Phase 2. The Stockmarket knows that SCO's business plan is flawed. The share price is jumping about because people just like to speculate in the short term.
Phase 3. And Now baystar knows SCO's business plan is flawed (and finds a technicality to get their shares back)
Phase 4. ??? [The obligatory gnome-esc gap in the logic]
Phase 5. Profit? haha.. not this time. Go Directly into Administration. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200. Darl can look forward to having tux inserted, lovingly, into his anus by his boyfriend in prison:D
"How are you going to adjust your encryption when quantum computers will make most encryption schemes obsolete? "
Why FUD my friend? This just isn't true!
The truth about quantum cryptography is that RSA and DH will be destroyed by quantum cryptography. This is due to the work of Shor who famously proved that you could factor in cubic time.
This sounds bad but we've already had good success in performing quantum key exchanges (that are unbreakable in a theoretical sense).
What does this mean for symmetric cryptography such as AES? Well, Quantum Computers that deploy Grover's algorithm, can search unordered lists in under sqrt(n) operations. A normal computer does this in an average of n/2 steps. The key space of a cipher is an unordered list so we'd only have to double our keysizes to avoid the "Grover attack".
Clearly more research is needed but the quantum future is bright as far as cryptography is concerned.
"Mention of Over Unity devices in many scientific circles will draw icy skepticism."
Hmm.. Simple reason why. If you supply power to the motor using a carnot engine and use the power from the motor to drive a carnot refrigator. Then there will be an overall flow of heat from cold to hot.. Breaking the second law of thermodynamics..
There should be a distribution that's really straight forward.
During install give the layperson the following menu.
What do you want this computer to do:
( ) Send and Recieve e-mail
( ) Author Documents
( ) Browse the web
( ) Play Music
( ) More options I've missed
( ) Advanced
In the advanced panel there should be "Install Antivirus and Firewall and autoupdater" automatically checked. (Dear Trolls/Flame-junkies: When linux makes serious dent in the user market, linux will require AV)
There should be a basic mode and advanced mode interface. Basic mode should just have the options that were set up during the install. Advanced mode would allows access to a bash shell and what not. Both modes should be proactively secure.
One suggestion is that the ability to open dangerous attachments should only be allows if linked to the use of virus software.
Linux could totally wipe out Windows on all fronts if it had the design philosophy like an ATM: It performs it's function, and it does it well.
It's an approach i've taken with my mother and the family Windows XP box. I created a custom shell that displayed "Microsoft Word", "Tesco Shopping", "Log Off" buttons. I have a happy customer.
1.) Spammers don't obey the rule of law..
2.) Spammers can go offshore.
The way to deal with spam is to make it so it doesn't pay. Remember the illegal broadcast stations? The way we (in the UK) managed to shut them down was by making it *illegal* to advertise on them.
Do the same to spam and throw in a host of technical measures and we might be able to bring it under control
It's one of those privacy tradeoffs that actually looks quite good. RFID couldn't be used at this stage to track all the cars in the USA so the chance of it impinging on your privacy is rather low. However, with estimates of a 50% reduction in road deaths.. That's quite a dividend.
The problem with slowing down that patch release cycle is the software vendors get lazy. "I wont release this patch for 18 months because no-one knows the vulnerability"..
It's a difficult one. On the one hand you've got the problem of lazy vendors and on the other you've got full disclosure where the enemy will like develop the worm before you can test your patch properly.
I think the people that find these vulnerabilities should but an expire date on their vulnerability at which point full disclosure kicks in. There should be protections in law to ensure this practice is legal too.
That way.. we have motivated vendors and give the vendors enough time to fix the problem.
But correlation is not equivelent to causation.. Maybe people are buying more albums for a different reason.. Economies around the world upturned in 2003.. Maybe that's important factor too..
I just refuse to believe that the Trusted Computer Initiative will deliver more secure computing.
The XBOX was an attempt at some kind of DRM and it got hacked to pieces because DRM is just impossible. Plus the fact that Microsoft write overly complicated software with bad tools and bad programmers.
But Microsoft bashing aside, they aint alone. I don't think there is any company or organisation capable of deliverying decent computer security at the moment.
The tools do not yet exist to manage projects containing millions of lines of code in a way that won't introduce security flaws.
No.. it's falls naturally out of the electron-weak theory.
The electroweak theory unifies the electromagentic field and the weak theory. The original theory implied a massless W, Z and photon. This theory however is clearly incorrect as the mass of the W and Z particles are over 80 times larger that of the proton.
This break down of the symmetry between the electromagnetic and weak forces below energies of 100GeV coupled with the fact that W and Z are so heavy implies there is some mechanism beyond the standard model that endows these particles with mass.
A simple explanation is given by the Higgs field. Higgs postulated the existance of a particle with only mass and nothing else (actually, it's kind of required since it'd muck-up a whole host of conservation laws if it wasn't). When this particle is near another particle, say a proton, there is a force between the two as a result of the Higgs field.
Higgs' key
insight was that if you write an equation to describe the Higgs field and find the lowest energy solution for empty space then you get a non-zero value.
The direct, but not obvious, result of this is that any particle that interacts with the Higgs field is given mass. This is ingenious because now you can divide particles into two clumps. Particles that don't interact with the Higgs field and particles that do. The one's that don't are massless, like the photon, the one's that do have a mass..
So we now have a clear explanation why the W and Z have mass and photons don't. Vector Bosons , like the photon, don't interact with the Higgs field. The W and Z particles are not vector Bosons and therefore interact with the Higgs field.
If the Higgs field exists then it's particle must exist too. This is a result of quantum mechanics, every field has it's particle. Photons are the electromagnetisms cheerleaders and the W and Z complete the picture to give us the electroweak. Then there are the Gluons which are the stuff of the strong nuclear force and just like we get particles for these forces, we get a particle for the Higgs field.
So, far from being a fudge, it nicely completes the theory but it lacks specifics. Why are the W and Z so heavy? Why do some particles interact more than ohters? There is a lot of interesting physics out there to be discovered! What a fantastic time to be alive!
No matter how many security researchers Microsoft get to look at their source there will always be more looking at linux. The reason: It's open source..
Microsoft can't compete against that so I suspect they'll lose their % of the server market quite rapidly in the next two years.
It annoys me that a copy that never even authored the stuff can buy the copyright off someone and then sue them for copyright infringement. SCO have done nothing to help linux grow into a useable operating system.. They're just milking money out of crazy IP laws.
There was an article in New Scientist a few weeks ago about a lense that changed it's focus in response to an electric current, iirc.
It was made of some plastic and I think the current changed the density of the plastic at some point in the structure in order to change the focus.
Of course, the aim was the same: "Make a lense without moving parts" - these guys must have developed a better solution because the Lense was very poor in the NS article.
Actually, that would make S a _complex_ number, not an imaginary one.
Well, unless i'm missing something.. S=(1+X)i where X equals the number of days. X is obviously a natural number. So S= would always have a strictly imaginary component??
Well, I misjudged how it'd be taken and my karma's took a wack as a result:)
Erm.. that's quite a probing question.. they're not in my face at all.
It's just that I think a belief in science is more logical. If an idea is shown to false in science, it is thrown out and learned from.
With religion, the idea doesn't face the same rigerous test.
Both science and religion quests in are nearly same.. to give us answers to why the world is the way it is..Science seems the more direct approach..
But your point about intolerance is insightful.. I hadn't seen it that way! I suppose if people want to believe something (like i believe in the principle of science) then they should be free to!
Slashdot Mirror
Phase 1. We know SCO's business plan is flawed.
Phase 2. The Stockmarket knows that SCO's business plan is flawed. The share price is jumping about because people just like to speculate in the short term.
Phase 3. And Now baystar knows SCO's business plan is flawed (and finds a technicality to get their shares back)
Phase 4. ??? [The obligatory gnome-esc gap in the logic]
Phase 5. Profit? haha.. not this time. Go Directly into Administration. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200. Darl can look forward to having tux inserted, lovingly, into his anus by his boyfriend in prison :D
Simon.
"How are you going to adjust your encryption when quantum computers will make most encryption schemes obsolete? "
Why FUD my friend? This just isn't true!
The truth about quantum cryptography is that RSA and DH will be destroyed by quantum cryptography. This is due to the work of Shor who famously proved that you could factor in cubic time.
This sounds bad but we've already had good success in performing quantum key exchanges (that are unbreakable in a theoretical sense).
What does this mean for symmetric cryptography such as AES? Well, Quantum Computers that deploy Grover's algorithm, can search unordered lists in under sqrt(n) operations. A normal computer does this in an average of n/2 steps. The key space of a cipher is an unordered list so we'd only have to double our keysizes to avoid the "Grover attack".
Clearly more research is needed but the quantum future is bright as far as cryptography is concerned.
Simon.
hrm.. true.. it'd be very close to the carnot effiency though.. I recon it'd be close enough to still violate the 2nd law.
Who cares anyway.. it violates the first law aswell..
Si.
Nah my proof is still valid.
Use a carnot piston which drives magnet through superconducting rings.
Current induced in rings rotates motor.
Motor drives carnot refrigrator.
This system is closed but the overall heat flow is from hot to cold.
Simon.
"Mention of Over Unity devices in many scientific circles will draw icy skepticism."
Hmm.. Simple reason why. If you supply power to the motor using a carnot engine
and use the power from the motor to drive a carnot refrigator.
Then there will be an overall flow of heat from cold to hot..
Breaking the second law of thermodynamics..
Bullshit is word of the week.
Simon.
There should be a distribution that's really straight forward.
During install give the layperson the following menu.
What do you want this computer to do:
( ) Send and Recieve e-mail
( ) Author Documents
( ) Browse the web
( ) Play Music
( ) More options I've missed
( ) Advanced
In the advanced panel there should be "Install Antivirus and Firewall and autoupdater"
automatically checked. (Dear Trolls/Flame-junkies: When linux makes serious dent in the user
market, linux will require AV)
There should be a basic mode and advanced mode interface.
Basic mode should just have the options that were set up during the install.
Advanced mode would allows access to a bash shell and what not.
Both modes should be proactively secure.
One suggestion is that the ability to open dangerous attachments should only be allows
if linked to the use of virus software.
Linux could totally wipe out Windows on all fronts if it had the design philosophy like an ATM:
It performs it's function, and it does it well.
It's an approach i've taken with my mother and the family Windows XP box. I created a custom shell that displayed "Microsoft Word", "Tesco Shopping", "Log Off" buttons.
I have a happy customer.
Simon.
Nah you make it illegal for *companies* to hire other *companies* to send spam on their behalf :)
Si.
Newsflash..
1.) Spammers don't obey the rule of law..
2.) Spammers can go offshore.
The way to deal with spam is to make it so it doesn't pay. Remember the illegal broadcast stations? The way we (in the UK) managed to shut them down was by making it *illegal* to advertise on them.
Do the same to spam and throw in a host of technical measures and we might be able to bring it under control
Hmm your threat model should include people who have a local user account?
I mean, do the l33t|sts just give up trying to get a valid user account?
What about the disgruntled employee who wants to waste some time by destroying his own PC?
Simon.
It's one of those privacy tradeoffs that actually looks quite good.
:)
RFID couldn't be used at this stage to track all the cars in the USA
so the chance of it impinging on your privacy is rather low.
However, with estimates of a 50% reduction in road deaths.. That's quite a dividend.
I for one welcome our new RFID overlords
Simon.
The problem with slowing down that patch release cycle is the software vendors get lazy. "I wont release this patch for 18 months because no-one knows the vulnerability"..
It's a difficult one. On the one hand you've got the problem of lazy vendors and on the other you've got full disclosure where the enemy will like develop the worm before you can test your patch properly.
I think the people that find these vulnerabilities should but an expire date on their vulnerability at which point full disclosure kicks in. There should be protections in law to ensure this practice is legal too.
That way.. we have motivated vendors and give the vendors enough time to fix the problem.
Simon.
But correlation is not equivelent to causation.. Maybe people are buying more albums for a different reason.. Economies around the world upturned in 2003.. Maybe that's important factor too..
Simon.
If people can't secure the computer systems i wonder how secure the old paper based systems were?
:P
I mean, with a physical system u need physical access but I bet those old systems were probably quite easy to subvert
Simon.
I just refuse to believe that the Trusted Computer Initiative will deliver more secure computing.
The XBOX was an attempt at some kind of DRM and it got hacked to pieces because DRM is just impossible. Plus the fact that Microsoft write overly complicated software with bad tools and bad programmers.
But Microsoft bashing aside, they aint alone. I don't think there is any company or organisation capable of deliverying decent computer security at the moment.
The tools do not yet exist to manage projects containing millions of lines of code in a way that won't introduce security flaws.
Si.
CAN-SPAM is not going to make a difference in the light that 40% of global e-mail is spam.. and a lot of it comes off American shores..
Every little helps i guess..
Simon.
No.. it's falls naturally out of the electron-weak theory.
The electroweak theory unifies the electromagentic field and the weak theory. The original theory implied a massless W, Z and photon. This theory however is clearly incorrect as the mass of the W and Z particles are over 80 times larger that of the proton.
This break down of the symmetry between the electromagnetic and weak forces below energies of 100GeV coupled with the fact that W and Z are so heavy implies there is some mechanism beyond the standard model that endows these particles with mass.
A simple explanation is given by the Higgs field. Higgs postulated the existance of a particle with only mass and nothing else (actually, it's kind of required since it'd muck-up a whole host of conservation laws if it wasn't). When this particle is near another particle, say a proton, there is a force between the two as a result of the Higgs field.
Higgs' key insight was that if you write an equation to describe the Higgs field and find the lowest energy solution for empty space then you get a non-zero value.
The direct, but not obvious, result of this is that any particle that interacts with the Higgs field is given mass. This is ingenious because now you can divide particles into two clumps. Particles that don't interact with the Higgs field and particles that do. The one's that don't are massless, like the photon, the one's that do have a mass..
So we now have a clear explanation why the W and Z have mass and photons don't. Vector Bosons , like the photon, don't interact with the Higgs field. The W and Z particles are not vector Bosons and therefore interact with the Higgs field.
If the Higgs field exists then it's particle must exist too. This is a result of quantum mechanics, every field has it's particle. Photons are the electromagnetisms cheerleaders and the W and Z complete the picture to give us the electroweak. Then there are the Gluons which are the stuff of the strong nuclear force and just like we get particles for these forces, we get a particle for the Higgs field.
So, far from being a fudge, it nicely completes the theory but it lacks specifics. Why are the W and Z so heavy? Why do some particles interact more than ohters? There is a lot of interesting physics out there to be discovered! What a fantastic time to be alive!
Simon
No matter how many security researchers Microsoft get to look at their source there will always be more looking at linux. The reason: It's open source..
Microsoft can't compete against that so I suspect they'll lose their % of the server market quite rapidly in the next two years.
Simon.
I wonder if the progress of science in treating "mental illness" is potentially reducing the creativity of our race.
It's long been know that genius is "in bed" with madness.
Some of these "mad" people probably aren't mad at all.. they're just rather odd but that oddity gives can give them brilliant insight!
Simon.
Of course, this begs the question.. Why are the popular bloggers popular if other bloggers are thinking these ideas up first?
I think it's the fact that the more popular bloggers put their ideas across in a clearer way than the less know bloggers..
it's not the idea that's important.. it's how you present it.
Simon.
It annoys me that a copy that never even authored the stuff can buy the copyright off someone and then sue them for copyright infringement. SCO have done nothing to help linux grow into a useable operating system.. They're just milking money out of crazy IP laws.
Simon.
There was an article in New Scientist a few weeks ago about a lense that changed it's focus in response to an electric current, iirc.
It was made of some plastic and I think the current changed the density of the plastic at some point in the structure in order to change the focus.
Of course, the aim was the same: "Make a lense without moving parts" - these guys must have developed a better solution because the Lense was very poor in the NS article.
Simon.
Actually, that would make S a _complex_ number, not an imaginary one.
Well, unless i'm missing something.. S=(1+X)i where X equals the number of days. X is obviously a natural number. So S= would always have a strictly imaginary component??
Simon
Well, I misjudged how it'd be taken and my karma's took a wack as a result :)
Erm.. that's quite a probing question.. they're not in my face at all.
It's just that I think a belief in science is more logical. If an idea is shown to false in science, it is thrown out and learned from.
With religion, the idea doesn't face the same rigerous test.
Both science and religion quests in are nearly same.. to give us answers to why the world is the way it is..Science seems the more direct approach..
But your point about intolerance is insightful.. I hadn't seen it that way! I suppose if people want to believe something (like i believe in the principle of science) then they should be free to!
Simon
lol. actually it wasn't intended as troll.. though it seems to have, understandably, been taken that way..
:)
I've actually demonstrated my ignorance to what exactly some religions require you to believe if they require belief in creation at all.
I suppose religion is much like science. If i find something that contradicts a scientific principle.. the principle adapts or dies.
I suppose religion is just better at adapting
Simon.
This has to be it now..
Way back when, the earth was the centre of the universe.
The sun became the center of the universe.
We found out we were one star in a galaxy that was the centre of the universe..
Then we found there were countless billions of stars.
Now we find another local planet with ancient water on it.. The next find I expect is simple life living on Mars.
How can any religion survive that revelation?
Simon.