I wouldn't mind seeing more players in the computer processor industry. The headlines really make it sound like it would be a bad thing. Maybe I'm getting the headlines wrong, but having Nvidia presenting new alternatives to a market almost exclusively owned by Intel and AMD would be interesting.
I do agree with the fact that it's a step forward, and a very nice step. But the article present this as flight time that opens a lot of potential. My point was that, for a practical application, it is not all about flight time. A platform with infinite flight time, but zero payload capability is of no use.
So, as much as this a good step forward, TFA is a bit over enthusiastic regarding the "opened up" potential.
Very interesting might I add. But the suggested applications of such a plane / technology seem to be far fetched. From TFA:
Zephyr's impressive fight time opens up a lot of potential for the aircraft the fields of earth observation and communications relay.
Telecom or science equipment tend to be bulky and heavy. Even with the size reductions of the equipment we witness today, it's still big... too big for the payload of such an ultra-light aircraft.
Furthermore, theseà systems require power; power you either need to carry with you (fuel cells, batteries, etc.) or produce with solar cells. As most of the power from the cells is probably used for flight systems, not much would be left for payload powering, cooling, heating, etc.
The idea is nice, but for me, at this stage, it's nothing more than a toy to get credits for breaking records. Not a serious attempt to develop a usable platform. The potential isn't that great.
Most of the time, when I read a story along these lines (lost data, stolen data, client personal details incl. credit info), I have to ask myself "do they really need to archive all this data on their customers?"
Fully correcting the problem is, as you point out, most likely difficult with the systems already in place. On the other hand a lot of corrective measures can be implemented to improve the current systems as well. Many ideas and suggestions were given to the MBTA administrators by the group of MIT students.
Simple things to improve physical security require only minimal investment (things like making sure employees lock the doors as they should). That was an important point of their presentation: It's not all about hacking the card system or equipment.
I think the idea was that the information will create prejudice and loss of income for the MBTA. And that hypothesis will probably turn out to be true if they don't don anything about the problem.
Not doing anything about the problem is the most likely course of action at this point. Nice to see that a judge won't be giving out a gag order so easily on someone based on the fact that someone else is not going to do its job (or do it correctly).
Optional accessories:
- LCD screen : 150$
- CPU : 100$
- 512 Mb RAM : 50$
- Battery : 100$
- AC Power adapter : 80$
etc.
There are things money can't buy, but for laptops accessories, there's mastercard.
But yeah... I guess the laptop could be 100$ itself.
Back to the good ol' times where GM sold there cars with "wheels" and "Steering wheel" as an option.
"Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?"
Considering the question, I doubt hiking, running, biking to work, base jumping, etc. really qualify as applicable answers.
But seriously... i have to ask... why would you want to limit your exercise to the privacy of your home? That I don't get.
I found that martial arts are an excellent way for geeks to stay in shape. It's hard work, but a good way to create a good training and workout discipline.
There is a large variety of martial arts, some easier than others. My personal choice: Kung Fu.
While I was managing servers and network equipment for a small organization, I was for a very long period of time the only one to possess the low level access password for the equipment I managed. At the time, I was the only person responsible for all IT related affairs and I did not feel anyone else in the organization had the technical knowledge and integrity to posses these access.
On the other hand, all these access and relevant documentation was sealed and under lock with the instruction only to be retrieved in the event something happened to me (accident, incapacitation, death, etc.).
Not wanting to give out critical information to anyone is something (most of the time at least) responsible to do. Not assuring continuity or failing protecting the critical information to be lost through unforeseen circumstances, shows a serious lack of professionalism.
Their claim goes much further than wish lists. At first look at the patent, they claim a very basic method of storing multiple lists (any kind of list) of multiple items.
Probably any database configured prior to 2001 could be given as an example of prior art. Even their claims regarding the structures used, the link between objects and identifiers is nothing new (although not clearly obvious). To me it looks like the natural way any one would build such a database using basic structures.
In a world where you can't expect half the population to take care in a sane, responsible and decent way of their children, how can you expect to take care of their parents.
In many, if not all cases, the children are not objective in their evaluation. You can't revoke someone's driving privileges on subjective assessment nor you can expect people to follow "moral driving guidelines" and stop driving when they did it their whole life. An official permit removal and license removal has a real and immediate effect, unlike good will.
And, obviously, in most cases, having independent and objective instances assessing the situation should make this question much less delicate and difficult in the families when the situation arises.
In some regions (mostly In the EU I think), cars need to be inspected by official instances periodically. On "old" car (like 10 years or so), the period and intensity of those inspections increases... because, obviously, cars tend to have more problems when they get older.
That's very nice, but on the other hand, the approach for drivers is totally different. You pass your permit once and then you have it for life. Looking at the way people drive here, a periodic reevaluation of law and safety knowledge, driving skills, awareness and visual acuity of the drivers should be done on a periodic basis (like every 5 years or so) and on a more regular basis after a certain age.
Using these tests, special limitations could be imposed to drivers having problems, like being allowed to drive during the day only. Eventually, full permit revocation could occur.
That may sound a harsh thing to do for us used to a "lifetime" privilege, but I've witness so many accidents cause by older drivers. Some where so unaware of their situation, they didn't even realize they were implicated in an accident. Few years back, one drove over a 7 year old kit and its bike... thinking he had it a bump on the road. That was 50 meters away from an elementary school, on the hours where kids get out of the school.
As much as I respect our elders and all they can contribute to us and our society, they do not contribute a lot of good things by driving while not having the health to do so. When you are at the point you require artificial means to cope with your loss of sight and awareness (other than normal glasses or contacts), you shouldn't drive. Period. You are only putting the lives of others (and your own) at risk.
I've seen many PC gamers, mostly hardcore gamers, that in some way or another, brag about their system capabilities. Think about it... if you had an old Porsche and put a lot of your time into it to make it work the way to want, wouldn't you be proud of it and "brag" a little about it?
Now, do these people own that old Porsche only because they want to brag about it and show off? I don't think so. Above all, they enjoy the performance, the responsiveness, the sound, the feeling. They love to drive and with their Porsche they enjoy every second of it, even if they have to put hours to maintain them.
Hardcore PC builder/gamers are a little like this. They put the money and the time to build their hardware and are proud if it. They talk about it. They put their personal touch into it. But, above all of this, they enjoy every second of its use. They love the feeling and the performance of the system and are happy knowing that the time and money they invested payed off.
Sure, you'll always have an idiot somewhere that going to pimp his Porsche and put a stupid wing on it, paint it in an fugly color and put an exhaust that will give more dB than HPs. But that, thank god, is not average enthusiast.
Most people who enjoy driving are happily doing it without driving a Porsche. That doesn't mean that does who have a Porsche, and are proud of it, do not enjoy driving as well (if not more than the average car driver).
Lets face it. An hardcore game can easily play more than 6 hours a day. Over a thousand hour a year. The casual game will play maybe a few hours every week or month. I don't think it's fair to say that the hardcore gamers don't "want to play games" and only brag about their system.
I've been using octoshape for quite while now. Although the concept is interesting and the image quality is fairly good compared to analogue-SDTV, the system doesn't behave flawlessly.
Quite often, the systems simply doesn't work. At some point, the client kept its connection up on the P2P network. Of course, this happened while I was out of town (I'm not the single user of the system) and didn't catch the issue until I came back home. In 3 days, it ate over 60% of my HS cable internet cap (100 GB up+down).
I don't agree with your evaluation. As I understands it, the asf contains a download link for the codec. The player Program for the file (most likely windows media player components) initiate the "please download this missing codec" action using the information within the ASF container (link to the trojan/worm).
This is the problem right here: Using corruptible information for a system-sensitive operation. WMP should only initiate such a download from a secure and authenticated source on the internet or use its own pre-defined sources, like windows update.
This is a "good" user-friendliness feature for users who don't like to be put in front of a simple "missing codec" cryptic error. But so many user-friendliness feature tend to lead, if badly implemented, to major vulnerabilities through common user-behavior attacks.
It's all "data". The problem is how this data is handles by the system components. More importantly is how unverified (and unverifiable - and potentially corrupted) can be used for system sensitive operations. Worse, how this can be done fooling the user to think it's a normal and appropriate measure. This is a FAIL in user psychology and end user system design.
This is really clever. That way of using the file container to get the user to download false codecs.
I wonder if it could work with other wrappers, like AVI, Quicktime, etc. Maybe not in their original state, but with slight modifications that could fool the player.
I wasn't aware of all the capabilities of the ASF wrapper, but that sure was a ticking time bomb.
As I said, it was an earlier design of the liquid mirror they are currently working on. Not the current one which is discussed in TFA. But it was a similar design, by the same research group, at the same location.
I have seen only photographs of the current design, using Ferromagnetic fluids, but have not seen it in person.
These works are done by a group from the Centre d'Optique et de Photonique Laser (COPL), at Laval University in Quebec City. This research center is one of the largest player in the field of optics research in North America.
I've seen this liquid mirror myself while it was in its early stages. At that time it used only mercury. It's a very impressive (and beautiful) sight. This research group, working on liquid mirrors, has been quite excited with the recent talks about lunar-based telescopes. This has always been one of the aimed application for their liquid mirror.
I'm shocked that someone could be surprised surprised by this, but not that someone is shocked by it. On the contrary, I'm more shocked that someone is not shocked by this questionable practice.
It's like if someone was following me in the stores I go to and taking pictures and records of all the pants I try on, all the fruits I buy, etc.
I do not think this is a legal thing to do outside of the internet. Spying, stalking, etc. Why would be legal (and moral) on the Internet?
And even if there was someone to race, their installations would probably get bombed down during a so-called preventive strike because of its potential military applications;)
Nowadays, it's much easier to start a fire and put oil on it than dealing with a cold war it seems.
Slashdot Mirror
I wouldn't mind seeing more players in the computer processor industry. The headlines really make it sound like it would be a bad thing. Maybe I'm getting the headlines wrong, but having Nvidia presenting new alternatives to a market almost exclusively owned by Intel and AMD would be interesting.
They should come up with a set of configurations for the best /.-proof PC servers for 2008 as well.
I do agree with the fact that it's a step forward, and a very nice step. But the article present this as flight time that opens a lot of potential. My point was that, for a practical application, it is not all about flight time. A platform with infinite flight time, but zero payload capability is of no use.
So, as much as this a good step forward, TFA is a bit over enthusiastic regarding the "opened up" potential.
Very interesting might I add. But the suggested applications of such a plane / technology seem to be far fetched. From TFA:
Telecom or science equipment tend to be bulky and heavy. Even with the size reductions of the equipment we witness today, it's still big... too big for the payload of such an ultra-light aircraft.
Furthermore, theseà systems require power; power you either need to carry with you (fuel cells, batteries, etc.) or produce with solar cells. As most of the power from the cells is probably used for flight systems, not much would be left for payload powering, cooling, heating, etc.
The idea is nice, but for me, at this stage, it's nothing more than a toy to get credits for breaking records. Not a serious attempt to develop a usable platform. The potential isn't that great.
Most of the time, when I read a story along these lines (lost data, stolen data, client personal details incl. credit info), I have to ask myself "do they really need to archive all this data on their customers?"
Fully correcting the problem is, as you point out, most likely difficult with the systems already in place. On the other hand a lot of corrective measures can be implemented to improve the current systems as well. Many ideas and suggestions were given to the MBTA administrators by the group of MIT students.
Simple things to improve physical security require only minimal investment (things like making sure employees lock the doors as they should). That was an important point of their presentation: It's not all about hacking the card system or equipment.
I think the idea was that the information will create prejudice and loss of income for the MBTA. And that hypothesis will probably turn out to be true if they don't don anything about the problem.
Not doing anything about the problem is the most likely course of action at this point. Nice to see that a judge won't be giving out a gag order so easily on someone based on the fact that someone else is not going to do its job (or do it correctly).
Oh I see where this is going...
Optional accessories:
- LCD screen : 150$
- CPU : 100$
- 512 Mb RAM : 50$
- Battery : 100$
- AC Power adapter : 80$
etc.
There are things money can't buy, but for laptops accessories, there's mastercard.
But yeah... I guess the laptop could be 100$ itself.
Back to the good ol' times where GM sold there cars with "wheels" and "Steering wheel" as an option.
Does anyone read TFS these days?
"Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?"
Considering the question, I doubt hiking, running, biking to work, base jumping, etc. really qualify as applicable answers. But seriously... i have to ask... why would you want to limit your exercise to the privacy of your home? That I don't get.
I found that martial arts are an excellent way for geeks to stay in shape. It's hard work, but a good way to create a good training and workout discipline.
There is a large variety of martial arts, some easier than others. My personal choice: Kung Fu.
I guess they didn't manage to delay the cam release 38 hours. Expect box office failure... unless the movie is any good (but that doesn't count).
While I was managing servers and network equipment for a small organization, I was for a very long period of time the only one to possess the low level access password for the equipment I managed. At the time, I was the only person responsible for all IT related affairs and I did not feel anyone else in the organization had the technical knowledge and integrity to posses these access.
On the other hand, all these access and relevant documentation was sealed and under lock with the instruction only to be retrieved in the event something happened to me (accident, incapacitation, death, etc.).
Not wanting to give out critical information to anyone is something (most of the time at least) responsible to do. Not assuring continuity or failing protecting the critical information to be lost through unforeseen circumstances, shows a serious lack of professionalism.
Their claim goes much further than wish lists. At first look at the patent, they claim a very basic method of storing multiple lists (any kind of list) of multiple items.
Probably any database configured prior to 2001 could be given as an example of prior art. Even their claims regarding the structures used, the link between objects and identifiers is nothing new (although not clearly obvious). To me it looks like the natural way any one would build such a database using basic structures.
In a world where you can't expect half the population to take care in a sane, responsible and decent way of their children, how can you expect to take care of their parents.
In many, if not all cases, the children are not objective in their evaluation. You can't revoke someone's driving privileges on subjective assessment nor you can expect people to follow "moral driving guidelines" and stop driving when they did it their whole life. An official permit removal and license removal has a real and immediate effect, unlike good will.
And, obviously, in most cases, having independent and objective instances assessing the situation should make this question much less delicate and difficult in the families when the situation arises.
In some regions (mostly In the EU I think), cars need to be inspected by official instances periodically. On "old" car (like 10 years or so), the period and intensity of those inspections increases... because, obviously, cars tend to have more problems when they get older.
That's very nice, but on the other hand, the approach for drivers is totally different. You pass your permit once and then you have it for life. Looking at the way people drive here, a periodic reevaluation of law and safety knowledge, driving skills, awareness and visual acuity of the drivers should be done on a periodic basis (like every 5 years or so) and on a more regular basis after a certain age.
Using these tests, special limitations could be imposed to drivers having problems, like being allowed to drive during the day only. Eventually, full permit revocation could occur.
That may sound a harsh thing to do for us used to a "lifetime" privilege, but I've witness so many accidents cause by older drivers. Some where so unaware of their situation, they didn't even realize they were implicated in an accident. Few years back, one drove over a 7 year old kit and its bike... thinking he had it a bump on the road. That was 50 meters away from an elementary school, on the hours where kids get out of the school.
As much as I respect our elders and all they can contribute to us and our society, they do not contribute a lot of good things by driving while not having the health to do so. When you are at the point you require artificial means to cope with your loss of sight and awareness (other than normal glasses or contacts), you shouldn't drive. Period. You are only putting the lives of others (and your own) at risk.
I've seen many PC gamers, mostly hardcore gamers, that in some way or another, brag about their system capabilities. Think about it... if you had an old Porsche and put a lot of your time into it to make it work the way to want, wouldn't you be proud of it and "brag" a little about it?
Now, do these people own that old Porsche only because they want to brag about it and show off? I don't think so. Above all, they enjoy the performance, the responsiveness, the sound, the feeling. They love to drive and with their Porsche they enjoy every second of it, even if they have to put hours to maintain them.
Hardcore PC builder/gamers are a little like this. They put the money and the time to build their hardware and are proud if it. They talk about it. They put their personal touch into it. But, above all of this, they enjoy every second of its use. They love the feeling and the performance of the system and are happy knowing that the time and money they invested payed off.
Sure, you'll always have an idiot somewhere that going to pimp his Porsche and put a stupid wing on it, paint it in an fugly color and put an exhaust that will give more dB than HPs. But that, thank god, is not average enthusiast.
Most people who enjoy driving are happily doing it without driving a Porsche. That doesn't mean that does who have a Porsche, and are proud of it, do not enjoy driving as well (if not more than the average car driver).
Lets face it. An hardcore game can easily play more than 6 hours a day. Over a thousand hour a year. The casual game will play maybe a few hours every week or month. I don't think it's fair to say that the hardcore gamers don't "want to play games" and only brag about their system.
Canada's not the best place to have a decent communication plan.
I've been using octoshape for quite while now. Although the concept is interesting and the image quality is fairly good compared to analogue-SDTV, the system doesn't behave flawlessly.
Quite often, the systems simply doesn't work. At some point, the client kept its connection up on the P2P network. Of course, this happened while I was out of town (I'm not the single user of the system) and didn't catch the issue until I came back home. In 3 days, it ate over 60% of my HS cable internet cap (100 GB up+down).
I don't agree with your evaluation. As I understands it, the asf contains a download link for the codec. The player Program for the file (most likely windows media player components) initiate the "please download this missing codec" action using the information within the ASF container (link to the trojan/worm).
This is the problem right here: Using corruptible information for a system-sensitive operation. WMP should only initiate such a download from a secure and authenticated source on the internet or use its own pre-defined sources, like windows update.
This is a "good" user-friendliness feature for users who don't like to be put in front of a simple "missing codec" cryptic error. But so many user-friendliness feature tend to lead, if badly implemented, to major vulnerabilities through common user-behavior attacks.
It's all "data". The problem is how this data is handles by the system components. More importantly is how unverified (and unverifiable - and potentially corrupted) can be used for system sensitive operations. Worse, how this can be done fooling the user to think it's a normal and appropriate measure. This is a FAIL in user psychology and end user system design.
This is really clever. That way of using the file container to get the user to download false codecs.
I wonder if it could work with other wrappers, like AVI, Quicktime, etc. Maybe not in their original state, but with slight modifications that could fool the player.
I wasn't aware of all the capabilities of the ASF wrapper, but that sure was a ticking time bomb.
Many people would agree that Cloud Computing is a subset of Cloud Shoveling.
(from French Canadian "Pelleter des nuages").
As I said, it was an earlier design of the liquid mirror they are currently working on. Not the current one which is discussed in TFA. But it was a similar design, by the same research group, at the same location.
I have seen only photographs of the current design, using Ferromagnetic fluids, but have not seen it in person.
These works are done by a group from the Centre d'Optique et de Photonique Laser (COPL), at Laval University in Quebec City. This research center is one of the largest player in the field of optics research in North America.
I've seen this liquid mirror myself while it was in its early stages. At that time it used only mercury. It's a very impressive (and beautiful) sight. This research group, working on liquid mirrors, has been quite excited with the recent talks about lunar-based telescopes. This has always been one of the aimed application for their liquid mirror.
I'm shocked that someone could be surprised surprised by this, but not that someone is shocked by it. On the contrary, I'm more shocked that someone is not shocked by this questionable practice.
It's like if someone was following me in the stores I go to and taking pictures and records of all the pants I try on, all the fruits I buy, etc.
I do not think this is a legal thing to do outside of the internet. Spying, stalking, etc. Why would be legal (and moral) on the Internet?
Now we have no one to race
And even if there was someone to race, their installations would probably get bombed down during a so-called preventive strike because of its potential military applications ;)
Nowadays, it's much easier to start a fire and put oil on it than dealing with a cold war it seems.