Well, for one thing, it's a single point for security updates and monitoring. If the slots are basically dumb terminals, the software load can be re-installed regularly to help minimize the window of opportunity for injected code. If it's a normal client/server deal, then there can still be scans for software tampering. Given this is/. and that SuperSAS is an open gaming protocol, I think that the "many eyes" security concept they're using is very practical. We know the casinos will be more than willing to pay for expert programmers to review the code, and that more than one casino would want to have the code checked out (get your resumes ready!).
As for the monitoring the communications, the casinos could use the strongest proven encryption possible and change the keys weekly, daily, or even hourly because they own the entire system. Each machine could even have it's own key, separate of the others (assuming PKI like implementation, the server could reply with a unique key to each node as well). Most people forget that the point of encryption is that the information assumed have been intercepted by a third party, but won't be useful by the time it's cracked. If crackers get to the point they can crack the casino's keys in 1 day, it wouldn't matter if the keys are changed hourly. Before that happened, though, they'd have long been investigating a new algorithm
As for being vulnerable to an inside job, you're right. The hard shell always has a soft, squishy center. Thing is, that's something that will never change. The only thing for them to do is have audits in place to limit the ability for people to aquire the information or access to set up a job like that by themselves. If nothing else, they should be able to do an audit and figure out who was involved after the fact.
Just in case Peachy's discouraged anyone from trying to submit their homebrew distrobution to Ibiblio.
From Ibiblio.org --------------- Contributing to ibiblio.org If you are interested in becoming an ibiblio.org contributor:
1. Read the Collection Criteria to see if your interest will be served by working with us
2. Check out the services we offer contributors to see if we have what you need.
3. Hint: very few, if any, proprietary services will be provided, but many open source solutions are, can or will be offered on request.
4. Drop a note to help@ibiblio.org telling us:
* What your project will be
* What services you might wish to use
* How to contact you by phone (so we can work out any details and passwords)
* Anything else you think might be helpful ---------------
One of the main things to be considered is keeping things up to date and making some sort of contribution to the public. It (should) be a given that the bigger distros will be properly maintained, as a good homebrew distro should, but a homebrew which is only a minor modification to an existing distro may not make the cut. If you've got a great modification, maybe you should see if it's more practical to distribute the modified packages instead of an entire distro.
Just kidding. This is a good thing. I just hope they can combine efforts with The Linux Mirror Project. It'd be a shame for either to go to the wayside, especially when keeping as many seeders as possible is vital to any BT site.
After all, how many places can you pre-purchase a games system without buying their game&system bundle? This would be the next step, at least for the lower priced system. While this is strictly paranoia fodder, would companies be willing to sacrifice selling what might be niche products (light guns, steering wheels, etc) for more sales within their core markets, which are more than likely basic corded controllers, and a promise from MS to not compete in that area (i.e. Ok, but not great controllers, like the orginal behemoths?) If MS were to make a wireless controller hub/adaptor of some sort to sell at a premium price, would their additional controller sales be worth more than the potential loss of sales from developing, manufacturing and selling their own wireless solution?
Btw, if this does happen, I'll go down the the Apple store and make mean faces at the Mac Mini...
"The Mad Catz license agreement also puts limits on the type of controllers that third parties can make. Most notably, the add-on products can only be of the corded variety, while Microsoft itself is supporting wireless controllers.
In addition to the restrictions on wireless products, the Mad Catz contract excludes light guns, memory units, hard drives and cheat cards. Licensed peripherals include game pads, steering wheels, arcade sticks, flight sticks and dance pads.
So,can we expect DMCA action "Cheat cards"? I'm guessing there will also be adaptors for unlicensed xbox360 controllers at some point. Get them while they're grey market!
So my girlfriend might actually not object to watching that scene? Score!! Now to go and get a new patch kit so she doesn't deflate halfway through the flick...
"For 13 months, Jacquet and his crew braved Antarctic temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero - and winds up to 150 mph - to capture astonishing images of thousands of emperor penguins engaging in a mating... ritual"
1) A lot of server rooms may as well be -70 degrees, so any sysad could empathize with the conditions (sans sunlight, of course).
2) Any Slashdotter has at least one interest that the "normal population" would give a hearty 'WTF?' to.
3) A demonstration of the amazing lengths some folks will go through for their penguin porn.
Of course, management and the workers hanging out together could actually be a more valid problem, especially when people start crying about favortism.
My conspiracy theory: The NLRB board members are starting their own dating service in areas most likely to see actual enforcement...
I'm not too worried about interactive logons for a stand alone machine. Not being able to connect to the internet through my home conncection, web surf or to log into a game server would be a problem, though.
On a related side note, any/.'s have recommendations on alternate gui's for XP? Particularly ones that eat less brains?
Can this squeeze a few more frames per second out of my favorite games? How much RAM does this free up? As the user of an out of date laptop, I'd boot into a CLI if it meant it could significantly drop system requirements for best performance. I'm not enough of a penguin head to do it in Linux yet.
(btw, I read the article and realize it's not practial, still a neat idea)
It's about time somebody with his resources stepped up. Maybe now I don't have to worry about getting stupid newbies the next time I want to play a round...
Defragging won't spread a virus unless the virus attached itself to the defragger. I haven't heard of any viruses that do this. If the virus is the sort that will delete files, then defragging is the worst thing to do. After removing the virus, it's easiest to reclaim lost data with the correct tools when nothing new is written to disk. The files are still "there", but if the file is written over where it physically occupies drive space, then salvage becomes much harder, or even impossible, for most.
Well, that's assuming the virus isn't set to drop a bomb on the system on a certain date. The idea of making 1,000 or more computers become inoperable at the exact same moment would appeal to blackmailers, pranksters or folks with other motives.
Actually, MS/non-GPL has another option:
3) Obtain the right to continue distribution (probably signing a million NDAs along the way, plus $$$).
Of course, MS has the option of not cooperating, but it's their choice... Required SCO references?
Now that we can be replaced with hamsters, why are the machines going to keep us around? I imagine they'll get a great ROI by ditching the human based Matrix in favor of a less complex one designed to simulate a glass cage with tubing in some 5th grader's bedroom.
I just said it would be amusing. You mean you wouldn't find the idea of a pop-up spam during the middle of a game the least bit amusing/interesting (not including games you are playing)? Besides, it's entirely possible the custom WinXP they are using doesn't have the messenger service installed/enabled. And if the games aren't networked, there isn't much concern about hacking the box. At that point, it's all about physical access (as opposed to network access), and arcade machines are rarely left unprotected due to the money they contain.
BTW, I like and use WinXP as well as Linux, and work tech support at a large (4k+ users)company that runs Win2K. So don't take it too personally when I say your attitude is why Windows/Linux/Computer tech heads have a bad rep. If you're going to act superior, at least throw in in "RTFM" when showing me my place. It's kind of expected after your first week of posting on/. ...Oops, that won't be until tomorrow.
Yeah, yeah. I already know this comment is flamebait. It's worth the mod down.
Actually, XP is made so it won't BSOD. It reboots instead. Unfortunately, that means you loose all the debugging information that a good BSOD would provide. Fortunately, you can change that setting..
Wow. Somebody running XP just to play games? Sounds like they've got some/.'s over there. I can't help but laugh at the image of somebody getting messenger service spam while playing something. "Want to score? Let us show you how!"
If "Hackers" taught us anything, it'll be l337 h4x0r5 sending each other love letters or flames from the sides of buildings. Of course, after the recent article on airpwn's debut, I'd be worried of the ideas floating around of what image/videos to hack in place of actual ads.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd imagine they'd run a VPN. Hack the wireless encryption to find much stronger one beneath it.
Well, for one thing, it's a single point for security updates and monitoring. If the slots are basically dumb terminals, the software load can be re-installed regularly to help minimize the window of opportunity for injected code. If it's a normal client/server deal, then there can still be scans for software tampering. Given this is /. and that SuperSAS is an open gaming protocol, I think that the "many eyes" security concept they're using is very practical. We know the casinos will be more than willing to pay for expert programmers to review the code, and that more than one casino would want to have the code checked out (get your resumes ready!).
As for the monitoring the communications, the casinos could use the strongest proven encryption possible and change the keys weekly, daily, or even hourly because they own the entire system. Each machine could even have it's own key, separate of the others (assuming PKI like implementation, the server could reply with a unique key to each node as well). Most people forget that the point of encryption is that the information assumed have been intercepted by a third party, but won't be useful by the time it's cracked. If crackers get to the point they can crack the casino's keys in 1 day, it wouldn't matter if the keys are changed hourly. Before that happened, though, they'd have long been investigating a new algorithm
As for being vulnerable to an inside job, you're right. The hard shell always has a soft, squishy center. Thing is, that's something that will never change. The only thing for them to do is have audits in place to limit the ability for people to aquire the information or access to set up a job like that by themselves. If nothing else, they should be able to do an audit and figure out who was involved after the fact.
1-900-CALL-MIT
'nuff said...
Just in case Peachy's discouraged anyone from trying to submit their homebrew distrobution to Ibiblio.
From Ibiblio.org
---------------
Contributing to ibiblio.org
If you are interested in becoming an ibiblio.org contributor:
1. Read the Collection Criteria to see if your interest will be served by working with us
2. Check out the services we offer contributors to see if we have what you need.
3. Hint: very few, if any, proprietary services will be provided, but many open source solutions are, can or will be offered on request.
4. Drop a note to help@ibiblio.org telling us:
* What your project will be
* What services you might wish to use
* How to contact you by phone (so we can work out any details and passwords)
* Anything else you think might be helpful
---------------
One of the main things to be considered is keeping things up to date and making some sort of contribution to the public. It (should) be a given that the bigger distros will be properly maintained, as a good homebrew distro should, but a homebrew which is only a minor modification to an existing distro may not make the cut. If you've got a great modification, maybe you should see if it's more practical to distribute the modified packages instead of an entire distro.
Just kidding. This is a good thing. I just hope they can combine efforts with The Linux Mirror Project. It'd be a shame for either to go to the wayside, especially when keeping as many seeders as possible is vital to any BT site.
After all, how many places can you pre-purchase a games system without buying their game&system bundle? This would be the next step, at least for the lower priced system. While this is strictly paranoia fodder, would companies be willing to sacrifice selling what might be niche products (light guns, steering wheels, etc) for more sales within their core markets, which are more than likely basic corded controllers, and a promise from MS to not compete in that area (i.e. Ok, but not great controllers, like the orginal behemoths?) If MS were to make a wireless controller hub/adaptor of some sort to sell at a premium price, would their additional controller sales be worth more than the potential loss of sales from developing, manufacturing and selling their own wireless solution?
Btw, if this does happen, I'll go down the the Apple store and make mean faces at the Mac Mini...
"The Mad Catz license agreement also puts limits on the type of controllers that third parties can make. Most notably, the add-on products can only be of the corded variety, while Microsoft itself is supporting wireless controllers.
In addition to the restrictions on wireless products, the Mad Catz contract excludes light guns, memory units, hard drives and cheat cards. Licensed peripherals include game pads, steering wheels, arcade sticks, flight sticks and dance pads.
So,can we expect DMCA action "Cheat cards"? I'm guessing there will also be adaptors for unlicensed xbox360 controllers at some point. Get them while they're grey market!
"If games should be like those female orgasms they should..."
1) Be "Free as in beer"?
2) Virus free?
3) Easily purchased at the local toy store?
4) Difficulty sliders?
and the biggest change...
5) No hidden features (Think "The crying game")
Ok, I'm going now...
So my girlfriend might actually not object to watching that scene? Score!! Now to go and get a new patch kit so she doesn't deflate halfway through the flick...
"For 13 months, Jacquet and his crew braved Antarctic temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero - and winds up to 150 mph - to capture astonishing images of thousands of emperor penguins engaging in a mating... ritual"
1) A lot of server rooms may as well be -70 degrees, so any sysad could empathize with the conditions (sans sunlight, of course).
2) Any Slashdotter has at least one interest that the "normal population" would give a hearty 'WTF?' to.
3) A demonstration of the amazing lengths some folks will go through for their penguin porn.
Well, hell. The only reason I'd apply with Guardsmark is for the uniform, handcuffs and a boss that has an office with a locking door...
Of course, management and the workers hanging out together could actually be a more valid problem, especially when people start crying about favortism.
My conspiracy theory: The NLRB board members are starting their own dating service in areas most likely to see actual enforcement...
I'm not too worried about interactive logons for a stand alone machine. Not being able to connect to the internet through my home conncection, web surf or to log into a game server would be a problem, though.
/.'s have recommendations on alternate gui's for XP? Particularly ones that eat less brains?
On a related side note, any
Can this squeeze a few more frames per second out of my favorite games? How much RAM does this free up? As the user of an out of date laptop, I'd boot into a CLI if it meant it could significantly drop system requirements for best performance. I'm not enough of a penguin head to do it in Linux yet. (btw, I read the article and realize it's not practial, still a neat idea)
It's about time somebody with his resources stepped up. Maybe now I don't have to worry about getting stupid newbies the next time I want to play a round...
Defragging won't spread a virus unless the virus attached itself to the defragger. I haven't heard of any viruses that do this. If the virus is the sort that will delete files, then defragging is the worst thing to do. After removing the virus, it's easiest to reclaim lost data with the correct tools when nothing new is written to disk. The files are still "there", but if the file is written over where it physically occupies drive space, then salvage becomes much harder, or even impossible, for most.
Well, that's assuming the virus isn't set to drop a bomb on the system on a certain date. The idea of making 1,000 or more computers become inoperable at the exact same moment would appeal to blackmailers, pranksters or folks with other motives.
I wonder if they have a 1337-version of the contract. Y'know, just so everyone's clear on what's being signed...
Actually, MS/non-GPL has another option: 3) Obtain the right to continue distribution (probably signing a million NDAs along the way, plus $$$).
Of course, MS has the option of not cooperating, but it's their choice... Required SCO references?
Now that we can be replaced with hamsters, why are the machines going to keep us around? I imagine they'll get a great ROI by ditching the human based Matrix in favor of a less complex one designed to simulate a glass cage with tubing in some 5th grader's bedroom.
Google cache here
I just said it would be amusing. You mean you wouldn't find the idea of a pop-up spam during the middle of a game the least bit amusing/interesting (not including games you are playing)? Besides, it's entirely possible the custom WinXP they are using doesn't have the messenger service installed/enabled. And if the games aren't networked, there isn't much concern about hacking the box. At that point, it's all about physical access (as opposed to network access), and arcade machines are rarely left unprotected due to the money they contain.
/.
...Oops, that won't be until tomorrow.
BTW, I like and use WinXP as well as Linux, and work tech support at a large (4k+ users)company that runs Win2K. So don't take it too personally when I say your attitude is why Windows/Linux/Computer tech heads have a bad rep. If you're going to act superior, at least throw in in "RTFM" when showing me my place. It's kind of expected after your first week of posting on
Yeah, yeah. I already know this comment is flamebait. It's worth the mod down.
Actually, XP is made so it won't BSOD. It reboots instead. Unfortunately, that means you loose all the debugging information that a good BSOD would provide. Fortunately, you can change that setting..
Wow. Somebody running XP just to play games? Sounds like they've got some /.'s over there. I can't help but laugh at the image of somebody getting messenger service spam while playing something. "Want to score? Let us show you how!"
If "Hackers" taught us anything, it'll be l337 h4x0r5 sending each other love letters or flames from the sides of buildings. Of course, after the recent article on airpwn's debut, I'd be worried of the ideas floating around of what image/videos to hack in place of actual ads.
Reverse that. No coffee yet. In the case of a projection, the image pretty much is the prior example's glare. Night-time shows, perhaps?