So I can sit at my PC to watch television? You have got to be kidding. Do you really want to archive a bunch of tv shows which will be broadcast over and over for the next 10-15 years? Go ahead, but it is a waste of resources. Get a Tivo and just record them whenever they come on again. Trust me, after the first 1-2 views you'll be tired of them and want 'em gone.
Anyway, there is no need to stream. I bought a 35 hour Tivo for $70, pulled a spare 120 gig drive out of my file server, and after a few hours of reading and tinkering I've got about 120 hours record time. I could care less about any of this being accessible from my PC. The only reason I could imagine wanting to do such a thing would be to pirate television programming. No thanks. Its just television.
Anyway, my Xbox streams DiVX and many other formats through XBMP off my server upstairs.
I'm telling ya, a PC is a waste of money when being used as PVR. The small, closed systems are so much cheaper and easier to use. These two things go a long ways when your idea of living life does not entail a dirty little dark room with a bunch of junk computers laying around.
Of course a $40 DVD Video player sold at $36 is a loss leader because Wal-Mart stocks the DVD Video player right next to several racks of $10 DVD Video titles by major studios.
You forgot the part about Walmart saving money by hiring minimum wage workers without benefits. Since they qualify as poverty class, the rest of us get to flip their medical bills.
Not to mention a store full of workers who cost more for our "system" to support than they are making.
Thanks to capitalism, 10% of us get to live really nice while the masses wear old clothes and live in rental homes reaking of hot garbage.
Hmm, I've been in Information Security for 7 years and almost everyone I have worked with uses phrases like "sk1llz", "0wn3d" and "l33t d00d" on a regular basis.
Not that it is proper terminology, but it is a lot more fun than being an anal, angry arse about every pleasant or immature phrase spoken in one's vacinity. Then again, I tend not to underestimate someone for the phrases they use. This can be a terrible mistake.:)
Funny story, but this does not work well in the 2000's.
I recall when the ISP I worked for put up an IRC server. They gave me admin on it and several times, upon issuing k-lines on script kiddies, our entire OC48 was soon saturated DDoS packets and ransom emails to ircadmin@isp..
This is funny to me as an individual, but was not to all the thousands of customers who's email and websites were slow/dead for 24+ hours at a time.
I guess what I am trying to say is: It is irrisponsible to rattle the chains of those who wish to do your employer harm.
Pity for TiVo - thanks to the brand recognition, people will be recording their shows with box XYZ and still saying "haven't watched it yet, but TiVo'ed it so don't tell me."
When I had an Ultimate TV box, I had to say Tivo for people to know what I am talking about. Now I feel dirty and have a Tivo since lightening took out the UTV system. It is a pitty, and as much as I hate to say it, the Microsoft UTV system being 1st generation and over two years old was much better than my brand new Tivo in features and speed.
Right, like there should ever be a proper context for it. I am sure it would come up as often as "chemical glass" and "chemical plastic". Like I said, the author of the original words was just trying to sound more technical and ended up sounding like a jackass.
The other factor here is the tech skills required, because our IT department is me. As librarians go, I'm pretty tech-savvy, but as Slashdotters go, I'm pretty much a luser.
Yes, especially since you think XP workstations have a tendancy to blue screen. Having done plenty of helpdesk for a rather large company, in the last 3 years I have not seen a single Dell laptop or workstation "blue screen" in XP.
You sir are either a liar or just so clueless you should probably hire an IT person who actually has some idea of the current state of workstations and what to expect from them.
A properly configured Dell or Gateway running XP will be the cheapest option because you are doing this with taxpayer money. All these vendors, including microsoft, give great discounts for libraries and schools. Since you have little IT skill, it would be best to stick with the workstation approach since you can't seem to even manage XP, so managing the thin client's server will be well outside of your ability.
If a Dell running XP Pro gives you trouble, I can only begin to guess at how a multi cpu box running Linux or Solaris will treat you.
Organic rubber consists of chemicals, too. Just because it came from a tree does not mean it is not a chemical.
They are not using pure tree rubber anyway. Almost all rubbers used in the industrialized world are a combination of tree rubber and sythetics. It has been this way since Japan blocked US rubber imports through military action back in WW2.
Yeah, they have also been on the market for over two years. I bought the 1st generation of this device and was pretty happy with it for about 6 months.
They work as advertised, but the quality of plastics used for the key mounts are less than optimal. After about 6 months, mine began to wear down enough that keys would occasionally jam or not register.
No, the/. editors trolled them into it by the wording of their headline. Any screaming murder in the thread will be by the same people who scream over any little issue.
"The saddest thing is that everyone thinks there's "competition" in the CPU market."
I'd say competition has done wonders for the market. I guess you weren't around back when Intel was the only option for a good gaming machine.
For example, in 1997, I paid ~$1200 for a PPro200 CPU. In 2003 I paid $400 for an XP2100+. Both were the highest performers at the time.
If there were no AMD to Intel, you can bet CPU proces would be much higher than they are now. Yes, they work off each other's success, but they are far from being best buddies.
I'd suggest a few more economics classes, personally. Perhaps an evaluation to determine if you are suffering from a bipolar disorder wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Comcast Corp., the country's largest provider of high-speed Internet access, has begun blocking a channel frequently exploited by spammers to send out large volumes of e-mail, a move that many technologists say was long overdue and should be matched by other service providers.
Just another note about you making my view sound as if it were a comedy routine.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/38004 another decent link.
You are of course entitled to your opinion, Awptimus Prime, just as I am mine. But personally? I am so glad that you aren't setting policy at my ISP or for the Internet, and if you ever start, I'll go elsewhere. Not that I think Speakeasy would ever listen to you as anything but a humor generator, but still, on principle.
Funny you should mention this. I worked at Speakeasy for 2 years as an SA. The topic came up several times, it was not laughed at, but considered something that they will eventually be forced to do if ever targeted by spammers (or at least to the extent other ISPs have been hit). The only thing saving them is their comparatively small size compared to EarthLink, AOL, and Comcast, that is, for residential DSL service.
Personally, if I were running a small ISP of my own, the default would be to deny the ability to do outbound tcp/25, then if a customer requested it, I would allow them to do so.
You have to keep in mind I am thinking about the 4.3 million subscribers who will open some.exe from Outlook express and become an instant spam relay, as opposed to the ~150 people who would actually care to run their own.
Mind you, I see you just complain about inadequate servers at the ISP. It's funny to see you tout Speakeasy as such a great ISP, but then say their mail servers have a 6 hour queue. Personally, I've never seen them get anywhere near that high, at least for messages under 3 megabytes. If their smtp is really that bad, then go ahead and generate some mail traffic and post message ids of the ones that take more than 30 minutes to deliver. I'll forward them to a cohort who still works there and get you an explanation.
That is, if you aren't just another mindless troll. I assume you are because of the willy-nilly ports remark was just an over-the-top remark that blows everything well out of proportion here. Personally, I would like to see you suggest a solution to the spam problem today. Don't have one? Didn't think so. At least port blocking helps to an extent, and it keeps your ISP from getting on other ISP's mail-deny lists. If you think blocking port 25 is bad, imagine having a few million customers and then AOL and EarthLink start denying mail from your IP ranges. You'll have some serious PR issues and will be forced to change practices.
Finally, I will state again that I have been online for 12 years. I have never had mail (to a non-freebie mailhost) get lost. I have seen delays up to 9 hours, but those are very rare. You also have to consider the mail queues at the destination, too. Just because a server is quick on one end, doesn't mean it's delivery will be any faster on the other.
Your pick-apart post did not make a lot of sense, but let me try to explain again:
You should always use the smtp server of the network you are currently connected to. This is the point I was saying when I said that a user in a cafe should use the cafe's smtp server.
The fact that you lose mail means you are probably sending binary attachments, and not just text. Fact is, it is rare to ever lose a small message, as they get priority over the larger messages. Personally, I've never sent a mail that was lost in the 12 years I have been online.
I am irritated by the issue of whining about port 25 restrictions because I worked at an ISP for 7 years and customers would call in, clueless, screaming about wanting to run their own smtp, but not a single one gave a legit excuse for wanting to. I find it laughable that some dolt on a cable modem thinks he can do a better job at running a mail server than an ISP postmaster, who does it for his fucking job.
Anyway, perhaps you should consider going with a better provider if you are having such trouble.
There is also no "infringing on people's freedoms" in this matter. You forget that none of the Internet actually belongs to you. It belongs to the people who own the networks. You have no rights, you only have permission. What's next? You want the freedom to not pay your bill and still get online? How about demanding unlimited web storage? What? You still only want to spend $39/mo and get 3Mbit downstream? See how ludicrous it sounds when you add it all together?
On a final note, I would suggest really thinking about the state of the industry before popping off more ignorant thoughts. I don't expect most folks to understand, it seems 90% of/. is college aged kids who have little grasp of the system. For that, I forgive most of these ramblings.
I'm not sure how comcast smtp servers work if you're not on their network, perhaps at an internet cafe or something. I should try it sometime.
Why would you use their server from a cafe? You should use the cafe's ISP's smtp server.
Every time this issue comes up, I just get depressed. People range from being upset about having to use the smtp server they agreed to use when they signed up for their account, they work fine, there is no reason a home user paying $39/mo should have the "right" to run smtp of their own, or be able to willy-nilly go connecting to other smtp servers on the net.
Fact is, if every ISP did this, we'd see a huge reduction in spam. What is the cost of this? Just using the appropriate smtp server for your connection.
Why (not the parent) must I see 300+ posts of griping? If you want to run an smtp server so bad, get a commercial class DSL account and pay for it. That, or just get a job as the mail admin for your local ISP.
Sure there is. Its called competition. When a company finds a way to reduce costs, their first urge probably isn't to lower prices.
So that is why EarthLink and AOL raised their prices to $21.95, from $19.99, a month after outsourcing over 75% of their call center staff to India?
Competition does not solve all problems. When you have a few large companies, all heavily invested by the same people, you get non-written agreements to not compete aggressively. Because, price wars only benefit the consumer. They kill profits for years, sometimes, and can result in investors just simply bailing instead of waiting 2 years for the big returns from the "winner".
Plus, who wants to risk losing and having the shareholders file a lawsuit on you for mishandling their money? Sometimes, it's just best to not rock the boat.
Just look how well thats worked for Microsoft & SCO.:) It actually seems to have worked "some". I don't see modded, optimized copies of Windows 2000 floating around on the P2P networks. I had though when the OS source was stolen, it would be only a matter of months before we'd see some Windows hybrid, or even a rogue application to better emulate Windows under Linux. Nothing came of this.:(
Yeah, back about 20 years ago I got so much stuff doing the same thing. My friend and I had a large moving box full of floppies we recoverd, stacks of drives, old backup tapes, credit card numbers, SSNs, vendor statements and account numbers, complete and functional PCs, etc.
For others who plan on trying this out: Don't worry, dumpsters for your average company is clean with no gross shit in it. Oh, and regarding the police.. Wear nasty looking clothes.. I mean, really look like a dirt bag. If you go looking like geekboy from a middle income family, you'll get a trespassing charge against you. If you look like a rat, they will leave you alone. We only had a couple of run-ins with the cops and tenants. They all went pretty well, as we said we were looking for things to sell at the pawn shop.
The key, I have found, when performing a social hack is to always pretend like you recognize authority. Cops will quit caring about pointing out your trespass, real fast, when they manage to get a self-esteem boost by picking on a poor person. The little guilty voice in the back of their head will say "Leave the poor slob alone.. AlooOoone!"
Warning: This will not work if you park your new Volvo next to the dumpster. Park around other cars, if there are any, and be prepared to abandon your vehicle a few hours if you are told to leave by the cops. Oh, and get some strong fabric laundry bags to carry your loot.
Tell your buddy to be careful with his chip mod. They have a tendancy to push the turbo charger too hard. This ends the engine and turbo not lasting nearly as long as an unmodified car.
One thing for him to consider would be getting an after-market turbo boost gauge. I have never seen one installed in a VW from the factory (not a newer one, anyway), so it's likely he's driving around like a loon cooking his turbo charger.
But I digress, ignorance is bliss while it lasts. I just pitty the sucker who ends up with the car after he's traded it in for something else and not informed the dealer of the after-market performance chip, in a deceptive move, to maximize his trade-in value. That's who will pay.:(
Okay, this is another fine example of/. getting the ignorant all worked up over nothing.
Here is what I do:
1) Stop by the dealership to get the problem diagnosed by the computer. This costs nothing.
2) Once the official cause of the diagnostic code is determined, request they fax you an explanation of exactly what needs to be done.
3) Call non-dealers and get quotes for the repairs. Use your faxed description so you can express the problem clearly to the other mechanic.
4) Take the vehicle to the lowest bidder.
See? That's not all that hard. The problem with/., they incite the exposure of ignorance by offering up one-sided, hot headed, articles and everyone runs with it like it's an "outrage". The true outrage is when people do not think their options through before going on a tangent about how evil empires are out to drain your pocket books. Of course, they are. That is what a business does. If you want the simplest, 1-step, solution to your problem, it will ALWAYS cost you more than if you did not mind putting a little effort into it.
This whole thing reminds me of a scene where George Jetson presses a button on his food making machine, it doesn't work the first time. He then sprains his index finger on the second push. The end result was him kneeling to the floor crying about how difficult life is. Don't be like that.:)
But there are several non-obvious ways to tell that some of the password is correct. E.g., a system may check the password left-to-right, and bail out when it finds a difference--in which case accurate and/or repeated timing can tell you how many digits are correct.
You might be kidding, but I can't tell. Anyway, this wouldn't work because the minute differences in response times would not be measurable over a network. Packets do not always take the same amount of time to traverse the Internet, and will often even arrive out of order.
Even over a console connection, you would have to take into consideration that system load would impact the timings, as well.
I'd suggest starting off with some social engineering. You would be amazed at what you can get people to do if you sound like you know what you are talking about. If that fails, then own some joker's broadband PC and have it brute force them into submission. If that fails, then own a lot of boxes and have them all brute force. If nothing else, you'll kill two birds with one stone by doing a DDoS, too.:D
Slashdot Mirror
So I can sit at my PC to watch television? You have got to be kidding. Do you really want to archive a bunch of tv shows which will be broadcast over and over for the next 10-15 years? Go ahead, but it is a waste of resources. Get a Tivo and just record them whenever they come on again. Trust me, after the first 1-2 views you'll be tired of them and want 'em gone.
Anyway, there is no need to stream. I bought a 35 hour Tivo for $70, pulled a spare 120 gig drive out of my file server, and after a few hours of reading and tinkering I've got about 120 hours record time. I could care less about any of this being accessible from my PC. The only reason I could imagine wanting to do such a thing would be to pirate television programming. No thanks. Its just television.
Anyway, my Xbox streams DiVX and many other formats through XBMP off my server upstairs.
I'm telling ya, a PC is a waste of money when being used as PVR. The small, closed systems are so much cheaper and easier to use. These two things go a long ways when your idea of living life does not entail a dirty little dark room with a bunch of junk computers laying around.
Of course a $40 DVD Video player sold at $36 is a loss leader because Wal-Mart stocks the DVD Video player right next to several racks of $10 DVD Video titles by major studios.
You forgot the part about Walmart saving money by hiring minimum wage workers without benefits. Since they qualify as poverty class, the rest of us get to flip their medical bills.
Not to mention a store full of workers who cost more for our "system" to support than they are making.
Thanks to capitalism, 10% of us get to live really nice while the masses wear old clothes and live in rental homes reaking of hot garbage.
No kidding. My $70 Tivo has more features than this thing.
:P
Then again, these articles seem to be for Linux zealots who can't afford the $4.99/mo for Tivo.
Hmm, I've been in Information Security for 7 years and almost everyone I have worked with uses phrases like "sk1llz", "0wn3d" and "l33t d00d" on a regular basis.
:)
Not that it is proper terminology, but it is a lot more fun than being an anal, angry arse about every pleasant or immature phrase spoken in one's vacinity. Then again, I tend not to underestimate someone for the phrases they use. This can be a terrible mistake.
Funny story, but this does not work well in the 2000's.
I recall when the ISP I worked for put up an IRC server. They gave me admin on it and several times, upon issuing k-lines on script kiddies, our entire OC48 was soon saturated DDoS packets and ransom emails to ircadmin@isp..
This is funny to me as an individual, but was not to all the thousands of customers who's email and websites were slow/dead for 24+ hours at a time.
I guess what I am trying to say is: It is irrisponsible to rattle the chains of those who wish to do your employer harm.
Pity for TiVo - thanks to the brand recognition, people will be recording their shows with box XYZ and still saying "haven't watched it yet, but TiVo'ed it so don't tell me."
When I had an Ultimate TV box, I had to say Tivo for people to know what I am talking about. Now I feel dirty and have a Tivo since lightening took out the UTV system. It is a pitty, and as much as I hate to say it, the Microsoft UTV system being 1st generation and over two years old was much better than my brand new Tivo in features and speed.
Right, like there should ever be a proper context for it. I am sure it would come up as often as "chemical glass" and "chemical plastic". Like I said, the author of the original words was just trying to sound more technical and ended up sounding like a jackass.
The other factor here is the tech skills required, because our IT department is me. As librarians go, I'm pretty tech-savvy, but as Slashdotters go, I'm pretty much a luser.
Yes, especially since you think XP workstations have a tendancy to blue screen. Having done plenty of helpdesk for a rather large company, in the last 3 years I have not seen a single Dell laptop or workstation "blue screen" in XP.
You sir are either a liar or just so clueless you should probably hire an IT person who actually has some idea of the current state of workstations and what to expect from them.
A properly configured Dell or Gateway running XP will be the cheapest option because you are doing this with taxpayer money. All these vendors, including microsoft, give great discounts for libraries and schools. Since you have little IT skill, it would be best to stick with the workstation approach since you can't seem to even manage XP, so managing the thin client's server will be well outside of your ability.
If a Dell running XP Pro gives you trouble, I can only begin to guess at how a multi cpu box running Linux or Solaris will treat you.
Organic rubber consists of chemicals, too. Just because it came from a tree does not mean it is not a chemical.
They are not using pure tree rubber anyway. Almost all rubbers used in the industrialized world are a combination of tree rubber and sythetics. It has been this way since Japan blocked US rubber imports through military action back in WW2.
So what rubber is not chemical?
It looks like they are using more words than needed to sound more intelligent.
Yeah, they have also been on the market for over two years. I bought the 1st generation of this device and was pretty happy with it for about 6 months.
They work as advertised, but the quality of plastics used for the key mounts are less than optimal. After about 6 months, mine began to wear down enough that keys would occasionally jam or not register.
Just my 2 cent
And now they scream murder... Go figure...
/. editors trolled them into it by the wording of their headline. Any screaming murder in the thread will be by the same people who scream over any little issue.
No, the
Eh, Trillian is shareware trash for newbies who don't know any better.
Paying someone for a client to access a free service seems about as silly as paying for IE or Netscape.
Visit SourceForge and download GAIM or one of the many open source IM solutions.
"The saddest thing is that everyone thinks there's "competition" in the CPU market."
I'd say competition has done wonders for the market. I guess you weren't around back when Intel was the only option for a good gaming machine.
For example, in 1997, I paid ~$1200 for a PPro200 CPU. In 2003 I paid $400 for an XP2100+. Both were the highest performers at the time.
If there were no AMD to Intel, you can bet CPU proces would be much higher than they are now. Yes, they work off each other's success, but they are far from being best buddies.
I'd suggest a few more economics classes, personally. Perhaps an evaluation to determine if you are suffering from a bipolar disorder wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Comcast Corp., the country's largest provider of high-speed Internet access, has begun blocking a channel frequently exploited by spammers to send out large volumes of e-mail, a move that many technologists say was long overdue and should be matched by other service providers.
another decent link.
:)
Just another note about you making my view sound as if it were a comedy routine.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/38004
Don't be a flaming dolt.
You are of course entitled to your opinion, Awptimus Prime, just as I am mine. But personally? I am so glad that you aren't setting policy at my ISP or for the Internet, and if you ever start, I'll go elsewhere. Not that I think Speakeasy would ever listen to you as anything but a humor generator, but still, on principle.
.exe from Outlook express and become an instant spam relay, as opposed to the ~150 people who would actually care to run their own.
Funny you should mention this. I worked at Speakeasy for 2 years as an SA. The topic came up several times, it was not laughed at, but considered something that they will eventually be forced to do if ever targeted by spammers (or at least to the extent other ISPs have been hit). The only thing saving them is their comparatively small size compared to EarthLink, AOL, and Comcast, that is, for residential DSL service.
Personally, if I were running a small ISP of my own, the default would be to deny the ability to do outbound tcp/25, then if a customer requested it, I would allow them to do so.
You have to keep in mind I am thinking about the 4.3 million subscribers who will open some
Mind you, I see you just complain about inadequate servers at the ISP. It's funny to see you tout Speakeasy as such a great ISP, but then say their mail servers have a 6 hour queue. Personally, I've never seen them get anywhere near that high, at least for messages under 3 megabytes. If their smtp is really that bad, then go ahead and generate some mail traffic and post message ids of the ones that take more than 30 minutes to deliver. I'll forward them to a cohort who still works there and get you an explanation.
That is, if you aren't just another mindless troll. I assume you are because of the willy-nilly ports remark was just an over-the-top remark that blows everything well out of proportion here. Personally, I would like to see you suggest a solution to the spam problem today. Don't have one? Didn't think so. At least port blocking helps to an extent, and it keeps your ISP from getting on other ISP's mail-deny lists. If you think blocking port 25 is bad, imagine having a few million customers and then AOL and EarthLink start denying mail from your IP ranges. You'll have some serious PR issues and will be forced to change practices.
Finally, I will state again that I have been online for 12 years. I have never had mail (to a non-freebie mailhost) get lost. I have seen delays up to 9 hours, but those are very rare. You also have to consider the mail queues at the destination, too. Just because a server is quick on one end, doesn't mean it's delivery will be any faster on the other.
Your pick-apart post did not make a lot of sense, but let me try to explain again:
/. is college aged kids who have little grasp of the system. For that, I forgive most of these ramblings.
You should always use the smtp server of the network you are currently connected to. This is the point I was saying when I said that a user in a cafe should use the cafe's smtp server.
The fact that you lose mail means you are probably sending binary attachments, and not just text. Fact is, it is rare to ever lose a small message, as they get priority over the larger messages. Personally, I've never sent a mail that was lost in the 12 years I have been online.
I am irritated by the issue of whining about port 25 restrictions because I worked at an ISP for 7 years and customers would call in, clueless, screaming about wanting to run their own smtp, but not a single one gave a legit excuse for wanting to. I find it laughable that some dolt on a cable modem thinks he can do a better job at running a mail server than an ISP postmaster, who does it for his fucking job.
Anyway, perhaps you should consider going with a better provider if you are having such trouble.
There is also no "infringing on people's freedoms" in this matter. You forget that none of the Internet actually belongs to you. It belongs to the people who own the networks. You have no rights, you only have permission. What's next? You want the freedom to not pay your bill and still get online? How about demanding unlimited web storage? What? You still only want to spend $39/mo and get 3Mbit downstream? See how ludicrous it sounds when you add it all together?
On a final note, I would suggest really thinking about the state of the industry before popping off more ignorant thoughts. I don't expect most folks to understand, it seems 90% of
I'm not sure how comcast smtp servers work if you're not on their network, perhaps at an internet cafe or something. I should try it sometime.
Why would you use their server from a cafe? You should use the cafe's ISP's smtp server.
Every time this issue comes up, I just get depressed. People range from being upset about having to use the smtp server they agreed to use when they signed up for their account, they work fine, there is no reason a home user paying $39/mo should have the "right" to run smtp of their own, or be able to willy-nilly go connecting to other smtp servers on the net.
Fact is, if every ISP did this, we'd see a huge reduction in spam. What is the cost of this? Just using the appropriate smtp server for your connection.
Why (not the parent) must I see 300+ posts of griping? If you want to run an smtp server so bad, get a commercial class DSL account and pay for it. That, or just get a job as the mail admin for your local ISP.
Sure there is. Its called competition. When a company finds a way to reduce costs, their first urge probably isn't to lower prices.
So that is why EarthLink and AOL raised their prices to $21.95, from $19.99, a month after outsourcing over 75% of their call center staff to India?
Competition does not solve all problems. When you have a few large companies, all heavily invested by the same people, you get non-written agreements to not compete aggressively. Because, price wars only benefit the consumer. They kill profits for years, sometimes, and can result in investors just simply bailing instead of waiting 2 years for the big returns from the "winner".
Plus, who wants to risk losing and having the shareholders file a lawsuit on you for mishandling their money? Sometimes, it's just best to not rock the boat.
Welcome to real-world capitalism.
Just look how well thats worked for Microsoft & SCO. :) :(
It actually seems to have worked "some". I don't see modded, optimized copies of Windows 2000 floating around on the P2P networks. I had though when the OS source was stolen, it would be only a matter of months before we'd see some Windows hybrid, or even a rogue application to better emulate Windows under Linux. Nothing came of this.
Yeah, back about 20 years ago I got so much stuff doing the same thing. My friend and I had a large moving box full of floppies we recoverd, stacks of drives, old backup tapes, credit card numbers, SSNs, vendor statements and account numbers, complete and functional PCs, etc.
For others who plan on trying this out: Don't worry, dumpsters for your average company is clean with no gross shit in it. Oh, and regarding the police.. Wear nasty looking clothes.. I mean, really look like a dirt bag. If you go looking like geekboy from a middle income family, you'll get a trespassing charge against you. If you look like a rat, they will leave you alone. We only had a couple of run-ins with the cops and tenants. They all went pretty well, as we said we were looking for things to sell at the pawn shop.
The key, I have found, when performing a social hack is to always pretend like you recognize authority. Cops will quit caring about pointing out your trespass, real fast, when they manage to get a self-esteem boost by picking on a poor person. The little guilty voice in the back of their head will say "Leave the poor slob alone.. AlooOoone!"
Warning: This will not work if you park your new Volvo next to the dumpster. Park around other cars, if there are any, and be prepared to abandon your vehicle a few hours if you are told to leave by the cops. Oh, and get some strong fabric laundry bags to carry your loot.
Tell your buddy to be careful with his chip mod. They have a tendancy to push the turbo charger too hard. This ends the engine and turbo not lasting nearly as long as an unmodified car.
:(
One thing for him to consider would be getting an after-market turbo boost gauge. I have never seen one installed in a VW from the factory (not a newer one, anyway), so it's likely he's driving around like a loon cooking his turbo charger.
But I digress, ignorance is bliss while it lasts. I just pitty the sucker who ends up with the car after he's traded it in for something else and not informed the dealer of the after-market performance chip, in a deceptive move, to maximize his trade-in value. That's who will pay.
>ping -n 30 www.google.com
...And so on.
Pinging www.google.akadns.net [216.239.51.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.239.51.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=241
It might have worked back in the stone ages, in an exacting scenario, but just doesn't cut the bacon in 2004.
Okay, this is another fine example of /. getting the ignorant all worked up over nothing.
/., they incite the exposure of ignorance by offering up one-sided, hot headed, articles and everyone runs with it like it's an "outrage". The true outrage is when people do not think their options through before going on a tangent about how evil empires are out to drain your pocket books. Of course, they are. That is what a business does. If you want the simplest, 1-step, solution to your problem, it will ALWAYS cost you more than if you did not mind putting a little effort into it.
:)
Here is what I do:
1) Stop by the dealership to get the problem diagnosed by the computer. This costs nothing.
2) Once the official cause of the diagnostic code is determined, request they fax you an explanation of exactly what needs to be done.
3) Call non-dealers and get quotes for the repairs. Use your faxed description so you can express the problem clearly to the other mechanic.
4) Take the vehicle to the lowest bidder.
See? That's not all that hard. The problem with
This whole thing reminds me of a scene where George Jetson presses a button on his food making machine, it doesn't work the first time. He then sprains his index finger on the second push. The end result was him kneeling to the floor crying about how difficult life is. Don't be like that.
But there are several non-obvious ways to tell that some of the password is correct. E.g., a system may check the password left-to-right, and bail out when it finds a difference--in which case accurate and/or repeated timing can tell you how many digits are correct.
:D
You might be kidding, but I can't tell. Anyway, this wouldn't work because the minute differences in response times would not be measurable over a network. Packets do not always take the same amount of time to traverse the Internet, and will often even arrive out of order.
Even over a console connection, you would have to take into consideration that system load would impact the timings, as well.
I'd suggest starting off with some social engineering. You would be amazed at what you can get people to do if you sound like you know what you are talking about. If that fails, then own some joker's broadband PC and have it brute force them into submission. If that fails, then own a lot of boxes and have them all brute force. If nothing else, you'll kill two birds with one stone by doing a DDoS, too.