San Francisco (Star Date 2505.0401) -Today Dr. Noonan Singh announced a new scheme for securing Data.
"Hundreds of attempts over the centuries failed to develop any system storing massive amounts of information that can be conveniently accessed, yet NOT susceptile to abuse" he intoned. "Human beings are just too gosh darn good at breaking systems that other people have designed, especially when motivated by money or curiosity."
"But now we have The Answer: a positronic brain with a strict moral code hard-wired into the lowest level of its structure. Surely, this system can NEVER be used for evil!!!"
What is the usefulness of procedures such as you propose?
While a clever person may indeed not "know the password" is it not necessary to know a procedure for getting at your data in a useful way?
If you *can* access the data by some procedure, then *that procedure* is the effective password which the law enforcement peeps would seek.
OTOH if you *cannot* access the data, is it not effectively destroyed? You might more easily reach this condition with an ax or a blowtorch (...if would be more fun too...)
The next logical step is to provide a free screen saver download, to lend home computing power to the Secret Service's decription effort. We might call it SecretService@Home.
To encourage participation, our agency might make the decryption process a background feature of a download more likely to be wildly popular.... maybe a game... perhaps we could call it something appealling to young people with lots of excess computing power... a name like "America's Army".
And if we wanted to throw scruples out the [MS]window, our agency might create a zombie net exploiting security ports (formerly known as "security holes") to allow truly huge DNAs. Our legal advisors recommend coding our zombierecruiters to target computers outside our country, whose owners may expect little in the way of protection under our Constitution.
DISCLAIMER:Our government never would do this! No, Never!
IIRC, according to (Nobel Laureate) Richard Feynman, as a junior physicist on the Manhattan Project he figured out the combinations for many lock that protect our nuclear secrets.
At first it was just for fun (...when you are a restless genius, this sort of thing happens...), but eventually his peers found out and had two reactions, both of them reasonable under the circumstances.
The other physicists seemed relieved, because now when one of them was gone for the weekend, the others could get at the stuff they needed by calling on that kid Feynman.
The military OTOH got worred and barred him from sensitive sites as much as possible. On the few occasions they had to let him at Oak Ridge, he wasn't allowed near any safes.
Feynman never got near the maximum-security safe of a certain high-level officer who was abruptly transferred, leaving no-one who knew the combination. The manufacturer sent a specialist, who sent everyone from the room, then swiftly opened it. Feynman took him for a drink, smoozed a bit, and got the secret: "Most people don't bother changing the combination from the factory default".
There are more rippin' yarns touching on security and those zany physicists in Feynman's very amusing book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"
The air is colder now - at last all too fast
I can see that we all soon will freeze
If you melt away the frost from the ground
It won't help and we still soon will freeze
Tyro! You've started to believe
The things they say of ice
You really do believe
That cold blood will suffice
And all your scaly friends
Will soon get frozen stiff
You're now moving slower than
Continental drift
Listen Tyro I don't like these cold days
All I ask is that we feel the sun's rays
And remember - we have been symbiotic all these years
Now the situation's dire
They think they never will expire
And they don't believe the snow is here
I remember when Cretaceous began
No talk of cold then - we all could get tans
And believe me - it wasn't bad when it was nice and warm
You deny the chance of death
Still we can see your frosty breath
For the glaciers have begun to form
Triassic your favorite fool should have stayed a miniscule
Like his father sucking eggs - and small hind legs
Benedicts and omelettes should be all he ever gets
He'd have left us all alone - he'd have stayed home
Listen Tyro do you care for your class?
Don't you see that this diet can't last?
We are carnosaurs - have you forgotten how hungry we are?
I am sick of eating plants
For they are often filled with ants
And they make digestion very hard
Listen Tyro it's the end of our age
Don't you see they've begun a new page
And it's sad to see our species dwindling with every hour
Now it's time for our demise
Too much bigness for our size
But it was great to be a dinosaur
Yes a dinosaur
What will these poor people do with these computers?
A reasonable question, to which there are many reasonable answers. All you have to do is go see what poor people do when given free access to computers in your local public library.
While there's certainly some porn-watching going on (...and I suppose entertainment is a legit use of computers...) there is also a lot of education going on, on practical subjects like gardening tips, contact information for gov't agencies and job applications.
Although all these things could be done by physically going to the gov't offices or job sites, doing so via the web saves a lot of time, and time = money.
As I see it, computers for the poor isn't really about "computing"... it's about "communicating". Giving poor people more efficient communication does not solve all problems, but it gives them more time, which gives them more money.
(It might also give people more time and information with which to better run their own lives and keep their government in line, but I suppose the jury is still out on that own.)
They sold stuff at amazingly high prices, e.g. $129 for a book on baseball with CD, or $29.95 for an NBA stocking hat that they probably got in China for $0.95 per.
They should have made their expenses on the float alone... holding $129 for four months is worth something. Whatever they took in from people who forgot to send in the rebate forms (...which were very complicated...) should have been all profit. I'm not saying this is a fair way to make money but I don't see why it didn't work... for them, not for the consumer.
Ah well! I made a little $$$$ on one transaction (bought $500 of stuff, got my rebate check, eBay'd the stuff...) and then stood aside as they crashed... I would guess that people who bought after I did didn't get their rebates.
>much easier to put it in a shipping container and detonate it in the harbor
Since there's less than a 5% chance of the container being inspected, why not ship it to the center of any city you like. Include a terrorist with a GPS in the container to set it off when it is anywhere you want, or if the cops come knocking.
Frankjly I don't know why the badguys have not figured this out (...altho I heard they did this once, non-nuclear, in Israeli) but for the Administration NOT to be inspecting 100% of containers inbound (...charging a $10 inspection fee to the shipper) suggests that they are not serious about homeland security.
Microsoft makes the most popular car in the world.
Unfortunately its undercarriage is so poorly designed that a simple worm crossing the road can easily cling to the frame and slow the car to a crawl. Also if the driver has a cold or the flu, the car catches the virus too and often crashes.
Currently Microsoft provides a free seat-belt (... well, actually the price is bundled into the car's purchase price... but we'll call it "free"...) and a scraper that can get rid of most worms.
Of course, you have to stop the car to scrape off the worms, and the seat-belt doesn't mean that crshes don't sometimes kill you.
But you can't blame Microsoft for the loss of time or risk of death. It's the worm's fault for exploiting a vulnerability of the car! And above all, it's the driver's fault for driving the car in the first place!
Is it any wonder that drivers would be angry if Microsoft started charging explicitly for worm scrapers and and seat-belts?
Just finished Mitnick's "The Art of Deception". It gives me mixed feelings about outsourcing security.
1. Security should never be outsourced offshore, 'cuz offshore entitites are really beyond reach of our law.
2. Outsourced (onshore) security may be a good thing since the staff may be more immune to social pressure.
This may never be stated explicitly, 'cuz it might violate some labor laws, but most managers prefer staff that are younger than them. It's easier to lead discussions, dominate meetings, tell people to do things that they don't want to do if it's someone who doesn't have a few years on you.
There may be exceptions, especially among very high status people (such as POTUS) where other factors override age, but I'll give you a dollar for every exception if you give me a dime for each instance of the rule.
Geezers are better off building their own companies or doing other things to demonstrate their abilities than wasting time interviewing with managers who'll be thinking (but never saying) "I can't push around that old fart. Better go with the kid."
... what I remember about the Oz 1 is that it worked. You turned it on & with very little wait, away you went.
Today: I drink too coffee during boot-up/pre-crash while waiting for marginally improved word processing. All the Oz 1 really needs to become competitive again is a text-only browser & to lose 25 lbs. But ain't that true of most of us?
1. A movie is a much bigger investment of the viewer's time & money than a hour TV program. Therefore it has to be about something much bigger, much more important, or much more... something... than this week's episode of Whateverville.
The Star Trek universe is basically stable. Gradually the Federation expands, or gets stomped for a while by the Dominion; gradually Voyager goes home. There's a lot of characters who over the course of a couple of years develop characters with a few lines per show.
Movie universes have to be unstable. Blow up the Death Star or the Rebellion is crushed. But what if the Enterprise doesn't stop the Great Space muffin from engulfing the earth? We know that it'll be back next week. ST is basically not movie material, despite the most fanatic fans ever.
2. ST writing really really sucks for movies. On TV it is ok for Picard to look at the Awefully Big Romlan Ship and say, "That's a predator" because you've got a small screen and rely on sound to communicate more. In a movie you have a bigger screen, more opportunity for acting; Picard would no more say "That's a predator" than Data would reply "There is no fecal matter in that statement, sir".
3. I felt especially ripped off because the publicity pretended the movie would tell us about the Romulans. The ongoing exposition of Klingon culture throughout the later TV series was a real pleasure! But this movie focussed on the Remans, wholly made up ugly guys, and gave only a few sets to the Romulans.
If you want to do a Trek movie, do "Reunification" about the Vulcans & the Romulans. Don't screw around - make it a major change in the universe so we take it seriously. And get a real science fiction writer/movie writer in there. Actually ST has some good actors, they've just got lousy materials to work with
Slashdot Mirror
San Francisco (Star Date 2505.0401) -Today Dr. Noonan Singh announced a new scheme for securing Data.
"Hundreds of attempts over the centuries failed to develop any system storing massive amounts of information that can be conveniently accessed, yet NOT susceptile to abuse" he intoned. "Human beings are just too gosh darn good at breaking systems that other people have designed, especially when motivated by money or curiosity."
"But now we have The Answer: a positronic brain with a strict moral code hard-wired into the lowest level of its structure. Surely, this system can NEVER be used for evil!!!"
What is the usefulness of procedures such as you propose?
While a clever person may indeed not "know the password" is it not necessary to know a procedure for getting at your data in a useful way?
If you *can* access the data by some procedure, then *that procedure* is the effective password which the law enforcement peeps would seek.
OTOH if you *cannot* access the data, is it not effectively destroyed? You might more easily reach this condition with an ax or a blowtorch (...if would be more fun too...)
The next logical step is to provide a free screen saver download, to lend home computing power to the Secret Service's decription effort. We might call it SecretService@Home.
To encourage participation, our agency might make the decryption process a background feature of a download more likely to be wildly popular .... maybe a game ... perhaps we could call it something appealling to young people with lots of excess computing power ... a name like "America's Army".
And if we wanted to throw scruples out the [MS]window, our agency might create a zombie net exploiting security ports (formerly known as "security holes") to allow truly huge DNAs. Our legal advisors recommend coding our zombierecruiters to target computers outside our country, whose owners may expect little in the way of protection under our Constitution.
DISCLAIMER: Our government never would do this! No, Never!
IIRC, according to (Nobel Laureate) Richard Feynman, as a junior physicist on the Manhattan Project he figured out the combinations for many lock that protect our nuclear secrets.
At first it was just for fun (...when you are a restless genius, this sort of thing happens ...), but eventually his peers found out and had two reactions, both of them reasonable under the circumstances.
The other physicists seemed relieved, because now when one of them was gone for the weekend, the others could get at the stuff they needed by calling on that kid Feynman.
The military OTOH got worred and barred him from sensitive sites as much as possible. On the few occasions they had to let him at Oak Ridge, he wasn't allowed near any safes.
Feynman never got near the maximum-security safe of a certain high-level officer who was abruptly transferred, leaving no-one who knew the combination. The manufacturer sent a specialist, who sent everyone from the room, then swiftly opened it. Feynman took him for a drink, smoozed a bit, and got the secret: "Most people don't bother changing the combination from the factory default".
There are more rippin' yarns touching on security and those zany physicists in Feynman's very amusing book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"
Apologies if above too long. Should've just linked.
Why is Tyro Rex no longer among us?
Let us consult the seasonal Rock Opera:
TYRO REX SUPERSAUR
OVERTURE; BIGNESS FOR OUR SIZE
GORGOS
The air is colder now - at last all too fast
I can see that we all soon will freeze
If you melt away the frost from the ground
It won't help and we still soon will freeze
Tyro! You've started to believe
The things they say of ice
You really do believe
That cold blood will suffice
And all your scaly friends
Will soon get frozen stiff
You're now moving slower than
Continental drift
Listen Tyro I don't like these cold days
All I ask is that we feel the sun's rays
And remember - we have been symbiotic all these years
Now the situation's dire
They think they never will expire
And they don't believe the snow is here
I remember when Cretaceous began
No talk of cold then - we all could get tans
And believe me - it wasn't bad when it was nice and warm
You deny the chance of death
Still we can see your frosty breath
For the glaciers have begun to form
Triassic your favorite fool should have stayed a miniscule
Like his father sucking eggs - and small hind legs
Benedicts and omelettes should be all he ever gets
He'd have left us all alone - he'd have stayed home
Listen Tyro do you care for your class?
Don't you see that this diet can't last?
We are carnosaurs - have you forgotten how hungry we are?
I am sick of eating plants
For they are often filled with ants
And they make digestion very hard
Listen Tyro it's the end of our age
Don't you see they've begun a new page
And it's sad to see our species dwindling with every hour
Now it's time for our demise
Too much bigness for our size
But it was great to be a dinosaur
Yes a dinosaur
---
The complete rock opera is posted for your edification by kind permission of the author here in the way-way-way-back machine
What will these poor people do with these computers?
A reasonable question, to which there are many reasonable answers. All you have to do is go see what poor people do when given free access to computers in your local public library.
While there's certainly some porn-watching going on (...and I suppose entertainment is a legit use of computers...) there is also a lot of education going on, on practical subjects like gardening tips, contact information for gov't agencies and job applications.
Although all these things could be done by physically going to the gov't offices or job sites, doing so via the web saves a lot of time, and time = money.
As I see it, computers for the poor isn't really about "computing" ... it's about "communicating". Giving poor people more efficient communication does not solve all problems, but it gives them more time, which gives them more money.
(It might also give people more time and information with which to better run their own lives and keep their government in line, but I suppose the jury is still out on that own.)
Yeah, I remember ...
They sold stuff at amazingly high prices, e.g. $129 for a book on baseball with CD, or $29.95 for an NBA stocking hat that they probably got in China for $0.95 per.
They should have made their expenses on the float alone ... holding $129 for four months is worth something. Whatever they took in from people who forgot to send in the rebate forms (...which were very complicated...) should have been all profit. I'm not saying this is a fair way to make money but I don't see why it didn't work ... for them, not for the consumer.
Ah well! I made a little $$$$ on one transaction (bought $500 of stuff, got my rebate check, eBay'd the stuff...) and then stood aside as they crashed ... I would guess that people who bought after I did didn't get their rebates.
Pigs get fat. Hogs get butchered!
>much easier to put it in a shipping container and detonate it in the harbor Since there's less than a 5% chance of the container being inspected, why not ship it to the center of any city you like. Include a terrorist with a GPS in the container to set it off when it is anywhere you want, or if the cops come knocking. Frankjly I don't know why the badguys have not figured this out (...altho I heard they did this once, non-nuclear, in Israeli) but for the Administration NOT to be inspecting 100% of containers inbound (...charging a $10 inspection fee to the shipper) suggests that they are not serious about homeland security.
Microsoft makes the most popular car in the world. Unfortunately its undercarriage is so poorly designed that a simple worm crossing the road can easily cling to the frame and slow the car to a crawl. Also if the driver has a cold or the flu, the car catches the virus too and often crashes. Currently Microsoft provides a free seat-belt (... well, actually the price is bundled into the car's purchase price ... but we'll call it "free" ...) and a scraper that can get rid of most worms.
Of course, you have to stop the car to scrape off the worms, and the seat-belt doesn't mean that crshes don't sometimes kill you.
But you can't blame Microsoft for the loss of time or risk of death. It's the worm's fault for exploiting a vulnerability of the car! And above all, it's the driver's fault for driving the car in the first place!
Is it any wonder that drivers would be angry if Microsoft started charging explicitly for worm scrapers and and seat-belts?
Just finished Mitnick's "The Art of Deception". It gives me mixed feelings about outsourcing security. 1. Security should never be outsourced offshore, 'cuz offshore entitites are really beyond reach of our law. 2. Outsourced (onshore) security may be a good thing since the staff may be more immune to social pressure.
This may never be stated explicitly, 'cuz it might violate some labor laws, but most managers prefer staff that are younger than them. It's easier to lead discussions, dominate meetings, tell people to do things that they don't want to do if it's someone who doesn't have a few years on you. There may be exceptions, especially among very high status people (such as POTUS) where other factors override age, but I'll give you a dollar for every exception if you give me a dime for each instance of the rule. Geezers are better off building their own companies or doing other things to demonstrate their abilities than wasting time interviewing with managers who'll be thinking (but never saying) "I can't push around that old fart. Better go with the kid."
... what I remember about the Oz 1 is that it worked. You turned it on & with very little wait, away you went. Today: I drink too coffee during boot-up/pre-crash while waiting for marginally improved word processing. All the Oz 1 really needs to become competitive again is a text-only browser & to lose 25 lbs. But ain't that true of most of us?
1. A movie is a much bigger investment of the viewer's time & money than a hour TV program. Therefore it has to be about something much bigger, much more important, or much more ... something ... than this week's episode of Whateverville.
The Star Trek universe is basically stable. Gradually the Federation expands, or gets stomped for a while by the Dominion; gradually Voyager goes home. There's a lot of characters who over the course of a couple of years develop characters with a few lines per show.
Movie universes have to be unstable. Blow up the Death Star or the Rebellion is crushed. But what if the Enterprise doesn't stop the Great Space muffin from engulfing the earth? We know that it'll be back next week. ST is basically not movie material, despite the most fanatic fans ever.
2. ST writing really really sucks for movies. On TV it is ok for Picard to look at the Awefully Big Romlan Ship and say, "That's a predator" because you've got a small screen and rely on sound to communicate more. In a movie you have a bigger screen, more opportunity for acting; Picard would no more say "That's a predator" than Data would reply "There is no fecal matter in that statement, sir".
3. I felt especially ripped off because the publicity pretended the movie would tell us about the Romulans. The ongoing exposition of Klingon culture throughout the later TV series was a real pleasure! But this movie focussed on the Remans, wholly made up ugly guys, and gave only a few sets to the Romulans.
If you want to do a Trek movie, do "Reunification" about the Vulcans & the Romulans. Don't screw around - make it a major change in the universe so we take it seriously. And get a real science fiction writer/movie writer in there. Actually ST has some good actors, they've just got lousy materials to work with