Absolutely, you are correct. The vast majority of folks, both east and west, are genuinely nice. It's not that "Easterners" are bad, it was that I was accustomed to a different social norm. Westerner's aren't better -- there are just as many nasty people out here as anywhere else. However they tend (in my opinion) to be more circumspect in their speech due to the threat of physical violence.
Certainly my propensity to invite them to step outside and somehow "settle" an argument through pure physical violence seemed barbaric. As a somewhat older and hopefully wiser person, it seems barbaric to me as well, but that's how it's done around here. It just surprised me, absent the threat of physical pain, how quick the pinheads in society are to take advantage, and I think the internet is a similar phenomenon.
Once again, my apologies to one and all, I had intended to describe my perceptions of several years ago, not imply that all easterners are rude or insensitive. Peace!
I believe that social norms of polite behavior are underpinned by two factors: benevolence and fear. The complex dance of ettiquette that allows us to interact with people outside of our own monkeysphere is dependant upon a general desire to be 'nice', which suffices for the majority, and a justified fear of reprisal for those are generally jerks.
I've lived almost my whole life in small towns in the Northwest. Redneckville. I don't, as a rule consider myself a redneck, but Bubba and Cletis serve a purpose -- they enforce curtesy. You make fun of thier girlfriend, dog, or truck, you get a large dose of pain and a dental bill. Some years ago I moved back east for a couple of years, and the cultural difference was staggering. Guys act like "sissy girls", calling names, making little comments, and constant little put-downs. My coping skills consisted of offering to take off my shirt, head out back, and settle the issue with fifteen years of martial arts training. This was considered barbaric. In my eyes, they were immature, rude and self-centered. How did they get this way? They litigated and sued and passed laws until they're so "civilized" that the prissly little girly-men who spew vituperence don't have to worry about someone shutting their mouths for them when they fail to self-regulate. Frankly, I found their words extremely hurtful, but always just this side of being legally actionable. Kudos for civilization.
So, I'm back in barbarian land. I try to be a gentleman, but Bubba and Cletis are to deal with those who can't control their baser instincts. Folks are polite and respectful (or thy talk funny because of the missing teeth). On line, just like back east, there is no fear of physical or legal reprisal. Nice guys stay nice, but the pinheads have NOTHING to keep them in check - viola - Pinhead city.
So, I'm thinking of starting a "Rent-a-Redneck" service to bring curtesy and manners to the rest of the world. . ..
Oh, I know this one, I've played this game before (from the techie side!), here's how it goes:
So, you've developed a fine product, produced a few of them, and now you want to find "a place for it". This is called "marketing". My name is Mike, and I'll be your "marketing consultant" today.
No,I don't actually produce anything, and all of your techno-babble is hurting my ears. Give me a one-sentence summary of your product, and sign this simple contract granting me 60% of the gross proceeds. Then I'll wave my magic marketing wand and generate an absurd list of overinflated or technically-impossible claims vaguely based on your one-sentence summary. Then I'll whip off some glossy copy (I'll need some up-front budget for that), and hang out with the lovely models we'll hire to promote your product. . ..
Yes sir, that's how it's played. I'm Mike, are you ready to find your market?
LOL! A old HAM friend of mine and I were just talking about this. His idea was to build a PAM authentication module that used TIMING rather than the actual characters transmitted for validation. Naturally, this would require to already have a communication channel of some sort open, and would depend on the routing of the packets being similar (which is seldom a problem).
We couldn't figure out what it would actually be useful for, but he liked the idea of keying in his password using the spacebar to send Morse Code -- that would certainly boggle a key logger!
And in other news,several of the town drunks have joined AA after the new benches were installed. George Albert, longtime resident of the community, had this to say.
"I had been drinking pretty steady for about five years since I lost my job. I'd lost my family, my house and my self-respect, and thought nobody cared. Then one day I was down by the park, and fell asleep on this shiny new bench. The next morning I heard singing, but there was nobody there, just this voice singing the theme song from Annie 'Tomorrow'. It was like God was talking to me. So I said, "God, is that you?" And I heard, clear as day, God giggling like a little girl. All these things in my life -God's just been teating me! Later, as I was walking through the park, I says, to this trash can, 'Waddaya know bin, God still loves me, isn't it grand?' But it just farted at me and walked away."
Other drunks report similar experiences in the park.
I have the mod points . . . and IT's SO tempting to mod this point flamebait. However, I suspect that would just prove the moderation system is broken!
Over the past several IT workers (particularly at government installation) have been buried under a mountain of new security requirements and demands. Most of these, in my opinion, merely codify common sense into a few thousand pages of fluff that's outdated the day after it's written, which is seldom a problem because nobody reads it.
So they don't have a written disaster recovery plan -- how terrible. I'm a DBA, and I have six or seven disaster recovery plans, all neatly typed, with lots of polysyllabic verbiage, designed to impress auditors. They have official stamps and signatures of various company officials, and are kept in various safes etc. Unfortunately, the short version all this wated paper and time is "If the server crashes, we'll restore it from backup. If local backups are not available, we'll use off-site backups."
So, having jumped through hoops, and burned a considerable number of company hours complying with ever-dumber requirements, can anybody tell me how this would actually help me recover from a real disaster? It's freaking common sense.
So, while they may not be setting a good example for us corporate drones, I have a hard time seeing this as a SECURITY FAILURE!. Get a grip -- their Sysops and DBA's probably have a clue about data recovery even without an official plan.
The problem is, none of us has any idea how to stop the runaway train that is the US govt. If you become to vocal, or threaten revolution, you are considered a terrorist, and face very real dangers of prosecution. So, the best we can do is write to our representatives, and hope that maybe a few of them still have some sense of honor or integrity. Here's the letter I just shipped to my Senator, my Congressmen will be getting something similar soon:
Honorable Senator Cantwell:
I know that you are a very busy person, so I will attempt to keep my comments brief. I was very disturbed to read that a Senate Panel recently voted to expand the powers granted the police and intelligence communities under the Patriot act.
The patriot act contains several egregious clauses, but as a temporary law it was bearable. I, like most citizens, had assumed that some time after 9/11 the paranoia would die down, and the more flagrant violions of our privacy would be removed. However it appears that those who would use fear to extort hard-won freedoms continue to distort the truth and make a mockery of our constitution. Judicial oversight is being swept under the rug, and America is rapidly becoming a police state.
So, as citizens, we face a proliferation of laws unparalled in history. Not even the lawyers are sure what is and is not legal any more. We have a number of police and intelligence organizations operating with ever-escalating powers, including unprecedented levels of secrecy backed by gag orders carrying severe penalties. And the last bastion of sanity in this mad power-grab, the judiciary, is being cut out of the loop completely. This, Senator, is a recipe for disaster.
I would like to remind you of the Fourth Amendment, which states:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
This is being read in an increasingly narrow context. The use of remote sensing technologies (e.g. thermal imaging, directional or laser microphones etc.) to monitor people within their homes without judical oversight had been approved even before the patriot act effectively removed this requirement.
Madam Senator, you, and every other member of congress swore an oath to uphold the constituion. Those of us who value freedom are alarmed and dismayed at the rapid erosion of the freedoms our constitution guarantees. You have always seemed a reasonable and level-headed leader, so I am asking you to add your voice to those who oppose ANY further expansion of police or intelligence powers.
Thank you once again for your time.
Sincerely,
Michael Briggs.
Yeah, what he said. We only have one highly classified system at my installation, and I don't have the required clearance to access it. However a few months ago they needed a bit of tweaky Oracle stuff done, which the normal staff was not comfortable performing. So, I get escorted into the tomb, with a 500-pound gorilla standing right behind me, and the normal admin watching me like an eagle. I had to explain what every command I entered was supposed to do, and wait for authorization to proceed.
"I'm going to cat the oratab file, to see where the Oracle home on this server is"
"OK"
"Now I'm going to change to that directory."
"OK" (etc).
Sheesh, just a bit paranoid. I work like a block away, for the SAME company. Guess I might go rogue any minute!
Yeah - or venture into any little anoxic pockets! Seriously, many marine environments (and a few freshwater lakes) have hypersaline sinks on the sea floor.
We used to detect these while diving because you "bounce" off of the superdense water if you're neutrally bouyant, and you can see the optical distortions caused by the density difference.
These little sinks can be fun to explore, since they often have extremely well-preserved stuff in them. However, they tend to be not only anoxic, but saturated with hydrogen sulfide (which is pretty toxic) and very alkaline (which eats up things like rubber seals, exposed skin etc). Wearing this device into such an environment would be fatal.
I'm a diver too! I think you've forgotten that the gas saturation is directly related to pressure. Assuming the percent saturation remains constant, you'll have to process the same volume of seawater/breath at any depth. Generally speaking, however, oxygen saturation drops quickly below the photic zone unless there is a lot of wind/wave energy to foment mixing. So this probably is a shallow-water technology, but not for the reasons you stipulated.
I agree! I am tired of people who consider the library a "try-it-before-you-buy-it" bookstore. I am a fan of an author who became popular rather quickly, and many of her earlier books were difficult to find, and sold for very high prices on the collector's market. I ponied up the money for an expensive copy on ebay, and sure enough, it came with a library stamp.
This is becoming a common practice -- whenever a books collectible value exceeds it's original purchase price, some pinhead checks out all the copies they can get, sells them on ebay, then claims to have "lost" the book. Bottom line, they profit, and great books are PERMENANTLY removed from the public eye. Grump.
Tyrrany of the Masses
on
Tinfoil Hat House
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Sure, this family may be a bit off, but I agree with the posters who point out that, unless building codes have been violated or the public safety compromised, this guy should be left alone.
America has many problems, most of which have been frequently pointed out on slashdot, where tinfoil hats are de'rigueur. I think this story points to the conflict between individual rights (a basic measure of freedom), and the mis-application of "democracy" to force the desires of the majority on everyone else.
Most people live in white houses, obviously that's the preferred color. Perhaps it should be illegal for me to live in an offensive green one. Catholics outnumber all other religions, why SHOULDN'T they be able pass a law requireing the rest of us to attend mass, after all it's DEMOCRACY. The Religious right doesn't think we should do stem-cell research -- guess we'd better cut federal funding from one of the most promising fields since antibiotics.
Unless he's endangering his family or neighbors, they should leave this family alone. Protecting propterty values by heavy-handed regulation should NOT the mandate of the government in a free society.
This is one of the best essays I've ever read on the topic of copyright. Very well written with a subtle sense of humor woven in to excellent effect. I'll definately be linking to this, thanks!
This deal was announced some time ago. IBM has been very forthcoming with information, and with reassurances that Thinkpads will continue to built to the same standards that have been previously. They are already built in china, so there's no real change there.
I recently spent a lot of time on-line (shopping ever so slowly!) purchasing a high-end laptop for my wife, and settled on one of the upper-tier thinkpads. The only downside I can see is the price. They're very solid, well built little workhorses, and I'd sooner trust my work to them than just about any of the Wal-Mart machines. Go Thinkpads!
Good point. I often buy classic car parts and other hard-to-find items on ebay. It's seldom a real bargain. After every purchase I have to tell myself "You just paid more for this item than anyone else in the whole world was willing to, congratulations!". On the other hand, where else do you go to find a cam for a 1069 Opel?
Ahh well -- it was a good plan while it lasted. I guess I'm staying in the states, at least for now. Thanks for the information. Oh, and I really miss the Dutch public bicycles (can't remember the name for them). They were kind of heavy, but I've never had so much fun on a bike! You guys ROCK!
Cool! My wife is an author, and I've spent some very enjoyable time in Leiden. So, how many Dutch authors are there? A couple hundred maybe? Presumably the ill-gotten proceeds from this photocopier tax are distributed among the relatively few Dutch authors? Sounds like my wife may finally be able to support me! How hard is it to immigrate?!
PhysicsPhairy:
Surely with a name like that you're familiar with the way academia works. Paying a bounty for a development worked well for things like the X-prize, but it basically attracts high-rollers with a dream looking for some recognition. The prize wasn't as large as the total expenditure of the winning team, and the losing teams are simply out of luck, financially speaking.
Primary research is both time consuming and expensive. When looking at a long-term, money intensive projects, requiring a ton of intellectual horsepower the Ivory Tower becomes the valuable contractor. However, even though grad students are basically indentured servents, they still require stipeds, and a well-equipped lab is costly to manintain. If you want a prestigeous school to dedicate a portion of it's lab space and intellectual muscle to solving your problem, there is a price to pay.
Frankly, I'm amazed and delighted to see the government funding a bit of basic research. It seems like over the past 15 years or so we've shifted to funding only near-term applied research expected to boost profits for some contributing corporation in the next six months. I know too many high-energy physics PhD's who are working help desks to pay the bills. Time to get back to work!
Can one of you nice Canadians with an entrepenurial spirit please start a web-based business selling blank CD's? Sending those to the U.S. should follow the same rules as importing pre-recorded CD's. I mean, then I could tell officier friendly, "No worries mate, these are Canadian CD's, and I've paid the duty on them. I can record whatever I want on them now, Eh?"
Somehow, I still think AssHol^H^H^H^H^hcroft and his band of merry goons would object. (SIGH).
Several previous posters have pointed out that not running as root protects OTHER peoples' data, and ensures that an attack that grants control of an application's environments still requires an escalation of privileges to inflict serious damage.
I would like to point out that with a bit of effort, unix protections can protect a user's data as well. For example, in web-directories, grant the HTTP user only read access to the files. Database files (at least for Oracle and PostgreSQL) don't need to be accesible to the users at all. Chroot offers further levels of protection.
For example, I run a web-server with an "apache" user. The user is chrooted, and there is no rm command available to apache, the logs are just pipes, and they point out to a mount point apache can't directly access. The only files available to poor apache are the program files and the files in the web-root. An attacker could work for days, and end up with access to exactly what the web-server was exposing in the first place. Compare that to running apache as root with a few badly-written CGI scripts (third-party, naturally!) to be exploited!
Bah! I did my part - I have a nice file folder full of respectful, well-worded letters sent to various representatives who were selling me and mine down the river. Their replies were equally polite, but firm in their convictions that corporate profits were more important than the environment, my privacy or the constitution.
Face it, it's all over. The government firewall requires a large financial authentication token, and if you can't provide one, you don't exist. Talk to/dev/null about your concerns.
So, I'm done talking. I'm trying to convince my wife that the U.S. is in trouble, and we should move to a nation that's a bit more sane. I've got a crazy neighbor that's been amassing supplies and ammunition for several years, and I'm beginning to wonder if he's far smarter than I'd believed.
Corporatations now rule the country. In an economic sense, they are the top predators, and the rest of us are little happy meals. Flight, Fight or stick your head in the sand - your choice.
Slashdot Mirror
Certainly my propensity to invite them to step outside and somehow "settle" an argument through pure physical violence seemed barbaric. As a somewhat older and hopefully wiser person, it seems barbaric to me as well, but that's how it's done around here. It just surprised me, absent the threat of physical pain, how quick the pinheads in society are to take advantage, and I think the internet is a similar phenomenon.
Once again, my apologies to one and all, I had intended to describe my perceptions of several years ago, not imply that all easterners are rude or insensitive. Peace!
I've lived almost my whole life in small towns in the Northwest. Redneckville. I don't, as a rule consider myself a redneck, but Bubba and Cletis serve a purpose -- they enforce curtesy. You make fun of thier girlfriend, dog, or truck, you get a large dose of pain and a dental bill. Some years ago I moved back east for a couple of years, and the cultural difference was staggering. Guys act like "sissy girls", calling names, making little comments, and constant little put-downs. My coping skills consisted of offering to take off my shirt, head out back, and settle the issue with fifteen years of martial arts training. This was considered barbaric. In my eyes, they were immature, rude and self-centered. How did they get this way? They litigated and sued and passed laws until they're so "civilized" that the prissly little girly-men who spew vituperence don't have to worry about someone shutting their mouths for them when they fail to self-regulate. Frankly, I found their words extremely hurtful, but always just this side of being legally actionable. Kudos for civilization.
So, I'm back in barbarian land. I try to be a gentleman, but Bubba and Cletis are to deal with those who can't control their baser instincts. Folks are polite and respectful (or thy talk funny because of the missing teeth). On line, just like back east, there is no fear of physical or legal reprisal. Nice guys stay nice, but the pinheads have NOTHING to keep them in check - viola - Pinhead city.
So, I'm thinking of starting a "Rent-a-Redneck" service to bring curtesy and manners to the rest of the world. . . .
So, you've developed a fine product, produced a few of them, and now you want to find "a place for it". This is called "marketing". My name is Mike, and I'll be your "marketing consultant" today.
No,I don't actually produce anything, and all of your techno-babble is hurting my ears. Give me a one-sentence summary of your product, and sign this simple contract granting me 60% of the gross proceeds. Then I'll wave my magic marketing wand and generate an absurd list of overinflated or technically-impossible claims vaguely based on your one-sentence summary. Then I'll whip off some glossy copy (I'll need some up-front budget for that), and hang out with the lovely models we'll hire to promote your product. . . .
Yes sir, that's how it's played. I'm Mike, are you ready to find your market?
We couldn't figure out what it would actually be useful for, but he liked the idea of keying in his password using the spacebar to send Morse Code -- that would certainly boggle a key logger!
And in other news,several of the town drunks have joined AA after the new benches were installed. George Albert, longtime resident of the community, had this to say. "I had been drinking pretty steady for about five years since I lost my job. I'd lost my family, my house and my self-respect, and thought nobody cared. Then one day I was down by the park, and fell asleep on this shiny new bench. The next morning I heard singing, but there was nobody there, just this voice singing the theme song from Annie 'Tomorrow'. It was like God was talking to me. So I said, "God, is that you?" And I heard, clear as day, God giggling like a little girl. All these things in my life -God's just been teating me! Later, as I was walking through the park, I says, to this trash can, 'Waddaya know bin, God still loves me, isn't it grand?' But it just farted at me and walked away." Other drunks report similar experiences in the park.
I have the mod points . . . and IT's SO tempting to mod this point flamebait. However, I suspect that would just prove the moderation system is broken!
So they don't have a written disaster recovery plan -- how terrible. I'm a DBA, and I have six or seven disaster recovery plans, all neatly typed, with lots of polysyllabic verbiage, designed to impress auditors. They have official stamps and signatures of various company officials, and are kept in various safes etc. Unfortunately, the short version all this wated paper and time is "If the server crashes, we'll restore it from backup. If local backups are not available, we'll use off-site backups."
So, having jumped through hoops, and burned a considerable number of company hours complying with ever-dumber requirements, can anybody tell me how this would actually help me recover from a real disaster? It's freaking common sense.
So, while they may not be setting a good example for us corporate drones, I have a hard time seeing this as a SECURITY FAILURE!. Get a grip -- their Sysops and DBA's probably have a clue about data recovery even without an official plan.
Honorable Senator Cantwell: I know that you are a very busy person, so I will attempt to keep my comments brief. I was very disturbed to read that a Senate Panel recently voted to expand the powers granted the police and intelligence communities under the Patriot act.
The patriot act contains several egregious clauses, but as a temporary law it was bearable. I, like most citizens, had assumed that some time after 9/11 the paranoia would die down, and the more flagrant violions of our privacy would be removed. However it appears that those who would use fear to extort hard-won freedoms continue to distort the truth and make a mockery of our constitution. Judicial oversight is being swept under the rug, and America is rapidly becoming a police state.
So, as citizens, we face a proliferation of laws unparalled in history. Not even the lawyers are sure what is and is not legal any more. We have a number of police and intelligence organizations operating with ever-escalating powers, including unprecedented levels of secrecy backed by gag orders carrying severe penalties. And the last bastion of sanity in this mad power-grab, the judiciary, is being cut out of the loop completely. This, Senator, is a recipe for disaster.
I would like to remind you of the Fourth Amendment, which states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
This is being read in an increasingly narrow context. The use of remote sensing technologies (e.g. thermal imaging, directional or laser microphones etc.) to monitor people within their homes without judical oversight had been approved even before the patriot act effectively removed this requirement.
Madam Senator, you, and every other member of congress swore an oath to uphold the constituion. Those of us who value freedom are alarmed and dismayed at the rapid erosion of the freedoms our constitution guarantees. You have always seemed a reasonable and level-headed leader, so I am asking you to add your voice to those who oppose ANY further expansion of police or intelligence powers.
Thank you once again for your time.
Sincerely,
Michael Briggs.
Yeah, what he said. We only have one highly classified system at my installation, and I don't have the required clearance to access it. However a few months ago they needed a bit of tweaky Oracle stuff done, which the normal staff was not comfortable performing. So, I get escorted into the tomb, with a 500-pound gorilla standing right behind me, and the normal admin watching me like an eagle. I had to explain what every command I entered was supposed to do, and wait for authorization to proceed. "I'm going to cat the oratab file, to see where the Oracle home on this server is"
"OK"
"Now I'm going to change to that directory."
"OK" (etc).
Sheesh, just a bit paranoid. I work like a block away, for the SAME company. Guess I might go rogue any minute!
We used to detect these while diving because you "bounce" off of the superdense water if you're neutrally bouyant, and you can see the optical distortions caused by the density difference.
These little sinks can be fun to explore, since they often have extremely well-preserved stuff in them. However, they tend to be not only anoxic, but saturated with hydrogen sulfide (which is pretty toxic) and very alkaline (which eats up things like rubber seals, exposed skin etc). Wearing this device into such an environment would be fatal.
I'm a diver too! I think you've forgotten that the gas saturation is directly related to pressure. Assuming the percent saturation remains constant, you'll have to process the same volume of seawater/breath at any depth. Generally speaking, however, oxygen saturation drops quickly below the photic zone unless there is a lot of wind/wave energy to foment mixing. So this probably is a shallow-water technology, but not for the reasons you stipulated.
I agree! I am tired of people who consider the library a "try-it-before-you-buy-it" bookstore. I am a fan of an author who became popular rather quickly, and many of her earlier books were difficult to find, and sold for very high prices on the collector's market. I ponied up the money for an expensive copy on ebay, and sure enough, it came with a library stamp. This is becoming a common practice -- whenever a books collectible value exceeds it's original purchase price, some pinhead checks out all the copies they can get, sells them on ebay, then claims to have "lost" the book. Bottom line, they profit, and great books are PERMENANTLY removed from the public eye. Grump.
America has many problems, most of which have been frequently pointed out on slashdot, where tinfoil hats are de'rigueur. I think this story points to the conflict between individual rights (a basic measure of freedom), and the mis-application of "democracy" to force the desires of the majority on everyone else.
Most people live in white houses, obviously that's the preferred color. Perhaps it should be illegal for me to live in an offensive green one. Catholics outnumber all other religions, why SHOULDN'T they be able pass a law requireing the rest of us to attend mass, after all it's DEMOCRACY. The Religious right doesn't think we should do stem-cell research -- guess we'd better cut federal funding from one of the most promising fields since antibiotics.
Unless he's endangering his family or neighbors, they should leave this family alone. Protecting propterty values by heavy-handed regulation should NOT the mandate of the government in a free society.
This is one of the best essays I've ever read on the topic of copyright. Very well written with a subtle sense of humor woven in to excellent effect. I'll definately be linking to this, thanks!
I recently spent a lot of time on-line (shopping ever so slowly!) purchasing a high-end laptop for my wife, and settled on one of the upper-tier thinkpads. The only downside I can see is the price. They're very solid, well built little workhorses, and I'd sooner trust my work to them than just about any of the Wal-Mart machines. Go Thinkpads!
Good point. I often buy classic car parts and other hard-to-find items on ebay. It's seldom a real bargain. After every purchase I have to tell myself "You just paid more for this item than anyone else in the whole world was willing to, congratulations!". On the other hand, where else do you go to find a cam for a 1069 Opel?
Ahh well -- it was a good plan while it lasted. I guess I'm staying in the states, at least for now. Thanks for the information. Oh, and I really miss the Dutch public bicycles (can't remember the name for them). They were kind of heavy, but I've never had so much fun on a bike! You guys ROCK!
Cool! My wife is an author, and I've spent some very enjoyable time in Leiden. So, how many Dutch authors are there? A couple hundred maybe? Presumably the ill-gotten proceeds from this photocopier tax are distributed among the relatively few Dutch authors? Sounds like my wife may finally be able to support me! How hard is it to immigrate?!
Primary research is both time consuming and expensive. When looking at a long-term, money intensive projects, requiring a ton of intellectual horsepower the Ivory Tower becomes the valuable contractor. However, even though grad students are basically indentured servents, they still require stipeds, and a well-equipped lab is costly to manintain. If you want a prestigeous school to dedicate a portion of it's lab space and intellectual muscle to solving your problem, there is a price to pay.
Frankly, I'm amazed and delighted to see the government funding a bit of basic research. It seems like over the past 15 years or so we've shifted to funding only near-term applied research expected to boost profits for some contributing corporation in the next six months. I know too many high-energy physics PhD's who are working help desks to pay the bills. Time to get back to work!
I recommend only SCO unix -- once the TCP/IP stack crashes, eth0 is automatically secured.
As a landlubber with good science background, I read nm as "nano meters". That would surely simplify the task of patrolling our maritime territory.
Hah, they think they're so smart selling untested chips. Little do they know, their financial system is running on my untested code . . . suckers!
Somehow, I still think AssHol^H^H^H^H^hcroft and his band of merry goons would object. (SIGH).
I would like to point out that with a bit of effort, unix protections can protect a user's data as well. For example, in web-directories, grant the HTTP user only read access to the files. Database files (at least for Oracle and PostgreSQL) don't need to be accesible to the users at all. Chroot offers further levels of protection.
For example, I run a web-server with an "apache" user. The user is chrooted, and there is no rm command available to apache, the logs are just pipes, and they point out to a mount point apache can't directly access. The only files available to poor apache are the program files and the files in the web-root. An attacker could work for days, and end up with access to exactly what the web-server was exposing in the first place. Compare that to running apache as root with a few badly-written CGI scripts (third-party, naturally!) to be exploited!
Face it, it's all over. The government firewall requires a large financial authentication token, and if you can't provide one, you don't exist. Talk to /dev/null about your concerns.
So, I'm done talking. I'm trying to convince my wife that the U.S. is in trouble, and we should move to a nation that's a bit more sane. I've got a crazy neighbor that's been amassing supplies and ammunition for several years, and I'm beginning to wonder if he's far smarter than I'd believed.
Corporatations now rule the country. In an economic sense, they are the top predators, and the rest of us are little happy meals. Flight, Fight or stick your head in the sand - your choice.