If you copy/paste a PGP sig onto another message/document the verification fails. See my PGP Intro for a beginner's explanation of the process.
Since verification only takes a few seconds, the motivation to attempt forgery via copy/paste is very low. The risk Mr. Schneier refers to is forgery via gaining control of the signers key and passphrase.
Punch cards are too vulnerable
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 1
It's flat trivial to invalidate a punch card by punching an extra hole in it. A good voting system should require a choice and accept only one choice.
Linux is used at many DoD locations for many purposes. None involve direct control of a weapons system, but it's definitely being used in all kinds of support functions. I have personally used it for several applications in military organizations.
The military uses trucks too, so should Ford and Mercedes stop improving their technology? Should farmers stop growing food so that soldiers can't eat?
Linux is being used all over the place, often with only tacit approval of IT management types.
I setup several Linux boxes at my last assignment. One is primarily a mail and file/print box. Another is a masquerading box that connects a remote LAN to the office network via dialup PPP. Another started out as a Web/mail server, but grew to provide file/print, Web/database, mailing list, dialup, and, recently, fax services. The first two boxes are 486's with 16MB RAM. The last is a P100 with 32MB RAM.
These boxes have been running for up to two years without problems. The most downtime they had is hardware upgrades and a mandatory Y2K shutdown.
The single biggest reason Linux isn't used more in the DoD, regulations notwithstanding, is the lack of knowledgeable sysadmins. NT is often used when Linux or *BSD would make more sense simply because that's all they know how to use.
But there are still lots of Linux boxes out there getting the mission accomplished, only getting recognition from the local admin and perhaps an officer or two who knows the real deal.
Recently my office setup a Web/database application using an existing NT/IIS/SQL server box. We needed to add fax capability to the app quickly, and cheaply, if possible.
We could have investigated 3rd party software or bought and setup Exchange (that'd be a cold day in Hell) or wrote some custom VB code, but we found a better solution.
We had a Linux box performing some other tasks anyway, so I wrote two small scripts (total ~30 lines), edited a couple of config files, and the Linux box was ready to provide fax services to the NT app. It took about 4 hours from start to finish and another two hours to debug a problem with one of the tools used in the solution. I basically tied together a few existing tools to create a solution. I had to modify the source in one of the tools to workaround a limitation in another of the tools, so availability of source was key to making it work quickly. Of course I commented the modifications and kept the original code handy.
PGP's source is published, but the restrictions on changes and redistribution mean it does not meet the definition of Open Source promulgated by the Open Source Initiative.
I have used many mail clients over the years. I recognize that my requirements change from time to time. I have decided that my one absolute requirement in a mail client is that it store mail in a plain text format.
StarMail is pretty good otherwise, but its binary file format kills it for me.
1. Most people don't need the level of integration with the OS that MSOffice uses.
2. You can buy a computer without Windows, but not from a retail computer store. Order online, or from a mom & pop store and you can avoid the Microsoft Tax.
Even if you buy a computer with Windows, you still don't have to use MSOffice. I've been running a Linux-only desktop at home for almost two years. The few MSOffice documents I've needed to read were easily handled by StarOffice, AbiWord, or WordPerfect.
The problem with this is that none of the current alternatives have open file formats either. So sooner or later, you'll get locked into a single vendor again.
We looked at StarOffice after looking at the cost of upgrading to Office2000. Nobody likes to spend money unnecessarily, so we looked around.
There were issues that prevented us from switching to StarOffice, but anyone who does not even look around for ways to cut costs is fiscally irresponsible.
It's not so much a training issue as a file format issue. Any MS Office user can use StarOffice with almost no learning curve for most of the doucuments that are produced. Some advanced features may be missing or implemented differently, but people who just need to create memos, spreadsheets, or basic presentations will be more upset by the fact that it's different than they'll be appeased by the fact that those differences are minor.
We evaluated StarOffice a few months ago and found that the UI similarities to MSOffice were a major plus. The import/export limitations and Sun's lack of marketing and support were the show-stoppers. You can't even get documentation for the StarBasic scripting language.
Yes, most users do things by rote and have a limited understanding about what they're doing, But the UI is so similar that this is not the real problem.
As far as logging in, if you use NT on your clients, then there is no essential difference. We mostly use Win9x, but network resources are unavailable unless the user logs in. So requiring a login is not too big a step. We will eventually move to NT/W2K clients anyway, so we'll have to handle this sooner or later.
Every organization is different, but most of our users spend all day using Office apps to do things that StarOffice could do, on any platform. We have Exchange, but we barely use its workgroup features. If StarOffice can share calenders and contact databases, we could do without MSOffice. YMMV.
I created my own HTML forms to generate formatted email input and some perl scripts to generate weekly reports. ReqNG has it's own summary report that's suitable for distributing via email.
Nobody is talking about porting mainframe apps to Linux.
The goal is to enable Internet applications on high performance, extremely reliable hardware. There's no Apache port for OS/390, but Apache can run on hundreds of Linux virtual machines on S390 hardware. It's a different way to achieve cluster reliability. IBM says throughput is higher and downtime and overall costs are reduced when compared to a cluster of Intel-based small servers.
Your teacher may give the GPL some credence if you show him/her some articles showing Linux support from companies like IBM, HP, Novell, and Corel, and from government agencies like NASA and the nuclear labs that run Beowulf clusters. Then there's the GNU archive at MIT.
These are organizations the teacher would know of and cannot dismiss as kids or crackpots.
Once you have their attentin, you can talk about why these large, reputable organizations are using and supporting GPL software. Tailor your arguments to your situation using the hints provided by others in this thread.
Mozilla M13 renders tables while still receiving the data. The first time I saw this on a page that is one large table, I was amazed. Try Slashdot with Mozilla and you won't believe the difference.
I run an Xterminal at home on my old box with all the apps executing on a newer, faster box. It runs faster that way than running the apps separately on each box. I only have to manage one set of applications. Adding another old PC as an Xterminal would be trivial. I understand that games need faster video response. But since I never play video games (not even solitaire) that's not a problem for me.
At work, I run X apps on an Xserver on my Win95 box. I've used X to simplify remote configuration in cases where I was unfamiliar with the necessary config file changes.
The remote capabilities of X are one of it's strengths. If there are ways provided for gamers to get faster response while keeping the network capabilities, that's fine. But network transparency is a must-have feature for many people who work with X.
Netscape will be able to use 128bit with more servers. That doesn't really change anything for most users. The only servers will still be those approved by the U.S. govt.
On the other hand, Opera will use 128bit with any server, not just those approved by the U.S. The beta is due this month.
It's an attempt to show that Linux has a broad base of interest. It's worthwhile to be able to say that more than just a small core of geeks are interested in Linux.
I've never seen this and I don't think that's what we're seeing now. They have attempted to subvert every truly non-proprietary standard that threatened them. It's to be expected because to do otherwise would not be in their best interest. That's fine, no problem.
But Microsoft's best interests and mine are two different things.
My home network runs like this. I run all apps on an AMD K6/350 96MB RAM and use my old P60 32MB RAM as an X-Terminal. Since both are Red Hat based (RH6.0 and Mandrake 6.0) my tips will be based on that distro.
Change the link in/etc/X11/prefdm to point to either xdm or kdm. Currently, gdm does not support XDMCP connections. I use kdm because it looks better and includes a shutdown/reboot option (local console only).
Red Hat 6 uses a TrueType-capable font server by default. To use use the same fonts on all boxes, change the font server initscript in/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs to use "-port 7100" instead of "-port -1". This will enable the terminals to get fonts from your main server. You should also add some TrueType fonts, but that's another subject.
Change the/etc/X11/XF86Config file in each terminal so that the FontPath is "tcp/My.Big.Server:7100".
Edit the inittab at each terminal so that the runlevel is 5 and the line that calls prefdm to start X looks like this:
/etc/X11/X -query My.Big.Server
Configure the kdm login dialog for your needs by editing the kdmrc file. On Red Hat with KDM installed from RPMs, the file is at/usr/share/config/kdmrc.
I'm not at home now, so I'm working from memory. I don't think I've missed anything.
My old P60 has been given a new lease on life. I was about to get rid of it. Now all I need is a bigger monitor and a better video card. Any old Pentium or good 486 with at least 16MB RAM can give acceptable performance as an X-Terminal. I may buy a couple of second-hand boxes to flesh out my network.
--Tony
Re:Good story, Linux definately needs an overhaul.
on
CNN Installs Linux
·
· Score: 1
On top of that we need to start packaging source code in seperate packages, and have packages default with auto-installers and setup wizards like Windows. Having people compile everything is NOT what the majority of users want out of an OS.
The distributions that are most popular with consumers use RPM, and do not involve compiling anything. I installed Mandrake last weekend and found out why it's a best seller. It's really easy to install and is very well configured.
RPM is a very good installer. I've heard the Debian installer is good too. RPM are actually better than Installshield because they you always have to explicitly tell it to overwrite existing files. RPM keeps a database of what package each file belongs to. That's a lot easier than buying third-party utilities to try to figure it out later why the registry is out of control and DLLs are conflicting.
But these utilities still require a system administrator to run, but only because of the permissions required to install the package. Allowing non-privileged users to install system software is one of the reasons Windows has so many problems.
Slashdot Mirror
If you copy/paste a PGP sig onto another message/document the verification fails. See my PGP Intro for a beginner's explanation of the process.
Since verification only takes a few seconds, the motivation to attempt forgery via copy/paste is very low. The risk Mr. Schneier refers to is forgery via gaining control of the signers key and passphrase.
It's flat trivial to invalidate a punch card by punching an extra hole in it. A good voting system should require a choice and accept only one choice.
You are assuming that the people who would have trouble with the ballot would be equally split between the candidates. That is not necessarily true.
Get over it.
Linux is used at many DoD locations for many purposes. None involve direct control of a weapons system, but it's definitely being used in all kinds of support functions. I have personally used it for several applications in military organizations.
The military uses trucks too, so should Ford and Mercedes stop improving their technology? Should farmers stop growing food so that soldiers can't eat?
Your position is ridiculous.
Linux is being used all over the place, often with only tacit approval of IT management types.
I setup several Linux boxes at my last assignment. One is primarily a mail and file/print box. Another is a masquerading box that connects a remote LAN to the office network via dialup PPP. Another started out as a Web/mail server, but grew to provide file/print, Web/database, mailing list, dialup, and, recently, fax services. The first two boxes are 486's with 16MB RAM. The last is a P100 with 32MB RAM.
These boxes have been running for up to two years without problems. The most downtime they had is hardware upgrades and a mandatory Y2K shutdown.
The single biggest reason Linux isn't used more in the DoD, regulations notwithstanding, is the lack of knowledgeable sysadmins. NT is often used when Linux or *BSD would make more sense simply because that's all they know how to use.
But there are still lots of Linux boxes out there getting the mission accomplished, only getting recognition from the local admin and perhaps an officer or two who knows the real deal.
Recently my office setup a Web/database application using an existing NT/IIS/SQL server box. We needed to add fax capability to the app quickly, and cheaply, if possible.
We could have investigated 3rd party software or bought and setup Exchange (that'd be a cold day in Hell) or wrote some custom VB code, but we found a better solution.
We had a Linux box performing some other tasks anyway, so I wrote two small scripts (total ~30 lines), edited a couple of config files, and the Linux box was ready to provide fax services to the NT app. It took about 4 hours from start to finish and another two hours to debug a problem with one of the tools used in the solution. I basically tied together a few existing tools to create a solution. I had to modify the source in one of the tools to workaround a limitation in another of the tools, so availability of source was key to making it work quickly. Of course I commented the modifications and kept the original code handy.
PGP's source is published, but the restrictions on changes and redistribution mean it does not meet the definition of Open Source promulgated by the Open Source Initiative.
I have used many mail clients over the years. I recognize that my requirements change from time to time. I have decided that my one absolute requirement in a mail client is that it store mail in a plain text format.
StarMail is pretty good otherwise, but its binary file format kills it for me.
1. Most people don't need the level of integration with the OS that MSOffice uses.
2. You can buy a computer without Windows, but not from a retail computer store. Order online, or from a mom & pop store and you can avoid the Microsoft Tax.
Even if you buy a computer with Windows, you still don't have to use MSOffice. I've been running a Linux-only desktop at home for almost two years. The few MSOffice documents I've needed to read were easily handled by StarOffice, AbiWord, or WordPerfect.
The problem with this is that none of the current alternatives have open file formats either. So sooner or later, you'll get locked into a single vendor again.
We looked at StarOffice after looking at the cost of upgrading to Office2000. Nobody likes to spend money unnecessarily, so we looked around.
There were issues that prevented us from switching to StarOffice, but anyone who does not even look around for ways to cut costs is fiscally irresponsible.
It's not so much a training issue as a file format issue. Any MS Office user can use StarOffice with almost no learning curve for most of the doucuments that are produced. Some advanced features may be missing or implemented differently, but people who just need to create memos, spreadsheets, or basic presentations will be more upset by the fact that it's different than they'll be appeased by the fact that those differences are minor.
We evaluated StarOffice a few months ago and found that the UI similarities to MSOffice were a major plus. The import/export limitations and Sun's lack of marketing and support were the show-stoppers. You can't even get documentation for the StarBasic scripting language.
Yes, most users do things by rote and have a limited understanding about what they're doing, But the UI is so similar that this is not the real problem.
As far as logging in, if you use NT on your clients, then there is no essential difference. We mostly use Win9x, but network resources are unavailable unless the user logs in. So requiring a login is not too big a step. We will eventually move to NT/W2K clients anyway, so we'll have to handle this sooner or later.
Every organization is different, but most of our users spend all day using Office apps to do things that StarOffice could do, on any platform. We have Exchange, but we barely use its workgroup features. If StarOffice can share calenders and contact databases, we could do without MSOffice. YMMV.
ReqNG:
I created my own HTML forms to generate formatted email input and some perl scripts to generate weekly reports. ReqNG has it's own summary report that's suitable for distributing via email.
ReqNG http://reqng.sycore.net/reqng/
TkReq http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~jmelski/tkreq/
WWWReq http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~cvarner/wwwreq/
Nobody is talking about porting mainframe apps to Linux.
The goal is to enable Internet applications on high performance, extremely reliable hardware. There's no Apache port for OS/390, but Apache can run on hundreds of Linux virtual machines on S390 hardware. It's a different way to achieve cluster reliability. IBM says throughput is higher and downtime and overall costs are reduced when compared to a cluster of Intel-based small servers.
Your teacher may give the GPL some credence if you show him/her some articles showing Linux support from companies like IBM, HP, Novell, and Corel, and from government agencies like NASA and the nuclear labs that run Beowulf clusters. Then there's the GNU archive at MIT.
These are organizations the teacher would know of and cannot dismiss as kids or crackpots.
Once you have their attentin, you can talk about why these large, reputable organizations are using and supporting GPL software. Tailor your arguments to your situation using the hints provided by others in this thread.
Mozilla M13 renders tables while still receiving the data. The first time I saw this on a page that is one large table, I was amazed. Try Slashdot with Mozilla and you won't believe the difference.
>So, what Linux groupware products can we turn the Navy on to?
HP OpenMail or Lotus Notes for the server. What we still need is a good Lotus client for Linux.
I run an Xterminal at home on my old box with all the apps executing on a newer, faster box. It runs faster that way than running the apps separately on each box. I only have to manage one set of applications. Adding another old PC as an Xterminal would be trivial. I understand that games need faster video response. But since I never play video games (not even solitaire) that's not a problem for me.
At work, I run X apps on an Xserver on my Win95 box. I've used X to simplify remote configuration in cases where I was unfamiliar with the necessary config file changes.
The remote capabilities of X are one of it's strengths. If there are ways provided for gamers to get faster response while keeping the network capabilities, that's fine. But network transparency is a must-have feature for many people who work with X.
Netscape will be able to use 128bit with more servers. That doesn't really change anything for most users. The only servers will still be those approved by the U.S. govt.
On the other hand, Opera will use 128bit with any server, not just those approved by the U.S. The beta is due this month.
It's an attempt to show that Linux has a broad base of interest. It's worthwhile to be able to say that more than just a small core of geeks are interested in Linux.
Only people with time to waste would build something on top of that. And only fools would believe something useful coming out of it.
That's probably why the Mozilla team started from scratch.The MDI is the first thing I liked about Opera. Then I found all the customizations. It's fast, flexible, and efficient.
Netscape is okay except for the Java pages that crash it occasionally. MSIE is okay except when it crashes the OS goes down with it.
Opera only lacks Java support, which is not important for me.
I've never seen this and I don't think that's what we're seeing now. They have attempted to subvert every truly non-proprietary standard that threatened them. It's to be expected because to do otherwise would not be in their best interest. That's fine, no problem.
But Microsoft's best interests and mine are two different things.
My home network runs like this. I run all apps on an AMD K6/350 96MB RAM and use my old P60 32MB RAM as an X-Terminal. Since both are Red Hat based (RH6.0 and Mandrake 6.0) my tips will be based on that distro.
/etc/X11/prefdm to point to either xdm or kdm. Currently, gdm does not support XDMCP connections. I use kdm because it looks better and includes a shutdown/reboot option (local console only).
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs to use "-port 7100" instead of "-port -1". This will enable the terminals to get fonts from your main server. You should also add some TrueType fonts, but that's another subject.
/etc/X11/XF86Config file in each terminal so that the FontPath is "tcp/My.Big.Server:7100".
/etc/X11/X -query My.Big.Server
/usr/share/config/kdmrc.
Change the link in
Red Hat 6 uses a TrueType-capable font server by default. To use use the same fonts on all boxes, change the font server initscript in
Change the
Edit the inittab at each terminal so that the runlevel is 5 and the line that calls prefdm to start X looks like this:
Configure the kdm login dialog for your needs by editing the kdmrc file. On Red Hat with KDM installed from RPMs, the file is at
I'm not at home now, so I'm working from memory. I don't think I've missed anything.
My old P60 has been given a new lease on life. I was about to get rid of it. Now all I need is a bigger monitor and a better video card. Any old Pentium or good 486 with at least 16MB RAM can give acceptable performance as an X-Terminal. I may buy a couple of second-hand boxes to flesh out my network.
--Tony
On top of that we need to start packaging source code in seperate packages, and have packages default with auto-installers and setup wizards like Windows. Having people compile everything is NOT what the majority of users want out of an OS.
The distributions that are most popular with consumers use RPM, and do not involve compiling anything. I installed Mandrake last weekend and found out why it's a best seller. It's really easy to install and is very well configured.
RPM is a very good installer. I've heard the Debian installer is good too. RPM are actually better than Installshield because they you always have to explicitly tell it to overwrite existing files. RPM keeps a database of what package each file belongs to. That's a lot easier than buying third-party utilities to try to figure it out later why the registry is out of control and DLLs are conflicting.
But these utilities still require a system administrator to run, but only because of the permissions required to install the package. Allowing non-privileged users to install system software is one of the reasons Windows has so many problems.