Because editors cost money, even when you're friends with a few. ( And I'd never ask a friend to edit my work for free as anything other than a mutual crit. )
I self-published an E-book. Admittedly, it could be better edited and I really wish I had the cash to do it. However because I couldn't afford an external editor, I went through 10 editing passes myself ( it's not easy spotting your own mistakes ) and through more than a dozen critics who tore every sentence to pieces.
The result? It's presently ranking 4.5 stars on Barnes and Noble and has a sales ranking up with the professional. The biggest criticism I get ? Making it free ( Voluntary shareware actually ).
So while I'd still say a GOOD editor is a valuable thing in the publishing process, I'd also say that you don't need to have a paid editor to do everything you need to make a great story.
Anyway, you're welcome to judge it for yourself if you like - And feel free to criticize me. I always welcome genuine criticism.
Absolutely correct. Consider that one state wants resources that another state also desires and both are negotiating with a third state to secure them.
Now imagine that one of the states has the information and capability to disrupt the resources of both the supplier and it's competing state. It will gain a serious competative advantage in doing do right?
Warfare isn't just about shooting at people. Gains to the state can be made through many means. Through the barrel of a gun is just one of them. Electronic attacks and disruptions are another. Equating that both must be present to indicate warfare is naive.
Those on the frontlines see the attacks and observe the intent. Perhaps it's best described as a Cyber-Cold War, because no one is admitting hostilities. But it is happening.
Though some people say that war is only real to those who are exposed directly to it. Clearly, the authors involved are not.
No, it's a state offence. Given the wording, I'd guess that this was related to section 440A of the criminal code, which is related to unauthorised use of a restricted-access system.
It has nothing to do with AUPs but a LOT to do with a stopping people from doing stuff they shouldn't be on a computer system that complies with the code.
Systems with AUPs are rarely "restricted access systems" - Most systems don't comply. The police network does.
So do some public networks. It's not going to be possible to protect, for example, a public service AUP such as Facebook or Myspace under this law. It excludes any service in which access is not restricted.
But I agree. He's likely to have broken other laws, both federal and state, with what he did.
If you buy it from supermarkets, it usually comes with specific cooking instructions. Follow them exactly if you want it cooked perfectly. A Kangaroo roast such as you will find in Woolworths will usually cook in about 35 minutes where the same in beef would be twice that long.
Myself? I like to cook it just a touch (minutes) longer. It still comes out looking "raw" compared to most meats, but on tasting, it's perfect. Far more succulent and tender than any beef I've found in cheap supermarkets.
And it's very good for the environment. Kangaroos consume far less food and water than their counterparts and produce no methane in their farts, so are better than insects I guess. They are easy to harvest too.:) Just point and click, er, shoot.
Nice to see so few RTFA'ed... The book was cleared for publication and only after they printed it did some of the agencies involved dispute it. The second edition has been corrected and is underway, so no one is going to reprint the disputed version.
That leaves 10,000 books that the publisher legally printed that the US army wants gone. They are negotiating to buy them all.
At worst, it's negotiation ploy. If the book has a wholesale value of $10 and the publisher says "Hang on, these are worth more now" then they might be trying to up the bargain or incite others to buy them at inflated profit margins.
Or it could be what it looks like. That they are just embarrassed about something they should have picked up earlier and are trying to fix it in the most acceptable way and that this is still good advertising for the second edition.
About 18 years ago, I did the same.. We had to come up with patents for a product that was the owner's pet project... Well, I had to come up with a patent too, since I had worked on the project, so I wrote up a patent for a steering wheel. It was a complete joke and i used as much obfuscation as I could, describing complex equations defining circular motion such as X^2+y^2=1 and the likes.. It had the other engineers in stitches... We all thought it was hilarious and the boss slipped it into the pile to go to the patent office so they could enjoy the joke as well... Some time later the boss came in stony faced and simply said "The patent for the steering wheel. No one ever jokes about it again. Ever. Period." then walked out. Seems it was the only patent that stood up to scrutiny.... All the rest were rejected... So, the owner of the "Timezone" amusement centers around Australia formally owned the patent on every electronic steering wheel that controls a vehicle... Ever invented. Anywhere. Even if it uses mechanical linkages. Especially if it was in the shape of a circle, but it also counted if was a joystick that could be moved through a "virtual circle"... Not that it didn't stop the engineers rolling around on the floor laughing for a few minutes when I told them all. Yep. another literal joke patent... And to their credit, they all kept a straight face when the "Big" boss came in to congratulate us all.
I use SNORT to monitor a large multi-department government network.
To be honest, the figures quoted are unrealistic to the extreme - likely produced by tests that didn't have any basis in the real world.
With enough connections and patterns, just over 100 Mbps is more than enough to bring SNORT to it's knees, running a single thread at 100% for about 9 hours a day, with 30% of traffic simply not inspected at all. On the fastest PC I can find. To reduce the load, we've had to stick the IDS behind the firewall so it only monitors what traffic gets through the firewall and there's still not enough CPU speed / memory.
Having a multithreaded IDS would be VERY useful to me so that I can keep throwing cpu-horsepower at the problem... After all, I can add more cores easily. I can't add more speed to a single threaded process.
Actually, most car headlights throw out phenomenal amounts of near-IR energy - usually far more than is visible ( unless they are LED headlights ) - I built an IR driving system into my Starion over a decade ago as a project.
However, what is important is how sensitive the receiver/camera/tube/film etc is to the IR light and at what frequency.
Also, the green image in the picture is grainy because:
a) It was taken through an ESI Inverter tube, such as was invented around 1970... Sensitivity 270 uA/lm. b) Most of the image is clipped. c) It was very dark when the image was taken ( ambient urban starlight and reflected streetlights, with the image mostly in shadow ) d) The S/N ratio of that tube is 3.7:1 e) The resolution of that tube is arund 32 lp/mm.
Compare that to modern night vision which is, a) Gen 3 wafer tube with GaAs photocathode sensitivity > 2000 uA/lm b) Provides resolution higher than HDTV in an unclipped circular region. c) Significantly more sensitive to starlight than the P25 photocathode in the grainy image. d) The S/N ratio is around 28:1 e) Resolution would be above 64 lp/mm..
It would have been better if they used a more recent image, but even as Gen2, there was still a lot of detail that could be seen in the photograph.
FLIR won't be that useful... It's a nice idea limited by the practical application and usefulness of the technology. It can actually be unsafer to have, given the problems with background noise.
On the other hand, IITs (Image Intensifier Tubes) provide a much more useful view and you can get IIT's fused with LWIR (Long Wave Infra Red) if you really want and you can turn your headlights off...
Why? Because it's the headlights that actually draw the animals into the road in the first place... Because they get scared and the only place they can SEE that's available to run to just happens to be directly in front of your car...
But without headlights, they will likely stay off the road and with decent passive night vision, you can see them quite some distance off - Add some extra IR if you like and better still, modulate it and use a gated IIT so you don't get blinding feedback from near reflections.
None of this technology is new though.. All been around since WW2 or thereabouts.
But even if it's safer, I'd love to see someone try to explain it to a LEO why they were driving at night with the headlights off...
IR conversion into a HUD, however, IS effective. Especially if you can get visibility of SWIR (Short wave infra-red ) up around the 1500nm region.
Though sensitivity is something that's missing from all of the articles I could find and I didn't find mention anywhere confirming that this was related to LWIR as most of the articles seem to suggest.
Getting a laser from a sattelite to one place on earth so it could be seen would require a LOT of power, even at night. Illuminating an entire part of the earth would take more power than you could imagine...
Even measuring the ocean's height with a satellite would be challenging.
However, I think you've uncovered the real problem. It's not warning people that's the issue ( you could easily broadcast radio and pick it up with a small receiver ) it's that there's no desire to create such a system.
Usually, the authorities would prefer to be the only ones to know. Then they can make the decisions... Do they tell people in all areas? How do they handle the evacuations? etc.
Your heart is in the right place, but your idea itself presents a lot of problems... If you really want to help, then spend a few years teaching yourself world politics. Speak to experts in the field of emergency services and become one yourself. Don't wait for others to pick up your idea, make it work yourself and become an expert. Most experts are simply people who were driven for one reason or another to keep on learning about a particular field.
As a suggestion? The easiest way to address tsunami's might be without sattelites and high-tech... Perhaps just keep an eye on the situation by following the websites that publish that kind of information, then set up your own website to co-ordinate redistribution of it - Then people who are worried about it, such as yourself, can subscribe - perhaps you could even use SMS to notify them?
Big ideas are easy to implement and opt-in is the best system.
a) Provided sufficient information to evaluate the post.
b) Clearly identified it as anecdotal and set the expectation for information contained within the post.
c) Included summary information that assists in seeing the point.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a huge bunch of people coming out of US universities now who immediately think "Anecdotal"="Not Reliable"
That's not the case...
Anecdotal information can provide a good example of where research possibly should be conducted. If a conclusion seems logical enough or responses occur in sufficient quantities, then it's perfectly valid as a source when used as an indication of possible flaws and shortcomings of conducted scientific research.
Anecdotal comments don't replace scientific research and never will, but your response shows a lack of understanding the validity of a post and highlight your own ignorance... That's not something to be proud of.
If you look hard enough, you'll find that nearly all scientific research starts out as "anecdotal observations" at some point... Usually leading to scientific investigation later.
I'm going to add to this, even though my details are purely anecdotal.
My youngest son has learning difficulties and we've put in a lot of work to get him to the stage that he can learn at a normal school. it's an autism spectrum issue.
He plays a LOT of games, probably about 6 hours a day on average. No PS3 or X360, but PC games. Mostly BF2 Sandbox and games where he interacts with real people.
As a result, he has to do a LOT of typing and spelling while playing. It seems to have quite a positive effect, with teachers reporting an improvement in his english. His spelling is perfect and he's putting sentences together a lot more effectively than he previously did.
Communicating through forums and games on the Internet seems to have had a profound effect on him. he's motivated to learn while he's creating stories and worlds and co-ordinating other players.
The solution is simple. Mindless games lead to mindless results. Challenging games lead to academic improvement. Online games with other players lead to social improvements and communicating through messenger has left him learning more after-school than he's able to during class-time.
Even first person shooters can be educational, but it tends to me more on the PC multiplayer games where strategy and communications are key elements of the game.
The modulation transfer function decreases with angle of incidence so that the signal to noise ratio diminishes rapidly within a degree or two, possibly less. Yes, I know the term usually refers to optical/optoelectronic system losses in 2D space, but it's appropriate to this example too.
But I wasn't referring to "tapping" a laser ( there are ways to do that, even in daylight ) but rather using an IR laser to bounce a bright spot into the room from outside so that you establish a two-way communication with the targeted system.
Visible data systems systems aren't narrow two-way beams- they are usually spread out. ( Eg, Irda )
So even if you can't see the transmitter, you can fix a telescope with a sensitive receiver to something that reflects sufficiently to gain a signal from in the room - even a crack in a door - depending on brightness.
As for return signal? Beam an IR laser back into the room from anywhere and it will reflect light all around the room so that the receiver will pick it up.
It's a theoretical attack, but I've seen examples of the technology that does the receiving in the past and it's pretty sensitive. The same concept can be applied to picking up signals from a CRT reflected off walls and restoring them to an image based on time-domain over a 2D space.
You would be right to assume that distance makes a difference and that the practicalities of such an attack are limited by several factors.
However while most attacks of that nature would be "sniffing" attacks, with light it's possible to establish a connection, just like with WiFi.
Gaining access to an open "optical" network connector then becomes a possible security threat under some circumstances.
But yes, the original post was in jest, though the technology needed to compromise open-space optical communications systems is not that complicated to make...
Even if it doesn't have windows open, you can still go through a closed or even shuttered window. Telescopes replace direction antennas and have phenomenal gain and accuracy. Lasers beamed back in can return signals and don't have to be visible ( You can control transmit spectrum a lot easier than receive spectrum ). AlGaAs based photonic detectors can pick up single photons and are sensitive enough to spot light coming through a thin gap in shutters or curtains. ( think more sensitive than military NV devices ).
Now, instead of being worried about people parking in cars just up the street, you need to worry about anything you can see from your house... Thos e hills 10km away? Not far enough. The highrise across the river? Huge risk.
The good news is that tinfoil is sufficient to stop all photons, so a few rolls of tinfoil and tinfoil plated tape will be all you need to secure the wireless visible spectrum devices in your house.
Until someone burns a ten micron hole in your defenses with an infra-red laser....
Fully agree. The rule of thumb I use is take Cisco's figures and divide by ten... That's what a lot of other engineers I know do too.
Ironically, we sometimes find that even that estimate is too high for real-world conditions, but it does tend to provide an approximate guide as to when we're expecting to hit problems.
Well if that was the first DOS, then I'll claim the first "Slashdotted" on a PLATO system. In 1987 after the local admins cut off all access to chat ( due to abuse of the system by people sitting next to each other using "chat" ) I wrote a tutor script that caused a timeout error every second.
The result was to flush the keyboard buffer to common memory. Then the other terminals read the common memory and updated their display - Kind of like early IRC. Because this was written at the lowest security level, the admins couldn't block it. They deleted the original, but all the other authors had the code by then. It wasn't very efficient code, but they managed to keep it alive despite the best attempts of the admin to get rid of it.
After the application consumed 99% or more of all recorded resource use for three months running (making all other resource access slow) I got my ass kicked off the system and they decommissioned that installation of PLATO (CALS).
Funny thing is I went back three years later in 1990 and managed to convince them to give me an unrestricted dial-in port for Internet access. My first! Several months later, they came to me and said "You're taking up all of our spare resources... You remind us of this guy who wrote a chat program on the old PLATO system several years back."
I never did own up to it at the time since no one knew my surname at the time ( That's another story entirely ). Although I did buy them another terminal server to make up for it.
Not entirely.. But it's not an ideal situation either... It's the sieve or missed calls due to drops in network coverage. Besides, he can always put it at the back of his house so he's always in front of it I guess... And he can probably use his bluetooth right down the road in at least one directions... We didn't experiment much past that... I made it for his 3G data dongle originally. The phone benefits were unexpected.
And fairly simple physics at that... The pot attenuates some signals and may even amplify others... The end result is a better S/N ratio and less lost packets due to errors.
I do the same, except I use a mesh spagetti strainer ( a big sieve ) and I've mounted a USB cable extender just below the focal point... Add my 3G dongle and away I go... up from 1 bar to 4 bars reception and my download speed doubles.
My neighbor now uses one for his mobile phone and then he uses bluetooth to take the call so he can leave his handset in there.
They are kind of directional though, but it's very repeatable.
Slashdot Mirror
You can be sure that this isn't a surprise to the people who receive the benefit of political lobbying...
GrpA
Because editors cost money, even when you're friends with a few. ( And I'd never ask a friend to edit my work for free as anything other than a mutual crit. )
I self-published an E-book. Admittedly, it could be better edited and I really wish I had the cash to do it. However because I couldn't afford an external editor, I went through 10 editing passes myself ( it's not easy spotting your own mistakes ) and through more than a dozen critics who tore every sentence to pieces.
The result? It's presently ranking 4.5 stars on Barnes and Noble and has a sales ranking up with the professional. The biggest criticism I get ? Making it free ( Voluntary shareware actually ).
So while I'd still say a GOOD editor is a valuable thing in the publishing process, I'd also say that you don't need to have a paid editor to do everything you need to make a great story.
Anyway, you're welcome to judge it for yourself if you like - And feel free to criticize me. I always welcome genuine criticism.
Title: Turing Evolved ( Science Fiction ) - Currently distributed for free.
Smashwords Link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34627
GrpA
~223 years on, they are still ruled by idiots.
Was ever a country ruled by smart people? Please provide examples if possible.
Hutt River Province...
Seems rather pertinent under the circumstances.
It is, after all, the second biggest country in Australia.
GrpA
Absolutely correct. Consider that one state wants resources that another state also desires and both are negotiating with a third state to secure them.
Now imagine that one of the states has the information and capability to disrupt the resources of both the supplier and it's competing state. It will gain a serious competative advantage in doing do right?
Warfare isn't just about shooting at people. Gains to the state can be made through many means. Through the barrel of a gun is just one of them. Electronic attacks and disruptions are another. Equating that both must be present to indicate warfare is naive.
Those on the frontlines see the attacks and observe the intent. Perhaps it's best described as a Cyber-Cold War, because no one is admitting hostilities. But it is happening.
Though some people say that war is only real to those who are exposed directly to it. Clearly, the authors involved are not.
GrpA
No, it's a state offence. Given the wording, I'd guess that this was related to section 440A of the criminal code, which is related to unauthorised use of a restricted-access system.
It has nothing to do with AUPs but a LOT to do with a stopping people from doing stuff they shouldn't be on a computer system that complies with the code.
Systems with AUPs are rarely "restricted access systems" - Most systems don't comply. The police network does.
So do some public networks. It's not going to be possible to protect, for example, a public service AUP such as Facebook or Myspace under this law. It excludes any service in which access is not restricted.
But I agree. He's likely to have broken other laws, both federal and state, with what he did.
GrpA
If you buy it from supermarkets, it usually comes with specific cooking instructions. Follow them exactly if you want it cooked perfectly. A Kangaroo roast such as you will find in Woolworths will usually cook in about 35 minutes where the same in beef would be twice that long.
Myself? I like to cook it just a touch (minutes) longer. It still comes out looking "raw" compared to most meats, but on tasting, it's perfect. Far more succulent and tender than any beef I've found in cheap supermarkets.
And it's very good for the environment. Kangaroos consume far less food and water than their counterparts and produce no methane in their farts, so are better than insects I guess. They are easy to harvest too. :) Just point and click, er, shoot.
GrpA
This is Australia... I think you mean "Not if you throw your boomerang at them as they break into your house..."
Different culture.
GrpA
Nice to see so few RTFA'ed... The book was cleared for publication and only after they printed it did some of the agencies involved dispute it. The second edition has been corrected and is underway, so no one is going to reprint the disputed version.
That leaves 10,000 books that the publisher legally printed that the US army wants gone. They are negotiating to buy them all.
At worst, it's negotiation ploy. If the book has a wholesale value of $10 and the publisher says "Hang on, these are worth more now" then they might be trying to up the bargain or incite others to buy them at inflated profit margins.
Or it could be what it looks like. That they are just embarrassed about something they should have picked up earlier and are trying to fix it in the most acceptable way and that this is still good advertising for the second edition.
That's what it looks like too...
GrpA
Apologies. I stand corrected.
Or an intensifier CCD... Intensified CCD's work in light levels down to microlux... This thing only works in 0.3 lux.
Intensified CCD - 0.000005 Lux.
This camera - 0.3 Lux.
See the difference?
There are already color video systems that work down to similar levels as this chip. In terms of low-light performance, it isn't all that impressive.
But it's size is very impressive.
As for watching people at night? I taken it you haven't ever heard of night vision equipment?
Modern image intensifiers don't really need much light so an IR torch is probably overkill.
As for the OP's intended use? Sounds pretty stupid to me... A good way to get into trouble.
David
About 18 years ago, I did the same.. We had to come up with patents for a product that was the owner's pet project... Well, I had to come up with a patent too, since I had worked on the project, so I wrote up a patent for a steering wheel. It was a complete joke and i used as much obfuscation as I could, describing complex equations defining circular motion such as X^2+y^2=1 and the likes.. It had the other engineers in stitches... We all thought it was hilarious and the boss slipped it into the pile to go to the patent office so they could enjoy the joke as well... Some time later the boss came in stony faced and simply said "The patent for the steering wheel. No one ever jokes about it again. Ever. Period." then walked out. Seems it was the only patent that stood up to scrutiny.... All the rest were rejected... So, the owner of the "Timezone" amusement centers around Australia formally owned the patent on every electronic steering wheel that controls a vehicle... Ever invented. Anywhere. Even if it uses mechanical linkages. Especially if it was in the shape of a circle, but it also counted if was a joystick that could be moved through a "virtual circle"... Not that it didn't stop the engineers rolling around on the floor laughing for a few minutes when I told them all. Yep. another literal joke patent... And to their credit, they all kept a straight face when the "Big" boss came in to congratulate us all.
GrpA
I use SNORT to monitor a large multi-department government network.
To be honest, the figures quoted are unrealistic to the extreme - likely produced by tests that didn't have any basis in the real world.
With enough connections and patterns, just over 100 Mbps is more than enough to bring SNORT to it's knees, running a single thread at 100% for about 9 hours a day, with 30% of traffic simply not inspected at all. On the fastest PC I can find. To reduce the load, we've had to stick the IDS behind the firewall so it only monitors what traffic gets through the firewall and there's still not enough CPU speed / memory.
Having a multithreaded IDS would be VERY useful to me so that I can keep throwing cpu-horsepower at the problem... After all, I can add more cores easily. I can't add more speed to a single threaded process.
GrpA
Actually, most car headlights throw out phenomenal amounts of near-IR energy - usually far more than is visible ( unless they are LED headlights ) - I built an IR driving system into my Starion over a decade ago as a project.
However, what is important is how sensitive the receiver/camera/tube/film etc is to the IR light and at what frequency.
Also, the green image in the picture is grainy because:
a) It was taken through an ESI Inverter tube, such as was invented around 1970... Sensitivity 270 uA/lm.
b) Most of the image is clipped.
c) It was very dark when the image was taken ( ambient urban starlight and reflected streetlights, with the image mostly in shadow )
d) The S/N ratio of that tube is 3.7:1
e) The resolution of that tube is arund 32 lp/mm.
Compare that to modern night vision which is,
a) Gen 3 wafer tube with GaAs photocathode sensitivity > 2000 uA/lm
b) Provides resolution higher than HDTV in an unclipped circular region.
c) Significantly more sensitive to starlight than the P25 photocathode in the grainy image.
d) The S/N ratio is around 28:1
e) Resolution would be above 64 lp/mm..
It would have been better if they used a more recent image, but even as Gen2, there was still a lot of detail that could be seen in the photograph.
GrpA
FLIR won't be that useful... It's a nice idea limited by the practical application and usefulness of the technology. It can actually be unsafer to have, given the problems with background noise.
On the other hand, IITs (Image Intensifier Tubes) provide a much more useful view and you can get IIT's fused with LWIR (Long Wave Infra Red) if you really want and you can turn your headlights off...
Why? Because it's the headlights that actually draw the animals into the road in the first place... Because they get scared and the only place they can SEE that's available to run to just happens to be directly in front of your car...
But without headlights, they will likely stay off the road and with decent passive night vision, you can see them quite some distance off - Add some extra IR if you like and better still, modulate it and use a gated IIT so you don't get blinding feedback from near reflections.
None of this technology is new though.. All been around since WW2 or thereabouts.
But even if it's safer, I'd love to see someone try to explain it to a LEO why they were driving at night with the headlights off...
IR conversion into a HUD, however, IS effective. Especially if you can get visibility of SWIR (Short wave infra-red ) up around the 1500nm region.
Though sensitivity is something that's missing from all of the articles I could find and I didn't find mention anywhere confirming that this was related to LWIR as most of the articles seem to suggest.
GrpA
Getting a laser from a sattelite to one place on earth so it could be seen would require a LOT of power, even at night. Illuminating an entire part of the earth would take more power than you could imagine...
Even measuring the ocean's height with a satellite would be challenging.
However, I think you've uncovered the real problem. It's not warning people that's the issue ( you could easily broadcast radio and pick it up with a small receiver ) it's that there's no desire to create such a system.
Usually, the authorities would prefer to be the only ones to know. Then they can make the decisions... Do they tell people in all areas? How do they handle the evacuations? etc.
Your heart is in the right place, but your idea itself presents a lot of problems... If you really want to help, then spend a few years teaching yourself world politics. Speak to experts in the field of emergency services and become one yourself. Don't wait for others to pick up your idea, make it work yourself and become an expert. Most experts are simply people who were driven for one reason or another to keep on learning about a particular field.
As a suggestion? The easiest way to address tsunami's might be without sattelites and high-tech... Perhaps just keep an eye on the situation by following the websites that publish that kind of information, then set up your own website to co-ordinate redistribution of it - Then people who are worried about it, such as yourself, can subscribe - perhaps you could even use SMS to notify them?
Big ideas are easy to implement and opt-in is the best system.
GrpA
No, it ADDS information to the situation because:
a) Provided sufficient information to evaluate the post.
b) Clearly identified it as anecdotal and set the expectation for information contained within the post.
c) Included summary information that assists in seeing the point.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a huge bunch of people coming out of US universities now who immediately think "Anecdotal"="Not Reliable"
That's not the case...
Anecdotal information can provide a good example of where research possibly should be conducted. If a conclusion seems logical enough or responses occur in sufficient quantities, then it's perfectly valid as a source when used as an indication of possible flaws and shortcomings of conducted scientific research.
Anecdotal comments don't replace scientific research and never will, but your response shows a lack of understanding the validity of a post and highlight your own ignorance... That's not something to be proud of.
If you look hard enough, you'll find that nearly all scientific research starts out as "anecdotal observations" at some point... Usually leading to scientific investigation later.
Likewise, there's plenty of evidence of science ignoring blatantly obvious facts simply because it was all anecdotal - eg, http://www.sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/spritesbluejetselves.html
You may want to read the last paragraph of that link as well... It seems rather pertinent to your post.
GrpA
I'm going to add to this, even though my details are purely anecdotal.
My youngest son has learning difficulties and we've put in a lot of work to get him to the stage that he can learn at a normal school. it's an autism spectrum issue.
He plays a LOT of games, probably about 6 hours a day on average. No PS3 or X360, but PC games. Mostly BF2 Sandbox and games where he interacts with real people.
As a result, he has to do a LOT of typing and spelling while playing. It seems to have quite a positive effect, with teachers reporting an improvement in his english. His spelling is perfect and he's putting sentences together a lot more effectively than he previously did.
Communicating through forums and games on the Internet seems to have had a profound effect on him. he's motivated to learn while he's creating stories and worlds and co-ordinating other players.
The solution is simple. Mindless games lead to mindless results. Challenging games lead to academic improvement. Online games with other players lead to social improvements and communicating through messenger has left him learning more after-school than he's able to during class-time.
Even first person shooters can be educational, but it tends to me more on the PC multiplayer games where strategy and communications are key elements of the game.
GrpA
What you've said is correct.
The modulation transfer function decreases with angle of incidence so that the signal to noise ratio diminishes rapidly within a degree or two, possibly less. Yes, I know the term usually refers to optical/optoelectronic system losses in 2D space, but it's appropriate to this example too.
But I wasn't referring to "tapping" a laser ( there are ways to do that, even in daylight ) but rather using an IR laser to bounce a bright spot into the room from outside so that you establish a two-way communication with the targeted system.
Visible data systems systems aren't narrow two-way beams- they are usually spread out. ( Eg, Irda )
So even if you can't see the transmitter, you can fix a telescope with a sensitive receiver to something that reflects sufficiently to gain a signal from in the room - even a crack in a door - depending on brightness.
As for return signal? Beam an IR laser back into the room from anywhere and it will reflect light all around the room so that the receiver will pick it up.
It's a theoretical attack, but I've seen examples of the technology that does the receiving in the past and it's pretty sensitive. The same concept can be applied to picking up signals from a CRT reflected off walls and restoring them to an image based on time-domain over a 2D space.
You would be right to assume that distance makes a difference and that the practicalities of such an attack are limited by several factors.
However while most attacks of that nature would be "sniffing" attacks, with light it's possible to establish a connection, just like with WiFi.
Gaining access to an open "optical" network connector then becomes a possible security threat under some circumstances.
But yes, the original post was in jest, though the technology needed to compromise open-space optical communications systems is not that complicated to make...
GrpA
Even if it doesn't have windows open, you can still go through a closed or even shuttered window. Telescopes replace direction antennas and have phenomenal gain and accuracy. Lasers beamed back in can return signals and don't have to be visible ( You can control transmit spectrum a lot easier than receive spectrum ). AlGaAs based photonic detectors can pick up single photons and are sensitive enough to spot light coming through a thin gap in shutters or curtains. ( think more sensitive than military NV devices ).
Now, instead of being worried about people parking in cars just up the street, you need to worry about anything you can see from your house... Thos e hills 10km away? Not far enough. The highrise across the river? Huge risk.
The good news is that tinfoil is sufficient to stop all photons, so a few rolls of tinfoil and tinfoil plated tape will be all you need to secure the wireless visible spectrum devices in your house.
Until someone burns a ten micron hole in your defenses with an infra-red laser....
GrpA
Fully agree. The rule of thumb I use is take Cisco's figures and divide by ten... That's what a lot of other engineers I know do too.
Ironically, we sometimes find that even that estimate is too high for real-world conditions, but it does tend to provide an approximate guide as to when we're expecting to hit problems.
GrpA
Indeed, the cynical amongst us might think that they planned to lose the case to iiNet just so that they could make this very appeal...
GrpA
Well if that was the first DOS, then I'll claim the first "Slashdotted" on a PLATO system. In 1987 after the local admins cut off all access to chat ( due to abuse of the system by people sitting next to each other using "chat" ) I wrote a tutor script that caused a timeout error every second.
The result was to flush the keyboard buffer to common memory. Then the other terminals read the common memory and updated their display - Kind of like early IRC. Because this was written at the lowest security level, the admins couldn't block it. They deleted the original, but all the other authors had the code by then. It wasn't very efficient code, but they managed to keep it alive despite the best attempts of the admin to get rid of it.
After the application consumed 99% or more of all recorded resource use for three months running (making all other resource access slow) I got my ass kicked off the system and they decommissioned that installation of PLATO (CALS).
Funny thing is I went back three years later in 1990 and managed to convince them to give me an unrestricted dial-in port for Internet access. My first! Several months later, they came to me and said "You're taking up all of our spare resources... You remind us of this guy who wrote a chat program on the old PLATO system several years back."
I never did own up to it at the time since no one knew my surname at the time ( That's another story entirely ). Although I did buy them another terminal server to make up for it.
GrpA
Yes they will claim her "Nookie"... The Government's being screwing people for years.
GrpA
Not entirely.. But it's not an ideal situation either... It's the sieve or missed calls due to drops in network coverage. Besides, he can always put it at the back of his house so he's always in front of it I guess... And he can probably use his bluetooth right down the road in at least one directions... We didn't experiment much past that... I made it for his 3G data dongle originally. The phone benefits were unexpected.
GrpA
And fairly simple physics at that... The pot attenuates some signals and may even amplify others... The end result is a better S/N ratio and less lost packets due to errors.
I do the same, except I use a mesh spagetti strainer ( a big sieve ) and I've mounted a USB cable extender just below the focal point... Add my 3G dongle and away I go... up from 1 bar to 4 bars reception and my download speed doubles.
My neighbor now uses one for his mobile phone and then he uses bluetooth to take the call so he can leave his handset in there.
They are kind of directional though, but it's very repeatable.
GrpA