enough income that they cant afford even the most basic insurance would be eligible.
Also insurance companies would be encouraged to offer coverage for preventative health measures such as regular checkups at a doctor that can pick up health problems BEFORE they turn into major dramas requiring a long stay in hospital.
Blizzard has removed DRM from a number of its titles including Starcraft and Diablo 2. This happened (at least according to Blizzard) because of the release of the MacBook Air and other "doesn't always have an optical drive but can run the game" laptops (remember, Blizzard releases mac ports of all their games)
Will be interesting to see what kind of DRM Starcraft 2 has (given that you need to be online always in order to play)
Wont happen. Ever. H.264 requires per-unit royalties to be paid to patent holders (usually via the MPEG LA patent pool) and there is no way they will grant a license for a free download.
1.Windows XP (and probably Windows Vista although I am not sure) dont ship H.264 with the OS. Windows 7 does but you cant rely on that. Getting a H.264 codec that can work on XP is not simple (I have tried and still cant find one that works) 2.A number of linux distros (mainly the more "commercial" ones like SLED and RHEL) ship builds of libraries like FFMPEG that have all the patented codecs disabled to avoid being sued. In some cases you can get the codecs from a repository but again you have to have the user specifically install it. 3.Mobile devices may not contain H.264 decoders or if they do, may not make them available for 3rd parties and browsers to use.
Other codecs such as VC-1 and Theora have even less OS support.
The problem is, any video codec that actually looks like being competitive with modern video codecs like H.264 or VC-1 is going to be assaulted by patent claims from all directions. Even if such claims are not legitimate, the costs of fighting patent claims are so big that companies are going to be reluctant to use the codec. (after all, if a codec that is as good as H.264 and VC-1 but without the need to buy a patent license exists, why would you use H.264 or VC-1 if you dont have a need to be compatible with something else that uses those codecs)
Even Theora is likely being given the once over by lawyers at companies with video codec patents looking for possible attacks they can use if it ever gains mainstream support from someone worth suing.
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Even if you DO teach the kids to swim, that doesn't necessarily mean its safe to allow young kids to swim without supervision.
Even if its crackable somehow, its a LOT more secure than current systems based on passwords and "secret questions" and costs a lot less to implement than keyfobs and other similar external hardware devices.
Plus, if it does get cracked in a way that renders PassWindow vulnerable (rather than a crack that allows access to just one PassWindow card), it can be changed to make it more secure (just as many other security mechanisms that have been cracked have since been upgraded to be more security)
If you read the site and understand the way PassWindow works you would see that it is not possible to correctly decode the PassWindow without the exact combination of lines that is present on the physical PassWindow enabled card.
There are solutions out there for this, all of which will be secure even if someone deliberatly set up a system with the goal of capturing bank account info (such as hacker messing with machines at an internet cafe):
Little calculator type devices where you enter transaction details and it gives you a 1-time-use code that goes into the online bank form
One-time-use codes sent by SMS or snail mail (or by picking them up directly from the bank)
Keyfobs that display codes you enter into your online bank form
USB keypads where you enter your ATM PIN (possibly inserting your chip enabled card into it also), the data encrypted by the keypad and sent to your PC via USB that then sends it on to the bank.
One of the best systems I have seen is PassWindow which doesn't require extra hardware.
http://www.passwindow.com/ (no I have no connection to these guys, I just really like their product and think its far more secure than the methods most banks are trying like challenge questions, pictorial passwords/challenges whilst not having the extra costs of PIN pads, keyfobs or calculator devices. Its more reliable than the one-time use codes (SMSs may not always make it through, people may accidentally erase the SMS and loose the codes, people may misplace the physical letter with the codes on it, whatever)
And it can work on essentially any device with a full web browser that can display images including mobile phones, games consoles, internet kiosk terminals, locked down corporate PCs
All of these solutions (with the exception of the USB pin pad) do not require any installation or use of software which mean they can be used for internet cafes/kiosks, locked down corporate PCs or anywhere else where internet access is available but using "unauthorized" software or hardware is not permitted.
This "live CD" solution will only work in situations where the end user is able to run whatever software they like (and where the PC has an optical drive). And it assumes that the "live CD" has drivers for all the hardware in the PC its being used on (given the state of linux wireless, I doubt its even possible, especially if you need support for WEP, WPA etc)
Has anyone done one of those "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "sicko" style documentaries exposing American agribusiness and all the stuff they dont want you to know?
Nokia N900. Can replace the kernel and root FS out of the box without the need for hacks. Nice beefy hardware.
If Nokia sold an N900 with OVI Maps for Australia bundled with the phone (like they do now with various Symbian phones) and with 2100/900 3G bands for Vodafone Australia, I would seriously jump on it as my next phone.
Conversely, if someone made an Android handset with Google Navigator for Australia (especially if it integrated with Google Transit so I could say "I want to from where I am now to this location, tell me what transport options to take") and that was as hackable as the N900, I would go that route.
But since it doesn't look like any manufacturer plans to release a phone with the combination of "really hackable" and "GPS navigation that doesn't cost big bucks", I will stick with my Motorola Z6.
Apple could call 10.7 OSX 10.7 Cheetah.
Presumably if you obtained the GPL binaries/source from SUN, its legal to redistribute those patches. But there is nothing in the GPL requiring SUN to give you those patches, code or binaries.
If they give you the binaries, they need to give you the source. But if they choose not to give you the binaries (i.e. you elect not to pay for a Solaris contract), they are not obligated to give you anything (binaries or source)
Where I live, school kids use the regular Transperth bus/train system to get to school. Some schools (especially the larger private schools that have students comming from all over the city) have extra School Special buses that run various routes (depending on demand and how many students live where). All the buses used for these are the same route service buses used everywhere else on the system.
I see school kids on the bus and train all the time.
I dont understand why the Americans (in cities with existing public transport anyway) need special "school buses" and why they need all those regulations governing what a "school bus" is legally required to carry/have/look like/etc.
Should the GPS fail for whatever reason, there are plenty of backup systems that will keep things going.
Airplanes (at least the big ones) have various collision avoidance systems that will sound an alarm anytime one flies too close to an obstacle (be it mountains, tall buildings, other airplanes or whatever) and will allow the pilot to navigate around the obstacle.
There are many layers of backup systems that would allow a pilot to safety navigate and land (either at the intended destination or at the closest suitable airport depending on the conditions and situation) even if GPS was non functional.
Landing is going to use runway lights, instrument landing system, primary radar and the pilots eyeballs anyway and not GPS (which doesn't have enough accuracy to reliably tell the difference between the center of the runway and the edge of it, hence the need for ILS and the glide slope)
There are all kinds of situations where pilots have been able to land airplanes of all kinds with NO electrical power in the aircraft whatsoever. And the response in these situations wont change because of the introduction of GPS.
The more likely option for China would be to do keyword filtering on searches made through Google. So if someone searches for a keyword the chinese government doesn't like, the firewall can pick that up via parsing the Google URLs and will block things.
People wont leave or boycott China as long as China continues to be a cheaper source of a whole range of goods than anyone else making that product.
.NET apps DO use a virtual machine, the Common Language Runtime and support .NET IL. However, the Virtual Machine DOES use just-in-time compiling and precompiling to compile the code to native code before it runs it.
Same as any halfway decent desktop Java Virtual Machine implementation does now (mobile JVMs usually use hardware features like ARM Jazzelle to run the Java code faster)
The overhead of systems like .NET is part of WHY we have a problem with excessive CPU usage in the first place.
Obvious answer is for the lawyers to stop accepting personal cheques and insist on money orders, bank cheques, cash, credit cards, wire transfer or other methods that cant bounce.
The #1 problem with SharePoint is idiots who try and use SharePoint for things it was NOT designed to be used for.
The problem is that the drivers typically installed by Windows (and that exist on many machines) dont include all the OpenGL bits that the proper vendor drivers contain, hence the need to download drivers from the ATI or NVIDIA or Intel site to get good OpenGL support.
If I walk into a store and buy a shirt off the rack, it costs a certain amount no matter how I choose to pay (cash, card, whatever). Same for most goods and services.
Health care should be the same. The government should mandate that a given item must cost the same amount no matter how its being paid for. Medicare. Corporate health plan. Individual health plan. Cash payments. Also, ban insurance companies from saying "we will only give benefit if you go to OUR hospital or see OUR doctor". And ban insurance companies from saying that they will give benefit for treatment X but not for treatment Y (even when treatment Y may be a better option or in fact a cheaper option than treatment X). Oh and this applies to drugs, operations, surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, tests, x-rays/CTs/MRIs/etc, implants, prosthetics, transplants, everything that the health care provider provides.
Change and simplify the tax rules for health care. Every American would be allowed to take up to $x in pre-tax income (the amount would be the same for everyone no matter their actual income) and that amount would be able to be used to buy any health insurance policy anywhere OR to put into a special health savings account that can only be used to pay for health expenses.
The amount would be identical no matter whether you are earning hourly wages, fixed yearly salary, commissions, self-employed, business owner or any other source of income.
Right now many medical tests are done that are likely not necessary due to the risk of lawsuits. Pass whatever laws are required to put an end to these unnecessary tests, if that means medical malpractice reform, so be it.
Make it easier for people to switch providers without penalty. Ban providers from declaring something as a "pre-existing condition" if you have had health coverage for that item in the past year from any provider (Medicare included). They can still stop someone who hasn't had health coverage in years getting hit with something major and signing up for insurance just to get coverage for their sudden injury/illness.
Make it easy for people to choose from any insurance company anywhere in the US. Remove red tape and paperwork required in the running of health insurance and make it easier for new providers to enter the market. Put pressure on the states to remove or reform any state legislation that applies to health care and insurance. Remove any rules governing what insurance companies are allowed to charge, who they are allowed to insure and what they are allowed to give coverage for.
And finally, eliminate the corporate health plan. If all the other stuff is done, it should be possible for people to get insurance on their own without a corporate health plan. With my points about increasing competition, it encourages new players to enter the market that can offer better service (including actually paying decent benefits when people get injured or sick and giving coverage to people who have been rejected in the past due to previous illness which may or may not still be a problem)
No need to force people to get insurance, if the market is opened to competition (anyone who thinks the health system is anything like a free market right now has no clue about economics) it will solve a lot of the problem.
People who cant get insurance right now (the "uninsurable") may be able to get insurance from a new player. Or they could opt for a health savings account instead if they think the amount they could put in (both the allowed pre-tax amount and any extra post-tax amount they can afford to put into it) would be enough to cover health costs in the future.
To cover those unable to afford regular insurance, the government could run a subsidized insurance scheme for these people that provides them coverage. Anyone who can demonstrate a low enough income that they cant afford even the most basic insurance would be eligible.
Also insurance companies would be encouraged to offer coverage for preventative health measures such as regular checkups at a doctor that can pick up health problems BEFORE they turn into major dramas requiring a long stay in hospital.
Many companies have server infrastructure that handles things to make cheating and save games harder.
Blizzard has removed DRM from a number of its titles including Starcraft and Diablo 2.
This happened (at least according to Blizzard) because of the release of the MacBook Air and other "doesn't always have an optical drive but can run the game" laptops (remember, Blizzard releases mac ports of all their games)
Will be interesting to see what kind of DRM Starcraft 2 has (given that you need to be online always in order to play)
I wasnt aware that Google Chrome has support for H.264 in the tag or that there was an upper limit on royalty fees.
In any case IE9 wont be released on XP, nor will any H.264 support.
I have a mild vision impairment and can't properly view 3D but I can view 2D movies just fine.
I am likely not the only one with such problems.
Wont happen. Ever.
H.264 requires per-unit royalties to be paid to patent holders (usually via the MPEG LA patent pool) and there is no way they will grant a license for a free download.
1.Windows XP (and probably Windows Vista although I am not sure) dont ship H.264 with the OS. Windows 7 does but you cant rely on that. Getting a H.264 codec that can work on XP is not simple (I have tried and still cant find one that works)
2.A number of linux distros (mainly the more "commercial" ones like SLED and RHEL) ship builds of libraries like FFMPEG that have all the patented codecs disabled to avoid being sued. In some cases you can get the codecs from a repository but again you have to have the user specifically install it.
3.Mobile devices may not contain H.264 decoders or if they do, may not make them available for 3rd parties and browsers to use.
Other codecs such as VC-1 and Theora have even less OS support.
The problem is, any video codec that actually looks like being competitive with modern video codecs like H.264 or VC-1 is going to be assaulted by patent claims from all directions. Even if such claims are not legitimate, the costs of fighting patent claims are so big that companies are going to be reluctant to use the codec. (after all, if a codec that is as good as H.264 and VC-1 but without the need to buy a patent license exists, why would you use H.264 or VC-1 if you dont have a need to be compatible with something else that uses those codecs)
Even Theora is likely being given the once over by lawyers at companies with video codec patents looking for possible attacks they can use if it ever gains mainstream support from someone worth suing.