I too have a libretto. ( A 60 - real early stuff). I use it to play GO on the train ride into work. And sometimes for a console. It has 802.11 connectivity and it's quite convenient to take around with me - in fact, it goes wherever I do.
Sadly, the Libretto is exactly the reason why this won't work. Sure it will take off in other markets, but in places like the US (and Australia where I am for that matter) it's never been popular... Instead I see people with HUGE laptops which take up as much space as a LCD panel and keyboard.
Few people can appreciate the functionality of a truly small PC - Too many people just want a portable desktop box.
And from the comments many people have posted about the small keys and the smaller size LCD (resolution notwithstanding) it seems that as with the Libretto, most people still just don't get it... You're not supposed to use these things to replace a desktop.... They are a high-powered PDA for people who need more than to just keep appointments and take notes
I know a lot of people have come up with a variety of different ideas for tracking head movement, but I've always wondered if it would be possible to know exactly where someone is looking as well, with an economical device hooked into the next generation of really high resolution displays.
Then you could tie this into a video rendering algorythm and adjust the level of detail to maximise it in the area you are looking at.
Just think.... A 40" display, with 10240x7680 resolution, with 80% of the rendered detail in the few inches of display you are actually looking at.
Now that would make a killer first-person shooter application or vehicle sim...
I know we've come a long way since opponents at distance were just a few fuzzy pixels, but I have a feeling that with technologies like OLED's that the resolution of display technology will quickly outstrip the processing power of video cards.
And most of that processing effort for parts of the screen we're not really looking at.
GrpA
The MPAA will be using technology like this soon.
on
Cheap Cell-Phone Detector
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Just think about it.
Give it 4 or 5 years, and mobile phones on new generation networks will have high resolution image stabilised digital cameras and the ability to transmit this image in real time, already compressed, down multi-megabit networks.
Such a phone would video a movie from a pocket, and there would be no evidence, because it would be transmitted away.
So there is a huge value in these detectors...
Just remember to leave your mobile at home when you visit the cinemas, or having it ring during the movie will only be the start of having a very very bad day...
Edison invented very little. His real skill was in taking the credit for other's work. Most of "Edison's Inventions" came from his employees, not the man himself.
Again, clearly not like this guy.
Edison represents everything that many real inventors resent about patents and the patent system.
I don't have any sympathy for bad retailers who offer ridiculous deals to customers, with profit margins based on the fact that customers will not exercise options (eg, rebates) or will buy accessories to supplement the original sale.
They deserve what they get.
On the other hand, I did run an ISP, so I know what it's like when you give a customer an unlimited account, based on a pool of bandwidth, only to discover they are a leech, and bring down the quality of service for all customers.
Still, they purchased the service legitimately, so I wasn't going to ban them...
So I sent them 3-month gift certificates from a competing ISP:).... And *all* my problem customers left me, taking up the offer.
My competitor wasn't too happy when he found out years later, but I was left with a pool of good customers, and those customers I didn't want respected me also, and often recommended me to their friends, many of whom weren't leeches.
Overall, I didn't abuse the customer rights, and I still managed to offer a premium service at a reasonable price. And at better profit margins than my competitors. Not once did I have to make excuses like fair-use policies do.
The moral of this tale? Treat your customers with respect and they'll respect you in return.
If that's all there was to it, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, when you miss a critical e-mail because you accidently delete it, or it gets deleted as a false positive, then you start to realise the real cost of spam to the recipient typically costs them more than virus and worm damage combined.
Then consider that if you have children, Pornographics spammers expose them to the worst of hardcore porn with utter comtempt for their safety and wellbeing.
Finally, remember that Spammers are *all* Sociopaths, protected for the first time by the size of the community, allowing them to abuse anyone without any fear of retribution.
For what it's worth, I personally see spammers as a bigger and more present problem than hackers ever were.
From my childhood reading of science fiction, I always remember Sound of Thunder(Bradbury) and Let the Ants Try(Pohl). Both had a profound effect on my way of thinking.
I spent many days as a young kid wondering if it would be possible to change history - after all if you changed the future, would the future you have gone back into the past at all?
I learned the answer many years later in electronics. In electronics, it's called "Negative Feedback"...
ie, take the output signal and feed in back into the input... The output affects the input, but the signal still continues.
Now I wonder on how such a simple well thought out story can possibly change the future by altering the way people think and view the world.
Still many of Ray Bradbury's original stories still occupy parts of my idle thoughts even this much later.
That this man's writing has affected my thinking for so long and has permeated my thoughts enough to consider things I may have never considered otherwise is reason enough to see how the movie turns out...
Is so that when you're working late in a confined machine room, 3 hours past midnight, the smell of burning sulphur will remind you that you're in Tech Hell...
Step 1. Apply for information which someone thinks is suspicious.
Step 2. Your noted on a government database as having requested that information. (You're the only one most likely). The reason is because of likely crime or terrorist activity associated with that information, otherwise no one would bother adding you to the database. You are initially interviewed by authorities.
Step 3. Someone commits crime/terrorist act related to the information. Because they were a criminal/terrorist, they got the required information from other sources.
Step 4. You are detained without warrant and held without charge. You disappear. No one knows where you are. You are not allowed to make a phone call.
Step 5. Further investigation yields no clues. Law enforcement officials with an average IQ of 100 are under pressure to make an arrest, and charge someone.
Step 6. Based on your comments under (mild) mental torture and previous slashdot posts, you are arrested and charged. The circumstantial evidence of your having asked for the information without a valid reason otherwise may be enough to convict you. More recently, they can also hold you without charge or communication until you confess too now.
Step 7. You are convicted.
That's why this kind of stuff is scary. It does happen. All too often. After all, there is a real chance of the crime/terror incident happening or otherwise you wouldn't have been questioned in the first place.
Bottom line, if you don't want to face the risk of being interrogated/charged for something you didn't do, then be careful what you ask for and how you draw attention to yourself. Even comments in forums like this can be use against you, and they are kept for a very long time... Everyone who reads slashdot is probably considered a potential terrorist/criminal by anyone who doesn't understand what geeks are. Some people feel threatended by geeks. Especially hackers - white or black hat - and those sort of people are the most likely content of a jury.
It is a bit chilling. And it's not recent legislation or the US. Check the history of academic dissidents throughout recent history. This is a common theme.
Reading through the comments, the scariest thing about this thread isn't the original article...
It's the comments posted by a fairly experienced bunch of geeks.
The misconceptions illustrated throughout this thread demonstrate how badly some aspects of the Internet, TCP and protocols are misunderstood by people who think they have a full working knowledge of these mechanisms. (Some posts...Other posts admittedly correct some errors)
It's because of these people who *think* they know what's going on while working in the industry that the true risk grows, because hostile hackers will always find a home in the huge gaps left by their ignorance.
Ignorance is more dangerous in the long run than apathy. Apathy can change.
Apologies that this post is slightly OT, but it's relevant to the theme.
I use Ethereal as a basic sniffer, but use others for deeper network analysis. Etthereal is fantastic as a basic sniffer. Few problems with it too. It's just so well written.
I use the Compuware stuff as well.
Network Vantage and Application Vantage. Mainly on bigger or troubleshooting jobs..
Network Vantage tends to do the more statistical stuff, and Application Vantage tends to process the intricate information, such as how long it takes a packet to traverse a WAN segment or if packets are arriving out of order, and the extent that this messes up the network..
It's not stuff that you can't do with Ethereal (and a spreadsheet and a few hours) but it does make it a lot easier to do....
Oh... And I just use the standard TCPDUMP on Linux... from the console..
With enough reports such as this, I wonder if it might be possible one day for all those who have previously settled with the RIAA and similar to launch a class action of sorts back at them...
Now *that* is something that would likely terrify the RIAA, if each time they settled, they created a potential lawsuit down the track, regardless of how little chance it had of succeeding.
A lot of old memories in his article... It brings it all back.
Some of us followed different paths, but I guess if you're in that age group and reading slashdot, there's a very good chance you've probably had many of the same experiences, thoughts and memories that Jeff Minter shares...
Does anyone else remember Bubblegum Crisis ep8? (Scoopchase for those who don't remember the episodes...)
I always liken Genom in that series to Microsoft. As was pointed out, although Genom did a lot of bad things, it also did a lot of beneficial things...
Microsoft is *very* like this. Although they are kind of evil, much of what they have done has benefitted us all.
Unfortunately, we don't have the Knight Sabers to kill off their worse plans, but then again, we do have the Open Source movement, so overall, things aren't too bad.
But personally, I think having had MS around for the past few decades has been one of the greater factors in the explosion of computer technology. Good or bad, it really has been Microsoft's existance driving this.
Even for those of us who are anachronistic and still prefer DOS and Debug...:(
However it has more to do with manufacturers cripling the size much like the old Celerons were sometimes PIIs.
In those instances however, it often involves firmware upgrades, to remove the "crippled" firmware and replace it with the original intended firmware for the model it really was.
But the method explained sounds like a great way to generate more work for PC techs when clueless users try it... Just like using a frozen Mars Bar to let you overclock processors...
It can be risky, since it can also be a path to the "Dark Side", however...
Learning the basics of social engineering can change your attitudes completely.
Explain how by changing his appearance he can use
the ignorance of others againt them.... Even if he places no particular value on combing his hair, by "appearing" to conform to social standards, he can use this as a basis to influence those around him to achieve his goals...
Over time, the skills you learn rub off, and you find that you do them without trying...
After all, most accomplished techs, especially those who manage others, are also experienced social engineers...
Just explain that like most advanced skills, he should use it wisely. (And not turn to the dark side....;) Unless, he's already on the dark side, in which case, you'll be creating a monster.
As a former journalist, I know that journalism has never been about reporting the truth. Only someone who is either naive or egotistical could beleive otherwise.
An article is an opinion of the author. Nothing more, nothing less. Professionalism in Journalism is how well a journalist maintains ethical standards and obligations while writing the piece.
Truth is just a point of view, and like most points of view, depends on where you are standing at the time.
Simply reciting the facts does not lend truth to the story.
Nor necessarily does a lack of specifically accurate facts detract from the "Truth" it conveys.
GrpA.
Results of new spam filters cannot help but to be
bogus... The true test of a filter is how well it
works *after* all the spammers know how it works
and try to circumvent it.
The resume means nothing.
Any place that doesn't check your references is the sort of place where you are better off avoiding. A good reference from a previous employer (or two) will speak volumes.
I often wonder if Ebay puts fake stuff like this up just for attention. After all, it's going to get into every paper in the world, and in prime editorial space...
I'm wondering if you dig deep enough into past ebay sales, just how many of these were real... After all, I've never seen an "I bought a nuclear
missile from E-bay" story...
A Clone Case.
Same mounting holes too!...
Of course, I needed to use an angle grinder and
a MIG welder to fit the ATM motherboard,
And it has an ATX PSU now.
But it's still the same case since pre-1990.
And I use the Reset Button to supply power !
Slashdot Mirror
I too have a libretto. ( A 60 - real early stuff). I use it to play GO on the train ride into work. And sometimes for a console. It has 802.11 connectivity and it's quite convenient to take around with me - in fact, it goes wherever I do.
Sadly, the Libretto is exactly the reason why this won't work. Sure it will take off in other markets, but in places like the US (and Australia where I am for that matter) it's never been popular... Instead I see people with HUGE laptops which take up as much space as a LCD panel and keyboard.
Few people can appreciate the functionality of a truly small PC - Too many people just want a portable desktop box.
And from the comments many people have posted about the small keys and the smaller size LCD (resolution notwithstanding) it seems that as with the Libretto, most people still just don't get it... You're not supposed to use these things to replace a desktop.... They are a high-powered PDA for people who need more than to just keep appointments and take notes
GrpA.I know a lot of people have come up with a variety of different ideas for tracking head movement, but I've always wondered if it would be possible to know exactly where someone is looking as well, with an economical device hooked into the next generation of really high resolution displays.
Then you could tie this into a video rendering algorythm and adjust the level of detail to maximise it in the area you are looking at.
Just think.... A 40" display, with 10240x7680 resolution, with 80% of the rendered detail in the few inches of display you are actually looking at.
Now that would make a killer first-person shooter application or vehicle sim...
I know we've come a long way since opponents at distance were just a few fuzzy pixels, but I have a feeling that with technologies like OLED's that the resolution of display technology will quickly outstrip the processing power of video cards.
And most of that processing effort for parts of the screen we're not really looking at.
GrpAJust think about it.
Give it 4 or 5 years, and mobile phones on new generation networks will have high resolution image stabilised digital cameras and the ability to transmit this image in real time, already compressed, down multi-megabit networks.
Such a phone would video a movie from a pocket, and there would be no evidence, because it would be transmitted away.
So there is a huge value in these detectors...
Just remember to leave your mobile at home when you visit the cinemas, or having it ring during the movie will only be the start of having a very very bad day...
GrpA
Edison invented very little. His real skill was in taking the credit for other's work. Most of "Edison's Inventions" came from his employees, not the man himself.
Again, clearly not like this guy.
Edison represents everything that many real inventors resent about patents and the patent system.
GrpA
I don't have any sympathy for bad retailers who offer ridiculous deals to customers, with profit margins based on the fact that customers will not exercise options (eg, rebates) or will buy accessories to supplement the original sale.
:).... And *all* my problem customers left me, taking up the offer.
They deserve what they get.
On the other hand, I did run an ISP, so I know what it's like when you give a customer an unlimited account, based on a pool of bandwidth, only to discover they are a leech, and bring down the quality of service for all customers.
Still, they purchased the service legitimately, so I wasn't going to ban them...
So I sent them 3-month gift certificates from a competing ISP
My competitor wasn't too happy when he found out years later, but I was left with a pool of good customers, and those customers I didn't want respected me also, and often recommended me to their friends, many of whom weren't leeches.
Overall, I didn't abuse the customer rights, and I still managed to offer a premium service at a reasonable price. And at better profit margins than my competitors. Not once did I have to make excuses like fair-use policies do.
The moral of this tale? Treat your customers with respect and they'll respect you in return.
GrpA
If that's all there was to it, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, when you miss a critical e-mail because you accidently delete it, or it gets deleted as a false positive, then you start to realise the real cost of spam to the recipient typically costs them more than virus and worm damage combined.
Then consider that if you have children, Pornographics spammers expose them to the worst of hardcore porn with utter comtempt for their safety and wellbeing.
Finally, remember that Spammers are *all* Sociopaths, protected for the first time by the size of the community, allowing them to abuse anyone without any fear of retribution.
For what it's worth, I personally see spammers as a bigger and more present problem than hackers ever were.
GrpA
From my childhood reading of science fiction, I always remember Sound of Thunder(Bradbury) and Let the Ants Try(Pohl). Both had a profound effect on my way of thinking.
I spent many days as a young kid wondering if it would be possible to change history - after all if you changed the future, would the future you have gone back into the past at all?
I learned the answer many years later in electronics. In electronics, it's called "Negative Feedback"... ie, take the output signal and feed in back into the input... The output affects the input, but the signal still continues.
Now I wonder on how such a simple well thought out story can possibly change the future by altering the way people think and view the world.
Still many of Ray Bradbury's original stories still occupy parts of my idle thoughts even this much later.
That this man's writing has affected my thinking for so long and has permeated my thoughts enough to consider things I may have never considered otherwise is reason enough to see how the movie turns out...
GrpA.
Is so that when you're working late in a confined machine room, 3 hours past midnight, the smell of burning sulphur will remind you that you're in Tech Hell...
Step 1. Apply for information which someone thinks is suspicious.
Step 2. Your noted on a government database as having requested that information. (You're the only one most likely). The reason is because of likely crime or terrorist activity associated with that information, otherwise no one would bother adding you to the database. You are initially interviewed by authorities.
Step 3. Someone commits crime/terrorist act related to the information. Because they were a criminal/terrorist, they got the required information from other sources.
Step 4. You are detained without warrant and held without charge. You disappear. No one knows where you are. You are not allowed to make a phone call.
Step 5. Further investigation yields no clues. Law enforcement officials with an average IQ of 100 are under pressure to make an arrest, and charge someone.
Step 6. Based on your comments under (mild) mental torture and previous slashdot posts, you are arrested and charged. The circumstantial evidence of your having asked for the information without a valid reason otherwise may be enough to convict you. More recently, they can also hold you without charge or communication until you confess too now.
Step 7. You are convicted.
That's why this kind of stuff is scary. It does happen. All too often. After all, there is a real chance of the crime/terror incident happening or otherwise you wouldn't have been questioned in the first place.
Bottom line, if you don't want to face the risk of being interrogated/charged for something you didn't do, then be careful what you ask for and how you draw attention to yourself. Even comments in forums like this can be use against you, and they are kept for a very long time... Everyone who reads slashdot is probably considered a potential terrorist/criminal by anyone who doesn't understand what geeks are. Some people feel threatended by geeks. Especially hackers - white or black hat - and those sort of people are the most likely content of a jury.
It is a bit chilling. And it's not recent legislation or the US. Check the history of academic dissidents throughout recent history. This is a common theme.
GrpA.
Reading through the comments, the scariest thing about this thread isn't the original article...
It's the comments posted by a fairly experienced bunch of geeks.
The misconceptions illustrated throughout this thread demonstrate how badly some aspects of the Internet, TCP and protocols are misunderstood by people who think they have a full working knowledge of these mechanisms. (Some posts...Other posts admittedly correct some errors)
It's because of these people who *think* they know what's going on while working in the industry that the true risk grows, because hostile hackers will always find a home in the huge gaps left by their ignorance.
Ignorance is more dangerous in the long run than apathy. Apathy can change.
Apologies that this post is slightly OT, but it's relevant to the theme.
GrpA
I use Ethereal as a basic sniffer, but use others for deeper network analysis. Etthereal is fantastic as a basic sniffer. Few problems with it too. It's just so well written.
I use the Compuware stuff as well. Network Vantage and Application Vantage. Mainly on bigger or troubleshooting jobs..
Network Vantage tends to do the more statistical stuff, and Application Vantage tends to process the intricate information, such as how long it takes a packet to traverse a WAN segment or if packets are arriving out of order, and the extent that this messes up the network..
It's not stuff that you can't do with Ethereal (and a spreadsheet and a few hours) but it does make it a lot easier to do....
Oh... And I just use the standard TCPDUMP on Linux... from the console..
GrpA.
Reminds me of Snow Crash....
GrpA
With enough reports such as this, I wonder if it might be possible one day for all those who have previously settled with the RIAA and similar to launch a class action of sorts back at them...
Now *that* is something that would likely terrify the RIAA, if each time they settled, they created a potential lawsuit down the track, regardless of how little chance it had of succeeding.
Needless to say, IANAL.
A lot of old memories in his article... It brings it all back.
Some of us followed different paths, but I guess if you're in that age group and reading slashdot, there's a very good chance you've probably had many of the same experiences, thoughts and memories that Jeff Minter shares...
Does anyone else remember Bubblegum Crisis ep8? (Scoopchase for those who don't remember the episodes...)
:(
I always liken Genom in that series to Microsoft. As was pointed out, although Genom did a lot of bad things, it also did a lot of beneficial things...
Microsoft is *very* like this. Although they are kind of evil, much of what they have done has benefitted us all.
Unfortunately, we don't have the Knight Sabers to kill off their worse plans, but then again, we do have the Open Source movement, so overall, things aren't too bad.
But personally, I think having had MS around for the past few decades has been one of the greater factors in the explosion of computer technology. Good or bad, it really has been Microsoft's existance driving this.
Even for those of us who are anachronistic and still prefer DOS and Debug...
However it has more to do with manufacturers cripling the size much like the old Celerons were sometimes PIIs.
In those instances however, it often involves firmware upgrades, to remove the "crippled" firmware and replace it with the original intended firmware for the model it really was.
But the method explained sounds like a great way to generate more work for PC techs when clueless users try it... Just like using a frozen Mars Bar to let you overclock processors...
It can be risky, since it can also be a path to the "Dark Side", however...
;) Unless, he's already on the dark side, in which case, you'll be creating a monster.
Learning the basics of social engineering can change your attitudes completely.
Explain how by changing his appearance he can use the ignorance of others againt them.... Even if he places no particular value on combing his hair, by "appearing" to conform to social standards, he can use this as a basis to influence those around him to achieve his goals...
Over time, the skills you learn rub off, and you find that you do them without trying...
After all, most accomplished techs, especially those who manage others, are also experienced social engineers...
Just explain that like most advanced skills, he should use it wisely. (And not turn to the dark side....
As a former journalist, I know that journalism has never been about reporting the truth. Only someone who is either naive or egotistical could beleive otherwise. An article is an opinion of the author. Nothing more, nothing less. Professionalism in Journalism is how well a journalist maintains ethical standards and obligations while writing the piece. Truth is just a point of view, and like most points of view, depends on where you are standing at the time. Simply reciting the facts does not lend truth to the story. Nor necessarily does a lack of specifically accurate facts detract from the "Truth" it conveys. GrpA.
Results of new spam filters cannot help but to be bogus... The true test of a filter is how well it works *after* all the spammers know how it works and try to circumvent it.
I guess many things are greatly exaggerated
The resume means nothing. Any place that doesn't check your references is the sort of place where you are better off avoiding. A good reference from a previous employer (or two) will speak volumes.
I often wonder if Ebay puts fake stuff like this up just for attention. After all, it's going to get into every paper in the world, and in prime editorial space... I'm wondering if you dig deep enough into past ebay sales, just how many of these were real... After all, I've never seen an "I bought a nuclear missile from E-bay" story...
Gilligan's Island.... I found it on Google....
A Clone Case. Same mounting holes too!... Of course, I needed to use an angle grinder and a MIG welder to fit the ATM motherboard, And it has an ATX PSU now. But it's still the same case since pre-1990. And I use the Reset Button to supply power !