I remember the times when good netiquette was thought essential (which was not that long ago).
Where "not that long" == "at least seven years". That is an epoch in Internet time. (Look, another annoying phrase!)
In all seriousness, that is roughly when I left Usenet. Even the Linux and Sun newsgroups were being overrun by somewhat anonymous people who saw the fora as places to be complete morons in public, topic/charter/threading/RTFM/netiquette be darned.
Not to be a party pooper, but is there really any application for this tunnel? You can't see it, you can't see out of it, and you need to build it so it can only go to places you can already go
That should be obvious: it will have great implications for the Internet, which - as we all know - is a series of tubes. The tunnel carries light, so it can work like a fibre connection, and we can identify the endpoints.
Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth ... By the time any of this technology could ship we'd probably have thought controlled car locks. No need for keys then.
If I end up so far from my car keys that I need GOOGLE EARTH to find them, I have failed miserably...
Or had a really good time. I suppose it could go either way (or both).
If you can get physical access to the hardware everything else is moot. If they were booting off of media then everything is already out the window.
You mean unrestricted physical access.
If the sysadmin had done his job - by setting BIOS passwords of sufficient complexity and by permitting booting only from the HD - then this would be a non-issue. He has already admitted that he knew what needed to be done.
Yes, the students could still monkey with the RTC/BIOS batteries on the motherboards [to remove the passwd], but that would be much more difficult to do surreptitiously in a classroom environment.
For those who know my opinions, I am anti-copyright, anti-trademark, anti-patent; basic anti-intellectual property of any kind.
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One of the problems was that a student found a website (that I have actually used before) that lets you boot to a floppy and recover a windows password from a computer. That student then had admin access to all of our 420 laptops. As the only tech there (and part time at that) it is much easier to suspend them than to re-image all 420 laptops, password protect the bios and prevent booting from anything but hd!
You knew about this issue (booting from alternate media), but did nothing to resolve it? You took the easy way out re: configuration, and it burned you. Even after the fact, you say that suspension is easier [to implement] than actually fixing the vulnerabilities. If I were your manager I would want to know exactly why/how this happened, and what you did/didn't do about it.
PS I very much doubt you are a "tech director for a k12 public school district". You are a part-time sysadmin.
"Imagine you have two marbles and a 100-story building. You are told that the marbles will break if they are dropped from a certain floor. Figure out a way, as effectivly as possible, how high you can drop the marbles before they break. Remember, it could be the 1st floor, it could be the 99th."
That's easy! First, assume a spherical marble of uniform density...
The title given to this story on slashdot is awful, especially for a geek news site. Haven't we already established that obscurity is not security?
If you think this is "security through obscurity", you have some remedial reading to do. Hint: this is not STO.
laptop has in fact been vulnerable to van eck phreaking for years and year
Add "the definition of phreaking" to your reading list. Yes, I know that phrase was used in the article; the fact that the NewScientist writer was wrong does not excuse you from reproducing the error.
The "news" portion of this story is - at least in part - the efficacy of the relatively inexpensive gear. Besides, the article would be informative to someone who doesn't understand that wires carrying electrical signals tend to act like antennae.
That is a beautiful and informative post since you just had to note the difference of which cheek was used!! Its this kind of detail that makes me wonder whom you thought your audience was.:)
This is/.: I figured there would be some cheek-y rejoinders if I weren't absolutely clear.:-)
The "boing" sound isn't as loud as you make it out to be.
Actually under certain conditions it is, or I would not have said that.:-)
The range trainer's instructions were essentially to mash the cheekbone (paraphrased) against the stock. When a round was fired, the sound of the mechanism was transmitted mechanically through the skull to the ear: the hearing protection blocked some/most of the sound of the report, so the vibrations coming through the stock won (so to speak).
Without hearing protection and/or without the cheekbone-kung-fu-grip, I'm sure the report would sound louder than the *boing*.
It's a characteristic sound that's actually reassuring to some.
I was never in harm's way (just on the range) when firing, so I can't speak to that piece.
Plus, when you don't hear it go "boing" means it's time to reload.;)
See above re: harm's way. Good to know, though - the civilian models seem to be fairly affordable these days.:-)
The M16 is a much better gun, designed to be much more sophisitcated. But in the end, it ends up being worse because tight tolerances cause it to jam up, and require cleaning all the time, where-as the AK47 will fire under just about any conditions.
There is a world of difference in feel as well. The AK feels much more mechanical, if that makes sense, than the M-16.
Bit of trivia: there is a spring-loaded recoil reducer (yeah, I know, on a 5.56...) in the stock of the M-16: when you are firing with your cheek (facial cheek) against the stock, the noise from the recoil mechanism is almost as loud as the report of the weapon itself.
The AK47 is also heavier which is really nice when you get into hand-to-hand combat and you can just whack the other guy with it.
"You might remember me from such planets as HD209458b, the 'hot Jupiter' that boils under the glow of its very nearby star, and from Earth, the deadliest planet of them all."
But it does mean that the performance of the car won't be limited by the tires...;)
Very true, but I believe there is an expectation that the delivery and display of signal(s) will continue to improve so that the capabilities of the new gear can be realized; we don't have the same expectation of the highway infrastructure, at least in the US. (We don't have enough physical or visionary room for wholesale upgrades.)
The resolution of current televisions will eventually become a limitation. The Prius will likely never use the full capacity of 200mph tires.
The RIAA is on pretty thin ice. Their "expert" claims to be a "software engineer" yet when asked if he's got a PE stamp, he says...well...no. Yet another wannabe expert.
PE == Professional Engineer. This is a rating earned by actual engineers - e.g. mechanical, manufacturing, electrical - that have met certain criteria. AFAIK the PE designator is not offered to software types*, so of course the 'expert' wouldn't have one.
* A number of organizations have tried to establish such a thing, but - again AFAIK - have not yet been successful.
No worries! I probably would collapse after 30 yards.:-) I ruptured my Achilles tendon *mumble* years ago and have been on a rigorous schedule of sitting ever since. Come springtime I'll be the wobbling wide-load on the bicycle!
But it can't hold a candle to the burning excitement of watching pasty-faced geeks burn out, run out of steam, and pass out in a low-oxygen environment.
Watch an out-o'-shape pasty-tubby try to ride a bicycle some time: with all his belabored breathing, one would think he was climbing Everest instead of pedaling on level ground.
I, of course, am in perfect shape, with nary an ounce of extraneous tissue to be seen...
*looks around furtively*
*runs away*
*collapses after 30 yards*
Slashdot Mirror
I remember the times when good netiquette was thought essential (which was not that long ago).
Where "not that long" == "at least seven years". That is an epoch in Internet time. (Look, another annoying phrase!)
In all seriousness, that is roughly when I left Usenet. Even the Linux and Sun newsgroups were being overrun by somewhat anonymous people who saw the fora as places to be complete morons in public, topic/charter/threading/RTFM/netiquette be darned.
What is it with you people and Wikipedia?? Are you really too lazy to find the *real* Orange Book?
NIST is hosting it; I'll even make a link so no one gets hurt copying+pasting. Yes, it's a PDF.
Not to be a party pooper, but is there really any application for this tunnel? You can't see it, you can't see out of it, and you need to build it so it can only go to places you can already go
That should be obvious: it will have great implications for the Internet, which - as we all know - is a series of tubes. The tunnel carries light, so it can work like a fibre connection, and we can identify the endpoints.
:-)
- Adults who live in houses, as opposed to transient youngsters who move from apartment to apartment
- People with DSL connections
- People that understand how 911 works
- People that understand that the landline is pretty darn reliable, and that using only a mobile is a Single Point of Failure
Spacewalks are hard on astronauts' hands
I know there is more to the sentence, but this clause made me chuckle. "Heh - they're doing it wrong."
I need more coffee...
PS Here is the link to the printer-friendly version, i.e. the article on one page.
Well, I guess when people say there is no love for Novell, they mean there is no Love for Novell.
Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth
...
By the time any of this technology could ship we'd probably have thought controlled car locks. No need for keys then.
If I end up so far from my car keys that I need GOOGLE EARTH to find them, I have failed miserably...
Or had a really good time. I suppose it could go either way (or both).
If you can get physical access to the hardware everything else is moot. If they were booting off of media then everything is already out the window.
You mean unrestricted physical access.
If the sysadmin had done his job - by setting BIOS passwords of sufficient complexity and by permitting booting only from the HD - then this would be a non-issue. He has already admitted that he knew what needed to be done.
Yes, the students could still monkey with the RTC/BIOS batteries on the motherboards [to remove the passwd], but that would be much more difficult to do surreptitiously in a classroom environment.
At least spell his name correctly: Schneier.
For those who know my opinions, I am anti-copyright, anti-trademark, anti-patent; basic anti-intellectual property of any kind.
From the bottom portion of the default page of your site (unimocracy.com):
The Global Unanimocracy Network repudiates copyright and all forms of force. Copy this content freely -- no attribution is needed to the original author.
The Global Unanimocracy Network is powered by WordPress | Design by Andreas Viklund | Ported by Ainslie Johnson
From Mr. Viklund's site:
© 1996-2006 Andreas Viklund | Copyright information | Privacy policy
And from Ms. Johnson's site:
©2005 - 2007 Ainslie Johnson | Webgazette.co.uk is proudly powered by WordPress
Yes, you are OBVIOUSLY a staunch anti-copyright person, refusing to support those evil intellectual-property types
One of the problems was that a student found a website (that I have actually used before) that lets you boot to a floppy and recover a windows password from a computer. That student then had admin access to all of our 420 laptops. As the only tech there (and part time at that) it is much easier to suspend them than to re-image all 420 laptops, password protect the bios and prevent booting from anything but hd!
You knew about this issue (booting from alternate media), but did nothing to resolve it? You took the easy way out re: configuration, and it burned you. Even after the fact, you say that suspension is easier [to implement] than actually fixing the vulnerabilities. If I were your manager I would want to know exactly why/how this happened, and what you did/didn't do about it.
PS I very much doubt you are a "tech director for a k12 public school district". You are a part-time sysadmin.
"Imagine you have two marbles and a 100-story building. You are told that the marbles will break if they are dropped from a certain floor. Figure out a way, as effectivly as possible, how high you can drop the marbles before they break. Remember, it could be the 1st floor, it could be the 99th."
That's easy! First, assume a spherical marble of uniform density...
The title given to this story on slashdot is awful, especially for a geek news site. Haven't we already established that obscurity is not security?
If you think this is "security through obscurity", you have some remedial reading to do. Hint: this is not STO.
laptop has in fact been vulnerable to van eck phreaking for years and year
Add "the definition of phreaking" to your reading list. Yes, I know that phrase was used in the article; the fact that the NewScientist writer was wrong does not excuse you from reproducing the error.
The "news" portion of this story is - at least in part - the efficacy of the relatively inexpensive gear. Besides, the article would be informative to someone who doesn't understand that wires carrying electrical signals tend to act like antennae.
That is a beautiful and informative post since you just had to note the difference of which cheek was used!! Its this kind of detail that makes me wonder whom you thought your audience was.
This is
Perhaps black bears could use some custom software to optimize their search for berries...
If this week has taught us anything, it's that one should always have a backup plan for black-bear-ies.
NOISE! You're complaining about noise?
No, not really - "sound" might have been a better word to use there.
I'll tell you about noise. Test fire ten rounds from an M-14 without ear plugs. I guarantee you'll never do that again.
That sounds like a bad idea. I don't even need to do it once.
The "boing" sound isn't as loud as you make it out to be.
Actually under certain conditions it is, or I would not have said that.
The range trainer's instructions were essentially to mash the cheekbone (paraphrased) against the stock. When a round was fired, the sound of the mechanism was transmitted mechanically through the skull to the ear: the hearing protection blocked some/most of the sound of the report, so the vibrations coming through the stock won (so to speak).
Without hearing protection and/or without the cheekbone-kung-fu-grip, I'm sure the report would sound louder than the *boing*.
It's a characteristic sound that's actually reassuring to some.
I was never in harm's way (just on the range) when firing, so I can't speak to that piece.
Plus, when you don't hear it go "boing" means it's time to reload.
See above re: harm's way. Good to know, though - the civilian models seem to be fairly affordable these days.
Cheers!
The M16 is a much better gun, designed to be much more sophisitcated. But in the end, it ends up being worse because tight tolerances cause it to jam up, and require cleaning all the time, where-as the AK47 will fire under just about any conditions.
There is a world of difference in feel as well. The AK feels much more mechanical, if that makes sense, than the M-16.
Bit of trivia: there is a spring-loaded recoil reducer (yeah, I know, on a 5.56...) in the stock of the M-16: when you are firing with your cheek (facial cheek) against the stock, the noise from the recoil mechanism is almost as loud as the report of the weapon itself.
The AK47 is also heavier which is really nice when you get into hand-to-hand combat and you can just whack the other guy with it.
Boris, is that you?
"You might remember me from such planets as HD209458b, the 'hot Jupiter' that boils under the glow of its very nearby star, and from Earth, the deadliest planet of them all."
But it does mean that the performance of the car won't be limited by the tires...
Very true, but I believe there is an expectation that the delivery and display of signal(s) will continue to improve so that the capabilities of the new gear can be realized; we don't have the same expectation of the highway infrastructure, at least in the US. (We don't have enough physical or visionary room for wholesale upgrades.)
The resolution of current televisions will eventually become a limitation. The Prius will likely never use the full capacity of 200mph tires.
PS Dear Toyota - please prove me wrong.
If you lean into your honey for a kiss, she doesn't get all pixellated when you get close to her face.
Consider your target audience...
The RIAA is on pretty thin ice. Their "expert" claims to be a "software engineer" yet when asked if he's got a PE stamp, he says...well...no. Yet another wannabe expert.
PE == Professional Engineer. This is a rating earned by actual engineers - e.g. mechanical, manufacturing, electrical - that have met certain criteria. AFAIK the PE designator is not offered to software types*, so of course the 'expert' wouldn't have one.
* A number of organizations have tried to establish such a thing, but - again AFAIK - have not yet been successful.
from the long-live-the-knob dept.
Well, there's a sentiment we don't see every day.
No worries! I probably would collapse after 30 yards.
But it can't hold a candle to the burning excitement of watching pasty-faced geeks burn out, run out of steam, and pass out in a low-oxygen environment.
Watch an out-o'-shape pasty-tubby try to ride a bicycle some time: with all his belabored breathing, one would think he was climbing Everest instead of pedaling on level ground.
I, of course, am in perfect shape, with nary an ounce of extraneous tissue to be seen...
*looks around furtively*
*runs away*
*collapses after 30 yards*