Perhaps Linux is ready for desktop -use-, but not for -installation-. Would schools etc. be happy to use Linux, if it came with a technician to install it? (for a lower price than a copy of Windows costs)
Ugh... people should be trying to start an uproar here, not sitting back and saying "at least so-and-so registered this stupidly obvious patent and not Microosft". Howcome it's OK to patent using a kernel with an OS, but not to patent a compression algorithm or a hyperlink?
I have some experience to draw on here. While developing an internet-based payment system, I had to evaluate various security scenarios. The payment system is a server (Apache+PHP:) with connections to a transaction switch which is connected to a bank; a Merchant shopping site will redirect a customer to the payment page, who will make their payment there, and return a success or failure flag to the Merchant. The Merchant will tally up cash with us or with the banks in their regular settlement.
The first scenario I decided on and implemented was the similar as what Passport is using, but with the 3DES-key optional (so that Merchants with poor web coders could still participate). For the rest of this discussion, I'll only refer to the version with the DES protection.
Also, being a payment system,there was only one ever call and one return with results -- not a login and logout process.
We found that by using various SSL, cookie methods, and so on, we could get around all security flaws, but the downside is that the Merchant has an awful lot of responsibilities, including:
Verifying, encrypting and decrypting the 3DES keys
Keeping its 3DES key secure...
...which entails keeping its system totally secure from hacking
Implementing the rest of the protocol to communicate with the Passport etc. server via cookies
Generating cookies that work correctly in any version of any browser (even getting them to work correctly in one browser is a hassle!)
Detecting duplicate transactions (for example, J.Hacker does a valid purchase for $1; and records the connection, then comes back later, begins a purchase for $10000, and intercepts the connection and responds with the $1 packet)
and the list goes on. In the end I decided that while it was a security model that held together,
and if I were coding for the Merchant I could do it correctly, but there are many Merchants that would simply fail to do it right, and either have it work buggily or insecurely, or not at all, and then blame the system (or the customers would blame the system).
It's easy to say "Well, they should do it right," but when you've been in the commercial world a while, you realise just how incompetent many companies are.
In the end, tired of patching up small hole after small hole and writing merchant integration documents, I changed my mind and chose an alternative scheme which may seem harder for Merchants at first, but in fact leaves them as little room for going wrong, even if the transactions run a little slower.
Conclusion? Hack just one of the merchants involved in Passport, grab their 3DES key, and you're in and untraceable (bar the merchant actually keeping valid authentication logs and being able to follow them; in which case the worst that could happen is that they change their 3DES key). The security will deter script kiddies but a hacker with serious skills will have a field day.
Not at all, people would just remember that the proof refers to "primes other than 1". The current definition was chosen so that you have to do as little writing as possible to describe what's going on.
The properties of numbers do not change, regardless of what names we give them.
The main reason for 1 not being considered prime is so that a theorem known as the "Fundamental Theorem of Algebra", is true when it talks about "prime" numbers. In natural numbers, the theorem amounts to the idea that each number has one (and only one) factorisation into prime numbers (eg. 140 = 2x2x5x7).
These are not proof at all (in fact they aren't even evidence). Consider the theory: "Gravity behaves like relativity says it does at the moment, but on 1 Jan 2050 it will suddenly become repulsive".
If you want your measurements to confirm relativity, then they must all confirm my theory too.
Sorry, Slashdot posters are not allowed to have a girlfriend.
And, inconvenient and messy? First, when something that naturally occurs in the body (when things are working NORMALLY) is seen as inconvenient, it really should make one question the adopted framework/society that would MAKE it inconvenient.
As far as I can see, IT companies are screaming out (with cheque books foremost) for skilled IT workers. Getting a programming job or a Unix/Linux sysadmin is easier than falling off a log.
The IT industry is still growing very fast, and companies that have nothing to do with IT are hiring a sysadmin or programmer just to write them a website, or do a computer program of their products, or whatever.
Sharing files is kinda the whole idea of the internet, isn't it? (especially the WWW). I'm glad that Slashdot is kind enough to share their index.html, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do so many people hate the passive voice? (even MS Word does). What's wrong with it can't be seen by me.
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for everything else that has been tried"
Perhaps Linux is ready for desktop -use-, but not for -installation-. Would schools etc. be happy to use Linux, if it came with a technician to install it? (for a lower price than a copy of Windows costs)
Is the algorithm memorizable?
So who wins.. the older brother or the younger brother?
Ugh... people should be trying to start an uproar here, not sitting back and saying "at least so-and-so registered this stupidly obvious patent and not Microosft". Howcome it's OK to patent using a kernel with an OS, but not to patent a compression algorithm or a hyperlink?
And the prosecution team is led by... Shawn Fanning ;D
The first scenario I decided on and implemented was the similar as what Passport is using, but with the 3DES-key optional (so that Merchants with poor web coders could still participate). For the rest of this discussion, I'll only refer to the version with the DES protection.
Also, being a payment system,there was only one ever call and one return with results -- not a login and logout process.
We found that by using various SSL, cookie methods, and so on, we could get around all security flaws, but the downside is that the Merchant has an awful lot of responsibilities, including:
- Verifying, encrypting and decrypting the 3DES keys
- Keeping its 3DES key secure...
- ...which entails keeping its system totally secure from hacking
- Implementing the rest of the protocol to communicate with the Passport etc. server via cookies
- Generating cookies that work correctly in any version of any browser (even getting them to work correctly in one browser is a hassle!)
- Detecting duplicate transactions (for example, J.Hacker does a valid purchase for $1; and records the connection, then comes back later, begins a purchase for $10000, and intercepts the connection and responds with the $1 packet)
and the list goes on. In the end I decided that while it was a security model that held together, and if I were coding for the Merchant I could do it correctly, but there are many Merchants that would simply fail to do it right, and either have it work buggily or insecurely, or not at all, and then blame the system (or the customers would blame the system).It's easy to say "Well, they should do it right," but when you've been in the commercial world a while, you realise just how incompetent many companies are.
In the end, tired of patching up small hole after small hole and writing merchant integration documents, I changed my mind and chose an alternative scheme which may seem harder for Merchants at first, but in fact leaves them as little room for going wrong, even if the transactions run a little slower.
Conclusion? Hack just one of the merchants involved in Passport, grab their 3DES key, and you're in and untraceable (bar the merchant actually keeping valid authentication logs and being able to follow them; in which case the worst that could happen is that they change their 3DES key). The security will deter script kiddies but a hacker with serious skills will have a field day.
I [sic] hope it's [sic] better-written [sic] than Taco's assessment [sic] would indicate.
All your base are belong to pi
Not at all, people would just remember that the proof refers to "primes other than 1". The current definition was chosen so that you have to do as little writing as possible to describe what's going on.
The properties of numbers do not change, regardless of what names we give them.
The main reason for 1 not being considered prime is so that a theorem known as the "Fundamental Theorem of Algebra", is true when it talks about "prime" numbers. In natural numbers, the theorem amounts to the idea that each number has one (and only one) factorisation into prime numbers (eg. 140 = 2x2x5x7).
These are not proof at all (in fact they aren't even evidence). Consider the theory: "Gravity behaves like relativity says it does at the moment, but on 1 Jan 2050 it will suddenly become repulsive".
If you want your measurements to confirm relativity, then they must all confirm my theory too.
Is anyone else enjoying how Genoaschild seems to have replied to his own post about ten times in a row?
Sorry, Slashdot posters are not allowed to have a girlfriend.
And, inconvenient and messy? First, when something that naturally occurs in the body (when things are working NORMALLY) is seen as inconvenient, it really should make one question the adopted framework/society that would MAKE it inconvenient.
You look forward to taking a dump then?
What is "onnellinen-onnellinen-ilo-ilo" ?
I happen to find French girls very exciting, thank you..:)
and if X-Files does come to NZ, maybe they could do a few episodes on the unexplained mysteries of recent Government decisions
Yes, that woman has thighs to die for.
...A Beowulf cluster of statues of liberty?
As far as I can see, IT companies are screaming out (with cheque books foremost) for skilled IT workers. Getting a programming job or a Unix/Linux sysadmin is easier than falling off a log.
The IT industry is still growing very fast, and companies that have nothing to do with IT are hiring a sysadmin or programmer just to write them a website, or do a computer program of their products, or whatever.
Better to recognize good examples and implement them yourself, than to go around reinventing the wheel, or doing dumb things instead
full-blown, haha
I find "bash" is excruciatingly easy to use.
Don't confuse "easy to use" with "similar to Microsoft".
You need Gnosis 0.0.1 (a plugin for Lilo)
Get Elcomsoft to write PDF extensions for Konqueror
Sharing files is kinda the whole idea of the internet, isn't it? (especially the WWW). I'm glad that Slashdot is kind enough to share their index.html, etc.