Even though they're loaded with blanks, it would be quite amusing to see where someone getting a 21 gun salute, for the soldiers suddenly all swing and take aim at the picketers and make them piss themselves while scattering as the guards shot at them...
Oh but they do, and that's the key to the problem. Everyone and their dog knows where the C&C servers are, and can monitor the commands sent out. Problem is, the commands are cryptographically signed, usually with a hideously large key (last one I saw was 2048 BYTES) so you can't subvert their network. Improperly signed commands are merely ignored.
The bot herders get their anonymity from any of a hundred ways to anonymously sign into the IRC C&C channel. I'd speculate that most of them use TOR to do so.
Skype of course is going to be mentioned a lot. They started out as audio only, and their audio quality remains imho unbeatable. Video quality is not nearly as good especially if your internet connection is poor. Tends to drop frames rather than lower quality. Often video stops working entirely and you have to close and reopen the chat. No support for multiconferencing, no compatibility with anything else, client is available for numerous platforms and all work well. Fairly good negotiation through uPNP routers.
ichat uses the AOL network and works with most other AOL video clients. Extremely good at working around uPNP routers, it's very rare to find a pair that cannot connect. Supports multconferencing with up to four participants. Degrades video quality if your conditions are poor. Probably best done with macs-to-macs though. Only compatible with AIM network clients. Has very good quality video but the audio isn't as good as skype. Very user friendly / easy to use, moreso than skype or xmeeting especially for computer novices. Video compatibility between different varieties of AIM client was poor last I checked. (it HAS been awhile)
xmeeting uses a variety of protocols and does a fair job at both audio and video. Is compatible with other video conferencing software. h.323 etc support. VERY compatible with polycoms, you can even control remote polycom cameras. Client available for several platforms. Useful for when someone has a polycom and someone doesn't. There are "reflectors" available, I presume paid/rented out, for including large numbers of people in a broadcast from a single source.
All three support text chat as well. All three have some degree of uPNP to auto map ports, but you're usually safer mapping them manually where you can. All three work with most any video camera you can get OS support for. (macs and many newer laptops come with built in cameras, otherwise expect around $50) All support one way audio or one way video, in the event that someone doesn't have a camera.
But in reality, China doesn't need Google, and Google doesn't need China.
I for one am thankful to see anyone not tuck tail and say Thank You Sir May I Have Another when China kicks them in the balls.
Google's rep and their Do No Evil took a major hit recently with concessions to China, and Google had basically said this is IT this is as far as we will go, and China just continued to push it, and Google has finally had enough and is playing hardball. Good for them, have at it.
Someone needed to teach China that just because they're the biggest single market in the world doesn't mean they dictate the laws that the rest of the world has to follow. In that respect China is no better than a monopolistic company, that's abusing its monopoly position.
if it's a scan (TCP established stream, taxing the SERVERS, not the NETWORK) that's the problem, as opposed to a SYN flood etc, and the IP addresses are in a very small range, why aren't they just using a hardware firewall at the router and blocking the IPs? There's not a whole lot to "distributed" when it's coming from a pair of C's.
Not saying they should be DOING it, but this is not a Denial of Service, it's a Denial of Stupid.
This is about discussing the options. And since the vast majority of cell phone service providers are considered evil somewhere around that of Lord Sidius with their locked phones, deplorable customer service, and preposterous early termination fees, I expect there to be a great deal of negative comments relative to a very few positive ones.
There is no "good" cell phone service provider - we're here to work out the "lesser of the evils" question.
offering to pay someone to do something illegal is, in itself, illegal.
I think something has been overlooked here... the scavenger hunt does NOT suggest doing anything illegal. It actually has legitimate basis if you look at it from another admittedly fairly unlikely angle.
Apple's had enough experience in the NDA arena that I think we can expect nearly flawless coverage. But there remains the possibility that someone, somewhere, was allowed access within cameraphone range of an iSlate without being NDA'd.
There's also the shaky ground of coming into possession of an actual unit somewhere like ebay where it was originally illegally obtained, and has passed through several hands and now can only go on the grounds of "it's likely stolen", not based on the actual circumstances they got it under, but rather in the sheer unlikelyhood that anyone ever had a legal right of sale to produce an available unit on the market.
But we're still (for the most part anyway...) in an "innocent until proven guilty" legal system here. There are a few completely legal ways ot obtain an iSlate, and quite a few legal ways to obtain pictures etc. (though these are all still fairly improbable to have occurred)
Heck, one of the beta testers could have left one sitting on the roof of his car when he pulled out of the parking lot, and someone found it laying on the side of the road somewhere. There would be absolutely nothing illegal about the finder selling that to these guys.
One of the beta testers may have taken the unit home to play with, and ordered pizza that night. The pizza delivery guy may have had a cameraphone and a sharp eye when he delivered and was told to "just set it in there on the table" and noticed the empty iSlate packaging box and got a few shots of the packaging materials.
You can't just assume for certain that things like this can only be obtained illegally.
The more an expert you are in one area, the lower the odds that you are an expert in an unrelated area.
School superintendents are (for the most part) some of the most technologically inept people in the building. They're schooled to manage budgets, staff, student problems, parents, PTAs, school boards, etc, not be geeks. In high school in speech class we were broken into groups to compose and film skits. We had to submit our story before we started recording. The finale' of our skit was a bomb failing to be diffused and blowing up something.
Me being the geek in the group, I was propmaster for the bomb. And I did a pretty good job I think. Looked like a substantial brick of C4 with attached detonator and timer. The wire was the stereotypical brightly colored curly wires, and the timer was displaying like a clock. The skit went off very well, but the prop was misplaced after the skit, though we found it shortly later and thought nothing of it. I only found out some years later where it spent those 10 minutes.
Attached to a locker beside the main office. A certain student "planted" it, and just as he was walking away, the vice principal walked out of the office. To save from being caught, he shouted "omg a bomb!" and ran. I guess the VP's face turned stone white and he sprinted back into the office. Thinking smartly, the kid spun around and grabbed the prop and returned it to our class room. I'm assuming the VP came back out of the office with the rest of the staff (evacuating?) and found no bomb and was left with some egg on his face, but it could have EASILY gotten the school evacuated now that we look back on it. And this was 19 yrs ago. Just try to imagine the insanity that would have ensued today? I'm sure it would have involved the bomb squad and a small detonation in the parking lot. But I can't blame the VP for not realizing it was a joke, for him everything was stacked pretty well against him. But a gatorade bottle with a photosensor? really?
Part of the problem here is that an IED can be extremely difficult to identify. Odds are if it looks like a bomb to the layman, it's probably a prop.
That being said, the last school I worked at, the principal was one of the most tech savvy people in the building short of me, so you can't take anything for granted.
Last I checked, military hardware (such as humvee) cannot legally be sold in the USA if it still has the hardpoints. (which is another debate over stupidity for another thread) I'd assume the same is true for aircraft.
I doubt they'd get anything for frivolity, as hypochondria is real and people may have sincerely believed they were being affected by the tower. Frivolous lawsuit laws are to protect against malicious litigation, and I doubt that's the case here.
That said, they're still a bunch of nutheads. To not have said "oh... it was OFF for the last month? hummm maybe it's just ME". But no, to persist saying the tower is causing their problems, indicates they have "other unresolved issues" besides hypochondria.
They even converted some of the old tube kind to have a second ATM at the outer lane too.
They've done that here at my bank also. Although most times I go by the bank well after close, even when open I prefer using the ATM to the teller because it's faster and I get a regular store-size receipt instead of an 8.5x11 in duplicate that fits better in the wallet.
Some banks also use pneumatic conveyance to send currency between the counters and the vault.
And I'm amazed no one's mentioned the drive-up teller stations at the bank. All the ones except the one right at the building are pneumatic with those thermos-looking tubes you stuff your checks etc into and send into the bank.
That's one funny thing about math, "close doesn't count", until you get to a certain advanced point. Then we say "this works for all but a few special cases... close enough."
Slashdot Mirror
Water vapor. The silent killer.
Everyone needs to be aware of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide
Even though they're loaded with blanks, it would be quite amusing to see where someone getting a 21 gun salute, for the soldiers suddenly all swing and take aim at the picketers and make them piss themselves while scattering as the guards shot at them...
They don't even use encryption and
Oh but they do, and that's the key to the problem. Everyone and their dog knows where the C&C servers are, and can monitor the commands sent out. Problem is, the commands are cryptographically signed, usually with a hideously large key (last one I saw was 2048 BYTES) so you can't subvert their network. Improperly signed commands are merely ignored.
The bot herders get their anonymity from any of a hundred ways to anonymously sign into the IRC C&C channel. I'd speculate that most of them use TOR to do so.
Skype of course is going to be mentioned a lot. They started out as audio only, and their audio quality remains imho unbeatable. Video quality is not nearly as good especially if your internet connection is poor. Tends to drop frames rather than lower quality. Often video stops working entirely and you have to close and reopen the chat. No support for multiconferencing, no compatibility with anything else, client is available for numerous platforms and all work well. Fairly good negotiation through uPNP routers.
ichat uses the AOL network and works with most other AOL video clients. Extremely good at working around uPNP routers, it's very rare to find a pair that cannot connect. Supports multconferencing with up to four participants. Degrades video quality if your conditions are poor. Probably best done with macs-to-macs though. Only compatible with AIM network clients. Has very good quality video but the audio isn't as good as skype. Very user friendly / easy to use, moreso than skype or xmeeting especially for computer novices. Video compatibility between different varieties of AIM client was poor last I checked. (it HAS been awhile)
xmeeting uses a variety of protocols and does a fair job at both audio and video. Is compatible with other video conferencing software. h.323 etc support. VERY compatible with polycoms, you can even control remote polycom cameras. Client available for several platforms. Useful for when someone has a polycom and someone doesn't. There are "reflectors" available, I presume paid/rented out, for including large numbers of people in a broadcast from a single source.
All three support text chat as well. All three have some degree of uPNP to auto map ports, but you're usually safer mapping them manually where you can. All three work with most any video camera you can get OS support for. (macs and many newer laptops come with built in cameras, otherwise expect around $50) All support one way audio or one way video, in the event that someone doesn't have a camera.
it's for the public safety, you do realize that trumps all laws?
I don't have admin rights and USB devices are restricted.
So you're telling us that your company's security relies on telling their employees what usb devices not to plug in?
Isn't that like replacing your deadbolt with a "DO NOT ENTER" sign?
Google needs China more than China needs Google.
But in reality, China doesn't need Google, and Google doesn't need China.
I for one am thankful to see anyone not tuck tail and say Thank You Sir May I Have Another when China kicks them in the balls.
Google's rep and their Do No Evil took a major hit recently with concessions to China, and Google had basically said this is IT this is as far as we will go, and China just continued to push it, and Google has finally had enough and is playing hardball. Good for them, have at it.
Someone needed to teach China that just because they're the biggest single market in the world doesn't mean they dictate the laws that the rest of the world has to follow. In that respect China is no better than a monopolistic company, that's abusing its monopoly position.
It's funny that the APS wants to charge non-subscribers $25 to download what is available for free on the arXiv.
If there's somebody stupid enough to pay for it, there's always somebody smart enough to charge for it.
Economic Darwinism hard at work, parting fools from their money since before 5,000 BC.
if it's a scan (TCP established stream, taxing the SERVERS, not the NETWORK) that's the problem, as opposed to a SYN flood etc, and the IP addresses are in a very small range, why aren't they just using a hardware firewall at the router and blocking the IPs? There's not a whole lot to "distributed" when it's coming from a pair of C's.
Not saying they should be DOING it, but this is not a Denial of Service, it's a Denial of Stupid.
Polls are to get very general opinions, choices.
This is about discussing the options. And since the vast majority of cell phone service providers are considered evil somewhere around that of Lord Sidius with their locked phones, deplorable customer service, and preposterous early termination fees, I expect there to be a great deal of negative comments relative to a very few positive ones.
There is no "good" cell phone service provider - we're here to work out the "lesser of the evils" question.
offering to pay someone to do something illegal is, in itself, illegal.
I think something has been overlooked here... the scavenger hunt does NOT suggest doing anything illegal. It actually has legitimate basis if you look at it from another admittedly fairly unlikely angle.
Apple's had enough experience in the NDA arena that I think we can expect nearly flawless coverage. But there remains the possibility that someone, somewhere, was allowed access within cameraphone range of an iSlate without being NDA'd.
There's also the shaky ground of coming into possession of an actual unit somewhere like ebay where it was originally illegally obtained, and has passed through several hands and now can only go on the grounds of "it's likely stolen", not based on the actual circumstances they got it under, but rather in the sheer unlikelyhood that anyone ever had a legal right of sale to produce an available unit on the market.
But we're still (for the most part anyway...) in an "innocent until proven guilty" legal system here. There are a few completely legal ways ot obtain an iSlate, and quite a few legal ways to obtain pictures etc. (though these are all still fairly improbable to have occurred)
Heck, one of the beta testers could have left one sitting on the roof of his car when he pulled out of the parking lot, and someone found it laying on the side of the road somewhere. There would be absolutely nothing illegal about the finder selling that to these guys.
One of the beta testers may have taken the unit home to play with, and ordered pizza that night. The pizza delivery guy may have had a cameraphone and a sharp eye when he delivered and was told to "just set it in there on the table" and noticed the empty iSlate packaging box and got a few shots of the packaging materials.
You can't just assume for certain that things like this can only be obtained illegally.
oh, you mean THAT unicycling clown. Ya, I saw him.
The more an expert you are in one area, the lower the odds that you are an expert in an unrelated area.
School superintendents are (for the most part) some of the most technologically inept people in the building. They're schooled to manage budgets, staff, student problems, parents, PTAs, school boards, etc, not be geeks. In high school in speech class we were broken into groups to compose and film skits. We had to submit our story before we started recording. The finale' of our skit was a bomb failing to be diffused and blowing up something.
Me being the geek in the group, I was propmaster for the bomb. And I did a pretty good job I think. Looked like a substantial brick of C4 with attached detonator and timer. The wire was the stereotypical brightly colored curly wires, and the timer was displaying like a clock. The skit went off very well, but the prop was misplaced after the skit, though we found it shortly later and thought nothing of it. I only found out some years later where it spent those 10 minutes.
Attached to a locker beside the main office. A certain student "planted" it, and just as he was walking away, the vice principal walked out of the office. To save from being caught, he shouted "omg a bomb!" and ran. I guess the VP's face turned stone white and he sprinted back into the office. Thinking smartly, the kid spun around and grabbed the prop and returned it to our class room. I'm assuming the VP came back out of the office with the rest of the staff (evacuating?) and found no bomb and was left with some egg on his face, but it could have EASILY gotten the school evacuated now that we look back on it. And this was 19 yrs ago. Just try to imagine the insanity that would have ensued today? I'm sure it would have involved the bomb squad and a small detonation in the parking lot. But I can't blame the VP for not realizing it was a joke, for him everything was stacked pretty well against him. But a gatorade bottle with a photosensor? really?
Part of the problem here is that an IED can be extremely difficult to identify. Odds are if it looks like a bomb to the layman, it's probably a prop.
That being said, the last school I worked at, the principal was one of the most tech savvy people in the building short of me, so you can't take anything for granted.
again. film at 11.
Last I checked, military hardware (such as humvee) cannot legally be sold in the USA if it still has the hardpoints. (which is another debate over stupidity for another thread) I'd assume the same is true for aircraft.
that's a much more rational explanation than tectonic plate theory,
tectonic plate theory wasn't mentioned in the bible, therefore it can't be true.
I doubt they'd get anything for frivolity, as hypochondria is real and people may have sincerely believed they were being affected by the tower. Frivolous lawsuit laws are to protect against malicious litigation, and I doubt that's the case here.
That said, they're still a bunch of nutheads. To not have said "oh... it was OFF for the last month? hummm maybe it's just ME". But no, to persist saying the tower is causing their problems, indicates they have "other unresolved issues" besides hypochondria.
Oink was his business
Didn't he hold a regular job? I don't recall Oink being his career? maybe hobby/business/career needs a clarification?
XPS Viewer breaks with Firefox installed
And this is a problem with Firefox, not XPS Viewer?
I'm wondering with a film camera, how you manage a preview???
the Linksys WRT54GL CASE made entirely out of LEGO bricks.
There, fixed that for you. (legos make poor microchips)
They even converted some of the old tube kind to have a second ATM at the outer lane too.
They've done that here at my bank also. Although most times I go by the bank well after close, even when open I prefer using the ATM to the teller because it's faster and I get a regular store-size receipt instead of an 8.5x11 in duplicate that fits better in the wallet.
one key one was newton's assumption that the effect of gravity was instant.
What's the "speed of gravity" then?
Some banks also use pneumatic conveyance to send currency between the counters and the vault.
And I'm amazed no one's mentioned the drive-up teller stations at the bank. All the ones except the one right at the building are pneumatic with those thermos-looking tubes you stuff your checks etc into and send into the bank.
That's one funny thing about math, "close doesn't count", until you get to a certain advanced point. Then we say "this works for all but a few special cases... close enough."