The only thing at all newsworthy about this is that it's now being used to gather legal evidence.
Ahem, I would think that this would be considered illegal evidence unless laws are changed to accomodate it.
Van Eck phreaking, especially at range with some kind of directional antenna, would indeed be sweet. Problem is, assuming that your PGP password prompt is obscured by asteriscks on input, you'd need more than a reproduction of the CRT. Fortunately, the growing popularity of wireless mice and keyboards make keystroke sniffing pretty trivial.
Funny, I went to Berkeley and I have used computers at UNC-Chapel Hill. Computer facilities at both were at least 90% Mac. In fact, I have never been in an educational institution where computer labs for non-CS types were not overwhelmingly Mac. Has this changed in the last couple years?
The only problem with your theory is that X is just as likely, if not more, to be weaned on MacOS than on Windows. Up to your final assumption about not becoming a geek, X describes me pretty well. I went to public and private schools on two different continents and I never dealt with Windows until after I graduated from college. Everything from middle school forward was all Mac.
I beg to differ. First of all, whatever your definition of 'hack' is, it's pretty damn narrow. Second, in order for this to be a network capable of replacing the functionality of the Internet to any degree, it would have to pass through publicly accessible areas to connect remote facilities.
Further to "hack" the system you'd have to be physically at a computer on the network. However since the network will almost certainly just be at government facilities, this will be much harder to accomplish.
I think your optimism is misplaced. As the parent to your post pointed out, passive sniffers are available that can read data as it travels over a physical connection w/o touching the network physically. Now, consider that in order for this network to be useful, it would have to connect remote locations, not just exist within government facilities. Basically, it is inevietable that part of this network will be left unsupervised, and thus vulnerable to being monitored or worse.
It seems to me that if this Clarke is qualified to advise the President on network matters, his first piece of advice would be "Umm, Mr. President, only lamers use the term 'Cyberspace' these days."
Re:RF = Sniffable?
on
Concept PC 2001
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· Score: 2, Interesting
In addition to the above, I would like to know about:
3. How secure is this?
I have already heard tales about being able to spoof/sniff logitech wireless mice and keyboards. Like much of wireliess tech, this just adds another layer of vulnerability. Why go through the trouble of getting a trojan onto a system, when you can do it remotely, w/o using a network? Add this to a wireless LAN, and it seems like it opens a lot of doors.
Nah. Any company that claims to have "put the dot in dot-com" is clearly just as self-aggrandizing. They are just less succesful at it. Why kow-tow to a second-rate megalomaniac?
C# is just another attempt by Microsoft to coopt the programming world.
This is about the relative merits of C# vs. Java. Better the programming world should be coopted by Sun?
Re:Even cooler fone from Nokia for SMS
on
New Nokia Phone
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· Score: 1
That's the dorkiest looking phone I have ever seen. Try the 9210 for a phone with a full keyboard. At least you don't look like you are talking into a Sega Game Gear when using it as a phone.
As long as they are lumping all of Asia together, Iron Chef American is appropriate. What they should have done is had Iron Chef European. There is a lot more variance between Italian and French cuisine than between Japanese and Chinese.
Many times I have looked at other peoples source, read the comments and STILL had to puzzle over awkward syntax and unintuitive variable/funtion names. A few comments are fine, but not a substitute for lucid code.
Plus, I find that comments can make code harder to read if they break up the continuity of the code structure.
Everyone (even you - I once saw a really cool book in the children's library that was cut out in the shape of a teddy bear) knows that books are already produced in any number of shapes.
As far as reverse-engineering primes, not being a sufficiently high-end mathematician, I'll only suggest that it's probably far easier to verify whether a given number is a prime than to find the next prime number in a sequence. ..
I would imagine that is true, but only if you know that the number is prime. Otherwise, it is just a string of random information.
Nevertheless, I can just imagine:
Basby: "Holy shit Foob, I just wasted two days decoding this alien message, and guess what? It's a fscking prime number! That's all!"
Fooby: "What the heck is a 'prime' number?"
Basby: "It's a mathematical concept that. .."
Fooby: "Argh. Never mind! Don't get me started on math. I majored in the study of alien races so I wouldn't have to take math!"
Exactly, nobody claimed that it was an "important" advancement
Well, I would assume that an advancement worthy of demonstrating our scientific prowess is at least somewhat important. However, you point is well taken. It would be next to impossible to encapsulate most of our achievements in a way that could be transmitted in this way. However, my point was not that we should neccesarily be doing that. Rather, it was that we should be (well, at least could be) devoting our energy to more practical endeavors. Surely, feeding two billion more people a day is would be a more significant achievment than this quest for large prime numbers, regardless of whether we could tell these hypothetical aliens about it.
As far as these idea of simple concepts, I question whether these large prime numbers qualify. After all, how long did it take us to find this prime number? Why assume that an alien species (assuming prime numbers would interest them, which they well might) would even recognize such a huge string of digits as prime? Unless we appended it to a series of all primes (at least down to those more easily recognized), wouldn't they have to basically "reverse enginieer" the number to recognize it was a prime?
In the meantime, I wonder if you consider the one hour spent daily by billions of people, like myself, in prayer and/or meditation is similarly "wasted" in that it could be used to eliminate hatred, poverty, disease, famine, and so on? Why or why not?
Only if it is time that you would otherwise spend addressing these things directly. But it's your time. If it inspires you to spend any amount of time addressing these problems that you would otherwise not, then it is time well spent.
I'd also dispute that the USSR demonstrated communism (I'd say authoritarian socialism, which is way different)
Even if it did, it is hardly fair to write off Communism based on their history. That country was far too large for ANY system to govern effectively.
Notice how anti-communists love to crow about its failures in the eal world, yet the only examples so far have been beseiged by the US economically and militarily. Few systems could survive with a country as powerful as the US willing to go the lengths that the US has gone to undermine them.
Well, you got me. I honestly know next to nothing about mathematics. It seems to me that unless you know that the number is prime, it would seem pretty random. Considering the amount of time it took us to figure out this particular number, it doesn't seem like it would be terribly obvious to anyone receiving it.
Slashdot Mirror
The only thing at all newsworthy about this is that it's now being used to gather legal evidence.
Ahem, I would think that this would be considered illegal evidence unless laws are changed to accomodate it.
Van Eck phreaking, especially at range with some kind of directional antenna, would indeed be sweet. Problem is, assuming that your PGP password prompt is obscured by asteriscks on input, you'd need more than a reproduction of the CRT. Fortunately, the growing popularity of wireless mice and keyboards make keystroke sniffing pretty trivial.
Funny, I went to Berkeley and I have used computers at UNC-Chapel Hill. Computer facilities at both were at least 90% Mac. In fact, I have never been in an educational institution where computer labs for non-CS types were not overwhelmingly Mac. Has this changed in the last couple years?
The only problem with your theory is that X is just as likely, if not more, to be weaned on MacOS than on Windows. Up to your final assumption about not becoming a geek, X describes me pretty well. I went to public and private schools on two different continents and I never dealt with Windows until after I graduated from college. Everything from middle school forward was all Mac.
Ever since then, I have used a PC.
I beg to differ. First of all, whatever your definition of 'hack' is, it's pretty damn narrow. Second, in order for this to be a network capable of replacing the functionality of the Internet to any degree, it would have to pass through publicly accessible areas to connect remote facilities.
Further to "hack" the system you'd have to be physically at a computer on the network. However since the network will almost certainly just be at government facilities, this will be much harder to accomplish.
I think your optimism is misplaced. As the parent to your post pointed out, passive sniffers are available that can read data as it travels over a physical connection w/o touching the network physically. Now, consider that in order for this network to be useful, it would have to connect remote locations, not just exist within government facilities. Basically, it is inevietable that part of this network will be left unsupervised, and thus vulnerable to being monitored or worse.
That was so funny I forgot to flame you for trying to be funny.
It seems to me that if this Clarke is qualified to advise the President on network matters, his first piece of advice would be "Umm, Mr. President, only lamers use the term 'Cyberspace' these days."
In addition to the above, I would like to know about:
3. How secure is this?
I have already heard tales about being able to spoof/sniff logitech wireless mice and keyboards. Like much of wireliess tech, this just adds another layer of vulnerability. Why go through the trouble of getting a trojan onto a system, when you can do it remotely, w/o using a network? Add this to a wireless LAN, and it seems like it opens a lot of doors.
Nah. Any company that claims to have "put the dot in dot-com" is clearly just as self-aggrandizing. They are just less succesful at it. Why kow-tow to a second-rate megalomaniac?
C# is just another attempt by Microsoft to coopt the programming world.
This is about the relative merits of C# vs. Java. Better the programming world should be coopted by Sun?
That's the dorkiest looking phone I have ever seen. Try the 9210 for a phone with a full keyboard. At least you don't look like you are talking into a Sega Game Gear when using it as a phone.
there will be seemless IM between phones and msn/yahoo
Seemless?
Perhaps you meant 'seamless'.
There is a lot more variance between Italian and French cuisine than between Japanese and Chinese.
That sould be the other way around!
As long as they are lumping all of Asia together, Iron Chef American is appropriate. What they should have done is had Iron Chef European. There is a lot more variance between Italian and French cuisine than between Japanese and Chinese.
From what I have heard, there is no confirmation that the vaccination is permanent (they are studying this now). Had any booster shots lately?
Not if it works to ultimately discourage the shipment of fragiles. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," as they say.
Not that the guy wasn't an asshole.
Considering that they're irradiating the mail these days
Why would that make a difference? Just curious.
Word!
Many times I have looked at other peoples source, read the comments and STILL had to puzzle over awkward syntax and unintuitive variable/funtion names. A few comments are fine, but not a substitute for lucid code.
Plus, I find that comments can make code harder to read if they break up the continuity of the code structure.
Everyone (even you - I once saw a really cool book in the children's library that was cut out in the shape of a teddy bear) knows that books are already produced in any number of shapes.
Actually, the answer is access to resources and militarism. Not necessarily in that order.
As far as reverse-engineering primes, not being a sufficiently high-end mathematician, I'll only suggest that it's probably far easier to verify whether a given number is a prime than to find the next prime number in a sequence. . .
."
I would imagine that is true, but only if you know that the number is prime. Otherwise, it is just a string of random information.
Nevertheless, I can just imagine:
Basby: "Holy shit Foob, I just wasted two days decoding this alien message, and guess what? It's a fscking prime number! That's all!"
Fooby: "What the heck is a 'prime' number?"
Basby: "It's a mathematical concept that. .
Fooby: "Argh. Never mind! Don't get me started on math. I majored in the study of alien races so I wouldn't have to take math!"
Exactly, nobody claimed that it was an "important" advancement
Well, I would assume that an advancement worthy of demonstrating our scientific prowess is at least somewhat important. However, you point is well taken. It would be next to impossible to encapsulate most of our achievements in a way that could be transmitted in this way. However, my point was not that we should neccesarily be doing that. Rather, it was that we should be (well, at least could be) devoting our energy to more practical endeavors. Surely, feeding two billion more people a day is would be a more significant achievment than this quest for large prime numbers, regardless of whether we could tell these hypothetical aliens about it.
As far as these idea of simple concepts, I question whether these large prime numbers qualify. After all, how long did it take us to find this prime number? Why assume that an alien species (assuming prime numbers would interest them, which they well might) would even recognize such a huge string of digits as prime? Unless we appended it to a series of all primes (at least down to those more easily recognized), wouldn't they have to basically "reverse enginieer" the number to recognize it was a prime?
In the meantime, I wonder if you consider the one hour spent daily by billions of people, like myself, in prayer and/or meditation is similarly "wasted" in that it could be used to eliminate hatred, poverty, disease, famine, and so on? Why or why not?
Only if it is time that you would otherwise spend addressing these things directly. But it's your time. If it inspires you to spend any amount of time addressing these problems that you would otherwise not, then it is time well spent.
I'd also dispute that the USSR demonstrated communism (I'd say authoritarian socialism, which is way different)
Even if it did, it is hardly fair to write off Communism based on their history. That country was far too large for ANY system to govern effectively.
Notice how anti-communists love to crow about its failures in the eal world, yet the only examples so far have been beseiged by the US economically and militarily. Few systems could survive with a country as powerful as the US willing to go the lengths that the US has gone to undermine them.
Well, you got me. I honestly know next to nothing about mathematics. It seems to me that unless you know that the number is prime, it would seem pretty random. Considering the amount of time it took us to figure out this particular number, it doesn't seem like it would be terribly obvious to anyone receiving it.
Nobody, including the original post, said that it *was* an important advancement.
From the original post:
"A previous found Mersenne number was used to show the advance of science on our planet in a message send into outer space."