I've had a few close calls too, but it is not my driving habits. It's others that have cut me off. If the car decided to brake, now I'm the hazard on the highway...
I ran across this URL several years ago and bookmarked it thinking I could use it someday. I'm actually surprised the link still works! If the device really does do what it says it is a shame that nobody has pushed it further.....
I was just going to type a similar response, then I saw yours. The article quotes the guy saying, "I had at least eight or nine people who said they voted for me," but this is him stating that. I can't blame the guy for challenging the system if he knows he cast the vote for himself and didn't screw it up in doing so. It would be even better if these eight or nine other people came out and said they voted for him also. Of course, that means it is a lot more then a 3% error rate.
I still don't understand why voting has to be such a mess. Why can't an electronic voting system have both an electronic count and a paper ballot. During the voting process the screen changes, in a completely obvious way (I realize this is an area of debate), after each selection to indicate which candidate a voter has picked. Then when the voter is happy with their selections they hit print. The printed ballot is then available to be looked over by the voter and dropped off in the ballot counting machine. Now you have 3 different tallies, 2 electronic and 1 paper, should they be needed during a challenge like this.
I doubt this action is uncommon for any company with plans to buy a lot of land from multiple sellers. Walt Disney did it when he was buying land for Walt Disney World, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World_Res ort#Park_history_and_development. According to one of the documentaries I saw on the building of Walt Disney World, after word had leaked about who was buying all that land, the price per acre increased to more then $1500 from the $200 or $300 it was originally. It is up to the seller to determine their selling price based on the information at hand.
I haven't confused SPF with anything. I think SPF is a great idea, heck, I'm one of the 4.1 million that use it on my own domains. I was simply suggesting an additional level of control that ISP's could use to help curb some of the problem. While I agree with a previous poster that we should be able to do what we want with our Internet connections, I don't think everyone needs that by default. Each of the three ISP networks that I've happened to use during my lifetime had port blocking in place on 137, 139, and 445 traffic, and for good reason. My current ISP decided to add blocks on outbound 25 from unauthorized hosts. Yes, it sucks that my Linux box can no longer send mail directly, but its nice to know my ISP is doing what little they can to help the spam epidemic. Now, granted, I live in America, and perhaps our ISP's are a little more restrictive with what we can do with our Internet connections, but blocking outbound port 25 traffic from hosts that simply shouldn't need to send mail directly in the first place would help reduce some spam.
I realize this is Slashdot and Microsoft is a convenient scapegoat, but I have to disagree with your statement. Compromised Windows systems may play a large roll in SPAM delivery today, but they aren't the root of the problem. If you want the root, look at any ISP that allows unauthorized hosts to send mail. They deserve far more blame then Microsoft does. You'd think with the cost of bandwidth, the tools available for detecting, and the problem with SPAM today, ISP's would be doing everything they could to tighten up their network. It doesn't really cost anything to put in blocks on port 25 and only allow traffic from authorized hosts, like their own email servers and customers paying for that capability.
I love ST4 and besides the scenes with Spock trying to use "colorful metaphors," my favorite scene is when Mccoy hands Scotty the mouse who then tries to talk to the computer with it. I laugh every time I see that. Even better is when Nichols tells Scotty to use the keyboard who then starts typing away on it like he has used a QWERTY keyboard his whole life... That movie is simply a classic!
I've been in the market for a USB key for a while, but I keep delaying a purchase due to my fear of wearouts. Your comment is the first one I've run across saying it doesn't really exist. Now I have to ask, how do you know that a flash device implements a "good load leveling algorithm?" Do they list something on the the package? Can you verify they actually have something in place even if they do? I know modern HDD's can route around bad sectors, which can then later be discovered through software. Does it work the same way on these keys? As it is right now I have a 32MB key I got from a friend and I never remove anything from it until I fill it up, then I wipe once and start filling it up again. That way at least I know the data is being spread out across the complete space of the device.
If the GP is talking about the same article I read, I believe it was covered in Discover Magazine a couple years ago. According to the article, a man in the middle attack would be discovered due to the attacker having to rebroadcast the transmission and not knowing which way to spin the atoms. The two ends of the connection would then have an error correction rate that may exceed a certain threshold and know that something is up.
I've been using WordPress 1.5.2 for the last several months to blog about my daughter Bethany who was born in July. I upgraded my daughters blog and my nephews blog to 2.0 last night. I recommend following the upgrade instructions, they list several different times to backup your database and files and not to go any further unless you do. Even though I never had to use the backup, I'm glad I had it. Once the upgrade completed I couldn't browse my blog, but the problem was related to a coding bug with my custom theme. After I fixed it everything has been rock solid.
Some of the biggest changes I've noticed so far is the admin screen using a Google like dragging and dropping interface for placement of window frames. The added WYSIWYG HTML editor is nice, but when I click on the formatting icons in Firefox none of their actions "stick." I'm pretty sure the problem is related to an extension, I just haven't figured out which one yet. They added a theme preview when picking themes instead of the text one they use to have and categories for your posts can be added on the fly. An even more exhaustive list is here.
I've only used it twice to post entries since the upgrade, but I'm really happy with what I've seen so far.
Slashdot Mirror
I've had a few close calls too, but it is not my driving habits. It's others that have cut me off. If the car decided to brake, now I'm the hazard on the highway...
I ran across this URL several years ago and bookmarked it thinking I could use it someday. I'm actually surprised the link still works! If the device really does do what it says it is a shame that nobody has pushed it further.....
http://members.tripod.com/~anon99/water_engine/
I was just going to type a similar response, then I saw yours. The article quotes the guy saying, "I had at least eight or nine people who said they voted for me," but this is him stating that. I can't blame the guy for challenging the system if he knows he cast the vote for himself and didn't screw it up in doing so. It would be even better if these eight or nine other people came out and said they voted for him also. Of course, that means it is a lot more then a 3% error rate.
I still don't understand why voting has to be such a mess. Why can't an electronic voting system have both an electronic count and a paper ballot. During the voting process the screen changes, in a completely obvious way (I realize this is an area of debate), after each selection to indicate which candidate a voter has picked. Then when the voter is happy with their selections they hit print. The printed ballot is then available to be looked over by the voter and dropped off in the ballot counting machine. Now you have 3 different tallies, 2 electronic and 1 paper, should they be needed during a challenge like this.
I doubt this action is uncommon for any company with plans to buy a lot of land from multiple sellers. Walt Disney did it when he was buying land for Walt Disney World, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World_Res ort#Park_history_and_development. According to one of the documentaries I saw on the building of Walt Disney World, after word had leaked about who was buying all that land, the price per acre increased to more then $1500 from the $200 or $300 it was originally. It is up to the seller to determine their selling price based on the information at hand.
I haven't confused SPF with anything. I think SPF is a great idea, heck, I'm one of the 4.1 million that use it on my own domains. I was simply suggesting an additional level of control that ISP's could use to help curb some of the problem. While I agree with a previous poster that we should be able to do what we want with our Internet connections, I don't think everyone needs that by default. Each of the three ISP networks that I've happened to use during my lifetime had port blocking in place on 137, 139, and 445 traffic, and for good reason. My current ISP decided to add blocks on outbound 25 from unauthorized hosts. Yes, it sucks that my Linux box can no longer send mail directly, but its nice to know my ISP is doing what little they can to help the spam epidemic. Now, granted, I live in America, and perhaps our ISP's are a little more restrictive with what we can do with our Internet connections, but blocking outbound port 25 traffic from hosts that simply shouldn't need to send mail directly in the first place would help reduce some spam.
I realize this is Slashdot and Microsoft is a convenient scapegoat, but I have to disagree with your statement. Compromised Windows systems may play a large roll in SPAM delivery today, but they aren't the root of the problem. If you want the root, look at any ISP that allows unauthorized hosts to send mail. They deserve far more blame then Microsoft does. You'd think with the cost of bandwidth, the tools available for detecting, and the problem with SPAM today, ISP's would be doing everything they could to tighten up their network. It doesn't really cost anything to put in blocks on port 25 and only allow traffic from authorized hosts, like their own email servers and customers paying for that capability.
I love ST4 and besides the scenes with Spock trying to use "colorful metaphors," my favorite scene is when Mccoy hands Scotty the mouse who then tries to talk to the computer with it. I laugh every time I see that. Even better is when Nichols tells Scotty to use the keyboard who then starts typing away on it like he has used a QWERTY keyboard his whole life... That movie is simply a classic!
I've been in the market for a USB key for a while, but I keep delaying a purchase due to my fear of wearouts. Your comment is the first one I've run across saying it doesn't really exist. Now I have to ask, how do you know that a flash device implements a "good load leveling algorithm?" Do they list something on the the package? Can you verify they actually have something in place even if they do? I know modern HDD's can route around bad sectors, which can then later be discovered through software. Does it work the same way on these keys? As it is right now I have a 32MB key I got from a friend and I never remove anything from it until I fill it up, then I wipe once and start filling it up again. That way at least I know the data is being spread out across the complete space of the device.
If the GP is talking about the same article I read, I believe it was covered in Discover Magazine a couple years ago. According to the article, a man in the middle attack would be discovered due to the attacker having to rebroadcast the transmission and not knowing which way to spin the atoms. The two ends of the connection would then have an error correction rate that may exceed a certain threshold and know that something is up.
I've been using WordPress 1.5.2 for the last several months to blog about my daughter Bethany who was born in July. I upgraded my daughters blog and my nephews blog to 2.0 last night. I recommend following the upgrade instructions, they list several different times to backup your database and files and not to go any further unless you do. Even though I never had to use the backup, I'm glad I had it. Once the upgrade completed I couldn't browse my blog, but the problem was related to a coding bug with my custom theme. After I fixed it everything has been rock solid.
Some of the biggest changes I've noticed so far is the admin screen using a Google like dragging and dropping interface for placement of window frames. The added WYSIWYG HTML editor is nice, but when I click on the formatting icons in Firefox none of their actions "stick." I'm pretty sure the problem is related to an extension, I just haven't figured out which one yet. They added a theme preview when picking themes instead of the text one they use to have and categories for your posts can be added on the fly. An even more exhaustive list is here.
I've only used it twice to post entries since the upgrade, but I'm really happy with what I've seen so far.
Interesting, it appears that UID 666 isn't owned by anyone, yet searches for 665 (patfu) and 667 (Naikrovek) work.
ATM