Would you want to use a product from an entity you don't quite trust?
Don't Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and McAfee both have holes to let Magic Lantern barge right in?
"An Associated Press article [since removed from their web] then reported that "at least one antivirus software company, McAfee Corp., contacted the FBI... to ensure its software wouldn't inadvertently detect the bureau's snooping software and alert a criminal suspect."
I think these vendors should be considered only partially trustworthy.
...It seems to me that if this were refined properly, the devices that defy gravity could even be used to power themselves.
I can see it now:
Scientist: Ok, Igor, the anti-grav experiment's ready. Power ON!
Igor: Yes, Master! (throwing switch) ZZZzzaap!
(experiment) Hummmmmm....(starts floating slightly off the ground)
Scientist: Eureka! It works! I'll be famous!
(experiment): starts shaking, generating its own power, then zzzzZZZZIP!
(experiment): Whoosh! (Takes off at an incredible rate, zooming into the clouds in seconds, tether cable zipping behind)
Scientist: Damn! I knew I should've tethered that thing closer to the ground.
Igor: Master? What's this about tethering it to the ground? Uhh, I wouldn't stand so close to that spinning aircraft cable spool if I were you...
Scientist: (swoosh!)aaaaaAAAAAAaaaaa.....
(experiment): (approaching escape velocity)
Igor: Dang! I knew I should've brought my video camera. Could've sold it to Henchman's Funniest Lab Videos. Oh well, now I'm the famous one. Glad I kept those secret backups and other prototype in the lab. Heh-heh-heh.
I went across that bridge on the Amtrak train, twice. Water seemed to be a few feet away, and I couldn't even see the tracks/rail ties below us, just water. A really thrilling ride!
Wife was terrified, wouldn't look out the window. I was thinking..."If this train jumps the tracks, we're all fish-bait!"
Good thing, too. They'd have to divert the flow from Silicone Valley (aka the San Fernando Valley in Southern California).
Although...a silicone bridge could have benefits:
-being soft & bouncy, it would muffle traffic noise
- automatic "soft studs" would rise through the surface in cold or wet weather.
- If pedestrians fell on the surface, they'd bounce back (or be found, hours later, on their hands and knees, continually rubbing the surface, cooing "Ooooooh! Soft studs!" until traffic safety engineers forcibly removed them).
Uh oh is right! Just imagine the horrors that be unleashed on the earth when Micro$oft's "well-known" coding practices are written into nanobots that spawn more nanobots!
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, perhaps?
Or the Dunwich Horror?
Hey wait...maybe Bill Gates already is a nano-creation...?
Just being able to trace who talked to who (which is visible in a packet trace, even of an SSL session with client auth, by looking at client and server certificates), will usually provide a lot of information.
Anonymize! Then you get into VoIP (Voice Over IP), and things like the VoIP equivalent to Triangle Boy where you could "meet" someone for a secure conference at an anonymous server, which could conveniently "lose" the logs after the encrypted conversation...
The "Patriots" knew you called an anon server, but they don't know who you talked to. If there's enough traffic they might not be able to correlate your incoming and the called party's outgoing packets.
...if someone gained full access to this machine, they could fairly easily run a brute-force attack on the encrypted data, if they found our secret key on that machine
If someone had your secret key, then by definition, they don't need to run a brute-force attack of your keyspace. Barring weak links of:
poor keys (easily guessed, too-small keyspaces),
people (HUMINT, bribery, "rubber hose" queries, sticky note passphrases),
network (sniffing keystrokes across unencrypted LANs, Magic Lantern/ software keyloggers), or
physical (TEMPEST attacks, hardware keylogger inside/near keyboard, stealing a computer/drive or backup tape and doing forensic analysis on the data),
...without the key, a brute-force method should be the only way to read the data.
The SEC called off its investigation in exchange for Microsoft's promise that it will not break the rules in the future, though the company is not admitting that it broke rules in the past.
Microsoft Testimony (a' la Bart Simpson):
1. We didn't do it. You can't prove a thing. No one saw anything.
2. We double-cross (heh) our hearts-hope-to-die-promise won't do it again.
D'OH! Did we say again? Since we never did it, how could we not do it again?
Yeah! Huh? What? Uh, wait, Your Honor, that's not what we meant either...motion to strike our ignorance from the record!
Microsoft...will have it [the OS? Word?] check to see what program it's interfacing with
Huh? If {Star|Open}Office reads in a MS Word document from, say, a floppy disk, how could Word possibly interfere with that? Would Word constantly be running in the background, checking all of its documents, everywhere making sure no other application converts its precious document files into another format? I think not.
and XML-based, not some proprietary M$ format, so it shouldn't be hard to migrate if something better comes along. besides, have you seen how many old file formats SO will import? (XYWrite, IBM DisplayWrite, etc.?)
At least you won't run into M$/Clippy/Jar-Jar saying "Oh-suh, meehsa thinks youse document format is-a no-go."
(Pomp & Circumstance playing in background)
Dean: "Congratulations! Here's your diplo..."
Software Police: "Freeze! Does that wearable computer contain school-provided software?
Student: "Uhhh...nnnn..no."
Software Police: "You're lying. Men? Cuff 'em! Follow me to the whole-body degausser."
Dean: "Err, if you remember anything after the degaussing, come back for your diploma. Next student, please?"
Student: (using heads-up sunglasses and laser-eye cursor) mail -s "urgent: M$ help needed" council@eff.org...
Slashdot Mirror
This sounds like the beginning of an evil plan...bwahahahahahahaaaa!
How many readings of the story did it take before you realized that you had read it before?
(insert Groundhog Day, Memento joke here)
Is it because the name was changed from Churchill to Shaw?
Hey, c'mon--it's a LILO joke!
Login: assword
Password: password
I thought Bill Gates already had that position...
Don't Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and McAfee both have holes to let Magic Lantern barge right in?
I think these vendors should be considered only partially trustworthy.Isn't Bulgravia where bull gravy is made?
I can see it now:
Scientist: Ok, Igor, the anti-grav experiment's ready. Power ON!
Igor: Yes, Master! (throwing switch) ZZZzzaap!
(experiment) Hummmmmm....(starts floating slightly off the ground)
Scientist: Eureka! It works! I'll be famous!
(experiment): starts shaking, generating its own power, then zzzzZZZZIP!
(experiment): Whoosh! (Takes off at an incredible rate, zooming into the clouds in seconds, tether cable zipping behind)
Scientist: Damn! I knew I should've tethered that thing closer to the ground.
Igor: Master? What's this about tethering it to the ground?
Uhh, I wouldn't stand so close to that spinning aircraft cable spool if I were you...
Scientist: (swoosh!)aaaaaAAAAAAaaaaa.....
(experiment): (approaching escape velocity)
Igor: Dang! I knew I should've brought my video camera.
Could've sold it to Henchman's Funniest Lab Videos. Oh well, now I'm the famous one.
Glad I kept those secret backups and other prototype in the lab. Heh-heh-heh.
But supermodels might...
If not properly contained/restrained, the guy could end up spinning, end-over-end, leaving a, uhh, DNA trail.
Is this Yoda's proclamation about the Sicilian's game playing future?
Wife was terrified, wouldn't look out the window. I was thinking..."If this train jumps the tracks, we're all fish-bait!"
Although...a silicone bridge could have benefits:
-being soft & bouncy, it would muffle traffic noise
- automatic "soft studs" would rise through the surface in cold or wet weather.
- If pedestrians fell on the surface, they'd bounce back (or be found, hours later, on their hands and knees, continually rubbing the surface, cooing "Ooooooh! Soft studs!" until traffic safety engineers forcibly removed them).
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, perhaps?
Or the Dunwich Horror?
Hey wait...maybe Bill Gates already is a nano-creation...?
I can only satisfy one person a day
And with a nano-penis, you'll be lucky if you can satisfy anyone in a day!
Anonymize! Then you get into VoIP (Voice Over IP), and things like the VoIP equivalent to Triangle Boy where you could "meet" someone for a secure conference at an anonymous server, which could conveniently "lose" the logs after the encrypted conversation...
The "Patriots" knew you called an anon server, but they don't know who you talked to. If there's enough traffic they might not be able to correlate your incoming and the called party's outgoing packets.
Yeah--make them pay for part of the 900 call!
If someone had your secret key, then by definition, they don't need to run a brute-force attack of your keyspace.
Barring weak links of:
poor keys (easily guessed, too-small keyspaces),
people (HUMINT, bribery, "rubber hose" queries, sticky note passphrases),
network (sniffing keystrokes across unencrypted LANs, Magic Lantern/ software keyloggers), or
physical (TEMPEST attacks, hardware keylogger inside/near keyboard, stealing a computer/drive or backup tape and doing forensic analysis on the data),
...without the key, a brute-force method should be the only way to read the data.
The heck with the manual...I want the cheat codes!
Microsoft Testimony (a' la Bart Simpson):
1. We didn't do it. You can't prove a thing. No one saw anything.
2. We double-cross (heh) our hearts-hope-to-die-promise won't do it again.
D'OH! Did we say again? Since we never did it, how could we not do it again?
Yeah! Huh? What? Uh, wait, Your Honor, that's not what we meant either...motion to strike our ignorance from the record!
Huh? If {Star|Open}Office reads in a MS Word document from, say, a floppy disk, how could Word possibly interfere with that? Would Word constantly be running in the background, checking all of its documents, everywhere making sure no other application converts its precious document files into another format? I think not.
At least you won't run into M$/Clippy/Jar-Jar saying "Oh-suh, meehsa thinks youse document format is-a no-go."
(Pomp & Circumstance playing in background) ...
Dean: "Congratulations! Here's your diplo..."
Software Police: "Freeze! Does that wearable computer contain school-provided software?
Student: "Uhhh...nnnn..no."
Software Police: "You're lying. Men? Cuff 'em! Follow me to the whole-body degausser."
Dean: "Err, if you remember anything after the degaussing, come back for your diploma. Next student, please?"
Student: (using heads-up sunglasses and laser-eye cursor) mail -s "urgent: M$ help needed" council@eff.org
...they could be liquid assets.