From the article: The system would include an on-board database of the GPS coordinates of the no-fly zones. If it sensed an attempt to jam GPS signals it would switch to other navigation aids such as airport beacons. Being independent of ground control means soft walls would be immune to hacking.
The system is hack proof because they have backup methods for dealing with jamming. Why it's so obvious they've thought of everything. It's almost as brilliant as asking everyone to turn off their cell phones, cause terrorists don't carry cell phones.
Hack Checklist:
1. Spoof GPS -- SUCCESS
2. Jam/Destroy GPS
3. Spoof Beacon Finder -- SUCCESS
4. Jam/Destroy Beacon Finder
5. Spoof next method of determining where you be -- SUCCESS
6. Jam/Destroy next modwyb - SUCCESS
Personally I would rather see pilots armed than this hack proof system. Flying naked would be a better system but all the seats would have to be vinyl.
They are there to protect businesses and the government itself.
This is a disturbing trend in the United States of Lawyers and short of a revolution there is not much that can be done to reverse it. Just look at the article from yesterday where Oral Hatch wants to exclude copyright owners from anti-hacking laws so they can destroy a personal computer. It's sad and scary.
What the USL needs is a new Bill of Rights that protects people from corporations.
We did the same thing one summer but didn't go for a shot by shot remake. ND was the kid who had the camera and we had an overweight asian kid run around saying "ND, ND, they stole the ankh stone". He was taller than ND and we knew it was schlock. We also did a spoof of Star Wars but pre-internet had no hope for distribution.
when Universes collide. If two universes collided, one that is m-dimensional and another that is n-dimensional, than a new universe is created at the point of intersection that is m+n dimensional. The new universe shares the dimensions that are common and also incorporates the unique dimensions provided by each universe (if both have unique dimensions to provide).
Those of us in the interior of the new universe see only a small % of the matter. That's because the remaining large % is still outside the collision area. The big bang was the point of impact, which spread along the dimensions of the two universes involved in the collision. The reason we see more universes and stars everywhere we look is because as the impact area expands there is more of our universe to see.
This will be proven in the future and will account for all of the inconsistencies in current models of the new universe.
Luckily, no one gets burned at the stake for suggesting this.
How come every time I hear about a poll, no one ever asks me?
Seriously though, polling should be a more rigid business. Without knowing who was polled, how the polling group was selected, the questions and the cookie cutter answers (which are usually not comprehensive), there's no way to judge if the poll actually means anything.
Could you post all of the above information for each of the polls that you mention? That might clear up some of the confusion.
Slow news day finds lazy reporter surfing slashdot for something to write about.
I think we have a new phenomenon starting here:
First slashdot posts a small story about something vaguely scientific or geekish. Eventually, a lazy reporter slightly drunk from his usually liquid lunch reads the story with one eye closed. Proceeds to write puff piece weaving elements from the story and slashdot user's commentaries into a drunken slurry of double vision inspired verbosity. After waking up at 3 am with his head on the keyboard, drunken reporter deletes the last paragraph, which ended with a;hkjhgdferuh (because his head was on the keyboard and he can't remember what it was supposed to say) and puts it in a pile on his fat, baliding editors desk. The fat balding news editor, whose fat because he eats chocolate and bald because of genetics, reads it on a slow news day, laughs his fat az off and decides to run it anyways. Slashdot editor, who suffers from the same problems as the news editor but for different reasons, reads the headline and proceeds to post the story.
Wash-Rinse-Repeat.
Now if only the follow up to the follow up stories and posts would present better information than we might be on to something.
Although they share a similar story line, the Kevin Costner movie stripped almost every vestige of what made the book great. Costner turned the lead role from hero to antihero. In the book, the Postman was looking for and actually trying to reestablish civilization. In the movie, he's just trying to scam food, supplies and sex (while also getting a lot of people killed in the process). The movie combined the two female leads and dropped the most important story line in the book (if you've read the book you'll know what I'm talking about - The night of the long knives). In the book, there are reasons for what the Postman does. In the movie, the Postman just seems to wander about making trouble and only at the end does he do anything about it.
What a waste. I could go on but it's the same for almost all big screen adaptations of SF books. The translation of Starship Troopers was nearly as painful. In the book, troopers were seperated by miles (that's why they had armor) and in the movie troopers just ran around in mobs. One grenade could have taken out an entire squad.
The only hope is that hollywood will notice the performance of a faithful adaptation of source material ala Spiderman or the X-Men. If they can do that for comic books, there's hope that they'll one day do the same for Science Fiction.
Why bother tethering this thing to the ground? It should be feasable to have a platform that is strung below it at a high altitude. Supplies and payload could be brought aboard by helicopter or blimp. This would reduce the overall length of the elevator and also make it movable (easier to avoid space junk). The platform would be a counter weight and could disconnect if part of the ribbon is cut somewhere else.
This would also make it look very cool (kind of like Lando's place in ESB).
I'm sure there are a million reasons to not do this but there were a million reasons not to go to the moon and we did that.
Hi Larry, Can you tell us what you're currently working on and do you have any plans to collaborate with Jerry Pournelle? Also, are any of your books planned for big or small screen translation? I'd love to see a movie based on Ringworld, Legacy of Heorot or A Mote in God's Eye. Fallen Angels would make a good serial on the SciFi channel (something similar to Steven Spielburgs 'Taken').
IIRC, the large-scale attack on the root servers was a simple ping flood. Changing the software that the root servers run will not mitigate the same or a similar type of attack.
I think the internet is going to have to move to a tiered approach of trusted and untrusted networks. Unfettered access was okay when there were only a few systems connected but with millions of users, trust is something you must earn. If a network or ISP allows a user to spoof the packets they send than that network or ISP should be labeled untrustworthy and their QOS should reflect that. Legitimate users will eventually migrate to trusted nets and ISPs.
The internet should be a priveledge ala driving. If you can't be trusted with that priveledge than your access should be revoked or at least severely limited.
She has an interesting trilogy that starts with "Grass". The others should be listed on the inside cover. Grass managed to grab me from the first page and never let go. It reads like the first Amber trilogy but is a little shorter. The overall trilogy is only loosely tied together but all three books are worth the time.
If you like those you can check out some of her other titles.
Besides inventing the cotton gin, Eli Whitney also invented replaceable parts (for use in muskets) and the assembly line (to make musket parts). Before Eli everything was hand made. Unfortunately most Americans know Whitney only as the inventor of the cotton gin.
American history as taught in high school is usually formulated by a committee and almost always contains a large number of inaccuracies, such as Ben Franklin getting loans from the French. But that's another story.
Vinge created not one but two very good Sci-Fi Universes. 'A Fire Upon the Deep' and 'A Deepness in the Sky' were set in the same universe and are both very good books. I loved the idea of the zones and the difference in the races that populated them. The ideas in these two books are large and well thought out. The aliens and the powers are what I expect aliens and alien intelligence to be like, if they exist. He also did a good job in creating a believable future in the Peace Wars saga. Although the wider universe is only hinted at (through the travels of the deep space scout) it is apparent that it is a large place with mysteries aplenty.
David Brin's Uplift Universe is also very well thought out. Like Vinge, Brin has aliens that are alien and humans are not at the center or even close to the apogee. The aliens have thought processes that are not like ours and their behaviour is at times completely unexpected. I also like the idea that we are not the only beings capable of higher intelligence on our planet. It's a good lesson and one that most people seem to overlook. If one day in the future we realize that our Galaxy or our neighborhood therein is bereft of intelligence, maybe we can start looking here for friends and allies to keep us company and enjoy in it's benefits.
Most science fiction is too small or too homogoneous. If and when we ever get off of this rock, I'm sure that we will all be surprised at what is out there for us to find. I just hope we survive long enough to actually do some of the things we are capable of imagining.
Take them to work. Put them in a drawer. If you need them you can bring them home with you at night or enjoy your commute with no traffic, though YMMV.
Depending on the size and speed, I would think fragments are infinately better than one big lump. If we can move it, than that would be the way to go. If not, blow the sucker up.
Shumaker-Levy should have been a suitable demonstration of this.
1 Finland 0,50 - Iceland 0,50 - Norway 0,50 - Netherlands 0,50 5 Canada 0,75 6 Ireland 1,00 7 Germany 1,50 - Portugal 1,50 - Sweden 1,50 10 Denmark 3,00 11 France 3,25 12 Australia 3,50 - Belgium 3,50 14 Slovenia 4,00 15 Costa Rica 4,25 - Switzerland 4,25
Half these countries would fit inside Texas if you stuffed them in there at the same time. Why not compare the U.S.A on a state by state basis. I'm sure there are lots of states that have no jounalists in prison.
And where the hell is Luxembourg? The fact that Belgium and Holland made it but not Luxembourg makes me doubt they even did a study.
Even more troubling, Urugay ties with Briton and everyone knows that jounalists there can't even print the name of the country without getting sued for slander.
This is really just economics 101 and has been going on for at least the last two centuries. It is a force of nature of tidal proportions and if you've seen the movie "Network" than you can just insert the rant from Ned Beatty.
The article has it wrong though. Anything they can make for $40 can be bought by just about anyone in bulk for $45. That's the truth. Make your widgets and thingees for however much you can make them and we'll keep shipping green pieces of paper. Somebody here will make even more green pieces of paper reselling them.
China needs to be careful. They have billions to feed and an environment that is becoming quickly polluted.
Security comparisons of this box versus that box is a bit rediculous. No box can handle all aspects of security on their own. DoS attacks can not be stopped at the box. Port probes if conducted over a long enough time frame are nearly undetectable. One compromised box can be used to compromise all boxes on a subnet.
That's not to say that security is impossible, it's just that it is amorphous. It's as complex a problem as determining the weather or fighting multinational terrorists, simply because they change from day to day. To make matters worse, from the beginning of the internet any machine that is connected to the internet is a target for every hacker on the internet. Those are lousy odds.
The most secure systems these days are protected in multiple layers and the number of companies that are producing multi-tiered security solutions are growing. Still, without redesigning the internet as a whole I don't see security getting better, just more complex, costly and necessary.
I hardly see how this is interesting news. MS is providing a box to play games. They would like to make sure that people pay for the games and also that the box is not used for other purposes. This is different than the PC market as the former has always been proprietary and the latter was always an open market. This is also different as the h/w in question was licensed to a single company to manufacture.
You cannot buy an XBox and reverse engineer it and produce multiple XBoxen. This would be actionable in any country in the world where any of you live. Is it legal for MS to say you can't hack their box? No. Is it legal for MS to say if you hack their box, other things might not work? Yes.
Think about it and try to remember that Sony is winning, Linux is growing and the world will keep spinning even if they don't.
This is where my wife's engagement/wedding band comes from and it worked out really well for both of us.
You have to be selective though. Don't just buy any ring, find one you know she'll like. Maybe go shopping with her at a real jewelry store and let her pick a few.
After you know what she likes, go to a few pawn shops and find one that is similiar. Then take it to a jeweler and have them clean it. They will also sell you a nice new box to put it in.
Final piece of advice, never ever admit that that is where you got it. If anyone asks say it's not important, just so long as your sweetie is happy.
We don't need another revolution. What we need is a new constitutional convention. If it's only mandate was to rewrite the bill of rights in modern language it would get us a lot closer to what the founders of this country envisioned.
BTW, it's interesting that no replies to your post show up but your own replies to those posts do. I guess it's okay for you to control the debate.
What is the point of your ranting? That the US hasn't done enough or that the US is responsible through its actions for all that is bad?
Maybe I should feel guilty, being a US citizen and all, that we haven't solved all of the worlds problems.
I suppose the Japanese and Germans would have done a better job of things if they had won WWII. Maybe the USSR would have exported their version of a workers paradise if there was no cold war. Maybe Mao's great leap forward wouldn't have resulted in millions of dead from starvation if the US had done something or nothing (you tell me, Nostradumbass).
The monopoly they do have is only for Operating Systems on the Intel x86 architecture. It seems absurd that MS can have a monopoly on a microprocessor which itself is not a monopoly.
Slashdot Mirror
As Eddy Izzard pointed out, one is phonically correct the other is cheating at scrabble.
"T..H..R..O"
"0?"
"Yes! and a U"
"U?"
"To prop up the O. And a G"
"G?"
"To give it a 'guh'"
"And an H in case the G falls off"
Having spent some formative years in England, I am allowed to use both. Especially if the extra letters lands me on a double word score.
Cheers!
From the article:
The system would include an on-board database of the GPS coordinates of the no-fly zones. If it sensed an attempt to jam GPS signals it would switch to other navigation aids such as airport beacons. Being independent of ground control means soft walls would be immune to hacking.
The system is hack proof because they have backup methods for dealing with jamming. Why it's so obvious they've thought of everything. It's almost as brilliant as asking everyone to turn off their cell phones, cause terrorists don't carry cell phones.
Hack Checklist:
1. Spoof GPS -- SUCCESS
2. Jam/Destroy GPS
3. Spoof Beacon Finder -- SUCCESS
4. Jam/Destroy Beacon Finder
5. Spoof next method of determining where you be -- SUCCESS
6. Jam/Destroy next modwyb - SUCCESS
Personally I would rather see pilots armed than this hack proof system. Flying naked would be a better system but all the seats would have to be vinyl.
They are there to protect businesses and the government itself.
This is a disturbing trend in the United States of Lawyers and short of a revolution there is not much that can be done to reverse it. Just look at the article from yesterday where Oral Hatch wants to exclude copyright owners from anti-hacking laws so they can destroy a personal computer. It's sad and scary.
What the USL needs is a new Bill of Rights that protects people from corporations.
We did the same thing one summer but didn't go for a shot by shot remake. ND was the kid who had the camera and we had an overweight asian kid run around saying "ND, ND, they stole the ankh stone". He was taller than ND and we knew it was schlock. We also did a spoof of Star Wars but pre-internet had no hope for distribution.
when Universes collide. If two universes collided, one that is m-dimensional and another that is n-dimensional, than a new universe is created at the point of intersection that is m+n dimensional. The new universe shares the dimensions that are common and also incorporates the unique dimensions provided by each universe (if both have unique dimensions to provide).
Those of us in the interior of the new universe see only a small % of the matter. That's because the remaining large % is still outside the collision area. The big bang was the point of impact, which spread along the dimensions of the two universes involved in the collision. The reason we see more universes and stars everywhere we look is because as the impact area expands there is more of our universe to see.
This will be proven in the future and will account for all of the inconsistencies in current models of the new universe.
Luckily, no one gets burned at the stake for suggesting this.
How come every time I hear about a poll, no one ever asks me?
Seriously though, polling should be a more rigid business. Without knowing who was polled, how the polling group was selected, the questions and the cookie cutter answers (which are usually not comprehensive), there's no way to judge if the poll actually means anything.
Could you post all of the above information for each of the polls that you mention? That might clear up some of the confusion.
Slow news day finds lazy reporter surfing slashdot for something to write about.
I think we have a new phenomenon starting here:
First slashdot posts a small story about something vaguely scientific or geekish. Eventually, a lazy reporter slightly drunk from his usually liquid lunch reads the story with one eye closed. Proceeds to write puff piece weaving elements from the story and slashdot user's commentaries into a drunken slurry of double vision inspired verbosity. After waking up at 3 am with his head on the keyboard, drunken reporter deletes the last paragraph, which ended with a;hkjhgdferuh (because his head was on the keyboard and he can't remember what it was supposed to say) and puts it in a pile on his fat, baliding editors desk. The fat balding news editor, whose fat because he eats chocolate and bald because of genetics, reads it on a slow news day, laughs his fat az off and decides to run it anyways. Slashdot editor, who suffers from the same problems as the news editor but for different reasons, reads the headline and proceeds to post the story.
Wash-Rinse-Repeat.
Now if only the follow up to the follow up stories and posts would present better information than we might be on to something.
Although they share a similar story line, the Kevin Costner movie stripped almost every vestige of what made the book great. Costner turned the lead role from hero to antihero. In the book, the Postman was looking for and actually trying to reestablish civilization. In the movie, he's just trying to scam food, supplies and sex (while also getting a lot of people killed in the process). The movie combined the two female leads and dropped the most important story line in the book (if you've read the book you'll know what I'm talking about - The night of the long knives). In the book, there are reasons for what the Postman does. In the movie, the Postman just seems to wander about making trouble and only at the end does he do anything about it.
What a waste. I could go on but it's the same for almost all big screen adaptations of SF books. The translation of Starship Troopers was nearly as painful. In the book, troopers were seperated by miles (that's why they had armor) and in the movie troopers just ran around in mobs. One grenade could have taken out an entire squad.
The only hope is that hollywood will notice the performance of a faithful adaptation of source material ala Spiderman or the X-Men. If they can do that for comic books, there's hope that they'll one day do the same for Science Fiction.
Why bother tethering this thing to the ground? It should be feasable to have a platform that is strung below it at a high altitude. Supplies and payload could be brought aboard by helicopter or blimp. This would reduce the overall length of the elevator and also make it movable (easier to avoid space junk). The platform would be a counter weight and could disconnect if part of the ribbon is cut somewhere else.
This would also make it look very cool (kind of like Lando's place in ESB).
I'm sure there are a million reasons to not do this but there were a million reasons not to go to the moon and we did that.
Hi Larry,
Can you tell us what you're currently working on and do you have any plans to collaborate with Jerry Pournelle? Also, are any of your books planned for big or small screen translation? I'd love to see a movie based on Ringworld, Legacy of Heorot or A Mote in God's Eye. Fallen Angels would make a good serial on the SciFi channel (something similar to Steven Spielburgs 'Taken').
Finally, thanks for the great books.
IIRC, the large-scale attack on the root servers was a simple ping flood. Changing the software that the root servers run will not mitigate the same or a similar type of attack.
I think the internet is going to have to move to a tiered approach of trusted and untrusted networks. Unfettered access was okay when there were only a few systems connected but with millions of users, trust is something you must earn. If a network or ISP allows a user to spoof the packets they send than that network or ISP should be labeled untrustworthy and their QOS should reflect that. Legitimate users will eventually migrate to trusted nets and ISPs.
The internet should be a priveledge ala driving. If you can't be trusted with that priveledge than your access should be revoked or at least severely limited.
She has an interesting trilogy that starts with "Grass". The others should be listed on the inside cover. Grass managed to grab me from the first page and never let go. It reads like the first Amber trilogy but is a little shorter. The overall trilogy is only loosely tied together but all three books are worth the time. If you like those you can check out some of her other titles.
Besides inventing the cotton gin, Eli Whitney also invented replaceable parts (for use in muskets) and the assembly line (to make musket parts). Before Eli everything was hand made. Unfortunately most Americans know Whitney only as the inventor of the cotton gin.
American history as taught in high school is usually formulated by a committee and almost always contains a large number of inaccuracies, such as Ben Franklin getting loans from the French. But that's another story.
Vinge created not one but two very good Sci-Fi Universes. 'A Fire Upon the Deep' and 'A Deepness in the Sky' were set in the same universe and are both very good books. I loved the idea of the zones and the difference in the races that populated them. The ideas in these two books are large and well thought out. The aliens and the powers are what I expect aliens and alien intelligence to be like, if they exist. He also did a good job in creating a believable future in the Peace Wars saga. Although the wider universe is only hinted at (through the travels of the deep space scout) it is apparent that it is a large place with mysteries aplenty.
David Brin's Uplift Universe is also very well thought out. Like Vinge, Brin has aliens that are alien and humans are not at the center or even close to the apogee. The aliens have thought processes that are not like ours and their behaviour is at times completely unexpected. I also like the idea that we are not the only beings capable of higher intelligence on our planet. It's a good lesson and one that most people seem to overlook. If one day in the future we realize that our Galaxy or our neighborhood therein is bereft of intelligence, maybe we can start looking here for friends and allies to keep us company and enjoy in it's benefits.
Most science fiction is too small or too homogoneous. If and when we ever get off of this rock, I'm sure that we will all be surprised at what is out there for us to find. I just hope we survive long enough to actually do some of the things we are capable of imagining.
Depending on the size and speed, I would think fragments are infinately better than one big lump. If we can move it, than that would be the way to go. If not, blow the sucker up.
Shumaker-Levy should have been a suitable demonstration of this.
1 Finland 0,50
- Iceland 0,50
- Norway 0,50
- Netherlands 0,50
5 Canada 0,75
6 Ireland 1,00
7 Germany 1,50
- Portugal 1,50
- Sweden 1,50
10 Denmark 3,00
11 France 3,25
12 Australia 3,50
- Belgium 3,50
14 Slovenia 4,00
15 Costa Rica 4,25
- Switzerland 4,25
Half these countries would fit inside Texas if you stuffed them in there at the same time. Why not compare the U.S.A on a state by state basis. I'm sure there are lots of states that have no jounalists in prison.
And where the hell is Luxembourg? The fact that Belgium and Holland made it but not Luxembourg makes me doubt they even did a study.
Even more troubling, Urugay ties with Briton and everyone knows that jounalists there can't even print the name of the country without getting sued for slander.
.
This is really just economics 101 and has been going on for at least the last two centuries. It is a force of nature of tidal proportions and if you've seen the movie "Network" than you can just insert the rant from Ned Beatty.
The article has it wrong though. Anything they can make for $40 can be bought by just about anyone in bulk for $45. That's the truth. Make your widgets and thingees for however much you can make them and we'll keep shipping green pieces of paper. Somebody here will make even more green pieces of paper reselling them.
China needs to be careful. They have billions to feed and an environment that is becoming quickly polluted.
Security comparisons of this box versus that box is a bit rediculous. No box can handle all aspects of security on their own. DoS attacks can not be stopped at the box. Port probes if conducted over a long enough time frame are nearly undetectable. One compromised box can be used to compromise all boxes on a subnet.
That's not to say that security is impossible, it's just that it is amorphous. It's as complex a problem as determining the weather or fighting multinational terrorists, simply because they change from day to day. To make matters worse, from the beginning of the internet any machine that is connected to the internet is a target for every hacker on the internet. Those are lousy odds.
The most secure systems these days are protected in multiple layers and the number of companies that are producing multi-tiered security solutions are growing. Still, without redesigning the internet as a whole I don't see security getting better, just more complex, costly and necessary.
I hardly see how this is interesting news. MS is providing a box to play games. They would like to make sure that people pay for the games and also that the box is not used for other purposes. This is different than the PC market as the former has always been proprietary and the latter was always an open market. This is also different as the h/w in question was licensed to a single company to manufacture.
You cannot buy an XBox and reverse engineer it and produce multiple XBoxen. This would be actionable in any country in the world where any of you live. Is it legal for MS to say you can't hack their box? No. Is it legal for MS to say if you hack their box, other things might not work? Yes.
Think about it and try to remember that Sony is winning, Linux is growing and the world will keep spinning even if they don't.
Cheers!
When limitedTime > MAXINT. DUH
Pawn Shop.
This is where my wife's engagement/wedding band comes from and it worked out really well for both of us.
You have to be selective though. Don't just buy any ring, find one you know she'll like. Maybe go shopping with her at a real jewelry store and let her pick a few.
After you know what she likes, go to a few pawn shops and find one that is similiar. Then take it to a jeweler and have them clean it. They will also sell you a nice new box to put it in.
Final piece of advice, never ever admit that that is where you got it. If anyone asks say it's not important, just so long as your sweetie is happy.
Cheers!
We don't need another revolution. What we need is a new constitutional convention. If it's only mandate was to rewrite the bill of rights in modern language it would get us a lot closer to what the founders of this country envisioned. BTW, it's interesting that no replies to your post show up but your own replies to those posts do. I guess it's okay for you to control the debate.
What is the point of your ranting? That the US hasn't done enough or that the US is responsible through its actions for all that is bad?
Maybe I should feel guilty, being a US citizen and all, that we haven't solved all of the worlds problems.
I suppose the Japanese and Germans would have done a better job of things if they had won WWII. Maybe the USSR would have exported their version of a workers paradise if there was no cold war. Maybe Mao's great leap forward wouldn't have resulted in millions of dead from starvation if the US had done something or nothing (you tell me, Nostradumbass).
Maybe. But I doubt it.
When did MS become a game console monopoly?
The monopoly they do have is only for Operating Systems on the Intel x86 architecture. It seems absurd that MS can have a monopoly on a microprocessor which itself is not a monopoly.