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User: destinati

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  1. The past is not nearly as important as the future. on Linux Is 10 Today · · Score: 1

    10 years ago was about the time I got my first computer. It was a 386SX/20 that came preloaded with Windows 3.0 (not 3.1!) and MS-DOS. Since then I've gone on to use Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000 and now XP. In my heart, I would love to use Linux, however it just doesn't have all of the applications that I would like to use. However, it's getting closer. So, I haven't used Linux full time yet. However, with many products becoming more mature that run on Linux, I feel that I may switch to using Linux full time within the next 10 years. I think that when that point in time when the switch is an obvious one for hold-outs like myself, there is going to be exponential growth. For those of you working to make Linux software reach this point.. God speed! I'll see you in 10 years. (maybe sooner)

  2. Folks, it's simply nostalgia on Are BBS-Like Communities Dead? · · Score: 1

    In the early 90s, I was into the BBS scene. I remember logging onto the local boards at an amazing 2400 bps. This was an incredible speed boost from the 1200 bps modem that I had earlier. I can remember spending over an hour to download Wolfenstein 3D. I thought life was great. I can remember the day I first used ZModem instead of Kermit and XModem (remember those protocols! eek!).. I can remember the days when PKZip 1.0 was the common compression algorithm. I can remember the big event when 2.0 and then 2.04g was released, many things were recompressed to take advantage of the new compression.

    Also, don't we all remember logging into one BBS that had the door game called "Studs? That was a funny game. There was also "Trade Wars" and "Global Wars". The ANSI graphics were king.

    The day I received a 14,400 modem, I was in heaven! It was the first time in my life I surpassed 1000 cps! ZModem flew the bits to my computer.Life was good.

    But folks, the simple truth is that this is all nostalgia. We all probably remember it better than it actually was. For the typical /,'er.. this was probably their adolescenthood too. It was for me... But the fact of the matter is that most people remember the good parts about it and tend to forget the bad parts.. (like the horrid download speed!).

    I think all slashdotters that grew up with the BBS era should take a deep sigh, then get over it.. It's our past.. take time, sit back in your chair.. download on your 56K or T1, T3...line and say to yourself... the modems of the earlier day were terribly slow, you were limited to a very limited realm of the same old people, the file selections weren't that good, and finally the Internet brought us the idea of living in a big city.. it's scary at first, but incredibly exciting.


    Now.. get out of the retrospection, welcome to your adolescent future (minus the ideal girlfriend, of course)

  3. Re:This truely is news for nerds on AES Finalists, Round 2 · · Score: 1

    RSA is very simple to understand and implement (using a generic big integer library with a powermod feature). Also, RSA's patent expires in September of 2000 (mark your calendars!).

    As with every other good public key algorithm, it's slow on large integers. (The reason is the modulo the big composite number).

    Man in the middle attacks aren't bad if you can have a trusted third party (SSL uses certs generated by primarily Verisign) verify the public keys and server certs.

    AES has to have a variable key size [128, 192, 256] (with all forseeable computation ability, 128 will be all that is ever needed)

    256 bit keys are a bit silly.. The 11579208923731619542357098500868790785326998466564 0564039457584007913129639936 keys are quite a lot to check (although, if all the atoms in the universe [estimated 10^78] were to test 1 key/sec, it'd only take about 0.1157920892 seconds). However.. 512 bit keys with all the atoms testing a trillion keys/second would take about (2^512)/(10^78)/60/60/24/(36525/100)/(10^12)
    (4.2486779507765473608e56?) years..

    Besides, if people want your information, they sure as heck won't be dumb enough to attack the algorithm. People fail long before the math does.