Does the phrase "Faraday Cage" mean anything to you? Even if the gate can reach into a screened, grounded metal box, I doubt that the transponder would be able to reach out. It wouldn't be too hard to determine by experiment. It also wouldn't be too hard to determine the radio frequencies in use, then drop the pass into a shielded box along with a little transmitter that would swamp any signals that might get through.
Another random thought: how would the IPass system handle it if you didn't pass through every gate? Say, if you passed through one gate, and it notes the time/date, then at the next gate you went through the coin gate instead? Here in Oklahoma, the PikePass (just like IPass) doesn't clock you unless you go through a specific gate. You can easily take the cash gate even if you have a PikePass.
I guess some serious fun could be had, using cash gates, doubling back, &c...
One could even go so far as to predict a breakdown of the economy brought on by increased surveillance...
You've already said:
They can keep their spyware and I'll keep dropping coins, thank you very much.
That's an attitude which, if taken to the extreme, would have a significant percentage of the public ditching credit cards (time, date, place & item tracking) in favor of cash. People might even begin to avoid banks. Before long the credit card companies and banks would begin to notice the loss of billions of dollars previously "earned" annually by gouging the public. Interest rates would rise as the banks tried to shore up their centuries-old business methods, and more people would switch to keeping their cash at home, driving the downward spiral even tighter. Burglary would become more prevalent as a result, and various arms of the government would initiate even more surveillance to try to keep up.
I don't imagine it would get that far, though. There's enough people in this country exercising their constitional right to bear arms that, if they were seriously pissed off, there could well be a sudden change of government.
That's all very well and good, and might seem like an ideal solution, but you aren't taking into account the fuel wasted in heavy traffic. Through no fault of their own, people regularly stuck in heavy traffic burn lots of fuel for relatively low milage.
Don't mistake that statement as voting against such a fuel tax. I'm just pointing out the flaw in the blanket statement:
what you pay is based on your consumption of fuel which tends to be proportional to how much you drive
The amount of fuel you use is proportional to the amount of time the engine is running, the rpm, and the distance travelled. A rural user may have more miles to travel, but will generally be able to maintain a higher speed. City drivers will be using as much or more fuel just covering a few miles at low speed, with less wear and tear on the road, &c.
Exactly. It seems like nobody is paying attention to the possibility that it might just be illegal for the kids to get hold of the gun in the first place, let alone fire it in a public place. It couldn't possibly be anyone's fault that the gun and ammunition were easily available. It couldn't possibly be anyone's fault that the kids were too stupid to realize that real people might be riding in the vehicles they were shooting at. No, blame the games makers for promoting violence...
Oh, wait, here's another idea - maybe the kids could sue the people they shot at for being living human beings instead of animated drawings!
I suppose it would be too much to hope that SGI, or whoever's next, would immediately file counter-suit demanding that SCO "put up, or shut up". Show the code, prove to the world that they have a case, or shut up and let profitable businesses do their thing. Kinda like LinuxTag did in Germany...
I seem to remember a while back reading about some college (don't remember which one) where they couldn't find a server. The server was up and running, they just couldn't locate it... Turned out that part of the server room had been walled off, and the server was completely enclosed in a room with no doors or windows. Apparently the wall had been put up some 4 years previously and nobody had had to touch the server in that time.
Not in quite the same league as walking out the building with a server, but it still took a special brand of stupidity to forget to put a door in the new wall...:)
As well as the fake IDs, translate it into some obscure language - Sanscrit, or Egyptian heiroglyphs...
There was this guy in England used to do that with his tax return, except he filled it out in Latin. Nowhere on the form did it specify that it had to be filled out in English.
Hmmm... I wonder if this New Zealander has heard of the othe New Zealander who's building the $5000 cruise missile? Strap one of those cheap jet engines to the back of the amphibious car and you could really waterski...
My bad... I thought for a moment we were talking about those almost microscopic tags that would be embedded in objects, not something that could be easily switched from one article to another.
Just about everything else you mention would be covered by High Availability systems, and with multi-GHz PCs getting cheaper every day, there's little reason for a store to tolerate downtime. I guess it didn't occur to me to be more specific - high availability is standard where I work... For something to be completely down, we'd have to lose two independant city power feeds and three diesel generators.
Why would it go out of sync? When the truck pulls up to deliver new merchandise, everything taken off would be registered entering the building and going to the stockroom. When stuff is taken from the stockroom, it gets registered as being on the shelves. When bought, it gets listed as being bought. Anything passing an external door scanner without being listed as bought would set off an alarm, calling the store cops. This would neatly stop shoplifting by both "customers" and staff. Probably want to put a scanner on the trash chute as well...
How about coupling this with the "diamonds from your loved ones" ads I've seen fairly recently. You know, where a relative, or pet,or whatever dies and is cremated, and you get a diamond made from their ashes...
Puts a whole new spin on the phrase "legacy system"... And how about being able to claim that your new diamond cpu is, literally, "an old dog"...
It's been said elsewhere (regarding SCO) that if, somehow, the GPL is invalidated, whether by a judge, the Supreme Court, or direct order of the President (unlikely, but it could happen...) then all GPL'd code reverts back to being covered by regular copyright laws.
What that means is that SCO, for example, could immediately be sued by Samba for distributing their copyrighted (and GPL'd) code without permission. GNU could probably do likewise, unless SCO has their own C compiler and other tools. Every Linux distribution would need to get permission to distribute all those lovely tools, etc...
If the GPL ever becomes invalidated, it doesn't automatically mean that GPL'd code becomes public domain. It means that the real, entrenched copyright law kicks in, oh, didn't that get extended recently by the same kind of people that want to turn off the GPL? Kind of ironic...
Having the monitoring system die and therefore having to watch meters instead is all very well, but what if you don't know the thing died? If your Windows application is frozen, is there any way to tell it isn't updating?
Where I work (unnamed IT outsourcing company) we have many boxes with Unicenter watching Netscape Enterprise Servers, but it can't tell when it hangs. All Unicenter can see is that the httpd process is still running. I've put in a whole different monitor to pull web pages to verify that the servers are in fact operational. That monitor has saved us a lot of grief in the last few years...
Network Administrators are given the responsibility to keep a variety of equipment, operating systems, and applications running and talking to each other appropriately, without necessarily being given all the authority they need to keep stuff like this from happening. Frankly, I pity them. Everyone remembers the bad incidents without realizing how much good they do, silently and behind the scenes.
Perhaps the Network Admins concerned should voluntarily stay home while the investigation is in progress, so that they can't "fuck up" any more than they already have. When the network goes to hell in a handcart, maybe their bosses will understand exactly how much good they do.
And the contractor's admin that allowed the worm to get into their network should be rewriting his resume too...
This wouldn't stop a worm that messed with the subnet mask but I'm not aware of any that do.
You know, I often wonder how many hackers, virus writers, terrorists, etc read forums like this looking for ideas... It's kinda like a company issuing V1.0 of a piece of software, then using customer feedback to design the new features for V2.0.
Isn't SCO trying to reopen the BSD/AT&T fight? We're all pretty much agreed that SCO is likely to lose and if so will be hammered into the ground, and that should settle the issue, but I'm willing to bet that BSD thought the same 20-odd years ago...
They'd better pick a different way to smear, then, because once RedHat & IBM grind SCO into the dirt, there's a legal precedent. OK, so precedent in a copyright or IP infringement suit may not be quite as compelling as precedent in other kinds of cases, but it'll carry some weight. After all, once SCO's attempt to resurrect the old BSD/AT&T suit is quashed, the Linux kernel should be legally free, right?
IBM has the resources to build a new operating system from scratch if need be.
Just wondering, is that possible any more? I mean, with Linux and the *BSDs available in source, and with Microsoft's recent announcement about opening WinCE (source? api? or what?) what are the chances of being able to produce a whole new operating system without someone claiming some kind of IP violation?
In this case, we have a story about a young, apparently untrained, coming up with a seemingly obvious solution to a problem that has plagued the greatest mind for years.
So, exactly how much training did Einstein have? Wasn't he working as a patent clerk when he came up with some ground-breaking theories?
My point is that maybe such ground-breaking theores require a lack of formal training in the relevant field (sometimes...). After all, if inventors had to have some kind of formal training, nothing truly new would be invented. How much actual training in aeronautics did the Wright brothers have before taking that first flight?
I didn't see anything in the article about unpacking the kernel source. Gentoo does it every time, and patches it too, before compiling it. If the other distros started from an unpacked kernel source tree, there's a difference right there...
and human beings will still be checking the lists to make sure someone isn't listed twice
Suppose that every registered voter was sent some kind of token - maybe just a card with some kind of checksummed voter id, maybe something more high-tech, whatever. As each voter enters the voting station, s/he "swipes" the token through a counter, or feeds it into a slot, then is given the ballot card. While s/he does whatever is necessary in the voting booth, somewhere highly visible, a big counter goes 'Ka-ching!', noting that another voter entered the station. At intervals during the day, the number of ballots actually cast is also published.
What this would achieve would be:
1) It would make it difficult for anyone to 'stuff' the ballot boxes. 2) if a truckload of boxes disappeared on their way to the count, it would be obvious 3) The voter count ought not to exceed the number of registered voters 4) Slashdot geeks all over the country would run to the polls to be the First Vote:).
Once the polls close and the count starts, everyone would know exactly how many ballots were cast, so the counters would have to make darned sure the piles of ballots for each candidate, plus the spoiled ballots, added up to that number.
This wouldn't stop votes being altered, nor would it stop someone voting multiple times using tokens forged, bought or stolen from other people, but it would be more difficult, especially if scrutineers from each party kept watch over the voter count.
Note that this is just a count of the voters, not a running tally of how they vote. Even the regularly published ballot count would be just that, a count of the ballots cast, irregardless of being correctly completed.
So, what are the statistics relating to any type of crime that could have been prevented if only there had been a loaded firearm handy?
How does that compare to the statistics relating to the number of otherwise easily settled arguments that ended with someone getting shot?
Oh wait, I forgot, that's irrelevant. Just as long as nobody tries to control private ownership of firearms, who gives a crap about how many people die unnecessarily?
Slashdot Mirror
Does the phrase "Faraday Cage" mean anything to you? Even if the gate can reach into a screened, grounded metal box, I doubt that the transponder would be able to reach out. It wouldn't be too hard to determine by experiment. It also wouldn't be too hard to determine the radio frequencies in use, then drop the pass into a shielded box along with a little transmitter that would swamp any signals that might get through.
I guess some serious fun could be had, using cash gates, doubling back, &c...
You've already said:
That's an attitude which, if taken to the extreme, would have a significant percentage of the public ditching credit cards (time, date, place & item tracking) in favor of cash. People might even begin to avoid banks. Before long the credit card companies and banks would begin to notice the loss of billions of dollars previously "earned" annually by gouging the public. Interest rates would rise as the banks tried to shore up their centuries-old business methods, and more people would switch to keeping their cash at home, driving the downward spiral even tighter. Burglary would become more prevalent as a result, and various arms of the government would initiate even more surveillance to try to keep up.I don't imagine it would get that far, though. There's enough people in this country exercising their constitional right to bear arms that, if they were seriously pissed off, there could well be a sudden change of government.
Don't mistake that statement as voting against such a fuel tax. I'm just pointing out the flaw in the blanket statement:
The amount of fuel you use is proportional to the amount of time the engine is running, the rpm, and the distance travelled. A rural user may have more miles to travel, but will generally be able to maintain a higher speed. City drivers will be using as much or more fuel just covering a few miles at low speed, with less wear and tear on the road, &c.Exactly. It seems like nobody is paying attention to the possibility that it might just be illegal for the kids to get hold of the gun in the first place, let alone fire it in a public place. It couldn't possibly be anyone's fault that the gun and ammunition were easily available. It couldn't possibly be anyone's fault that the kids were too stupid to realize that real people might be riding in the vehicles they were shooting at. No, blame the games makers for promoting violence...
Oh, wait, here's another idea - maybe the kids could sue the people they shot at for being living human beings instead of animated drawings!
I suppose it would be too much to hope that SGI, or whoever's next, would immediately file counter-suit demanding that SCO "put up, or shut up". Show the code, prove to the world that they have a case, or shut up and let profitable businesses do their thing. Kinda like LinuxTag did in Germany...
Not in quite the same league as walking out the building with a server, but it still took a special brand of stupidity to forget to put a door in the new wall... :)
There was this guy in England used to do that with his tax return, except he filled it out in Latin. Nowhere on the form did it specify that it had to be filled out in English.
Hmmm... I wonder if this New Zealander has heard of the othe New Zealander who's building the $5000 cruise missile? Strap one of those cheap jet engines to the back of the amphibious car and you could really waterski...
Just about everything else you mention would be covered by High Availability systems, and with multi-GHz PCs getting cheaper every day, there's little reason for a store to tolerate downtime. I guess it didn't occur to me to be more specific - high availability is standard where I work... For something to be completely down, we'd have to lose two independant city power feeds and three diesel generators.
Why would it go out of sync? When the truck pulls up to deliver new merchandise, everything taken off would be registered entering the building and going to the stockroom. When stuff is taken from the stockroom, it gets registered as being on the shelves. When bought, it gets listed as being bought. Anything passing an external door scanner without being listed as bought would set off an alarm, calling the store cops. This would neatly stop shoplifting by both "customers" and staff. Probably want to put a scanner on the trash chute as well...
Puts a whole new spin on the phrase "legacy system"... And how about being able to claim that your new diamond cpu is, literally, "an old dog"...
What that means is that SCO, for example, could immediately be sued by Samba for distributing their copyrighted (and GPL'd) code without permission. GNU could probably do likewise, unless SCO has their own C compiler and other tools. Every Linux distribution would need to get permission to distribute all those lovely tools, etc...
If the GPL ever becomes invalidated, it doesn't automatically mean that GPL'd code becomes public domain. It means that the real, entrenched copyright law kicks in, oh, didn't that get extended recently by the same kind of people that want to turn off the GPL? Kind of ironic...
Thanks. It's good to know that some sense prevails in the design...
Where I work (unnamed IT outsourcing company) we have many boxes with Unicenter watching Netscape Enterprise Servers, but it can't tell when it hangs. All Unicenter can see is that the httpd process is still running. I've put in a whole different monitor to pull web pages to verify that the servers are in fact operational. That monitor has saved us a lot of grief in the last few years...
Perhaps the Network Admins concerned should voluntarily stay home while the investigation is in progress, so that they can't "fuck up" any more than they already have. When the network goes to hell in a handcart, maybe their bosses will understand exactly how much good they do.
And the contractor's admin that allowed the worm to get into their network should be rewriting his resume too...
You know, I often wonder how many hackers, virus writers, terrorists, etc read forums like this looking for ideas... It's kinda like a company issuing V1.0 of a piece of software, then using customer feedback to design the new features for V2.0.
Isn't SCO trying to reopen the BSD/AT&T fight? We're all pretty much agreed that SCO is likely to lose and if so will be hammered into the ground, and that should settle the issue, but I'm willing to bet that BSD thought the same 20-odd years ago...
They'd better pick a different way to smear, then, because once RedHat & IBM grind SCO into the dirt, there's a legal precedent. OK, so precedent in a copyright or IP infringement suit may not be quite as compelling as precedent in other kinds of cases, but it'll carry some weight. After all, once SCO's attempt to resurrect the old BSD/AT&T suit is quashed, the Linux kernel should be legally free, right?
Just wondering, is that possible any more? I mean, with Linux and the *BSDs available in source, and with Microsoft's recent announcement about opening WinCE (source? api? or what?) what are the chances of being able to produce a whole new operating system without someone claiming some kind of IP violation?
So, exactly how much training did Einstein have? Wasn't he working as a patent clerk when he came up with some ground-breaking theories?
My point is that maybe such ground-breaking theores require a lack of formal training in the relevant field (sometimes...). After all, if inventors had to have some kind of formal training, nothing truly new would be invented. How much actual training in aeronautics did the Wright brothers have before taking that first flight?
I didn't see anything in the article about unpacking the kernel source. Gentoo does it every time, and patches it too, before compiling it. If the other distros started from an unpacked kernel source tree, there's a difference right there...
And of course, don't forget Andy Tanenbaum's famous quote: "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes."
Suppose that every registered voter was sent some kind of token - maybe just a card with some kind of checksummed voter id, maybe something more high-tech, whatever. As each voter enters the voting station, s/he "swipes" the token through a counter, or feeds it into a slot, then is given the ballot card. While s/he does whatever is necessary in the voting booth, somewhere highly visible, a big counter goes 'Ka-ching!', noting that another voter entered the station. At intervals during the day, the number of ballots actually cast is also published.
What this would achieve would be:
1) It would make it difficult for anyone to 'stuff' the ballot boxes. :).
2) if a truckload of boxes disappeared on their way to the count, it would be obvious
3) The voter count ought not to exceed the number of registered voters
4) Slashdot geeks all over the country would run to the polls to be the First Vote
Once the polls close and the count starts, everyone would know exactly how many ballots were cast, so the counters would have to make darned sure the piles of ballots for each candidate, plus the spoiled ballots, added up to that number.
This wouldn't stop votes being altered, nor would it stop someone voting multiple times using tokens forged, bought or stolen from other people, but it would be more difficult, especially if scrutineers from each party kept watch over the voter count.
Note that this is just a count of the voters, not a running tally of how they vote. Even the regularly published ballot count would be just that, a count of the ballots cast, irregardless of being correctly completed.
How does that compare to the statistics relating to the number of otherwise easily settled arguments that ended with someone getting shot?
Oh wait, I forgot, that's irrelevant. Just as long as nobody tries to control private ownership of firearms, who gives a crap about how many people die unnecessarily?