Actually, it turned out to be a good thing that I had that tinyURL link in there (originally, just done for simplicity, but had a "side-benefit.")
It really helped to highlight some of the issue with the freeIpod stuff; people can ignore marketing, but are absolutely infuriated if they feel "deceived" somehow. The line with the link didn't change, just the url behind it... and I can tell you, it was like throwing a rock at a hornets' nest. 8)
Although, now it matters not as I've gathered sufficient info from this channel to draw some conclusions. Small karma hit, but man... it was certainly enlightening. 8)
Whenever you see some scumball like "Lev13than" here promoting a "free ipod"
Ugh... hate to point that out, but "Lev13than" was complaining about MY link. That user wasn't promoting free ipod, but was instead complaining about it.
If you are seriously writing a article on free ipod crap why don't you link to a page that explains a bit about your project. Otherwise you're not different from the 12 year old kids you are internet begging for ipods (I'm assuming that your older than 12, could be a bad assumption).
Good idea. I'll have to get that up as work allows.
Will you give away the ipods you get, or will you keep them? With Xmas coming up there are a lot of poor childern out there who are going to get any much else other than AOL and Live linux CDs.....
That assumes that one gets multiple ipods from the deal. Point is, you don't. That's one of the "negative" reasons behind the offer scheme.
Or are you writting about how the free-ipod fad is causing a lot of REALLY ANNOYING internet begging. "I want an ipod, please give up your privacy so I can have an ipod". Please note that "I want a free-ipod so I write bad things about free-ipods, please give your privacy so I can an ipod" is in no way any different.
That's basically what I've surmised. You believe that I've started my article with a bias, but that wasn't the case; I really wanted to see how people would react to this sort of thing. It is interesting because the response really has been mixed. There are those who think it is cool/interesting to sign-up for offers they were interested in already just to get "free stuff" (albeit not free, because they sell your info to marketing houses). And there are those who spit venom on anyone trying this.
What I'd really like to know is why people are so venomous about it instead of trying to educate those who are participating in what has become an annoying trend. Seems to me that while what I started writing originally was about the marketing phenomenon, it has been slowly transforming itself into a piece about intolerance on the internet: we don't see other people as real people. And that really hits both sides of this issue with the iPod. People who "want one" don't think about if they're annoying other people or what the consequences really are (in terms of privacy/annoyance) to those they get to sign-up. On the other side are those people who'd rather just swear, call names, and flame. The ironic thing is that by doing those things, they're trying to make the problem go away but don't actually do anything to contribute to helping; it just vents feelings of frustration and annoyance.
From where is all that frustration coming? I can't imagine it is just ONE offer ONE time. It has to be a build-up of some sort of abuse internet users generally feel... but what is it? Are we sick of marketing pervading our living spaces? Is it frustration with the economy? Is it that the anonimity and ease of the internet tempts some dark part of human nature too readily? I dunno... and I'd like to find out.
I think I've gotten all I'd care to get out of the link test.
I'm still trying to figure out if the uptick in aggressively negative response was because I switched it from the obvious URL to the "tinyurl.com" one or if people's patience is just wearing thin over this whole marketing thing.
And as for donating all those iPods, there were some people who signed up, but almost nobody "completed" an offer... there is no iPod to donate.
And for the record... the article is not going to have favorable things to say about the free ipod experience. Maybe it'll make you feel better, but you've contributed to that sentiment. Once it is done, I'll be changing my sig/home url to the article.
Wow, I'll bet you had to really put a lot of thought into that post to develop such an intellectually stimulating retort.
You must have quite a lot of time on your hands if you can get so pissed off about a link to the free ipod site. That suggests to me that you're either home on vacation from school (I would assume Junior High, given the calibre of your response) or are a frustrated out-of-work guy.
In the first case, I'd recommend growing one, not being one.
In the second, I'd recommend spending your time looking for a job instead of wasting it ranting on slashdot.
I know the holiday season is tense for a lot of people, but c'mon... you didn't have anything better to do then burn karma complaining about a fad?
Enjoy it while you can... how long before your (and everyone else's) jobs are outsourced to India, where they "don't care" about long hours and work for relative pennies?
Oh, that's coming, too... and while it'll probably start at a company like EA, it'll extend to others.
Nope. Time to find a "new way" of making a living in the USA that can't be shipped to a third world country. 8(
There's a fine balance between being located someplace where you can find talent and paying an arm and a leg to locate your business there.
I'm not sure which drives which (ie, talent pools where the jobs are, or companies move to major metropolitan centers because that's where talent naturally springs), but I can say that I hope it doesn't change that rapidly.
Just like that article about outsourcing to rural America that was on/. a little bit ago. I don't want to lose my job in, say, New York to someone who has a cost of living 1/3 that, because they don't need the same income to live comfortably as I would; our internal economic structure isn't prepared for a shift that dramatic quite yet (heck... look how outsourcing to other countries has taken a big bite out of many industries in the US).
Just imagine... lowest-common-denominator-pay based on cost of living... and you live in Chicago , New York, Los Angeles, etc., and I'm not just talking "tech" industry. The chaos of shifting property values alone would crush millions of people.
No, instead the burden on businesses needs to be kept geographically centered: you move to where the people you want to work for you live and contribute back to that community.
Only after we have a global standard of living can we successfully hire "best people for the job, no matter where they live."
If we could only focus Spammers' efforts towards flooding the "enemy's" mail boxes full of crap, maybe we can bog down their infrastructure bringing their society to a screaming halt!
And it would be cheap to do... we just buy more of those spamming servers from China and... hmmm... WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Seems like a simplified port of a MOD editor minus the sound samples and replaced with waveform generators. It looks similar to some (very simple) tracking software I've used in the past.
Anyone had a chance to use this software yet that has done MOD or other tracking before? How does it compare?
...heavy computer users were 74% more likely to develop visual field problems as compared baseline in a group of 10,202 randomly selected workers. Furthermore, heavy computer users were found to be 81% more likely to develop glaucoma.
Can't get to the article, because... well... you know.
But, I've seen stats used in this fashion before to shock. I'm ASSUMING (yeah, I know), that those "percentages" apply to the "risk factor for developing X disease."
So, if "81% more likely to develop" than, say, the "1% chance of developing," then you'd effectively up your chances to "1.81%," NOT "81%" (a HUGE difference, you should agree!).
Oh, I agree that it is important to consider, but without comparing it to a baseline probability, it just sounds scary. Just like if you smoke and drink, you're 4X (umm... 400%) more likely to develop heart disease (numbers courtesy of "out of the air") doesn't mean you'll develop it 4 times in your life instead of once. 8)
As they say, 90% of all statistics are just made up.;)
Basically, the Pentium M is a move back to a P3 type design philosophy, away from the 30-stage pipeline madness Intel's gotten themselves into with Prescott. I fail to see how going with a more intelligent design is going with a dumbed down processor.
I agree with you whole-heartedly. Although the only thing I'd add to what you've said is that they're going back to a chip design that they didn't actually design! If anyone recalls, the Pentium was basically ripped off from DEC. Sure, adding SSE and other "add-ons" was a way of extending the life of the base design until Intel could design its own chip from scratch: the Pentium IV.
Figures they'd go back to a design that was more efficient clock-for-clock than what they could come up with on their own.
And before anyone reads too much AMD kudos in this, AMD bought DEC engineers for chip design and traded flash tech for copper fabrication tech from Motorola to help them leapfrog from K6 (Intel-clone) to the K7.
I think there's a huge segment of the handheld users that are project managers, managers, analysts, etc. These people depend on (because of market penetration) Microsoft products such as Excel, Word, Project, and Outlook.
It would make sense that the the most popular "take with you" version of these would be on a PocketPC running Microsoft CE.
If Palm had wanted to remain on the top, they'd have had to offer *seamless* integration with these products, but how can they when they're competing with the company that MAKES them?
This is the a great example of how a monopoly can be used to extend into another market via a "one-off" mechanism.
...but the amount and severity of MS bugs/exploits is deplorable considering that Windows is the flagship product of one the largest corporations in the world.
I'm not a fan nor a hater of Microsoft products (just hate their business practices), but for anyone to be surprised that an OS designed to be run for a single user in a non-networked environment loaded with legacy code to fully (and successfully) port to a multi-user, networked environment shows a lack of understanding about the increasing inertia software products have as they age. (That's not a swipe at the parent, but a comment about the public at large).
The point is, Microsoft is actually trapped by how large they are (!). To "fix" all these issues would require a complete re-write of Windows. But then if they re-write Windows, what they'd be selling the public is not the product that helped make them a mega-corp, but a new and untested one that is only trying to leverage the brand name. Ironically, there's a significant chance that if Microsoft wandered too far from their "flagship" product too quickly, they'd both alienate and lose their customers.
Hate to say it, but they need to take the slow, steady approach to these updates/repairs.
The real question is, will they still be able to change fast enough to stay viable.
...Sony has already pledged for Blu-reay discs in PS3, and Xbox Next will have it too...
I wouldn't use "major company support" as a metric for success. Intel threw its weight behind RDRAM, and it was even used in the Nintendo 64, but that didn't stop the world from rejecting it as a substandard solution.
If another format takes off, then you'll either be seeing "on the bandwagon" support for the PS3 and Xbox Next, or their support for Blue-ray will be marketed as a "feature," in that it would help curb piracy.
It doesn't hurt them to change the spec for a concept design at this stage in the game; if it was a year from now that this had been announced, then there might be more validity for them supporting Blu-ray.
It was a misguided and dare I say non-intelligent decision to remove it. Wi-fi is a part of all things now, and Intel needs to stay with the times.
From a populist POV, you're absolutely correct.
But, I'm not all that excited to see WiFi making its way "back" into a mainstream product without there being significant (enough) strides to securing the communication.
Wireless is still not easily secured enough for the general populace, and making it even more pervasive before an intelligent solution to our current problems is presented is being non-intelligent.
Take a walk around your area with a laptop/PDA and Kismet to see what I mean.
"I'm sorry, sir, you can't return that sweater because you've already exceeded your maximum allowed returns for the year. If you'd like, we have sweater stretchers on sale in aisle 4 and dye in aisle 5; perhaps you can just make it into the size/color you want. THANK YOU for your continued business!"
I mean... really... I can see if they're going to only use it for some sort of fraud detection, but even then, how do you DO anything with that information?
I thought they already put shotguns on bomb defusal robots as a way of remotely triggering explosives.
And, I also seem to recall (probably on a Fox special) police using a robot with remote camera and a shotgun to negotiate with an armed man (and get the layout of his place)... and this was YEARS ago.
Why is this really news, outside of it containing the "Iraq hotbutton?"
Europe is on GSM and EGSM, which is 900 and 1800 (respectively).
America uses 1900.
850 must be relatively new in the bands available because it wasn't an option when I was working on GSM cellular systems.
If you want to buy a phone from a foreign market and want to use it in the US, make sure it supports 1900 or is "tri-mode" (900, 1800, and 1900) and you're allowed to "unlock" it (ie, use it with a difference service provider than you originally purchased it for. I know this is the case for Motorola phones... don't know about other vendors).
Although a little googling shows now "quad-mode" phones which include the 850 band.
All these security systems have to communicate some way with a backend system to check data that has been collected, even if the data that is being sent is a digested hash or something.
Maybe it isn't trivial, but emulating a security device will also compromise the entire system; it doesn't matter what the front-end is, the "communication" portion is still the weakest, most attackable part of the system.
Nope, until someone can develop a standalone, uncrackable system with perfect communication links, all systems are vulnerable.
And, honestly, I don't think it can be done until we can get into quantum cryptography.
There are substantial differences between an outsourcing company and a local employee:
1) The laws governing an outsourced company are the laws of their native country. Forgive me for saying so, but most of the "popular" outsourcing countries have weak fraud/theft protection for American companies. -vs- With a local employee, they steal from you, they're going to lose their job, go to jail, and suffer serious consequences.
2) With an outsourcing company, they generally pay their workers a fraction of what you pay your local employee. So, given the guy who works for $6K a year (American) or the guy who makes $80K a year, which one is going to be more tempted to steal $10K worth of data? Combined with the penalties of point #1, that only adds to the temptation for the foreign worker and dissuades the local worker from stealing.
Outsourcing has its place... but, you have to add "consequences for breaking trust" to the equation.
Methinks security is the MOST important problem with outsourcing!
That would be the best way to organize it once it is generated, but would also require the most interaction between "hackers."
I guess I was just thinking that someone could (as the people in the article did) just select some subset of passwords, generate all the hashes associated with those passwords, and publish it as a searchable database.
You know, Joe would generate hashes for all numbers, Sally would generate hashes for all letters and combinations with the number "1", etc. Distributed that way, it would take not to long to generate all the hashes in parallel... and have searchably small databases.
Of course, then you'd have to search the search databases. 8)
But, once you have all the combinations generated by all these seperate sources, then it would make sense to combine and redistribute based on some other easy-to-identify characteristic (like the beginning of the hash-that-is-to-be-cracked).
I wonder if something like this would *never* gain any traction because, honestly, the people hosting these sorts of sites would also make themselves vulnerable. Just like that fictitious circuit from the movie "Sneakers:" "No more secrets."
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it turned out to be a good thing that I had that tinyURL link in there (originally, just done for simplicity, but had a "side-benefit.")
It really helped to highlight some of the issue with the freeIpod stuff; people can ignore marketing, but are absolutely infuriated if they feel "deceived" somehow. The line with the link didn't change, just the url behind it... and I can tell you, it was like throwing a rock at a hornets' nest. 8)
Although, now it matters not as I've gathered sufficient info from this channel to draw some conclusions. Small karma hit, but man... it was certainly enlightening. 8)
Whenever you see some scumball like "Lev13than" here promoting a "free ipod"
Ugh... hate to point that out, but "Lev13than" was complaining about MY link. That user wasn't promoting free ipod, but was instead complaining about it.
If you are seriously writing a article on free ipod crap why don't you link to a page that explains a bit about your project. Otherwise you're not different from the 12 year old kids you are internet begging for ipods (I'm assuming that your older than 12, could be a bad assumption).
Good idea. I'll have to get that up as work allows.
Will you give away the ipods you get, or will you keep them? With Xmas coming up there are a lot of poor childern out there who are going to get any much else other than AOL and Live linux CDs.....
That assumes that one gets multiple ipods from the deal. Point is, you don't. That's one of the "negative" reasons behind the offer scheme.
Or are you writting about how the free-ipod fad is causing a lot of REALLY ANNOYING internet begging. "I want an ipod, please give up your privacy so I can have an ipod". Please note that "I want a free-ipod so I write bad things about free-ipods, please give your privacy so I can an ipod" is in no way any different.
That's basically what I've surmised. You believe that I've started my article with a bias, but that wasn't the case; I really wanted to see how people would react to this sort of thing. It is interesting because the response really has been mixed. There are those who think it is cool/interesting to sign-up for offers they were interested in already just to get "free stuff" (albeit not free, because they sell your info to marketing houses). And there are those who spit venom on anyone trying this.
What I'd really like to know is why people are so venomous about it instead of trying to educate those who are participating in what has become an annoying trend. Seems to me that while what I started writing originally was about the marketing phenomenon, it has been slowly transforming itself into a piece about intolerance on the internet: we don't see other people as real people. And that really hits both sides of this issue with the iPod. People who "want one" don't think about if they're annoying other people or what the consequences really are (in terms of privacy/annoyance) to those they get to sign-up. On the other side are those people who'd rather just swear, call names, and flame. The ironic thing is that by doing those things, they're trying to make the problem go away but don't actually do anything to contribute to helping; it just vents feelings of frustration and annoyance.
From where is all that frustration coming? I can't imagine it is just ONE offer ONE time. It has to be a build-up of some sort of abuse internet users generally feel... but what is it? Are we sick of marketing pervading our living spaces? Is it frustration with the economy? Is it that the anonimity and ease of the internet tempts some dark part of human nature too readily? I dunno... and I'd like to find out.
I think I've gotten all I'd care to get out of the link test.
I'm still trying to figure out if the uptick in aggressively negative response was because I switched it from the obvious URL to the "tinyurl.com" one or if people's patience is just wearing thin over this whole marketing thing.
And as for donating all those iPods, there were some people who signed up, but almost nobody "completed" an offer... there is no iPod to donate.
And for the record... the article is not going to have favorable things to say about the free ipod experience. Maybe it'll make you feel better, but you've contributed to that sentiment. Once it is done, I'll be changing my sig/home url to the article.
Sheesh! Really... get a grip!
Wow, I'll bet you had to really put a lot of thought into that post to develop such an intellectually stimulating retort.
You must have quite a lot of time on your hands if you can get so pissed off about a link to the free ipod site. That suggests to me that you're either home on vacation from school (I would assume Junior High, given the calibre of your response) or are a frustrated out-of-work guy.
In the first case, I'd recommend growing one, not being one.
In the second, I'd recommend spending your time looking for a job instead of wasting it ranting on slashdot.
I know the holiday season is tense for a lot of people, but c'mon... you didn't have anything better to do then burn karma complaining about a fad?
They wanted that new version of Internet Explorer with the fancy built-in pop-up blocker.
;)
Looks like they got a deal; they got the version that also blocks viruses, worms, and abuse of Solitaire!
Enjoy it while you can... how long before your (and everyone else's) jobs are outsourced to India, where they "don't care" about long hours and work for relative pennies?
Oh, that's coming, too... and while it'll probably start at a company like EA, it'll extend to others.
Nope. Time to find a "new way" of making a living in the USA that can't be shipped to a third world country. 8(
Now that you mention it, the two "O's" in Google do kind of look like giant breasts!
Oh... you mean sorta like the Booble Search Engine? (Not Safe for work)
There's a fine balance between being located someplace where you can find talent and paying an arm and a leg to locate your business there.
/. a little bit ago. I don't want to lose my job in, say, New York to someone who has a cost of living 1/3 that, because they don't need the same income to live comfortably as I would; our internal economic structure isn't prepared for a shift that dramatic quite yet (heck... look how outsourcing to other countries has taken a big bite out of many industries in the US).
I'm not sure which drives which (ie, talent pools where the jobs are, or companies move to major metropolitan centers because that's where talent naturally springs), but I can say that I hope it doesn't change that rapidly.
Just like that article about outsourcing to rural America that was on
Just imagine... lowest-common-denominator-pay based on cost of living... and you live in Chicago , New York, Los Angeles, etc., and I'm not just talking "tech" industry. The chaos of shifting property values alone would crush millions of people.
No, instead the burden on businesses needs to be kept geographically centered: you move to where the people you want to work for you live and contribute back to that community.
Only after we have a global standard of living can we successfully hire "best people for the job, no matter where they live."
If we could only focus Spammers' efforts towards flooding the "enemy's" mail boxes full of crap, maybe we can bog down their infrastructure bringing their society to a screaming halt!
And it would be cheap to do... we just buy more of those spamming servers from China and... hmmm... WAIT A MINUTE!!!
If I wanted to pay people to hurt me I'd give the crackhead down on the corner fifty cents to kick me in the nuts.
;)
Dude... time to move!
Seems like a simplified port of a MOD editor minus the sound samples and replaced with waveform generators. It looks similar to some (very simple) tracking software I've used in the past.
Anyone had a chance to use this software yet that has done MOD or other tracking before? How does it compare?
...heavy computer users were 74% more likely to develop visual field problems as compared baseline in a group of 10,202 randomly selected workers. Furthermore, heavy computer users were found to be 81% more likely to develop glaucoma.
;)
Can't get to the article, because... well... you know.
But, I've seen stats used in this fashion before to shock. I'm ASSUMING (yeah, I know), that those "percentages" apply to the "risk factor for developing X disease."
So, if "81% more likely to develop" than, say, the "1% chance of developing," then you'd effectively up your chances to "1.81%," NOT "81%" (a HUGE difference, you should agree!).
Oh, I agree that it is important to consider, but without comparing it to a baseline probability, it just sounds scary. Just like if you smoke and drink, you're 4X (umm... 400%) more likely to develop heart disease (numbers courtesy of "out of the air") doesn't mean you'll develop it 4 times in your life instead of once. 8)
As they say, 90% of all statistics are just made up.
A quick search on B&N shows there are dozens of books about struts out there. Take your pick and write a review for Slashdot.
;)
And be sure to put a whoring link to book, so you can make tons of cash on Slashbots who click the link and buy it.
Basically, the Pentium M is a move back to a P3 type design philosophy, away from the 30-stage pipeline madness Intel's gotten themselves into with Prescott. I fail to see how going with a more intelligent design is going with a dumbed down processor.
I agree with you whole-heartedly. Although the only thing I'd add to what you've said is that they're going back to a chip design that they didn't actually design! If anyone recalls, the Pentium was basically ripped off from DEC. Sure, adding SSE and other "add-ons" was a way of extending the life of the base design until Intel could design its own chip from scratch: the Pentium IV.
Figures they'd go back to a design that was more efficient clock-for-clock than what they could come up with on their own.
And before anyone reads too much AMD kudos in this, AMD bought DEC engineers for chip design and traded flash tech for copper fabrication tech from Motorola to help them leapfrog from K6 (Intel-clone) to the K7.
I think there's a huge segment of the handheld users that are project managers, managers, analysts, etc. These people depend on (because of market penetration) Microsoft products such as Excel, Word, Project, and Outlook.
It would make sense that the the most popular "take with you" version of these would be on a PocketPC running Microsoft CE.
If Palm had wanted to remain on the top, they'd have had to offer *seamless* integration with these products, but how can they when they're competing with the company that MAKES them?
This is the a great example of how a monopoly can be used to extend into another market via a "one-off" mechanism.
...but the amount and severity of MS bugs/exploits is deplorable considering that Windows is the flagship product of one the largest corporations in the world.
I'm not a fan nor a hater of Microsoft products (just hate their business practices), but for anyone to be surprised that an OS designed to be run for a single user in a non-networked environment loaded with legacy code to fully (and successfully) port to a multi-user, networked environment shows a lack of understanding about the increasing inertia software products have as they age. (That's not a swipe at the parent, but a comment about the public at large).
The point is, Microsoft is actually trapped by how large they are (!). To "fix" all these issues would require a complete re-write of Windows. But then if they re-write Windows, what they'd be selling the public is not the product that helped make them a mega-corp, but a new and untested one that is only trying to leverage the brand name. Ironically, there's a significant chance that if Microsoft wandered too far from their "flagship" product too quickly, they'd both alienate and lose their customers.
Hate to say it, but they need to take the slow, steady approach to these updates/repairs.
The real question is, will they still be able to change fast enough to stay viable.
...Sony has already pledged for Blu-reay discs in PS3, and Xbox Next will have it too...
I wouldn't use "major company support" as a metric for success. Intel threw its weight behind RDRAM, and it was even used in the Nintendo 64, but that didn't stop the world from rejecting it as a substandard solution.
If another format takes off, then you'll either be seeing "on the bandwagon" support for the PS3 and Xbox Next, or their support for Blue-ray will be marketed as a "feature," in that it would help curb piracy.
It doesn't hurt them to change the spec for a concept design at this stage in the game; if it was a year from now that this had been announced, then there might be more validity for them supporting Blu-ray.
It was a misguided and dare I say non-intelligent decision to remove it. Wi-fi is a part of all things now, and Intel needs to stay with the times.
From a populist POV, you're absolutely correct.
But, I'm not all that excited to see WiFi making its way "back" into a mainstream product without there being significant (enough) strides to securing the communication.
Wireless is still not easily secured enough for the general populace, and making it even more pervasive before an intelligent solution to our current problems is presented is being non-intelligent.
Take a walk around your area with a laptop/PDA and Kismet to see what I mean.
"I'm sorry, sir, you can't return that sweater because you've already exceeded your maximum allowed returns for the year. If you'd like, we have sweater stretchers on sale in aisle 4 and dye in aisle 5; perhaps you can just make it into the size/color you want. THANK YOU for your continued business!"
I mean... really... I can see if they're going to only use it for some sort of fraud detection, but even then, how do you DO anything with that information?
I thought they already put shotguns on bomb defusal robots as a way of remotely triggering explosives.
And, I also seem to recall (probably on a Fox special) police using a robot with remote camera and a shotgun to negotiate with an armed man (and get the layout of his place)... and this was YEARS ago.
Why is this really news, outside of it containing the "Iraq hotbutton?"
Europe is on GSM and EGSM, which is 900 and 1800 (respectively). America uses 1900. 850 must be relatively new in the bands available because it wasn't an option when I was working on GSM cellular systems. If you want to buy a phone from a foreign market and want to use it in the US, make sure it supports 1900 or is "tri-mode" (900, 1800, and 1900) and you're allowed to "unlock" it (ie, use it with a difference service provider than you originally purchased it for. I know this is the case for Motorola phones... don't know about other vendors). Although a little googling shows now "quad-mode" phones which include the 850 band.
Why even bother with the gelatin mold?
All these security systems have to communicate some way with a backend system to check data that has been collected, even if the data that is being sent is a digested hash or something.
Maybe it isn't trivial, but emulating a security device will also compromise the entire system; it doesn't matter what the front-end is, the "communication" portion is still the weakest, most attackable part of the system.
Nope, until someone can develop a standalone, uncrackable system with perfect communication links, all systems are vulnerable.
And, honestly, I don't think it can be done until we can get into quantum cryptography.
You're oversimplifying the risks.
There are substantial differences between an outsourcing company and a local employee:
1)
The laws governing an outsourced company are the laws of their native country. Forgive me for saying so, but most of the "popular" outsourcing countries have weak fraud/theft protection for American companies.
-vs-
With a local employee, they steal from you, they're going to lose their job, go to jail, and suffer serious consequences.
2)
With an outsourcing company, they generally pay their workers a fraction of what you pay your local employee. So, given the guy who works for $6K a year (American) or the guy who makes $80K a year, which one is going to be more tempted to steal $10K worth of data? Combined with the penalties of point #1, that only adds to the temptation for the foreign worker and dissuades the local worker from stealing.
Outsourcing has its place... but, you have to add "consequences for breaking trust" to the equation.
Methinks security is the MOST important problem with outsourcing!
That would be the best way to organize it once it is generated, but would also require the most interaction between "hackers."
I guess I was just thinking that someone could (as the people in the article did) just select some subset of passwords, generate all the hashes associated with those passwords, and publish it as a searchable database.
You know, Joe would generate hashes for all numbers, Sally would generate hashes for all letters and combinations with the number "1", etc.
Distributed that way, it would take not to long to generate all the hashes in parallel... and have searchably small databases.
Of course, then you'd have to search the search databases. 8)
But, once you have all the combinations generated by all these seperate sources, then it would make sense to combine and redistribute based on some other easy-to-identify characteristic (like the beginning of the hash-that-is-to-be-cracked).
I wonder if something like this would *never* gain any traction because, honestly, the people hosting these sorts of sites would also make themselves vulnerable. Just like that fictitious circuit from the movie "Sneakers:" "No more secrets."