Playing devil's advocate here: And the problem with this is? Isn't it in man's nature to attempt to improve themselves?
I'd say that the problem is that it's all too artificial. It's no longer a question of a better, smarter, stronger individual surviving long enough to breed, it's a question of how often that individual can be conned into buying some product. You too can look cooler, smarter, more interesting, if you just buy this car/watch/jacket/hat/etc. Get a face lift, get bigger boobs, fix that bald spot, bleach your teeth. Make your grass greener, your house warmer/cooler, get a fast-looking car, get an 8-person SUV for a family of 3 and never mind the low milage. That's what's driving "evolution" now.
Did you know suits are making a comeback?? Mmm, gotta go out and buy a couple of suits for work. Why?? Well, the nice man a Men's Wearhouse said so... Will I work better/longer/smarter/harder?? Nope. Will anyone care if I wear a suit?? Nope. I work nights and often don't see more than about 5 people in the building all night. Daytime there's a slight possibility of seeing client in the building, but business casual is usually fine.
Follow the money. That's what's driving evolution these days.
Unfortunately, my employer decides what I get to use. My laptop will be 3 years old next March, so I'll be given an upgrade. It may come with Vista, or it may come with the company sanctioned & sanitised WinXP Pro. I'd like to think that they wouldn't be stupid enough to risk allowing Microsoft to shutdown my machine, but they seem to be in bed with MS on just about everything else... I guess I may end up buying a 30Gb disk with an external USB enclosure to run Gentoo on, so that I can get on with my job as a Unix admin without having to fight with Winders.
VETO stamp or not, I think Bush would have a hard time stopping a move to impeach him. Elizabeth Holtzman has done a pretty good job of laying out a number of good reasons why Bush should be fired and possibly imprisoned...
Wikipedia also has a lot of interesting stuff about other people, groups and States looking at the same issue.
I think it's about time to submit a patent for the basic wheel and all variations. And fire, too... Who knows, maybe they'd be granted and the holder could sue the entire world for licensing fees. Wouldn't be any stupider than SCO's case.
IANAL, but I'd say that you run the risk of pissing off the judge unless you can come up with a reason that at least *looks* sensible, such as with this spammer. I mean, all of us know it's a stupid request, designed to waste time and try to put the accuser off, but to a non-technical judge, it could looks reasonable. Now, why would it be reasonable to demand copies of the spammers hard drive??
I'm a non-citizen, so I can't vote anyway. I still pay taxes, put my kids through school, etc, but I'm not allowed to express my opinion by voting. Don't get me started on Taxation Without Representation...
Actually, I think this year I finally had my Green Card long enough to be able to file for citizenship, but it'll have to wait until next year's tax refund. Anyway, I want to see how the current crop of idiots works out before shelling out around $1500 for the filing fee, photos, fingerprints (4th set of prints...), etc.
If/when I *can* vote, I probably would vote for someone other than Republican or Democrat.
To be perfectly honest, I think it's about time politicians and the media both recognised that *not* voting is just as valid a political opinion as voting is. Some percentage of non-voters genuinely don't care, and the rest that don't bother to show up are sending the message that they just don't give a flying fuck for the current crop of self-serving assholes that are trying to get themselves elected. Nobody expects to believe campaign promises any more, and it always seems to come down to "who can dig the most dirt" about their opponents.
If any canvasser came to the door and asked who I'd vote for, I'd tell them that I'm likely to vote for anyone who'd go out and pick up all those damned signs that will be left littering the streets for the next month or more. Are candidates responsible for cleaning up after themselves?? If not, they should be, but of course none of the winners would vote for legislation that makes themselves responsible for cleaning up. Maybe the *losers* should be made to pay for the cleanup afterwards, or "tax" the campaign funds for cleanup costs.
And how exactly are you going to verify that the software actually running on the voting machine is the same software that was reviewed?? For example, a fairly low-tech hack would be to have two copies of the software in two different flash memories. You could test the machine for weeks and get true, verifiable results, then on Election Day a clock flips the state of some transistors and suddenly the machine is running the *other* copy, which weights results towards the chosen candidate.
Then, of course, there's the hand-carrying of memory cards from the voting machine to the tabulator machine, which provides a perfect opportunity for simply replacing the card with a "fixed" card. Or maybe the results get sent to the tabulator over a network, and who verifies that some router in the path doesn't switch packets somewhere?? And then there's the whole thing about the Access database being modifiable by anyone who can get to the DB machine, without any kind of access log...
You're right about the voting process being too important not to be scrutinised, but I've still to hear a convincing argument *against* the old pencil-and-paper ballots. Not accessible to disabled or elderly folks?? Such people must have *someone* they trust, so let them have an assistant to operate the pencil... Someone else said the machines cost over $3 billion - that would buy one hell of a lot of pencils and paper ballots. So what if it takes several days to count the ballots?? The voting process is too important to be driven by the instant-result fever the media seem to want to cultivate. I'd like to see the media taken out of the loop completely.
Except for the millions of users who have perfectly good PCs and are simply unwilling to upgrade their hardware just to be able to pay the Windows tax all over again.
Granted that I only looked at the README page for about 5 seconds, but I think there might be a hole here:
Each aspect has its own passphrase that must be separately decrypted, and if a hard drive is seized neither mathematical analysis nor physical disk testing can reveal how many aspects actually exist. Internal maps are used to locate where the data is stored amongst the random characters, with each aspect having its own map which can only be decrypted via its specific passphrase. As such, a Rubberhose disk only be written to after all the passphrases have been entered. Everything is works on a "need to know" basis, i.e. each aspect knows nothing about the others other than when to avoid writing over the top of another.
I'd be happy to be corrected on this, but it rather looks like the interrogator could fire up the system, enter as many passwords as the victim has coughed up, then try to write to the disk. If it doesn't work, hit the victim a bit more... Yes?? No??
Knowing our password policies, I'd be handed a laptop and a 19-character disk password with a liberal sprinkling of !@#$%^&* characters distributed among the alphanumerics. At that point it *has* to be written down, because sure as hell nobody is going to remember it.
The easy fix for business travellers would be to clone the hard disk, keep the original at home and FedEx the clone to their destination. Fly with the diskless laptop...
TSA: please turn the laptop on, sir. Me: [click] TSA: What's this "No Hard disk" message? Why isn't it booting? Me: [checks watch] The hard disk should be arriving in London is 30 minutes. I mailed it yesterday TSA: Duh? What?
If they're going to go that far, it wouldn't take more more effort/money to have their laywer platoon crank out a standard "cease and desist" letter, noting that any "ignorance of the law" plea would be impossible as of the date of the letter. In other words, "Stop it, or we *will* come after you at a time and date of our choosing. You have been warned. Ignorance is no excuse."
Just fill in the target's name and send it via recorded delivery.
it's actually harder to build a 1 kiloton weapon than a 5 or 10 kiloton weapon
Just a thought - could they they have *bought* a 1 kiloton weapon from, say, Russia?? I dunno, I'm not up on who has/had what, which is why I'm asking. I don't know why they would, other than it would give them a (presumably) tried and tested design to try to copy.
You know it's only a matter of time before one or more of the NSA, FBI, CIA, TSA, etc deploy their own version, and there'll be encryption involved somewhere so that defeating it will be a DMCA violation and/or an act of terrorism...
Come to think of it, wouldn't it also be a DMCA violation if the government agency's version circumvented any VOIP encryption to eavesdrop?? Not that it really matters, because Bush will pencil-in a clause that makes it OK for his buddies to rape the DMCA all they like...
Hmmm... Anyone tried running a VOIP product in VMWare?? It'll boot a LiveCD ISO and run everything in it, without saving *anything* to disk. Have fun infecting *that* with spyware...
unless you're worried about Big Brother sneaking up behind you and mashing the PRNTSCRN button every five seconds or so, screenshots are NOT an issue.
What was the name of that dohickey some guy built out of parts from Radio Shack that could read the emissions from a CRT across the street and display an accurate image?? Dunno. Anyway, unlikely as it may be that this technology would be used much, it was proven that a CRT could be read remotely without even being visible.
Comparing the "number of vulnerabilities" is irrelevant to me.
Agreed. I'd rather see pretty graphs showing vulnerability-days per browser, because that would show 47 x 1 for Firefox and 38 x something-more-than-1 for IE.
Personally I think we should forget multi-million-dollar voting machines, open source or not. Even with government markup, any state should be able to afford big piles of pencils and paper, and still pay overtime for cops, National Guard, or whomever to provide security for the voting places and ballot boxes.
I still haven't heard a convincing argument for not using pencil and paper ballots. OK, so it might be possible to stuff some boxes or make them disappear, but with the electronic systems being so easily crackable, *all* the boxes are suspect. It's probably going to take a major vote-rigging scandal before any changes are made, and as long as the media isn't pushing it, that's not going to happen.
Anyhow, why can't his kid code? Probably doesn't have the mindset for it, sorry.
I guess you didn't even read the Slashdot blurb, let alone the article referred to. From TFA:
Ben has long complained that his math textbooks all featured little type-it-in-yourself programs at the end of each chapter -- alongside the problem sets -- offering the student a chance to try out some simple algorithm on a computer.
Just because you're nostalgic about BASIC doesn't make it good.
On the other hand, when your math textbook only has BASIC examples, you might as well get a BASIC interpreter, be it a C64, or an emulator, or whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd say that the problem is that it's all too artificial. It's no longer a question of a better, smarter, stronger individual surviving long enough to breed, it's a question of how often that individual can be conned into buying some product. You too can look cooler, smarter, more interesting, if you just buy this car/watch/jacket/hat/etc. Get a face lift, get bigger boobs, fix that bald spot, bleach your teeth. Make your grass greener, your house warmer/cooler, get a fast-looking car, get an 8-person SUV for a family of 3 and never mind the low milage. That's what's driving "evolution" now.
Did you know suits are making a comeback?? Mmm, gotta go out and buy a couple of suits for work. Why?? Well, the nice man a Men's Wearhouse said so... Will I work better/longer/smarter/harder?? Nope. Will anyone care if I wear a suit?? Nope. I work nights and often don't see more than about 5 people in the building all night. Daytime there's a slight possibility of seeing client in the building, but business casual is usually fine.
Follow the money. That's what's driving evolution these days.
Unfortunately, my employer decides what I get to use. My laptop will be 3 years old next March, so I'll be given an upgrade. It may come with Vista, or it may come with the company sanctioned & sanitised WinXP Pro. I'd like to think that they wouldn't be stupid enough to risk allowing Microsoft to shutdown my machine, but they seem to be in bed with MS on just about everything else... I guess I may end up buying a 30Gb disk with an external USB enclosure to run Gentoo on, so that I can get on with my job as a Unix admin without having to fight with Winders.
Sounds good to me. I'm in!! :)
Wikipedia also has a lot of interesting stuff about other people, groups and States looking at the same issue.
I think it's about time to submit a patent for the basic wheel and all variations. And fire, too... Who knows, maybe they'd be granted and the holder could sue the entire world for licensing fees. Wouldn't be any stupider than SCO's case.
IANAL, but I'd say that you run the risk of pissing off the judge unless you can come up with a reason that at least *looks* sensible, such as with this spammer. I mean, all of us know it's a stupid request, designed to waste time and try to put the accuser off, but to a non-technical judge, it could looks reasonable. Now, why would it be reasonable to demand copies of the spammers hard drive??
Actually, I think this year I finally had my Green Card long enough to be able to file for citizenship, but it'll have to wait until next year's tax refund. Anyway, I want to see how the current crop of idiots works out before shelling out around $1500 for the filing fee, photos, fingerprints (4th set of prints...), etc.
If/when I *can* vote, I probably would vote for someone other than Republican or Democrat.
If any canvasser came to the door and asked who I'd vote for, I'd tell them that I'm likely to vote for anyone who'd go out and pick up all those damned signs that will be left littering the streets for the next month or more. Are candidates responsible for cleaning up after themselves?? If not, they should be, but of course none of the winners would vote for legislation that makes themselves responsible for cleaning up. Maybe the *losers* should be made to pay for the cleanup afterwards, or "tax" the campaign funds for cleanup costs.
Then, of course, there's the hand-carrying of memory cards from the voting machine to the tabulator machine, which provides a perfect opportunity for simply replacing the card with a "fixed" card. Or maybe the results get sent to the tabulator over a network, and who verifies that some router in the path doesn't switch packets somewhere?? And then there's the whole thing about the Access database being modifiable by anyone who can get to the DB machine, without any kind of access log...
You're right about the voting process being too important not to be scrutinised, but I've still to hear a convincing argument *against* the old pencil-and-paper ballots. Not accessible to disabled or elderly folks?? Such people must have *someone* they trust, so let them have an assistant to operate the pencil... Someone else said the machines cost over $3 billion - that would buy one hell of a lot of pencils and paper ballots. So what if it takes several days to count the ballots?? The voting process is too important to be driven by the instant-result fever the media seem to want to cultivate. I'd like to see the media taken out of the loop completely.
Except for the millions of users who have perfectly good PCs and are simply unwilling to upgrade their hardware just to be able to pay the Windows tax all over again.
Aww, crap! And I so wanted to be wrong... :)
I'd be happy to be corrected on this, but it rather looks like the interrogator could fire up the system, enter as many passwords as the victim has coughed up, then try to write to the disk. If it doesn't work, hit the victim a bit more... Yes?? No??
Knowing our password policies, I'd be handed a laptop and a 19-character disk password with a liberal sprinkling of !@#$%^&* characters distributed among the alphanumerics. At that point it *has* to be written down, because sure as hell nobody is going to remember it.
TSA: please turn the laptop on, sir.
Me: [click]
TSA: What's this "No Hard disk" message? Why isn't it booting?
Me: [checks watch] The hard disk should be arriving in London is 30 minutes. I mailed it yesterday
TSA: Duh? What?
Just fill in the target's name and send it via recorded delivery.
Sooooo, this is all a conspiracy by big Pharmaceutical companies to sell more drugs??
Naah, they won't execute him. They'll need someone to light the blue touch paper on the *next* bomb...
Just a thought - could they they have *bought* a 1 kiloton weapon from, say, Russia?? I dunno, I'm not up on who has/had what, which is why I'm asking. I don't know why they would, other than it would give them a (presumably) tried and tested design to try to copy.
Come to think of it, wouldn't it also be a DMCA violation if the government agency's version circumvented any VOIP encryption to eavesdrop?? Not that it really matters, because Bush will pencil-in a clause that makes it OK for his buddies to rape the DMCA all they like...
Hmmm... Anyone tried running a VOIP product in VMWare?? It'll boot a LiveCD ISO and run everything in it, without saving *anything* to disk. Have fun infecting *that* with spyware...
What was the name of that dohickey some guy built out of parts from Radio Shack that could read the emissions from a CRT across the street and display an accurate image?? Dunno. Anyway, unlikely as it may be that this technology would be used much, it was proven that a CRT could be read remotely without even being visible.
Agreed. I'd rather see pretty graphs showing vulnerability-days per browser, because that would show 47 x 1 for Firefox and 38 x something-more-than-1 for IE.
I still haven't heard a convincing argument for not using pencil and paper ballots. OK, so it might be possible to stuff some boxes or make them disappear, but with the electronic systems being so easily crackable, *all* the boxes are suspect. It's probably going to take a major vote-rigging scandal before any changes are made, and as long as the media isn't pushing it, that's not going to happen.
I guess you didn't even read the Slashdot blurb, let alone the article referred to. From TFA:
On the other hand, when your math textbook only has BASIC examples, you might as well get a BASIC interpreter, be it a C64, or an emulator, or whatever.
Does Excel still have that builtin flight simulator??