Cry me a river!
At least you have the options of different Broadband companies. I had one, once. They offered iDSL, but they went bankrupt. I had the chance of getting WISP, but they liquidating the building for money reasons.
I currently have only two options - PPP and CableModems. The CableModems are expensive, unreliable, inconsistent, and have the worst support imaginable.
When you run out of DSL options and have a choice of ONE, then call me and I'll buy you a beer. But until then, you should be grateful that you have that option of any DSL.
Personally, I would be willing to let the government run DSL networks if they could get it as ubiquitous as the Highways or Post Office.
Keep it simple and examine the history and alternative niche areas of the internet to learn what works and what doesnt. Based on that presumption I would recommend the following:
Legalize the tools Examples include nmap, tcpdump, sniffit, et al. Why? Because these tell you as well as them that you have holes in your network. Removing access to these tools simply provides ignorant people who don't know how bad their situation really is.
Legalize the process of Public Disclosure of security holes in any products that operate on the internet.
History shows that the Operating Systems and Applications which have a high disclosure rate have become the most secure in the world. Those who attempt to hide their defects have done little to improve their overall security record.
Congress should embrace the Open Standards ideas that are often found in junction with Open Source. It is through these open standards that many eyes can find the holes and the fixes. The alternative of trusting someone who was first to market is an extremely bad idea in any industry where the price can be high
Encryption
Permit it, Embrace it, Promote it! It's the solution to both Security & Privacy. Someone already posted that encryption should be more the default than the exception - He's right.
Do not introduce regulatory requirements for security. This will only feed the problem that small ISP's can barely stay alive in the industry from competition. If you add regulatory overhead, they will be forced to leave. The resulting companies may be able to address some aspects of Security, but you have created the bigger problem of centralizing everything into a few camps. Bad Strategy! Even if someone like AT&T has servers located everywhere - there is a better chance that they are the same rather than different. One good security hole and you drop 35% of the internet overnight!
You are forgetting the latitude accuracy of the GPS systems that are in use today. The resolution that they offer, along with the transmission delay of that information across the network compared to a vehicle traveling at posted speeds means that the ad would arrive several 100 to several 1000 yards past the point of interest.
Furthermore, you would have no gaurantee that this would be accurate for Bob's Store or the dude next door.
I work them and know exactly what they do with the vehicle and the capabilities of the OnStar system from the telephony, database, and internet connectivity and can say with some degree of certainty without even reading this article that this is 99% BULLSHIT in it's purest form.
Yes, they can do funky stuff with locating the vehicle and tracking speed, direction, blah blah blah... But this can only be done when the driver asks for it. The code simply does not exist to be able to initiate this. The proof is in the large number of requests we get to locate some drug dealers car by the local Enforcement Agency and we have to decline the offer. We get multiple supeona's every day on this.
As for spam in the vehicle... The technology isn't practical at this point in time. Could it be done, everything *could* be done eventually. But to track someone's location and pump them with ads is not a realistic technology for years to come. By then, who knows what the ethics or business rules will be.
This article sucks! I think we should be more paranoid about the other problems we have with technology today. This is merely a pathetic diversion. And no, I am not going to get a bonus for doing the 'corporate shill' think.
I could give a twip less about any of this, it's just that I *know* what's going on and am sick of the Chicken Little stories that are running around in the news media. Do you realized I don't take sugar doughnuts into work because they might leave behind a "mysterious white powder"? bleah!
Slashdot Mirror
Cry me a river!
At least you have the options of different Broadband companies. I had one, once. They offered iDSL, but they went bankrupt. I had the chance of getting WISP, but they liquidating the building for money reasons.
I currently have only two options - PPP and CableModems. The CableModems are expensive, unreliable, inconsistent, and have the worst support imaginable.
When you run out of DSL options and have a choice of ONE, then call me and I'll buy you a beer. But until then, you should be grateful that you have that option of any DSL.
Personally, I would be willing to let the government run DSL networks if they could get it as ubiquitous as the Highways or Post Office.
Keep it simple and examine the history and alternative niche areas of the internet to learn what works and what doesnt. Based on that presumption I would recommend the following:
Examples include nmap, tcpdump, sniffit, et al. Why? Because these tell you as well as them that you have holes in your network. Removing access to these tools simply provides ignorant people who don't know how bad their situation really is.
History shows that the Operating Systems and Applications which have a high disclosure rate have become the most secure in the world. Those who attempt to hide their defects have done little to improve their overall security record.
Permit it, Embrace it, Promote it! It's the solution to both Security & Privacy. Someone already posted that encryption should be more the default than the exception - He's right.
This will only feed the problem that small ISP's can barely stay alive in the industry from competition. If you add regulatory overhead, they will be forced to leave. The resulting companies may be able to address some aspects of Security, but you have created the bigger problem of centralizing everything into a few camps. Bad Strategy! Even if someone like AT&T has servers located everywhere - there is a better chance that they are the same rather than different. One good security hole and you drop 35% of the internet overnight!
Currently, KDE 2.2.2 is in woody. I can't say it's complete in all it's features and apps, but it works very nicely! Been using it for weeks now.
You are forgetting the latitude accuracy of the GPS systems that are in use today. The resolution that they offer, along with the transmission delay of that information across the network compared to a vehicle traveling at posted speeds means that the ad would arrive several 100 to several 1000 yards past the point of interest. Furthermore, you would have no gaurantee that this would be accurate for Bob's Store or the dude next door.
I work them and know exactly what they do with the vehicle and the capabilities of the OnStar system from the telephony, database, and internet connectivity and can say with some degree of certainty without even reading this article that this is 99% BULLSHIT in it's purest form.
Yes, they can do funky stuff with locating the vehicle and tracking speed, direction, blah blah blah... But this can only be done when the driver asks for it. The code simply does not exist to be able to initiate this. The proof is in the large number of requests we get to locate some drug dealers car by the local Enforcement Agency and we have to decline the offer. We get multiple supeona's every day on this.
As for spam in the vehicle... The technology isn't practical at this point in time. Could it be done, everything *could* be done eventually. But to track someone's location and pump them with ads is not a realistic technology for years to come. By then, who knows what the ethics or business rules will be.
This article sucks! I think we should be more paranoid about the other problems we have with technology today. This is merely a pathetic diversion. And no, I am not going to get a bonus for doing the 'corporate shill' think.
I could give a twip less about any of this, it's just that I *know* what's going on and am sick of the Chicken Little stories that are running around in the news media. Do you realized I don't take sugar doughnuts into work because they might leave behind a "mysterious white powder"? bleah!