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User: twl

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  1. SAAS - smart as a service on Nokia Spinning Featurephones as Smartphones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What Nokia are doing is moving the 'smart' into the cloud. Seems smart enough to me. Not everyone wants a $600 phone...

  2. You should learn to read on The Future of Security · · Score: 1
    After all, he did say 'in terms of actual impact upon the information world' (emphasis mine).

    Obviously most actions against information systems pale in comparison to the loss of actual people. Unfortunately, increasingly we are relying on these same crappy commodity information infrastructures for critical systems... oops.

  3. Re:pricetag on Wireless Charging your Handhelds? · · Score: 1

    my $30 braun electric toothbrush uses an inductive charging system...

  4. Re:Uhm, actually (Re:So why SHOULDN'T we boycott A on Discuss BIOS and Palladium Issues With an AMIBIOS Rep · · Score: 1

    Fair point. My issue is really that these protections implemented in software can always be screwed up. Properly implemented, hardware can't be without interference with the hardware itself.

    Without the trusted components, I can never be certain which level of my computer's systems I'm interacting with.

    Besides. TCPA will happen. Best that we concentrate on subverting what will most certainly be put in place!

  5. Uhm, actually (Re:So why SHOULDN'T we boycott AMI) on Discuss BIOS and Palladium Issues With an AMIBIOS Rep · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Trusted operating systems can be a GREAT thing, it's merely a question of who controls the TORA [trusted operating root authority]. IMHO, if I control the TORA, it gives me power over my computer that wouldn't normally be possible, even with the various mandatory access control systems available across different platforms.

    All of these are software, while the TCPA system's hardware-based system, if properly implemented, will be much more resistant to attack than any software-based solution.

    If you've ever typed ctrl-alt-delete on a PC, you've used a 'trusted' feature, since it generates an interrupt which cannot be trapped by usermode software. Last time I checked, ctrl-alt-delete didn't present a clear and present danger to the operation of my computer -- merely my sanity.

    We should focus on the real issues -- ownership of the TORA, as well as the distribution of simple methods to regain control of your computer's TORA through simple hardware hacking, much like the chipping of games consoles that still goes on fairly freely even in these dark days of DMCA, SSSCA, etc.

    [standard disclaimers: not a hardware expert, info above is provided to the best of my knowledge but details may be incorrect...]

  6. Re:Old news in the UK on Traffic Cameras in D.C. · · Score: 1
    These things are endemic in the UK, both lights and speed cameras. Some consequences and quirks: Drivers learn where they are and how sensitive they are extremely quickly. The major effect they have is to produce zones where drivers brake frantically, creep along for fifty yards (for speed cameras), then accelerate sharply away in annoyance.

    We don't even need to learn where they are: just buy one of these, which will tell you where they are, entirely passively.

    Cameras are revenue-gatherers, pure and simple. There are some roads I've driven which are 3 lane, purpose built and suited to 75+ mph with no safety issues. Yet the limit is set at 50, and cameras wait every few miles to catch anyone who would dare follow a 'natural' speed for the road.

    To make the roads safer, we need to improve driving standards: make the test harder, and retest drivers periodically. Police should police driving behaviour, not arbitrary metrics like x% + y over limit z.

  7. why bother with anything other than SSL? on IP Tunneling Through Nameservers · · Score: 1

    bounce port 443 to 22, use ssh-tunnel.pl (http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/ssh-tunnel.pl)

    why bother messing about with your transport when most web proxies hand you a circuit-level gateway for free? all you need is the perl script to negotiate with the proxy and hand your SSH client the connection. then forward, say, SOCKS traffic over the SSH link, or whatever.

    even more fun, of course, is inbound port forwarding -- leave WinVNC running on your workstation and connect into it from anywhere in the world as if there wasn't a firewall.

    most web proxies use a 2 or so minute timeout on inactive SSL connections, so forward X11 and put a proper clock on your corporate desktop.

    why hasn't anyone noticed this yet?

  8. sch_teql on Load Balancing Using Multiple PPP Links? · · Score: 1

    the true link equalisation module does work, but each destination address has to have its own netcard (ie physical device). perfect if you've got, say, 2 dsl lines and you want to provide both fault-tolerance and load-balancing of outbound traffic.

  9. sidenote on Napster, Gnutella, Bans, Lawsuits And More · · Score: 1

    sometimes napster doesn't like some free socks servers; in this case, use the socks5 wrapper you can get at nec or something similar.

  10. Avoiding napster bans on Napster, Gnutella, Bans, Lawsuits And More · · Score: 5

    this has worked for me everywhere:
    ssh to unix host in napster friendly network
    tunnel socks thru ssh
    tell napster you have socks5 on localhost
    you might need to use a DNS server other than your ISP's too.
    voila! instant policy subversion.

  11. Re:Question Regarding DNS on Who is the Best Registrar? · · Score: 1

    one thing that wasn't covered by the other answering post: the time to update information in the DNS isn't fixed at 24 hours. it can be as little or as much as you want; you set it in the configuration file for a DNS zone.

    if you expect a host to move around a lot, set the time-to-live low (180 seconds maybe). if it's an established host that doesn't change, make it 24 hours, say, or longer.

  12. Re:A wireless pocket Web server! on More on the Samsung Linux Handheld · · Score: 1

    hmmm, would make an ideal platform for serving decss, crypto et al then.

    i *don't* like the start button.

  13. Re:size/speed of Debian on Interview: Ask the Debian Project Leader · · Score: 1

    1- pentium optimisation doesn't do anything to help ppro/ii/iii etc cores, so it's not worth doing in a general-purpose dist like debian
    2- debian is very ideally suited to broadband. if you're willing to occasionally do some nifty admin work, unstable is as current a distribution you will get, and i've run it successfully with no disasters for over three years. if you don't have broadband, i can sympathise, but this will not be the case for much longer with the rise of adsl, cable modems, etc.
    i think it would be a mistake to constrain the distribution to resources available today, better to plan for the future. it's likely with the 3rd party investment coming into debian that releases will be available on DVD before long, which should stop you having to use more than two disks, and one exceptionally... ;-)
    the bigger the better, i think. you don't have to install anything if you don't want it, and the volume of applications helps to ensure that any given thing you need is there already most times.
    (imho, etc)

  14. no more cookies on Where's All The Outrage About The IPv6 Privacy? · · Score: 2

    makes doubleclick's job easier i guess

  15. Does this count? on NSI Modifies "whois" Agreement · · Score: 1
    knocked the finger gateway cgi into a whois gateway... does this count?

  16. pick up your telephone on Packet Storm Security site closed down · · Score: 1

    1. 'whois antionline.com'
    2. dial

  17. Don't know about you but.... on Interception in the UK · · Score: 1

    My VPN isn't going to have back doors for Mr Straw's friends. Good luck to him cracking my 256 bit session keys.

  18. Re:Wait till the spammers get ahold of it on The Factoid · · Score: 1
    exactly. there's no way of distinguishing between useful fact and intrusive advertising, unless you somehow previously trust the information provider... which destroys much of the use of the device in not having to think about it.

    even if you had a little 'accept'/'deny' button for each factoid it would be about as useful as having your browser ask you before it sets a cookie; i.e. not much use at all.

    hmmm, maybe you could do it with CAs (authenticode style), but then all it takes is one spammer to get signed and the whole CA is toast... since i doubt these little devices would have reference to certificate revokation lists with such a short-range antenna.

  19. Re:before you flame... on Major Security Flaw in IIS4.0 · · Score: 2
    oh BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH... this is a little irritating to hear again and again. sendmail is overly maligned for its current state of repair. i've run sendmail with no firewall in front of it, naked on the Internet for the last three years. average of five script kiddies hit my box every day for these three years, and NEVER, repeat NOT ONCE, did any of them -- or the occasional determined cracker (one every couple of months) -- break sendmail.

    of course, they didn't break anything else either. that's why i run linux.

    so quit sniping at a decent MTA that runs circles around most others as a turnkey messaging system.

  20. bandwidth trouble on The Two LinuxHQs? · · Score: 2
    hostname of border host seems to suggest 128k pipe. looks like that was well thought out.

    Hostname %Loss Rcv Snt Last Best Avg Worst
    14. pinky.x25.net 27% 56 76 130 108 127 252
    15. ecs-128.ecsnet.com 58% 32 76 576 320 733 1125
    16. evans11.x25.net 50% 38 76 523 266 726 1132

  21. Re:Not such a good idea? on NASA Crashing Probe to Look for H2O on Moon · · Score: 1

    > Uh, orbits degrade because of atmospheric drag. No atmosphere on the moon.

    you're forgetting that the earth's atmosphere extends beyond the moon's orbit (not very dense of course). there's also drag from tidal forces, solar wind, drag from cutting through magnetic fields, etc, etc.

    even if it was just cutting through interstellar hydrogen it would eventually stop.

  22. um on NSI sells registrant info. Again. · · Score: 1

    are you a bot? saying something five times doesn't make it so.

    interesting how netsol had two choices in the face of competition (offer better service, or abuse monopoly for the rest of its duration) and chose the one least likely to retain customers after the end of its monopoly. isn't that a good basis for a shareholder class action lawsuit, never mind the others that have been mentioned?

    i'll be glad when i have a choice.

  23. ha on NSI Claims whois Database is Proprietary · · Score: 1

    this is interesting, given that the content of the database consists largely of other people's intellectual property, much of which existed before netsol's contract.

    why doesn't the us government stomp on them?

  24. Comments worth reading again now. on Slashdot Moderation:Phase 1.1.1 · · Score: 1

    I had given up ploughing through hundreds of garbage posts to get to anything useful a few months ago. Suddenly, I don't have to. Thanks, Mr Malda.

  25. Too late! on MS Responds to Rebate Day · · Score: 1

    I broke the shrinkwrap back in July for the win98 for my Libretto -- which of course is now running 2.2.0-final. :(