The real trick is preventing this from being abused by people who would like to track your every move. I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader, I don't want to think too hard about whether it's even possible to make it reasonably private.
A simple icon on the desktop for turning it off and on (password protected with a different password then the user pswd) would be a nice start. After that it's social engineering, if the password protection is strong enough.
Fixing the social engineering part I'll leave to all the readers;-)
The whole discussion about this lacked one thing - some level of assumption of the skill level of the thief (or the unlucky bastard who bought it from one)
My ancient 800mhz celeron laptop is slowly dying, so I sympathize;-)
I wrote a simple call-home script for that one - for when I used to carry it to work - that basically just gathered system information such as output of ifconfig, recognized DNS servers, a simple traceroute to a known good location (paid for server space) plus odds and ends and dumped it as a text file to aforementioned serverspace.
Modern laptops with wifi, how hard would it be to have it search for open connections on boot and "check in" with the server thru one of those, before the login screen? I'll be buying a new laptop this summer and modifying the "call home" script is one of priority items on my list (Item #1: remove windows, install kubuntu).
So I'd be curious about other simple permutations... mine is a simple bash script utilizing ftp, transfers about fifty or sixty kilobytes twice an hour. The ftp password is plaintext in the script, but this is a simple rw to one dir account and any access to it that doesn't match pre-defined IPs is logged and emailed to me, so I can't see a way around that which I wouldn't catch. (Clue me in if you do, I'm still learning this)
The apartment building I currently live in is not very easy to secure from a physical standpoint without putting a lot of my own money into someone else's property. My tools would not be easy to steal - but a new laptop would... haven't faced the problem yet, but know I will someday;0
Having it transfer information about the laptop's internet connection (IP, DNS, traceroute) to that webserver would be much more useful in locating the thief, and that can be done very quietly, before the login screen comes up with a simple boot script. Images aren't going to be very useful unless they include some recognizable background (or a recognizable face, which isn't very likely unless it's a coworker or neighbor; although having both sets of data would almost ensure a conviction, I'd think (IANAL)).
Modern laptops with wifi make *not* connecting to the internet a bit harder. I doubt most average laptop thieves have the know-how to disable the onboard wifi from the bios when they boot it up, and even in my small town there are few places I can't find a open wireless connection. I'm on a hilltop in an area with a lot of apartment complexes, and I regularly see over thirty open wans - in a small college town of 10k.
Are you by any chance familiar with the term "Bread and Circuses"?
Technological progress does not a better state of being make; not by itself.
What, exactly, is wrong with having serious issues about the way we do things now? Isn't dissent and debate how processes become more efficient? (Well, it's meant to be that way, there are exceptions of course. I'm sure you could name a few. The GP named one. Congress is another.:) )
Third, the concepts require the notion of biological reproduction.
My understanding of FP is that it requires *uncontrolled* reproduction. Any species that can would almost have to control their population explosion in order to marshal the resources necessary to colonize other star systems.
Your thoughts on transcending biological reproduction are another good example of holes in the FP. Heck, we can't even reasonably define "intelligence" yet;-)
Given how difficult interstellar flight is, it's probable that a civilization simply won't have the resources to do it *unless* they gain control of their population problem. Otherwise all the new resources they find provoke more expansion... that's not an ironclad rule but it seems likely.
Or they may expand to a few score or more "local" systems, then start building Dyson spheres and/or migrate to L-space...;-)
Throwing the politicians in would be even worse - the transport costs alone would be daunting. Still, as a nation at war, we must accept any sacrifice.
Once someone thinks up an idea that produces another source of tax money, it'll be reintroduced over and over ad infinitum. It may fall out of favor once in a while, but you can bet that it's distant descendants will reappear to haunt us until the extinction of our civilization.
I'm still waiting for someone to prove that reality isn't disproveable. At that point we can give up all this silly shenanigans and get on with building better propulsion systems and colonizing the universe;-)
But that doesn't change the fact that the result of all these people signing up is that the American hegemony is spread across the world, and these people must share in the responsibility for this.
In the long run, the entire human race shares the responsibility.
In the short run, every American citizen does - and especially right now. That means you and me too, drinkypoo, one way or another.:)
I'm not talking about voting. I'm talking about living here and sharing the burden. Voting is pretty much useless. ( George W. Bush, twice: I rest my case.)
Do the best job we can and in our spare time learn and speak out. We all bear the burden - and the responsibility lies on us - whether we choose to accept it or not.
I've heard of those but can't get them around here. Are they limited as to max wattage? Sounds like they'd be perfect for my odds and ends miniature desk and readings lamps (which I use 40 watt oven bulbs in currently) but I'd like to see one in action, first...
Not just monetary penalties, either. Perhaps the patent submitter should be disallowed from submitting patents for a length of time if it's proven that they submitted the patent in bad faith. That would level the field somewhat, I'd think.
The payoff in this case depends greatly on initial funding and even more so upon sticking with the damned funding for it in the first place. Oh, and selecting the right goal... which sure as hell isn't the Moon or Mars, it's NEAs and the resources in them. Moving one of them to where we want it is a much less daunting challenge, initial resource expenditure-wise, than lifting the equivalent materials out of Earth's gravity well. We even possess all the tools we need to do such a thing right now...
If the shit really hits the fan, the only worthwhile currency will be food, so I suggest you cash in your hoard of gold and invest in baked beans and twinkies, those things last forever.
Alcohol (ethanol and methanol). Same production technology gives you water distillation capabilities, as well, so copper/glass|silicon-sand (think tubing) would be other good trade articles; both can be worked with fairly simple technology. Food ain't worth much if you're freezing to death or have no way to cook it. (Which also brings to mind firewood as a trade article in a really severe crash - and coal/coke for forges and kilns. And other things, this has been beaten to death before... see my sig [technical books] *g* )
That's why reading the News while feeding the shitter is not a good idea. More light reading, like the novelization of ChainSawIII, is recommended for a calm, relaxing experience on the toilet.
When one considers that it can be scaled up nearly infinitely, it would seem to me that it ought to fall under international law regarding area effect weapons that shouldn't be used on civilians.
Slashdot Mirror
Whatever turns you on.
SB
Using the same method by which one puts an elephant into an icebox, of course.
Sheese, don't they teach this in schools anymore?
First, you find a quantum black hole...
SB
The real trick is preventing this from being abused by people who would like to track your every move. I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader, I don't want to think too hard about whether it's even possible to make it reasonably private.
;-)
A simple icon on the desktop for turning it off and on (password protected with a different password then the user pswd) would be a nice start. After that it's social engineering, if the password protection is strong enough.
Fixing the social engineering part I'll leave to all the readers
The whole discussion about this lacked one thing - some level of assumption of the skill level of the thief (or the unlucky bastard who bought it from one)
Sigh.
SB
My ancient 800mhz celeron laptop is slowly dying, so I sympathize ;-)
;0
I wrote a simple call-home script for that one - for when I used to carry it to work - that basically just gathered system information such as output of ifconfig, recognized DNS servers, a simple traceroute to a known good location (paid for server space) plus odds and ends and dumped it as a text file to aforementioned serverspace.
Modern laptops with wifi, how hard would it be to have it search for open connections on boot and "check in" with the server thru one of those, before the login screen? I'll be buying a new laptop this summer and modifying the "call home" script is one of priority items on my list (Item #1: remove windows, install kubuntu).
So I'd be curious about other simple permutations... mine is a simple bash script utilizing ftp, transfers about fifty or sixty kilobytes twice an hour. The ftp password is plaintext in the script, but this is a simple rw to one dir account and any access to it that doesn't match pre-defined IPs is logged and emailed to me, so I can't see a way around that which I wouldn't catch. (Clue me in if you do, I'm still learning this)
The apartment building I currently live in is not very easy to secure from a physical standpoint without putting a lot of my own money into someone else's property. My tools would not be easy to steal - but a new laptop would... haven't faced the problem yet, but know I will someday
SB
Having it transfer information about the laptop's internet connection (IP, DNS, traceroute) to that webserver would be much more useful in locating the thief, and that can be done very quietly, before the login screen comes up with a simple boot script. Images aren't going to be very useful unless they include some recognizable background (or a recognizable face, which isn't very likely unless it's a coworker or neighbor; although having both sets of data would almost ensure a conviction, I'd think (IANAL)).
Modern laptops with wifi make *not* connecting to the internet a bit harder. I doubt most average laptop thieves have the know-how to disable the onboard wifi from the bios when they boot it up, and even in my small town there are few places I can't find a open wireless connection. I'm on a hilltop in an area with a lot of apartment complexes, and I regularly see over thirty open wans - in a small college town of 10k.
Just some thoughts...
SB
(x) Funny mods don't give karma
:)
Gaining karma on a web forum is worth, well, karma on a web forum.
Making people laugh is priceless.
SB
Are you by any chance familiar with the term "Bread and Circuses"?
:) )
Technological progress does not a better state of being make; not by itself.
What, exactly, is wrong with having serious issues about the way we do things now? Isn't dissent and debate how processes become more efficient? (Well, it's meant to be that way, there are exceptions of course. I'm sure you could name a few. The GP named one. Congress is another.
SB
The RIAA instigates enough of these raids, the RIAA are going to kill someone. For copyright violation. It's just a matter of time.
;-\
True.
The real question is, who is going to do anything about it?
That's a long damned chain of lawyers...
SB
I can't decide whether the insurance companies would love or hate that idea.
Of course there would have to be some bureaucracy that makes certain the payments get to the right people
SB
Third, the concepts require the notion of biological reproduction.
;-)
My understanding of FP is that it requires *uncontrolled* reproduction. Any species that can would almost have to control their population explosion in order to marshal the resources necessary to colonize other star systems.
Your thoughts on transcending biological reproduction are another good example of holes in the FP. Heck, we can't even reasonably define "intelligence" yet
SB
Good points.
;-)
Given how difficult interstellar flight is, it's probable that a civilization simply won't have the resources to do it *unless* they gain control of their population problem. Otherwise all the new resources they find provoke more expansion... that's not an ironclad rule but it seems likely.
Or they may expand to a few score or more "local" systems, then start building Dyson spheres and/or migrate to L-space...
SB
Soon, there won't be room for naughty folks like us to run about at all.
We might have to go try our fortunes out in the black...
SB
Throwing the politicians in would be even worse - the transport costs alone would be daunting. Still, as a nation at war, we must accept any sacrifice.
SB
Once someone thinks up an idea that produces another source of tax money, it'll be reintroduced over and over ad infinitum. It may fall out of favor once in a while, but you can bet that it's distant descendants will reappear to haunt us until the extinction of our civilization.
;)
Then, it will get reborn again.
SB
I'm still waiting for someone to prove that reality isn't disproveable. At that point we can give up all this silly shenanigans and get on with building better propulsion systems and colonizing the universe
SB
Fits right in with the new leasing business models, doesn't it?
SB
I'm not sure most people even comprehend the difference nowadays ;-(
SB
But that doesn't change the fact that the result of all these people signing up is that the American hegemony is spread across the world, and these people must share in the responsibility for this.
:)
;)
In the long run, the entire human race shares the responsibility.
In the short run, every American citizen does - and especially right now. That means you and me too, drinkypoo, one way or another.
I'm not talking about voting. I'm talking about living here and sharing the burden. Voting is pretty much useless. ( George W. Bush, twice: I rest my case.)
Do the best job we can and in our spare time learn and speak out. We all bear the burden - and the responsibility lies on us - whether we choose to accept it or not.
But... you knew all that already.
SB
So how many divisions does Microsoft have?
SB
I've heard of those but can't get them around here. Are they limited as to max wattage? Sounds like they'd be perfect for my odds and ends miniature desk and readings lamps (which I use 40 watt oven bulbs in currently) but I'd like to see one in action, first...
SB
Not just monetary penalties, either. Perhaps the patent submitter should be disallowed from submitting patents for a length of time if it's proven that they submitted the patent in bad faith. That would level the field somewhat, I'd think.
SB
The payoff in this case depends greatly on initial funding and even more so upon sticking with the damned funding for it in the first place. Oh, and selecting the right goal... which sure as hell isn't the Moon or Mars, it's NEAs and the resources in them. Moving one of them to where we want it is a much less daunting challenge, initial resource expenditure-wise, than lifting the equivalent materials out of Earth's gravity well. We even possess all the tools we need to do such a thing right now...
SB
If the shit really hits the fan, the only worthwhile currency will be food, so I suggest you cash in your hoard of gold and invest in baked beans and twinkies, those things last forever.
Alcohol (ethanol and methanol). Same production technology gives you water distillation capabilities, as well, so copper/glass|silicon-sand (think tubing) would be other good trade articles; both can be worked with fairly simple technology. Food ain't worth much if you're freezing to death or have no way to cook it. (Which also brings to mind firewood as a trade article in a really severe crash - and coal/coke for forges and kilns. And other things, this has been beaten to death before... see my sig [technical books] *g* )
SB
That's why reading the News while feeding the shitter is not a good idea. More light reading, like the novelization of ChainSawIII, is recommended for a calm, relaxing experience on the toilet.
SB
When one considers that it can be scaled up nearly infinitely, it would seem to me that it ought to fall under international law regarding area effect weapons that shouldn't be used on civilians.
SB