I know I have (somewhere) kicking around in my files a drawing I drew up as an "invention" of contact lens VR devices.
Unless that's in a envelope, sealed and mailed to your laywer, forget about your prior art claim once they patent this. Kicking around in my files does not qualify.;-)
Opinion: It's a silly thought. Our gallaxy could be much older, in it's middle or late age and just have become 'the big boy on the block'. Drawing conclusions like that is highly speculative, and not a good way to do science.
Yeah, E1v!$, you tell 'em like it is! Silly guys at the Royal Astronomical Society and dudes from Strasbourg Observatory in France obviously haven't got a clue, and engage in bad science. Surely the King of rock'n'roll knows better.
I'd rather it in some lab in the US than in some lab in Russia.
Russia? Dude, that's so last century. Russia is a buddy now. Not even a part of Axis of Evil, far cry from Evil Empire of yesteyear. Get with the times, you have a choice: Iran, North Korea, Syria...
Oceania was at war with Eurasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.
One cannot communicate even an extremely small fraction of that information content across interstellar space using radio waves. They simply lack the information carrying capacity.
But, you're missing the point, sir. The point is not to communicate. The point is to prove the existence.
The human race has been saturating the space around us with radio waves for the last 50 years, and will probably continue to do so for the next 50. This represents a window of opportunity for human detection by other potential civilisations in the universe.
Seti@home bets on such window of opportunity, while the alien civilisation is using similar radio tehcnology for its communication needs. Sure, both them and us may evetually move to other, more efficient means of communication (which would in all probability be indistinguishable from backgorund noise), but we know civilisations (one of them, at least) *DO* use radio for communications. And if they do it in the window of time the SETI is active, we have a chance of spotting them.
It's basically the same premise as of that scientist a couple of articles back that proposes to search for alien civlizations around the star the looks the most like our Sun. We know life can exist around such a star, and we know life can use radio for communication. Regarding extra-terrestrial life, it's the safest bet we have at the moment.
What I'd like to see is an open distributed-computing platform which lets me bank the hours my computer puts in and then use them later
Well, CPU time is definitely a comodity. I'd say it's only a matter of time before a market for it develops, probably as soon as broadband really becomes commonplace.
With infrastructure like BOINC in place it would be pretty straight-forward to implement, and the interest for complex calculations will only increase with time.
Maybe in 5-10 years we'll all be paying for our electricity by outsorcing our CPUs to the highest bidder...:-)
We can say, "Well, people are stupid... They should know not to click on attachments," The reality is though, that "1 in 7" users have problems with the power button.
All the more reason to introduce a compulsory 'computer operator' licence.
There is no future security in blaming the end user. It's high time that we look at the systems that allow this type of invasion, replace where necessary, and train the users accordingly.
IMHO, blam^H^H^H^Heducating the end user is the only way to go. The problem will not got away, it will only get worse. As computers become more powerful and connected to ever fatter pipes, the capabilities of single computer to do serious damage (permanent or transient) increases with it. Sooner or later the only way to keep the internet from turning into chaos will be to hold the computer owners accountable.
I'd have no problem with huge fines for people that cause network problems due to negligence (in other words, not patching and securing their machines). If you can be held responsible for driving an unsafe car and thus endangering others, I see no reason not to demand the same from computer owners.
Got it in mail yesterday. Ran 'strings' on it. Got:
MAPI32 Exception MS Sans Serif &Apply Cancel An internal error has occurred in module mapi32.dll In the edit box below, please enter your name as you would like it to appear in the "From" field of your outgoing message. (Q) Your Name: YN~ Please enter your email address. This address will be the address other people use to send email to you. (w/ Email Address: Yu~ Please enter the name of your outgoing mail server in the edit box below. SMTP Server: Default mail account structure has a damaged table of contents. It is recommended to newly reconfigure your account records. MAPI32 needs these informations in order to be able to send and receive mail. Failure to do so may cause that some MAPI32 (required) (required) Enter the name you will use to log into this account. Login Name: Please enter the password for current account. Password: Type in the full name of your incoming mail server. POP3 Server: Retype password: dependent applications (such as Outlook or Outlook Express) become non-functional.
Installing Update Pack MS Sans Serif XXX
Obviously a worm designed to exploit the only weakness no patch can ever fix: a dumb user. I can only imagine the thousands all over the world typing their information right now about to be sent to a harvester who-know-where... The guy who did this should be doing hard time.
And still people don't think you should need a licence to operate a computer?
The problem is, while geeks talk the talk, they don't walk the walk with their wallets.
That is of minor importance, IMHO. What is of importance if the fact that for every Linux gamer, there are 100 windows gamers, if not more. And, since developing for two platforms would not double the size of the potential market, but increase it only by a fraction, their decision becomes clear.
In fact, I'd say that any games released on Linux are more of a political statement and betting on (possible) future than a bussiness-driven decision. And Valve possibly doesn't see it as an option worth pursuin, at least not right now when they are in a crunch with windows version.
Nice hit and run. Care to offer any proof that there was no link?
Apart from the fact that bin Laden, being a islam fundamentalist was in principle opposed the Iraq's secular regime that persecuted religious militants? And actually considered it one of it's enemies?
Besides, I believe you can't prove that the government of Mauritius didn't have links with Al Qaeda. The burden of proof should be on the accusor, right? On the other hand, 19 out 21 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Whose government had proven, documented financial links with Al Qaeda.
From the article (yep, read it. yep, subscribed.):"There's a reason this kind of thing doesn't happen with automobiles," says Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer at Counterpane Internet Security in Cupertino, Calif."
Yes, but it's not the fact that MS isn't responsible for the flaws in it's OS.
The reason is that you have to have a drivers licence test in order to legally drive a car, which means you need to have certaing knowledge and skills to safely operate a car. That way, you know you don't drive 80mph in corners, and you know you have to periodically change the oil, tyres and stuff like that. On the other hand, you are not required to have absolutely any knowledge to operate a computer on the internet. And that's where the problem lies.
To expand further: both viruses that 'devastated' the internet lately propagated mainly because of ignorant users. One required you to click on an attachment in a message (Yeah, wicked screensaver, let's see it!), or not to patch your machine for a vulnerability that was announced and patched a month before MSBlaster struck (a month that the author of the virus probably spent writing and testing the virus, counting on people not patching their computers).
My point is: as much as you can't complain if you destroy the engine of your car because you neglected to change the oil, or crash while cornering at 80mph, you can't complain if your computer gets compromised because you neglected to take care of it or take the most basic precaution when operating it.
I'm not talking taking getting a CS degree here, computers can and will patch themselves if you make them do so. Similarly, everyone should know better than clicking on attachments in unexpected/strange messages. I have absolutely no fear of viruses/trojans/worms and have completely avoided all of internet 'disasters' so far, merely by excersizing common sense and judgement. I strongly believe everyone else can do so.
On the other hand, I do fear governments involvment in policing the Internet. If the proclaimed 'Internet security experts' have as little clue as the person cited at the top of my post, what chance of really understanding and doing the right thing a bunch of politicians have? Holding the software companies directly responsible for virus damage will be the end of the software industry. I really do hope the politicians aren't that hasty, although I do believe the armies of MS lobbyists will prevent the worse from happening.
To me, requiring the average joe user to be on top of his patches is like asking average joe driver to stay on top of the advancements in electronic motormanagement technology.
I call BS!
Asking computer users to patch is the same as asking car drivers to go for oil change and tyre change every x miles. And, having the users learn not to click on 'wicked screensavers' is about as much knowledge as not going into corners doing 80mph.
You don't blame the car manufacturer if your machine dies because of lack of oil. You don't blame the manufacturer if you end up in a ditch doing 80mph in a corner.
Unless some form of government inforced price fixing went into play (ha!), the money would just shoot right back up the tree.
Living in a ex-communist country, I can say: been there, done that. Didn't work.:-)
This guy has noted some really worrying stuff, but his solutions are unworkable, I believe. If it was otherwise, we'd all be living in communism right now.
Which only turns my 'the end is nigh' feelings up a notch. I simply don't believe the human race as such is capable of surviving despite itself. We're simply not mature enough.
Guess that's why there's noone else to talk to in the universe. Sustainable growth is hard, really hard.
The only way to eliminate spam is to force everyone to include real-world indentification data in every single email and Internet posting.
Wrong, wrong, wrong... I say leave the spammers alone.
Spam is always, as a rule, originated by a bussiness trying to get you to buy something. In order for you to buy something from them, they inevitably have to include a way of contact in the spam.
That's all the information you need. Find a company that paid for the spamming, fine them more than they possibly stand to earn by spamming. That way you directly remove the reason for spamming. Therefore, no bussiness, legitimate or snake-oil will have the incentive to employ spammers.
Slashdot Mirror
I know I have (somewhere) kicking around in my files a drawing I drew up as an "invention" of contact lens VR devices.
;-)
Unless that's in a envelope, sealed and mailed to your laywer, forget about your prior art claim once they patent this. Kicking around in my files does not qualify.
Opinion: It's a silly thought. Our gallaxy could be much older, in it's middle or late age and just have become 'the big boy on the block'. Drawing conclusions like that is highly speculative, and not a good way to do science.
Yeah, E1v!$, you tell 'em like it is! Silly guys at the Royal Astronomical Society and dudes from Strasbourg Observatory in France obviously haven't got a clue, and engage in bad science. Surely the King of rock'n'roll knows better.
So, anyway, what's it like, up there, on Mars?
I'd rather it in some lab in the US than in some lab in Russia.
Russia? Dude, that's so last century. Russia is a buddy now. Not even a part of Axis of Evil, far cry from Evil Empire of yesteyear. Get with the times, you have a choice: Iran, North Korea, Syria...
Oceania was at war with Eurasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.
Microsoft will not be able to bully companies like they do now once Linux becomes mainstream and trust me, 3 years from now Linux will be mainstream.
;-)
I, personally, am still waiting for Amiga to become mainstream and put an end to Microsofts bullying.
One cannot communicate even an extremely small fraction of that information content across interstellar space using radio waves. They simply lack the information carrying capacity.
But, you're missing the point, sir. The point is not to communicate. The point is to prove the existence.
The human race has been saturating the space around us with radio waves for the last 50 years, and will probably continue to do so for the next 50. This represents a window of opportunity for human detection by other potential civilisations in the universe.
Seti@home bets on such window of opportunity, while the alien civilisation is using similar radio tehcnology for its communication needs. Sure, both them and us may evetually move to other, more efficient means of communication (which would in all probability be indistinguishable from backgorund noise), but we know civilisations (one of them, at least) *DO* use radio for communications. And if they do it in the window of time the SETI is active, we have a chance of spotting them.
It's basically the same premise as of that scientist a couple of articles back that proposes to search for alien civlizations around the star the looks the most like our Sun. We know life can exist around such a star, and we know life can use radio for communication. Regarding extra-terrestrial life, it's the safest bet we have at the moment.
What I'd like to see is an open distributed-computing platform which lets me bank the hours my computer puts in and then use them later
:-)
Well, CPU time is definitely a comodity. I'd say it's only a matter of time before a market for it develops, probably as soon as broadband really becomes commonplace.
With infrastructure like BOINC in place it would be pretty straight-forward to implement, and the interest for complex calculations will only increase with time.
Maybe in 5-10 years we'll all be paying for our electricity by outsorcing our CPUs to the highest bidder...
If I decide to jump off a cliff and fall to my microsoft death will you follow just because you can?
:-)
No, no, no... You're supposed to switch to Mac. Look, the japanese are already on it.
Film at 11: Linux is dying.
We can say, "Well, people are stupid... They should know not to click on attachments," The reality is though, that "1 in 7" users have problems with the power button.
All the more reason to introduce a compulsory 'computer operator' licence.
There is no future security in blaming the end user. It's high time that we look at the systems that allow this type of invasion, replace where necessary, and train the users accordingly.
IMHO, blam^H^H^H^Heducating the end user is the only way to go. The problem will not got away, it will only get worse. As computers become more powerful and connected to ever fatter pipes, the capabilities of single computer to do serious damage (permanent or transient) increases with it. Sooner or later the only way to keep the internet from turning into chaos will be to hold the computer owners accountable.
I'd have no problem with huge fines for people that cause network problems due to negligence (in other words, not patching and securing their machines). If you can be held responsible for driving an unsafe car and thus endangering others, I see no reason not to demand the same from computer owners.
I want Cygnus Ed for Linux! It was so slick..
Hear, hear! Win32 port wouldn't hurt either. An editor always a ctrl-enter away...
stick a floppy into Drive A.
Drive A? Infidel! That's df0: to you!
... Duke Nukem!
To this day, when I'm looking for something I usually say 'Where is iiit...?' as done by Duke when you looked around for a while...
Thats one hell of a virus.
Got it in mail yesterday. Ran 'strings' on it. Got:
MAPI32 Exception
MS Sans Serif
&Apply
Cancel
An internal error has occurred in module mapi32.dll
In the edit box below, please enter your name as you would like it to appear in the "From" field of your outgoing message.
(Q)
Your Name:
YN~
Please enter your email address. This address will be the address other people use to send email to you.
(w/
Email Address:
Yu~
Please enter the name of your outgoing mail server in the edit box below.
SMTP Server:
Default mail account structure has a damaged table of contents. It is recommended to newly reconfigure your account records. MAPI32 needs these informations in order to be able to send and receive mail. Failure to do so may cause that some MAPI32
(required)
(required)
Enter the name you will use to log into this account.
Login Name:
Please enter the password for current account.
Password:
Type in the full name of your incoming mail server.
POP3 Server:
Retype password:
dependent applications (such as Outlook or Outlook Express) become non-functional.
Installing Update Pack
MS Sans Serif
XXX
Obviously a worm designed to exploit the only weakness no patch can ever fix: a dumb user. I can only imagine the thousands all over the world typing their information right now about to be sent to a harvester who-know-where... The guy who did this should be doing hard time.
And still people don't think you should need a licence to operate a computer?
Posting it on slashdot. I hear lots of people read that site.
Dude, you failed to include the URL.
The problem is, while geeks talk the talk, they don't walk the walk with their wallets.
That is of minor importance, IMHO. What is of importance if the fact that for every Linux gamer, there are 100 windows gamers, if not more. And, since developing for two platforms would not double the size of the potential market, but increase it only by a fraction, their decision becomes clear.
In fact, I'd say that any games released on Linux are more of a political statement and betting on (possible) future than a bussiness-driven decision. And Valve possibly doesn't see it as an option worth pursuin, at least not right now when they are in a crunch with windows version.
I've seen this a couple times before, but Google seems to come up with nothing useful for it.
It's from:
Andrew S. Tannenbaum. Computer Networks. Prentice Hall, third edition, 1996.
A de facto bible of computer networks. Had it as a textbook in college. You're bound to run into it if you ever get to formally studying networks.
If that is true how come people are killing each other to get in the US.
Hm... They're unable to get to Europe or Australia? I really can't think of anything else...
Nice hit and run. Care to offer any proof that there was no link?
Apart from the fact that bin Laden, being a islam fundamentalist was in principle opposed the Iraq's secular regime that persecuted religious militants? And actually considered it one of it's enemies?
Besides, I believe you can't prove that the government of Mauritius didn't have links with Al Qaeda. The burden of proof should be on the accusor, right? On the other hand, 19 out 21 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Whose government had proven, documented financial links with Al Qaeda.
Still, the US invaded Iraq. Curious, isn't it?
Have you considered the idea that perhaps most Americans like the idea of making the world more like us? Just wondering...
Which begs the question: Have you considered the idea that perhaps most of the world doesn't like the idea of becoming more like you (the US)?
Or it simply doesn't matter, because obviously the US is the best and the greatest and should therefore be allowed to do what it sees fit?
Really wondering...
Linux could be used by the Department of Defense. It could even be used by al Qaeda. So should we abandon Linux?
;-)
Yes. A good idea. Let's all abandon Linux.
Yeah, yeah, I know. -1, Troll.
Just curiously, if these fields are being generated as 500,000 times stronger than tha earth's own... are they detectable from space?
Somewhere in the deep space, a red light starts blinking...
From the article (yep, read it. yep, subscribed.):"There's a reason this kind of thing doesn't happen with automobiles," says Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer at Counterpane Internet Security in Cupertino, Calif."
Yes, but it's not the fact that MS isn't responsible for the flaws in it's OS.
The reason is that you have to have a drivers licence test in order to legally drive a car, which means you need to have certaing knowledge and skills to safely operate a car. That way, you know you don't drive 80mph in corners, and you know you have to periodically change the oil, tyres and stuff like that. On the other hand, you are not required to have absolutely any knowledge to operate a computer on the internet. And that's where the problem lies.
To expand further: both viruses that 'devastated' the internet lately propagated mainly because of ignorant users. One required you to click on an attachment in a message (Yeah, wicked screensaver, let's see it!), or not to patch your machine for a vulnerability that was announced and patched a month before MSBlaster struck (a month that the author of the virus probably spent writing and testing the virus, counting on people not patching their computers).
My point is: as much as you can't complain if you destroy the engine of your car because you neglected to change the oil, or crash while cornering at 80mph, you can't complain if your computer gets compromised because you neglected to take care of it or take the most basic precaution when operating it.
I'm not talking taking getting a CS degree here, computers can and will patch themselves if you make them do so. Similarly, everyone should know better than clicking on attachments in unexpected/strange messages. I have absolutely no fear of viruses/trojans/worms and have completely avoided all of internet 'disasters' so far, merely by excersizing common sense and judgement. I strongly believe everyone else can do so.
On the other hand, I do fear governments involvment in policing the Internet. If the proclaimed 'Internet security experts' have as little clue as the person cited at the top of my post, what chance of really understanding and doing the right thing a bunch of politicians have? Holding the software companies directly responsible for virus damage will be the end of the software industry. I really do hope the politicians aren't that hasty, although I do believe the armies of MS lobbyists will prevent the worse from happening.
To me, requiring the average joe user to be on top of his patches is like asking average joe driver to stay on top of the advancements in electronic motormanagement technology.
I call BS!
Asking computer users to patch is the same as asking car drivers to go for oil change and tyre change every x miles. And, having the users learn not to click on 'wicked screensavers' is about as much knowledge as not going into corners doing 80mph.
You don't blame the car manufacturer if your machine dies because of lack of oil. You don't blame the manufacturer if you end up in a ditch doing 80mph in a corner.
Nuff said.
Unless some form of government inforced price fixing went into play (ha!), the money would just shoot right back up the tree.
:-)
Living in a ex-communist country, I can say: been there, done that. Didn't work.
This guy has noted some really worrying stuff, but his solutions are unworkable, I believe. If it was otherwise, we'd all be living in communism right now.
Which only turns my 'the end is nigh' feelings up a notch. I simply don't believe the human race as such is capable of surviving despite itself. We're simply not mature enough.
Guess that's why there's noone else to talk to in the universe. Sustainable growth is hard, really hard.
Maybe I could save a lot of money on medications by just letting it bite me every so often.
No, no need for pain. You just have to french kiss him once in a while.
The only way to eliminate spam is to force everyone to include real-world indentification data in every single email and Internet posting.
Wrong, wrong, wrong... I say leave the spammers alone.
Spam is always, as a rule, originated by a bussiness trying to get you to buy something. In order for you to buy something from them, they inevitably have to include a way of contact in the spam.
That's all the information you need. Find a company that paid for the spamming, fine them more than they possibly stand to earn by spamming. That way you directly remove the reason for spamming. Therefore, no bussiness, legitimate or snake-oil will have the incentive to employ spammers.