This is not an unusual practice in corporations. Most IT teams take their junior staff members and have them monitor the proxy and browsing habits of their corporate co-workers. This keeps them busy while they learn their on-the-job skills. Sad, I agree, but not unusual.
The problem with TOR is the software you use to find proxy servers is also accessible to the people who want to stop you from accessing them. It is their full-time job to know more about proxies than you. That's why technology is key: Only you and your Psiphon host know of the Internet address. By the way, is proxy circumvention (avoidance) illegal where you live?
It is not only China that is censoring. There is a site-blocker proxy where I live and work. (I am an American by the way.) In addition to blocking "inappropriate" web sites and most network ports, the proxy site-blocker blocks proxy-avoidance sites. There exists a team of network administrators here who spend all day adding sites to the block list and watching browsing habits 24-hours-a-day for additional sites to block. (The Psiphon web site is already inaccessible to me. Slashdot's story submission entitled "Gingrich says Free Speech Forfeit" is blocked, yet the remainder of Slashdot is not.) For the record, I do not use proxy avoidance software, but I do think it is important the technology is available for others.
You asked people in a repressive, authoritative state how they liked it? Where, in this very topic, they are known not to have access to information that goes against what their leaders tell them. Where they could get thrown in jail for saying they don't agree with the state. And thus, your proof that they like their state policies is that they said yes, when you, an English speaking tourist, asked if they liked their government.
Encryption is very important to someone circumventing authoritative measures. When you are facing jail time for crimes against the state, you want to be sure that your activities are hidden. Wikipedia is not going to be running on SSL anytime soon, so this is a useful feature. Why are you so against new software models, jsm? The slashdot summary did not say it was the first time it was being done, so what's your beef? Or do you look down on any software forking? Listen, that's the beauty of open software. Anyone can take the code and make changes as they require. Plus, any use of OSS which fights against oppression is okay in my book, even if it is, as you say, 99.999% redundant.
Well, you could read their FAQ, but since others have posted the same, I'll reply.
The primary this is easy to install and use. The software package will be designed for easy installation on most operating systems. If you have a friend using a state-filtered 'net connection, then it will be can help them without understanding the specifics of port forwarding, encryption, or web servers. Ease of use allows ease of distribution.
Second, the software encrypts the data, unlike port forwarders and CGIproxy, AFAIK. Hopefully, the DNS lookups are also handled by the Psiphon proxy, since the DNS name often reveals the browsing history. Port forwarding and some proxy services to not handle DNS lookups.
I would say the primary reason for the existence is ease of use. The harder something is configure, the less likely people will be to use it. (See flashing 12:00 clocks on old VCRs.) As more countries and organizations lock down information distribution on their network connections, I am glad to see more accessible avoidance options available.
Caution! I tried this many years ago, on a suggestion from a slashdot comment, no less. Feeling impervious to spam, I used descriptive email addresses + my domain on web forms everywhere. It wasn't long before the spam started piling up... big time. 100s of spam messages a day, including dictionary attacks against the domain. I started using spam-assassin tools. The tools worked well, blocking ~95% of the spam, however, by that time I was approaching 1000 spam messages a day. I was still getting ~50 spam messages each day... and rising. Eventually, the domain was getting hit with nearly 1500 spam messages a day, and I shut down my mail server service. For every 1 legitimate email, I was deleting over 100 spam messages. It has been down for a year, and I can only wonder if the endless waves of spam are attacking it. Thankfully, I was using co-located server hosting, so my personal network was not effected.
I found it interesting to learn how dark the Dark Ages were. After 2000 years of wide-spread currency use in Europe, that all banking, notes or even simple coins were not used throughout the Dark Ages. The simple idea of government-backed money did not see again until the sometime in the Crusades (many, many, many generations later). Information on the topic is on the great Wikipedia.
Thanks for taking the time to 'google' me, feels tingly. Where as most people have fairly unique names that are searchable, mine is so popular that you need to go ten pages deep before you find anything about the real me. Check out thematthewcraig.com for a long listing of us out there. "Protect your identity on the Internet. Change your name to Matthew Craig today!"
Why are the answers to every Slashdot story ending posed as a question always, "NO." ? I would really like a story filter that removed any title with the "?" character.
Actually, I would disagree. There are many text files that I saw floating around Bulletin Board Systems back in 1990-1994 that are still just as accessible through the Internet. You mention something written on stone or parchment lasting forever, but I think you are simply looking at the stone or parchments that HAVE lasted forever. You are unaware of all the stone and parchment writing that have been destroyed throughout the years. I would say it is easier now to keep information forever, whereas reproducing a fresh copy of stone or parchment writing required extensive effort. We simply chose not to reproduce much of our current writing, since it has lost a great deal of value due to the overwhelming supply.
Point of interest: Las Vegas is built next to the Colorado River. That's why the Hoover Dam is a tourist attraction there. Las Vegas used to be an oasis, and it has a long history of being a tourist destination - even way before the mafia came across the Atlantic Ocean.
I keep forgetting my rule about responding to comments on Slashdot, which is to read the "home" web site of the poster. Someone who identifies themselves as "Bitterlittleman" is not the person to tell "don't look on the bad side of things."
> Unfortunately, there are far too many things happening every day [...] to continually keep my faith in humanity pretty much nonexistant.
You would really rate our society on the basis of the worst we have to offer? What a pessimistic view of the world! I, for one, will look at mankind's heroes when evaluating. I suggest not letting the actions of outcast individuals craft your view of humanity, especially when those actions are legally and morally opposite to society at large. Instead, celebrate with us the accomplishments of the great humans who let us stand with them in their triumphant light. These scientists chose to explore another world, place semi-autonomous probes on either side of that planet, and share, with all of us, those sights over our worldwide telecommunication network. How can you let the actions of so few others overcast the amazement of truely landmark accomlishments?
Could this be a case where people failed to realize they were the butt of the joke, and not generating the hysterical excitement they thought they were? It is supposed to be a scary movie, right? Then, didn't they wonder why everyone was in tears laughing so hard?
It'll be a camp-movie classic, but I think most people knew it was going to be a goofy movie about snakes being dropped and lowered onto people. It's just not something you're going to spend $9.50 to see.
Personally, I'm going to wait for the Mystery Science Theater spoof.
Anyone else remember all the Slashdot/science stories posted in the last several years? "Large solar storms were imminent and society was at risk, since the storm's radiation would wipe out the computers/circuits/memory/whatever." I remember quite a few, and I would wait and never hear the ramifications of these celestially devastating events. So, Anyone have any more insight into the results, or was this just another case of the news media screaming, "The sky is falling!"?
I think you hit it right on the head. The direction of gaming on Linux is just one excellent MMORPG supporting Linux. Maybe Savage is it; I looked at the video demonstration and it did look compelling. But, if World of Warcraft had decided to come out with a Linux client instead of a Mac client, then the landscape of Linux Gaming would look much different. Players of WoW continue to invest month after month after year into that one game because the online environment is dynamic with social interaction, in addition to being a well polished and fun game. With real replayability, no one will want to switch back to Windows to play another game. The key is that MMORPGs have a single-game longevity, so users aren't jumping to a new one every couple weeks.
Caldera hopes to wrangle as many old-style, single-person games together in hopes that will attract those who also enjoyed them on the Windows operating system. That's the wrong way to go, in my opinion. Getting plugged into hot MMORPGs with their massive replayability will do alot more, in the long-term, for the Linux gaming community. Working with those MMORPG companies to get Linux operability will get alot more mileage than trying the get working the games that were, when they were hot, hardly playable for a 20-60 hours. In contrast, it is not uncommon for Warcraft players to log MONTHS AND MONTHS of game time. Just one of these super-replayable games supported on Linux would cause a tidal wave of change. Game Marketers could look at the success of a game like that a see a portion of the success based on Linux use. Just speculate what the last two years of the Linux gaming scene would have looked like if there had been a Warcraft client distributed.
Get one game with real staying-power onto Linux, then build around it. I wish the developers of Savage luck with their sequel. Hope it will be the one.
Their vehicle competed in an off-road contest with an undetermined route, also. This was an AI task much more complicated than driving on an established racetrack, at any speed. Someone hit "Zonk" and "Kensey" with a clue-stick.
I think a 'robot' can be defined as a machine that performs tasks without direct human control, based on its own sensor inputs' 'understanding' of the world.
Their in-game training for the battlefield medic was some of the best Virtual Reality learning I have ever seen. I still remember the steps for triage.
Hmm -- I don't agree with your analogy of the spammer being like a car-jacker who operates the car illegally. The spammer is NOT breaking into your computer -- the user is active participant in loading the trojan and providing the environment for the zombie to operate. At the least, he is negligent, at worst, an accomplice.
Why not sue each individual user? Even if the box is operating without their knowledge or consent, they are the physical owners of the machine. When your empty, parked car rolls down a hill and damages a house, aren't you still liable?
I imagine that it would not take many publicized lawsuits before Joe Sixpack also considered security and system vulnerability when choosing an operating system.
Might also consider suing some or all of the ISPs who allowed blatantly malicious traffic to pass through their wires after letters of concern were written from your office.
You might say "don't legislate the Internet!" But this isn't new legislation. The fact is, spammers and cyber-criminals are using intimidation tactics and destructive forces to scare off organizations trying to suppress their activities.
Want to find out how bad it is? Start writing "admin@.com" and complaining about the spam coming from their domain. Do this for a couple of your spam emails and you'll be on their "bulk spray spam" hit-list faster than you can say Denial Of Service ten times fast...Thousands of spam messages per day.
It seems like the Internet is getting owned by zombie computers and their masters, and businesses are more willing to accept denial of service attacks than take punitive action.
A game like Warcraft is purposefully light on the issue of morality. Each race and faction is given the same duties: Smack stuff around until it is dead, take all it's valuables, and unquestioningly do all the quests you are told to do. The player is never given "choices" to decide right from wrong, good from evil.
Every character, regardless of race, is regularly told to kill others (NPCs) without the chance to find out the other side of the story. This alone is more evil than simply trying a race with a less humanoid appearance. Horde characters are interesting because they more shadowy... living in under-cities, living in land gained through conquest, and have unusual racial traits. But check your definition of evil -- having an appearance and character traits far removed from human does not make a person evil.
As Ash from Evil Dead implies, the distinction of good and evil is simply on which side of the gun you stand.
Don't ever NOT have your resume posted. Keep it up-to-date, as a matter of policy. If there is any time your boss asks you about it, then just tell him the truth: you keep your resume updated on the Internet. That doesn't necessarily mean you are shopping around for a new job, and it doesn't necessarily mean you are not shopping, either. Your employer is most certainly shopping around the job market to find an additional body for your job role, or even keep their eyes open in case they have to replace you. That's just good business sense! There's no reason you shouldn't take the same prudent steps to make sure the company of "You Incorportated" stays in business and making the maximum profit for it's investors.
Slashdot Mirror
This is not an unusual practice in corporations. Most IT teams take their junior staff members and have them monitor the proxy and browsing habits of their corporate co-workers. This keeps them busy while they learn their on-the-job skills. Sad, I agree, but not unusual.
Greetings.
The problem with TOR is the software you use to find proxy servers is also accessible to the people who want to stop you from accessing them. It is their full-time job to know more about proxies than you. That's why technology is key: Only you and your Psiphon host know of the Internet address. By the way, is proxy circumvention (avoidance) illegal where you live?
It is not only China that is censoring. There is a site-blocker proxy where I live and work. (I am an American by the way.) In addition to blocking "inappropriate" web sites and most network ports, the proxy site-blocker blocks proxy-avoidance sites. There exists a team of network administrators here who spend all day adding sites to the block list and watching browsing habits 24-hours-a-day for additional sites to block. (The Psiphon web site is already inaccessible to me. Slashdot's story submission entitled "Gingrich says Free Speech Forfeit" is blocked, yet the remainder of Slashdot is not.) For the record, I do not use proxy avoidance software, but I do think it is important the technology is available for others.
You asked people in a repressive, authoritative state how they liked it? Where, in this very topic, they are known not to have access to information that goes against what their leaders tell them. Where they could get thrown in jail for saying they don't agree with the state. And thus, your proof that they like their state policies is that they said yes, when you, an English speaking tourist, asked if they liked their government.
Encryption is very important to someone circumventing authoritative measures. When you are facing jail time for crimes against the state, you want to be sure that your activities are hidden. Wikipedia is not going to be running on SSL anytime soon, so this is a useful feature. Why are you so against new software models, jsm? The slashdot summary did not say it was the first time it was being done, so what's your beef? Or do you look down on any software forking? Listen, that's the beauty of open software. Anyone can take the code and make changes as they require. Plus, any use of OSS which fights against oppression is okay in my book, even if it is, as you say, 99.999% redundant.
Well, you could read their FAQ, but since others have posted the same, I'll reply.
The primary this is easy to install and use. The software package will be designed for easy installation on most operating systems. If you have a friend using a state-filtered 'net connection, then it will be can help them without understanding the specifics of port forwarding, encryption, or web servers. Ease of use allows ease of distribution.
Second, the software encrypts the data, unlike port forwarders and CGIproxy, AFAIK. Hopefully, the DNS lookups are also handled by the Psiphon proxy, since the DNS name often reveals the browsing history. Port forwarding and some proxy services to not handle DNS lookups.
I would say the primary reason for the existence is ease of use. The harder something is configure, the less likely people will be to use it. (See flashing 12:00 clocks on old VCRs.) As more countries and organizations lock down information distribution on their network connections, I am glad to see more accessible avoidance options available.
Caution! I tried this many years ago, on a suggestion from a slashdot comment, no less. Feeling impervious to spam, I used descriptive email addresses + my domain on web forms everywhere. It wasn't long before the spam started piling up... big time. 100s of spam messages a day, including dictionary attacks against the domain. I started using spam-assassin tools. The tools worked well, blocking ~95% of the spam, however, by that time I was approaching 1000 spam messages a day. I was still getting ~50 spam messages each day... and rising. Eventually, the domain was getting hit with nearly 1500 spam messages a day, and I shut down my mail server service. For every 1 legitimate email, I was deleting over 100 spam messages. It has been down for a year, and I can only wonder if the endless waves of spam are attacking it. Thankfully, I was using co-located server hosting, so my personal network was not effected.
I found it interesting to learn how dark the Dark Ages were. After 2000 years of wide-spread currency use in Europe, that all banking, notes or even simple coins were not used throughout the Dark Ages. The simple idea of government-backed money did not see again until the sometime in the Crusades (many, many, many generations later). Information on the topic is on the great Wikipedia.
Thanks for taking the time to 'google' me, feels tingly. Where as most people have fairly unique names that are searchable, mine is so popular that you need to go ten pages deep before you find anything about the real me. Check out thematthewcraig.com for a long listing of us out there. "Protect your identity on the Internet. Change your name to Matthew Craig today!"
Why are the answers to every Slashdot story ending posed as a question always, "NO." ?
I would really like a story filter that removed any title with the "?" character.
Actually, I would disagree. There are many text files that I saw floating around Bulletin Board Systems back in 1990-1994 that are still just as accessible through the Internet. You mention something written on stone or parchment lasting forever, but I think you are simply looking at the stone or parchments that HAVE lasted forever. You are unaware of all the stone and parchment writing that have been destroyed throughout the years. I would say it is easier now to keep information forever, whereas reproducing a fresh copy of stone or parchment writing required extensive effort. We simply chose not to reproduce much of our current writing, since it has lost a great deal of value due to the overwhelming supply.
Point of interest: Las Vegas is built next to the Colorado River. That's why the Hoover Dam is a tourist attraction there. Las Vegas used to be an oasis, and it has a long history of being a tourist destination - even way before the mafia came across the Atlantic Ocean.
I keep forgetting my rule about responding to comments on Slashdot, which is to read the "home" web site of the poster. Someone who identifies themselves as "Bitterlittleman" is not the person to tell "don't look on the bad side of things."
> Unfortunately, there are far too many things happening every day [...] to continually keep my faith in humanity pretty much nonexistant.
You would really rate our society on the basis of the worst we have to offer? What a pessimistic view of the world! I, for one, will look at mankind's heroes when evaluating. I suggest not letting the actions of outcast individuals craft your view of humanity, especially when those actions are legally and morally opposite to society at large. Instead, celebrate with us the accomplishments of the great humans who let us stand with them in their triumphant light. These scientists chose to explore another world, place semi-autonomous probes on either side of that planet, and share, with all of us, those sights over our worldwide telecommunication network. How can you let the actions of so few others overcast the amazement of truely landmark accomlishments?
I guess they don't call Oak Ridge "the secret city" for nothing, then!
Could this be a case where people failed to realize they were the butt of the joke, and not generating the hysterical excitement they thought they were? It is supposed to be a scary movie, right? Then, didn't they wonder why everyone was in tears laughing so hard?
It'll be a camp-movie classic, but I think most people knew it was going to be a goofy movie about snakes being dropped and lowered onto people. It's just not something you're going to spend $9.50 to see.
Personally, I'm going to wait for the Mystery Science Theater spoof.
Anyone else remember all the Slashdot/science stories posted in the last several years? "Large solar storms were imminent and society was at risk, since the storm's radiation would wipe out the computers/circuits/memory/whatever." I remember quite a few, and I would wait and never hear the ramifications of these celestially devastating events. So, Anyone have any more insight into the results, or was this just another case of the news media screaming, "The sky is falling!"?
I think you hit it right on the head. The direction of gaming on Linux is just one excellent MMORPG supporting Linux. Maybe Savage is it; I looked at the video demonstration and it did look compelling. But, if World of Warcraft had decided to come out with a Linux client instead of a Mac client, then the landscape of Linux Gaming would look much different. Players of WoW continue to invest month after month after year into that one game because the online environment is dynamic with social interaction, in addition to being a well polished and fun game. With real replayability, no one will want to switch back to Windows to play another game. The key is that MMORPGs have a single-game longevity, so users aren't jumping to a new one every couple weeks.
Caldera hopes to wrangle as many old-style, single-person games together in hopes that will attract those who also enjoyed them on the Windows operating system. That's the wrong way to go, in my opinion. Getting plugged into hot MMORPGs with their massive replayability will do alot more, in the long-term, for the Linux gaming community. Working with those MMORPG companies to get Linux operability will get alot more mileage than trying the get working the games that were, when they were hot, hardly playable for a 20-60 hours. In contrast, it is not uncommon for Warcraft players to log MONTHS AND MONTHS of game time. Just one of these super-replayable games supported on Linux would cause a tidal wave of change. Game Marketers could look at the success of a game like that a see a portion of the success based on Linux use. Just speculate what the last two years of the Linux gaming scene would have looked like if there had been a Warcraft client distributed.
Get one game with real staying-power onto Linux, then build around it. I wish the developers of Savage luck with their sequel. Hope it will be the one.
Their vehicle competed in an off-road contest with an undetermined route, also. This was an AI task much more complicated than driving on an established racetrack, at any speed. Someone hit "Zonk" and "Kensey" with a clue-stick.
It could be... but, sadly, that is not how it is defined!
The Nokia 6600 has had the capability to run a web server for years.
Internet Connection + Programable OS = Potential for Web Server
It won't be long before we see watches and refridgerators with web servers, too.
Their in-game training for the battlefield medic was some of the best Virtual Reality learning I have ever seen. I still remember the steps for triage.
Hmm -- I don't agree with your analogy of the spammer being like a car-jacker who operates the car illegally. The spammer is NOT breaking into your computer -- the user is active participant in loading the trojan and providing the environment for the zombie to operate. At the least, he is negligent, at worst, an accomplice.
Why not sue each individual user? Even if the box is operating without their knowledge or consent, they are the physical owners of the machine. When your empty, parked car rolls down a hill and damages a house, aren't you still liable?
...Thousands of spam messages per day.
I imagine that it would not take many publicized lawsuits before Joe Sixpack also considered security and system vulnerability when choosing an operating system.
Might also consider suing some or all of the ISPs who allowed blatantly malicious traffic to pass through their wires after letters of concern were written from your office.
You might say "don't legislate the Internet!" But this isn't new legislation. The fact is, spammers and cyber-criminals are using intimidation tactics and destructive forces to scare off organizations trying to suppress their activities.
Want to find out how bad it is? Start writing "admin@.com" and complaining about the spam coming from their domain. Do this for a couple of your spam emails and you'll be on their "bulk spray spam" hit-list faster than you can say Denial Of Service ten times fast
It seems like the Internet is getting owned by zombie computers and their masters, and businesses are more willing to accept denial of service attacks than take punitive action.
"...good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun."
A game like Warcraft is purposefully light on the issue of morality. Each race and faction is given the same duties: Smack stuff around until it is dead, take all it's valuables, and unquestioningly do all the quests you are told to do. The player is never given "choices" to decide right from wrong, good from evil.
Every character, regardless of race, is regularly told to kill others (NPCs) without the chance to find out the other side of the story. This alone is more evil than simply trying a race with a less humanoid appearance. Horde characters are interesting because they more shadowy... living in under-cities, living in land gained through conquest, and have unusual racial traits. But check your definition of evil -- having an appearance and character traits far removed from human does not make a person evil.
As Ash from Evil Dead implies, the distinction of good and evil is simply on which side of the gun you stand.
Don't ever NOT have your resume posted. Keep it up-to-date, as a matter of policy. If there is any time your boss asks you about it, then just tell him the truth: you keep your resume updated on the Internet. That doesn't necessarily mean you are shopping around for a new job, and it doesn't necessarily mean you are not shopping, either. Your employer is most certainly shopping around the job market to find an additional body for your job role, or even keep their eyes open in case they have to replace you. That's just good business sense! There's no reason you shouldn't take the same prudent steps to make sure the company of "You Incorportated" stays in business and making the maximum profit for it's investors.