Most current NIC's have two MAC's. A hard MAC in PROM that is not easily changed and a soft MAC that can be changed in software. This gaming software installs on your computer, and it can therefor get the hard MAC from your NIC.
I wonder how does the soft accomplish that with the multitude of network card types out there - is it a standard network driver API call (mind that - the hard mac address)? Or does it know most of the network cards, so that it can ask any card for the hard MAC address (how does it gain direct access to the network card)?
Just wondering if anyone has any solutions that would be easy to implement and hard to get around...
Hm... secure authentication protocol with either:
a) tokens for which you must pay. Obvious drawback - who will pay?
b) tokens given by some central authority based on your real life ID (SSN or something) one token per customer. Obvious drawbacks - troublesome as hell, privacy issues.
Of course, if you're caught cheating/hacking, your token is revoked and
a) you have to pay for another one
b) you won't get another one, since you've already used your SSN.
I don't know if this is 'easy to implement', but sure is hard to get around.
PS. Whoever modded parent 'offtopic' is a moron - sorry, had to say that.
However, the majority of people don't know how to reset their MAC addresses.
Hm... on my windows machine it's as simple as control panel-> network->adapters-> Realtek RTL something-> Properties -> set MAC address
Also, as I believe to be true, some broadband providers specifically use MAC addresses to verify access.
Yup, this could be a problem, albeit a minor one. First solution - get a hacked version of the Mac-reading software. Second solution - use a virtual (or just physically distinct if you happen to own 2 PCs) machine to run the mac-reading software, so that it sees a different MAC address than your ISP.
Overall, the admins figure they will cut out 99% of the hacking attempts as people would just go elsewhere, or once they did cheat, just wouldn't know how to change their MAC.
Overall, I figure that most people who go elsewhere will be legitimate users scared of spyware and hackers will see that as a challenge, so i wouldn't be surprised if the successful hacking attempts will go up, instead of down.
Not to sound like a troll, but I thought they the MAC address was burned in to the chips themselves? Thats that they always told us in College. Then again, I didn't go to a very reputable college. =D
Perhaps it was a long time ago - in the pre-flash-rom times the network cards had indeed their MAC adress burned into them. I have not heard of any currently manufactured network card with a non-changable MAC adress.
Since common warts are caused by a virus, it seems unlikely that you could literally "suffocate" it.
You don't suffocate the virus itself, you just kill the skin cells attacked by the virus. I think all of the wart treatment methods do that - freezing, burning, acid, you name it.
Hemmendinger commented, "I see a lot more stuff coming across BugTraq [about Linux] than any flavor of Unix or any Microsoft operating system." BugTraq is a popular forum for discussion of computer security vulnerabilities.
This is probably true, but only because for Linux, every security vulnerability gets posted multiple times[...]
I think there is a more important reason for this. It's just easier to discover bugs, possible exploits and such having the source code. Notice the number of linux related bugtraq posts that are in the 'possible exploit/buffer overflow/bug found by analyzing the source' category. As to whether this means anything about open source being less secure - i don't think so. Windows bugs are there in place, they are just harder to find - you must probably do some reverse engineering or extensive testing to find them.
Unfortunately, DRMP technology is incompatible with security and with the kinds of reliability needed in safety critical or mission critical applications.
Here is some thoroughly unresearched anecdotal evidence: some of the girls I know like playing 'Puzzle Bobble' - basically an arcade/puzzle game with a high cuteness factor and nice colors but definitely no social-like interactions. This might mean something. Or it might not. Go figure.
This has more meaning then you might think for the economy. The idea that a country will not have to import oil any longer to maintain its power systems / gas requirements is just as important as the savings for the individual from not having to go to the gas station.
Too optimistic - we don't even know if a battery produces more energy than it is needed for its manufacturing, let alone smelting a thousand tons of steel without turning a continent into a carrot monoculture.
The reason you would connect batteries in series is to increase voltage. Two AA batteries (1.5V each) in series gives a total voltage of 3V. Most residential light bulbs (in the US - not sure about UK) run on 120V; it would take a lot of AAs to get this, but the organic cells probably do better than 1.5V - my guess is 3-5V.
Voltage is not as important as power - there are quite efficient voltage converters, you can avoid stacking batteries using one of those (at a cost of some power loss). The thing that matters is power - you cannot 'convert' power. We still don't know how much power can such a battery yield.
The article says that each cell could be produced for around 10 GBP (about $16), so I'm guessing not very much.
That is only a partial answer - the article does not state whether the chemicals get used up. If they are only catalysts, then hooray - you buy them once and only refill sugar. If not - back to the original question.
1. The article says that to obtain 40 watts of power you need many such cells. I wonder exactly how many. More than will fit into my laptop case?
2. Besides sugar, the cell needs some mysterious 'redox chemicals'. How expensive they are? Can they be produced environmentally-friendly? Are they safe to store?
So, this might or might not be a great invention.
But, if you don't actually test out the micro-mutations as you go along, then I would expect the probablity of getting a good sequence of micro-mutations would be pretty-much on par with that of getting a good macro-mutation - i.e. insignificant. So how does this new idea help?
This is only a guess (the article isn't available online, so i haven't read it). I think that it is helpful, but in a more subtle way than creating 'evolutionary leaps'. I can only guess that this mechanism stores 'proven' micromutations. I mean - you have a gene that is expressed ( meaning that it is 'good', or at least neutral, since the organism is alive ), then move (or copy?) it into a non-expressed location in the genome, when it stays for next generations. We already know a remotely similar mechanism, namely recessive genes in diploidal organisms. They express only when two copies of a gene meet in one organism. That means that if only 1 percent of the population carries a recessive gene, the gene expresses itself only in 1/(100*100) cases, so it remains virtually hidden. Now what's the use of this? Well, it can store genes that can be helpful only in specific circumstances, but are otherwise 'bad'. For example they can block a protein that a virus attaches to, but which is otherwise helpful. So during an epidemic, this gene becomes widespread - the rare organisms in which the gene expresses thrive, the others die. When the epidemic is over, the hypothetical gene goes slowly back into hiding. I think there is a similar gene that makes you immune to HIV, so this example is not totally hypothetical. As to 'evolutionary leaps' - i don't think they were actually occuring, i don't want to be -1 Redundant posting the link with refutation of the bombardier beetle example:-)
Death and reproduction have roles in the evolutionary process.
Of course they do.
Bacteria can evolve without dying or reproducing.
They can acquire beneficial genes by mutation or exchange with other bacteria. That is not yet evolution - mutations produce far more bad and neutral changes than good ones. They are random - randomly changing something that already works usually has detrimental effects, or no effects at all. Same thing applies to gene exchange - a bacteria can acquire good, bad or average genes with similar probability.
However, evolution is a direct result of mutation.
It is also a direct result of death and reproduction. Good mutation needs reproduction to become widespread - it has to replicate faster than competing mutations. It also needs death - death eliminates competing mutations. I think that is the mainstream definition of evolution.
Delphi (since version 6) has this nice feature of magically generating Apache shared modules. Unfortunately Apache 2.0.40 complains about modules generated by Delphi 7 ('module foo.bar is not compatible with this Apache version'). Well... i contacted Borland(aka Inprise). The response i got was that something changed between version 2.0.3x (latest version before Delphi 7.0 was frozen) and 2.0.40 that broke the integration. So if you want to write Apache modules in Delphi, you have to wait for a patch (expected in november) or stick to 1.3 (as I did) or manually implement the API .
I guess that the webadmins are wise in not rushing to adopt the newest and coolest Apache version.
Well, the ones who really need it (car designers, whatever) probably care about the 'minor imperfections' and are willing to spend the additional 140K. As for the others... well... i think i'd rather spend 10k on regular CRT monitors + stereoscopic glasses (the ones making your left/right eye see even/odd frames). I am too lazy to look up the price tags on these, but my guess is i can get a whole monitor + glasses set well under 500$. So, 20 sets that can also be used as regular monitors instead of one projection set seems a good deal to me.
So this guy has read some news, created a graph of terrorists connections and ran some statistics on it. Result: the graph is sparse but has shortcuts. Pretty pictures, though.
Unfortunately, dasher (and any other nonstandard text-entry interface) will only work against keylogging alone, not against keylogging + screen dumps. The only way to safely transmit information via a company computer (untrusted) is to enter already encrypted data into it. So, the solution is to have some PGP-like software on your (trusted) palm, or to learn to do PGP in your head (trusted, if you wear a tinfoil hat);-)
Re:Just contributes to that mountain in China
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Pentium 4 2.8GHz
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I would not hire a doctor uses ancient tools and neither would I hire a software engineer that does. If you have so little enthusiasm for technology, then find a field that interests you more.
I would not hire a doctor who is enthusiastic about his tools. I would not hire an engineer who is enthustiastic about his tools. I would not
hire anyone enthustiastic about his tools. I want a person looking for a solution to whatever problem i have, not a nerd who seeks a way to use his newest toys. 'When the only
tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'.
The objective of the learning algorithm was to achieve maximum lift while attached to two vertical poles . So the headline should be: 'Robot learns to achieve maximum lift by flapping wings while attached to two poles'. I think keeping balance, avoiding stall, etc. are much harder to achieve.
Namely, if the algorithm says it is prime it might be wrong (with probablity half, say), and if it says that the number is not prime, then it is not prime for sure.
As far as i know, there is a complementary probabilistic algorithm: if it says the number is prime, it is prime for sure, if if says it's composite, it can be wrong (with a fixed probability). So you can check whether a number is prime or not - with an absolute certainty, by running the two algorithms repeatedly, until one of them gives the 'sure' answer. The only thing that is unsure is the execution time - perhaps you will have to run both algorithms many times before obtaining a certain answer. The expected running time is of course polynomial. This means than prime testing is in ZPP. A google search on 'ZPP prime' or something should reveal more, if anyone is interested.
The majority of tech companies hire a piddly _2%_ of all applicants. If an IT worker shortage DID in fact exist on the scale that ITAA members claim, then they have no business hiring a mere 2% of those who submit resumes.
The hired/submitted ratio does not tell us _anything_ about the worker shortage. Many candidates e-mail they resumes to everyone who placed a job ad with "IT" in the keywords (not bothering to read the ad). So when you seek a Smalltalk programmer, you can expect that most of the applicants will be "resumebots" not familiar with OO programming, let alone Smalltalk. Remember Bernie The Moron Spammer?
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a) tokens for which you must pay. Obvious drawback - who will pay?
b) tokens given by some central authority based on your real life ID (SSN or something) one token per customer. Obvious drawbacks - troublesome as hell, privacy issues.
Of course, if you're caught cheating/hacking, your token is revoked and
a) you have to pay for another one
b) you won't get another one, since you've already used your SSN.
I don't know if this is 'easy to implement', but sure is hard to get around.
PS. Whoever modded parent 'offtopic' is a moron - sorry, had to say that.
Here is some thoroughly unresearched anecdotal evidence: some of the girls I know like playing 'Puzzle Bobble' - basically an arcade/puzzle game with a high cuteness factor and nice colors but definitely no social-like interactions. This might mean something. Or it might not. Go figure.
Too optimistic - we don't even know if a battery produces more energy than it is needed for its manufacturing, let alone smelting a thousand tons of steel without turning a continent into a carrot monoculture.
Voltage is not as important as power - there are quite efficient voltage converters, you can avoid stacking batteries using one of those (at a cost of some power loss). The thing that matters is power - you cannot 'convert' power. We still don't know how much power can such a battery yield.
That is only a partial answer - the article does not state whether the chemicals get used up. If they are only catalysts, then hooray - you buy them once and only refill sugar. If not - back to the original question.
1. The article says that to obtain 40 watts of power you need many such cells. I wonder exactly how many. More than will fit into my laptop case?
2. Besides sugar, the cell needs some mysterious 'redox chemicals'. How expensive they are? Can they be produced environmentally-friendly? Are they safe to store? So, this might or might not be a great invention.
More stupid articles beginning with 'scientists discovered...'. More CowboyNeal jokes. Great.
Delphi (since version 6) has this nice feature of magically generating Apache shared modules. Unfortunately Apache 2.0.40 complains about modules generated by Delphi 7 ('module foo.bar is not compatible with this Apache version'). Well... i contacted Borland(aka Inprise). The response i got was that something changed between version 2.0.3x (latest version before Delphi 7.0 was frozen) and 2.0.40 that broke the integration. So if you want to write Apache modules in Delphi, you have to wait for a patch (expected in november) or stick to 1.3 (as I did) or manually implement the API .
I guess that the webadmins are wise in not rushing to adopt the newest and coolest Apache version.
Well, the ones who really need it (car designers, whatever) probably care about the 'minor imperfections' and are willing to spend the additional 140K. As for the others... well... i think i'd rather spend 10k on regular CRT monitors + stereoscopic glasses (the ones making your left/right eye see even/odd frames). I am too lazy to look up the price tags on these, but my guess is i can get a whole monitor + glasses set well under 500$. So, 20 sets that can also be used as regular monitors instead of one projection set seems a good deal to me.
AI taking over my game? I prefer a pause command (in desktop games) or 'logout' command (in multiplayer games).
So this guy has read some news, created a graph of terrorists connections and ran some statistics on it. Result: the graph is sparse but has shortcuts. Pretty pictures, though.
Unfortunately, dasher (and any other nonstandard text-entry interface) will only work against keylogging alone, not against keylogging + screen dumps. The only way to safely transmit information via a company computer (untrusted) is to enter already encrypted data into it. So, the solution is to have some PGP-like software on your (trusted) palm, or to learn to do PGP in your head (trusted, if you wear a tinfoil hat) ;-)
The objective of the learning algorithm was to achieve maximum lift while attached to two vertical poles . So the headline should be: 'Robot learns to achieve maximum lift by flapping wings while attached to two poles'. I think keeping balance, avoiding stall, etc. are much harder to achieve.