Sir Isaac Newton was only researching what people of his day considered to be reasonable and logical pursuits. Later on alchemy was disproven as utter quackery, but from his point of view it was the cutting edge in science. Much like how doctors used to believe in the theory of the body's humors, and at that time it was perfectly rational thinking (even though we know it's not true now). In three hundred years people will be laughing at some of our ideas about quantum physics, chemistry, string theory, etc. as completely laughable in retrospect. But keep in mind, it will be in retrospect. We improve our understanding of things over time.
Economics of terrorism. If you kidnap too many hostages and then end up shooting them all in the head anyways after you get the ransom, everyone starts to assume that your ransom demands are meaningless and the cash stops flowing. Same thing with this type of virus. Stop following through with your decryption, and people will simply assume that you've irrevocably deleted their file and either restore from backup or begin backing up more frequently. Same scenario: cry wolf too many times and people stop believing you, so the cash will stop flowing in.
Well that does pose a risk. I can see in the next five years someone making a wide-spreading Linux worm/virus, and if all your boxen are identical then the same vulnerabilities would be present across your organization. A virus would indeed shut your company down for hours like it does today. However, you've still got diversity across multiple organizations. Sure, your Linux version of Sasser or MyDoom could shut you down, but it won't shut EVERYONE down like MyDoom did. Best security practices would dictate that you keep at least a few machines running something else (Linux in a Windows shop, Windows or *BSD in a Linux shop, etc.) so that you can restore and keep going. Make sure that your servers are one thing (or a bunch of things) and your client machines are another. The network admin's box is something else. Hard to maintain? Maybe, but you can still standardize with X number of known systems, so long as everyone isn't bringing in their own distros or copies of Windows and installing their own apps in root mode.
What I want is criminal prosecution of the people in Sony's management who directed that this be done, and directed that this malware be distributed.
You'd be surprised how many low-level interns end up being responsible for key corporate decisions.
I can't imagine that if I, Mr. John Q. Public, recorded some of my own songs and packaged them with a rootkit of my own, that I'd be prosecuted for it.
See, there you go. Record your own songs! Preposterous! Of course you'd be prosecuted. We must keep the natural order of things, after all!
Is there any valid reason they're not being prosecuted for this?
Do you even need to ask at this point?
It's well past time that corporations learn they aren't above the law, even if they do write and pay for it.
Apparently you do need to ask, if you think that's ever going to happen.
I can see one problem with that. At some point you've got to introduce air into the system, either into an air-flooded tunnel just short of the track exit or just by opening the doors as the thing approaches. At escape velocities something that has been accelerating in a vacuum until that point will quite rapidly be experiencing atmospheric friction at ground level pressures. Hope you've got good heat shielding.
Eventually the game industry is going to have to figure out how to market to the older demographic. The majority of gamers currently are 25 and over. If we're talking about an industry that's planning on sticking around for the next few decades, it's going to come up eventually.
Naturally, of course, there's still plenty of clout among the "video games are just for kids" crowd to delay this eventuality.
Basically, now that commercial space travel is becoming a possibility, we're going to see tremendous advances not only in terms of safety, but also usability. That's the whole reason air travel is as safe as it is: everyone's been doing it, so we know a lot about it. Space travel's been, essentially, stuck in the lab for the past fifty years or so. If the Wright Brothers had kept as tight of a lid of flight as NASA has kept on space flight, we'd still be crossing the ocean in steamer ships.
Encryption in the US is considered, for some cockeyed reason, "munitions", so no, no more legal than it is for me, a proud Canuck, to mosey on down past the border bearing claymores and a howitzer.
The point is that most people don't even think about this, not even the really capable ones. Graham's basically saying that grads often don't even realise that they can do this sort of work, and even if they try and fail, that's still not so bad because employers will still take notice over someone who's basically worked as a trained monkey doing crap work for a few years.
So, what's to prevent the engaging ship from detonating weapons in six to eight positions relative to where they think the target is, so that if the target moves they still end up destroying it?
Ammo preservation, that's what. Even if we're all firing lasers and not projectiles, that's still a lot of energy to just be throwing around at space (or whatever's behind the craft at the time). I imagine early space combat will still be using high velocity projectiles, so that strategy, while useful if taking out a single, sitting duck, probably won't be viable in any large scale multi-target situation.
I'm attending the same university that Dr. Persinger teaches at (Laurentian University, Sudbury ON), and although I'm not a neurochem student, I think I've got the basics. It uses radio waves mostly (although there are ultrasonic waves that enter into it somehow). His theory is that the sum total of a bunch of stimuli that normally wouldn't affect us because they're too weak can have drastic effects on us, and that helmet is proof. It's kind of scary, it can give you the impression that you're in the presence of God and change the way you percieve things through your senses. Like LSD, but without scorching your brain. Can't wait to try it out (I wonder what the liability waivers look like for volunteer testing...)
You shoulda read TFA. There's two sections to this competition, the high schooler division and the college division (the one that MIT entered). Their teacher decided that, rather than losing to the high schoolers, they should at least show up for the college division. Of course, they exceeded everyone's expectations and proved themselves more than worthy of getting every scholarship and student loan dollar they can. This isn't MIT entering a high school contest, this is high schoolers beating the pants off of college engineering professionals.
Go us! Now the question on everybody's mind up here is: with our refusal to put our official support behind the missile defense program and now this, how long before the border closes up completely?
Slashdot Mirror
And as we all know, the French certainly hate their cooks. What with their pans and ovens and ingredients! The nerve!
Sir Isaac Newton was only researching what people of his day considered to be reasonable and logical pursuits. Later on alchemy was disproven as utter quackery, but from his point of view it was the cutting edge in science. Much like how doctors used to believe in the theory of the body's humors, and at that time it was perfectly rational thinking (even though we know it's not true now). In three hundred years people will be laughing at some of our ideas about quantum physics, chemistry, string theory, etc. as completely laughable in retrospect. But keep in mind, it will be in retrospect. We improve our understanding of things over time.
Economics of terrorism. If you kidnap too many hostages and then end up shooting them all in the head anyways after you get the ransom, everyone starts to assume that your ransom demands are meaningless and the cash stops flowing. Same thing with this type of virus. Stop following through with your decryption, and people will simply assume that you've irrevocably deleted their file and either restore from backup or begin backing up more frequently. Same scenario: cry wolf too many times and people stop believing you, so the cash will stop flowing in.
If he had some help, he wouldn't need the Pr0n.
You, sir, have won the Internet.
Well that does pose a risk. I can see in the next five years someone making a wide-spreading Linux worm/virus, and if all your boxen are identical then the same vulnerabilities would be present across your organization. A virus would indeed shut your company down for hours like it does today. However, you've still got diversity across multiple organizations. Sure, your Linux version of Sasser or MyDoom could shut you down, but it won't shut EVERYONE down like MyDoom did. Best security practices would dictate that you keep at least a few machines running something else (Linux in a Windows shop, Windows or *BSD in a Linux shop, etc.) so that you can restore and keep going. Make sure that your servers are one thing (or a bunch of things) and your client machines are another. The network admin's box is something else. Hard to maintain? Maybe, but you can still standardize with X number of known systems, so long as everyone isn't bringing in their own distros or copies of Windows and installing their own apps in root mode.
You'd be surprised how many low-level interns end up being responsible for key corporate decisions.
I can't imagine that if I, Mr. John Q. Public, recorded some of my own songs and packaged them with a rootkit of my own, that I'd be prosecuted for it.
See, there you go. Record your own songs! Preposterous! Of course you'd be prosecuted. We must keep the natural order of things, after all!
Is there any valid reason they're not being prosecuted for this?
Do you even need to ask at this point?
It's well past time that corporations learn they aren't above the law, even if they do write and pay for it.
Apparently you do need to ask, if you think that's ever going to happen.
I'm pretty sure this was what Michael Brown kept telling himself night after night too.
If you can get around that, it might just work.
Naturally, of course, there's still plenty of clout among the "video games are just for kids" crowd to delay this eventuality.
Basically, now that commercial space travel is becoming a possibility, we're going to see tremendous advances not only in terms of safety, but also usability. That's the whole reason air travel is as safe as it is: everyone's been doing it, so we know a lot about it. Space travel's been, essentially, stuck in the lab for the past fifty years or so. If the Wright Brothers had kept as tight of a lid of flight as NASA has kept on space flight, we'd still be crossing the ocean in steamer ships.
What do you have against Sheryl anyways?
Encryption in the US is considered, for some cockeyed reason, "munitions", so no, no more legal than it is for me, a proud Canuck, to mosey on down past the border bearing claymores and a howitzer.
The point is that most people don't even think about this, not even the really capable ones. Graham's basically saying that grads often don't even realise that they can do this sort of work, and even if they try and fail, that's still not so bad because employers will still take notice over someone who's basically worked as a trained monkey doing crap work for a few years.
Feed not the troll, for it is hungry and has little impulse control.
I highly doubt the server admins at Oregon State are amused, nor is phyisical plant.
Ammo preservation, that's what. Even if we're all firing lasers and not projectiles, that's still a lot of energy to just be throwing around at space (or whatever's behind the craft at the time). I imagine early space combat will still be using high velocity projectiles, so that strategy, while useful if taking out a single, sitting duck, probably won't be viable in any large scale multi-target situation.
I'm attending the same university that Dr. Persinger teaches at (Laurentian University, Sudbury ON), and although I'm not a neurochem student, I think I've got the basics. It uses radio waves mostly (although there are ultrasonic waves that enter into it somehow). His theory is that the sum total of a bunch of stimuli that normally wouldn't affect us because they're too weak can have drastic effects on us, and that helmet is proof. It's kind of scary, it can give you the impression that you're in the presence of God and change the way you percieve things through your senses. Like LSD, but without scorching your brain. Can't wait to try it out (I wonder what the liability waivers look like for volunteer testing...)
Ooops, this was meant for the comment above. Damn me and my distractions!
You shoulda read TFA. There's two sections to this competition, the high schooler division and the college division (the one that MIT entered). Their teacher decided that, rather than losing to the high schoolers, they should at least show up for the college division. Of course, they exceeded everyone's expectations and proved themselves more than worthy of getting every scholarship and student loan dollar they can. This isn't MIT entering a high school contest, this is high schoolers beating the pants off of college engineering professionals.
Go us! Now the question on everybody's mind up here is: with our refusal to put our official support behind the missile defense program and now this, how long before the border closes up completely?
The question of course: were the XP machine and the Longhorn machine identical? Same memory, processor, video card, etc.?
I believe it's illegal here in Ontario, although a federal law would certainly help drive the point home.
Michael Powell making a sensible decision? Is the apocalypse nigh?
...it's called pr0n.