Altough they will be keeping in mind where the can is heading. they will not post a Private eye after that can. So your idea of going out at sea or in the deep country side with the can and pressing the button is gonna turn out as exciting as a wet turd.
I can just see you executing your plan, hiding your can, going far out and then pulling the secret can from your bag of dirty undies, then franatically pressing the button and..... well nothing because as you said no signal. You'll just have to repress it when you get home and pray the gadget spared some batteries to transmit when in a covered area. Or else you could end up with a winning can, no batteries and thus no prize.
Oh the irony of you trying to screw them and in the end calling in your local bottler and asking for your prize..
If I were a Linux vendor I would be all over BA and other victims pitching my stuff.... I know this is a bit wrong but hey Business is business and I am sure I would get these guys attention FAST!
Many people have been telling me about it. I live here in London and browse the net with Virgin ADSL. Howeer I cannot see this broadband content when I go to the BBCi website.
Well they didn't miraculously pull out more capcity from there batteries. Nor did they find a black hole for dumping the heat.
In fact motorola made an announcement about a month and a half ago about it's new line of G4s. Faster and less power hungry. By OHm's law if it consumes less power than it should radiate less heat!
As we say in French CQFD (What needed to be prved)
Re:Via's RNG publicity and a conspiracy theory...
on
VIA Pulls PadLockSL
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Gaim-e and gaim-encryption aren't exactly user friendly. They are not easy to configure and install. Especially on windows machines. Moreover Gaim-e is Open source. So the agencies couldn't really call up a CEO or something and have them removed could they?
The only thing that is a little mainstream (because it's easy to use and install) is Trillan. However it is closed source (possible back door) and the key generation isn't fully documented. Cerulean studios could have been obliged to give up their keys..
Padlock had it all: Open source, Secure and could potentially become maintream as it is easy to install (in windows) and cross platform
Via's RNG publicity and a conspiracy theory...
on
VIA Pulls PadLockSL
·
· Score: 1
VIA's random number generator greatly increases the speed to generate the keys (ie faster than p4 2.6 ghz on VIA's 1Ghz proc). However there is a full software mode so it still works.
I think VIA knew that waste's code was dodgy in the first place. They published it so it would make some noise and draw some attention to their hardware specs.
Or one of the US 3 letter agencies might have requested not to publish secure tools? Anybody here thinks that securei easy IM might not facilitate terrorist message interception?
I mean if one uses secure IM, than they immediately draw attention of the security agencies. Now if everyone uses secure IM who can they focus on?
Can you prove that there aren't chocolate cakes in orbit around Saturn? No? Well I guess that means that there are!
Be real. Anybody who's done some basic maths knows that to prove something you need to prove that it ALWAYS works. As to prove something wrong you only need to prove it ONCE.
Same thing for the burden of proof here. Imagine a world where everybody would be guilty else they prooved innocent. Things don't work that way thank god! Err wait...
The article says it took an army of cryptographers to put the message back together. I'm thinking this is more of a journalist fudge given the rest of the article.
Was this guy using SSL for his mail (end to end)?
Better yet GPG?
I don't think the NSA could crack a 2048 bits GPG key. Not in a million years.
NPV sorry for all the techies but an MBA had to..
on
100-Year Domain Renewals?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
.. answer this
I've seen a few comments targeted against MBA's in a few weeks and the one I saw today just was too much BS. The argument that this is a stupid "gain money quickly move" doens't stand.
Well some people obviously have neve heard of NPV, or Net present Value of money. Net present value gives you the value today of a series of cash flows to happen in the future.
The formula is as follows:
NPV = SUM(Cash Flow *(1+i)^-n) | Where n ranges from 1 to 99 in our case.
i is the opportunity rate. In a company money typically has a greater return value than the money market. IE you would expect money invested in a company to be more profitable than on the money market. This means that if the money market rate is 5% than you would expect a higher internal return to compensate your risk (risk premium principle). Thus the internal rate of return of a company would be market rate+risk premium. So the IRR could be 10% in a company.
Let's just imagine these guys at NetSol are a bunch of losers and will only offer the market return rate, or will simply put the money in government bonds at 4% (constant over 100 years for simplicity skaes). Let's say also that the cost of a web name renewal will be $10 per year for the next 100 years (it's more likely to be more as the inflation cathces in, but heck let's keep it simple).
Even with these very pessimistic variables, the NPV of these cash flows is $306!!! Tha's a $700 profit for the Netsol guys.
So please, don't say they are making a stupid move doing this as you have no idea what you are talking about. This is a very profitable operation. It is very likely to be a success as people will think " hey 100 years * 10 dollars = $1000. So I am not getting ditched and it is peace of mind. Let's take it"
BTW, if the NPV is $1000, than the discount rate is only 0.12%. Impossible.
It wasn't easy, but with those 11.3 MB images and all thos cool hi-res videos. WE have finally done it.
NASA beware the power of./
If Slashdot was around in ancient time, we would have called this the slashcratia (cratia coming from the latin POWER)
For the richest ones out there.
Buyingg a POrsche Boxster is surely not the best choice if you want to get a crowd when opening the bonnet.
The ONLY thing you can see is the Oil jauge!
The engine in placed in the center of the car (unlike 911s whose engines are at the back end).
This also means that you cannot easily make some parts replacements yourself.
The best thing for sealed bonnets/ difficult to access engines is not about warranties for the manufacturers but for the servifce they charge.
That's right changing the dyno in a Porsche boxster can only be done by a dealer as you have to lower the WHOLE engine. That means a lot of billable hours for one single part. Thank god Porsches are the most reliable sport cars out there.
Alright,
I agree with pretty much everybody about the whole Read-only positive aspects of live CD. No Hard Drive , easier administration etc.
BUt guys wake up. The industry has created an aswer to all this and it's called THIN-CLIENT. That,s right. On the local machine they run an os of some ROM or even better boot from the network. On one central server there is a shared drive, permissions for applications etc.
I reckon that is the future of entreprise desktop. Do this remind AS/400 to anybody else but me? Is history repeating itself or what?
Revenues have nothing to do with Profit!
Shareholders are not interested in revenues but share price.
No profit no dividend.
You should look at the PER (profit earnings ratio = number of years of current profit to pay market price) in this industry. It is near 50, which means profit would pay back the investment in 50years.
Darn risky if you ask me
You Now what, customers are gonna pick up the bill. That's right.
Here in Europe everybody got frenzy when the governments put teh 3G licenses on auction. Well all our operators forked out Billion$.
How are they paying for it?
Well we are! Altough there are ever more susbcribers to their service prices have not come down. Forget about the whole economies of scale and inversed moores law for telecommunication prices. We have kept a steady Price tag.
Every time we text we have to pay roughly 20 Us cents for a 160 caracter SMS! Beter yet whenever we travel abroad (to another EU country) we end up paying calls for about 1.2$ per minute. That's for inbound calls too. I'm sick of it and have decided to ease off on my phone. Email is massively back in my live.
Welcome to the club America
As stupid as it may sound, does VT still have the right to claim their Supercomputer is in 3rd place?
Before you start flaming me think about it. They have changed all teh hardware for "equivalent" hardware. Nothing tells us the XServes run any faster or Slower than the desktops. If the performance is anyhow different a new Inspector would need to validate the tests again.
We all assume it should run the same and all, but technically the record is no longer valid as it is not the same computers!
Anybody have some idea on the validity of their record now they have changed the machines? Heck if they even change the network design, performance might drop!
I wish there was some kind of engraving on the aluminium casing stating something like "Virginia Tech, Supercomputer node #758 - 2003"
Then they could definitively sell it at a Premium.
I mean I can get this kind of computer off ebay for more or less the smae price. I need some kind of souvenir that it's from Virginia.
How about sending it through the IPOD engraving shop?
You have a valid point.
However I am more and more "obliged" to buy phones with cameras, color screens etc simply because simpler ones are less and less available.
I don't argue that some people need and actually want convergence, I'm just saying that those who do not want this still have to go with it (and pay the price, security wise, and money wise).
My second complain was about adding features not securely: Why not use linux or whatever else if you wish. But make sure it works! I don't want to end up running "Nokia update" every week as on my Windows box.
More features, yes but not at the expense of security and reliability.
Think about the damages on windows PCs.
Users are advised to keep their machines up to date and yet a significant proportion of them do not listen (want proof? Mydoom is now in version C and still taking hits at MSFTs website).
Now how many of you have updated your phones firmware? Think about all those non PDA phones which don't come with a PC connection Kit. All these Nokia phones WILL remain vulnerable for as long as they will work because hardly anybody hassles to go in a Nokia centre to upgrade their firmware.
I stand by my original statement. Commodity electronics are not meant to be upgraded as computers and users will not give them that kind of attention.
With the advent of GPRS and other always on Data connection, be prepared for some more trouble as people hack into your phone from miles away. No need to be in bluetooth range.
Keep It Simple Stupid.
Phones are tools. We don't "need" them to be fully featured akin a full OS.
Today we have Bluetooth hole sin a few phones. What's next tomorrow on MSFT Smart Phones? Hackers turning in using your line to call 0900 numbers? People hacking your e-wallet?
When it comes to commodity devices we should make sure they do reliably and securely work.
I don't expect anything less.
First barrier would be having to pay spammers to harm a said company.
Also, in my model, spammers are not the ones to blame; just like in the "Real world" where poster printers and the post office are not liable for the unsollicited advertising. Spammers would come out into the light and they could more easily be summoned to deliver their clients name. A good idea would be to oblige spammers to verify the identity of the company solliciting advertisement.
Think of it like this, would anybody on the local radio advertise against another company? No because their are laws against that and Radios don't want to lose their businesses. If spammers become legit they too will try to protect their business.
Slashdot Mirror
Altough they will be keeping in mind where the can is heading. they will not post a Private eye after that can.
So your idea of going out at sea or in the deep country side with the can and pressing the button is gonna turn out as exciting as a wet turd.
I can just see you executing your plan, hiding your can, going far out and then pulling the secret can from your bag of dirty undies, then franatically pressing the button and..... well nothing because as you said no signal. You'll just have to repress it when you get home and pray the gadget spared some batteries to transmit when in a covered area.
Or else you could end up with a winning can, no batteries and thus no prize.
Oh the irony of you trying to screw them and in the end calling in your local bottler and asking for your prize..
Lol
Well from an ethics point of view I would say this is wrong.
I mean vendors would be like vulture hawking for some wounded flesh right now.
But hey who said sales were ethical anyway?
What do Iraqis have to do with the Sasser worm???
Looks like the mirror is more reputable than you are..
Heathrow hasn't been spared yesterday
http://tinyurl.com/3h7fb
If I were a Linux vendor I would be all over BA and other victims pitching my stuff.... I know this is a bit wrong but hey Business is business and I am sure I would get these guys attention FAST!
Many people have been telling me about it.
I live here in London and browse the net with Virgin ADSL. Howeer I cannot see this broadband content when I go to the BBCi website.
ANy help much appreciated
I can think of one obvious: People pay and use Windows for all the reasons stated above rather than say Linux
Well they didn't miraculously pull out more capcity from there batteries. Nor did they find a black hole for dumping the heat.
In fact motorola made an announcement about a month and a half ago about it's new line of G4s. Faster and less power hungry. By OHm's law if it consumes less power than it should radiate less heat!
As we say in French CQFD (What needed to be prved)
Gaim-e and gaim-encryption aren't exactly user friendly. They are not easy to configure and install. Especially on windows machines. Moreover Gaim-e is Open source. So the agencies couldn't really call up a CEO or something and have them removed could they?
The only thing that is a little mainstream (because it's easy to use and install) is Trillan. However it is closed source (possible back door) and the key generation isn't fully documented. Cerulean studios could have been obliged to give up their keys..
Padlock had it all: Open source, Secure and could potentially become maintream as it is easy to install (in windows) and cross platform
VIA's random number generator greatly increases the speed to generate the keys (ie faster than p4 2.6 ghz on VIA's 1Ghz proc).
However there is a full software mode so it still works.
I think VIA knew that waste's code was dodgy in the first place. They published it so it would make some noise and draw some attention to their hardware specs.
Or one of the US 3 letter agencies might have requested not to publish secure tools?
Anybody here thinks that securei easy IM might not facilitate terrorist message interception?
I mean if one uses secure IM, than they immediately draw attention of the security agencies. Now if everyone uses secure IM who can they focus on?
Can you prove that there aren't chocolate cakes in orbit around Saturn?
No?
Well I guess that means that there are!
Be real. Anybody who's done some basic maths knows that to prove something you need to prove that it ALWAYS works. As to prove something wrong you only need to prove it ONCE.
Same thing for the burden of proof here.
Imagine a world where everybody would be guilty else they prooved innocent. Things don't work that way thank god! Err wait...
The article says it took an army of cryptographers to put the message back together. I'm thinking this is more of a journalist fudge given the rest of the article.
Was this guy using SSL for his mail (end to end)?
Better yet GPG?
I don't think the NSA could crack a 2048 bits GPG key. Not in a million years.
.. answer this
I've seen a few comments targeted against MBA's in a few weeks and the one I saw today just was too much BS.
The argument that this is a stupid "gain money quickly move" doens't stand.
Well some people obviously have neve heard of NPV, or Net present Value of money.
Net present value gives you the value today of a series of cash flows to happen in the future.
The formula is as follows:
NPV = SUM(Cash Flow *(1+i)^-n) | Where n ranges from 1 to 99 in our case.
i is the opportunity rate. In a company money typically has a greater return value than the money market. IE you would expect money invested in a company to be more profitable than on the money market.
This means that if the money market rate is 5% than you would expect a higher internal return to compensate your risk (risk premium principle). Thus the internal rate of return of a company would be market rate+risk premium.
So the IRR could be 10% in a company.
Let's just imagine these guys at NetSol are a bunch of losers and will only offer the market return rate, or will simply put the money in government bonds at 4% (constant over 100 years for simplicity skaes).
Let's say also that the cost of a web name renewal will be $10 per year for the next 100 years (it's more likely to be more as the inflation cathces in, but heck let's keep it simple).
Even with these very pessimistic variables, the NPV of these cash flows is $306!!! Tha's a $700 profit for the Netsol guys.
So please, don't say they are making a stupid move doing this as you have no idea what you are talking about. This is a very profitable operation.
It is very likely to be a success as people will think " hey 100 years * 10 dollars = $1000. So I am not getting ditched and it is peace of mind. Let's take it"
BTW, if the NPV is $1000, than the discount rate is only 0.12%. Impossible.
Works great with headphones, even works sometimes with Speakers
I do realise Gold has special properties such as conductivity and hypoallergenic properties, but come on!
It wasn't easy, but with those 11.3 MB images and all thos cool hi-res videos. WE have finally done it. NASA beware the power of ./
If Slashdot was around in ancient time, we would have called this the slashcratia (cratia coming from the latin POWER)
For the richest ones out there. Buyingg a POrsche Boxster is surely not the best choice if you want to get a crowd when opening the bonnet. The ONLY thing you can see is the Oil jauge! The engine in placed in the center of the car (unlike 911s whose engines are at the back end). This also means that you cannot easily make some parts replacements yourself. The best thing for sealed bonnets/ difficult to access engines is not about warranties for the manufacturers but for the servifce they charge. That's right changing the dyno in a Porsche boxster can only be done by a dealer as you have to lower the WHOLE engine. That means a lot of billable hours for one single part. Thank god Porsches are the most reliable sport cars out there.
Alright, I agree with pretty much everybody about the whole Read-only positive aspects of live CD. No Hard Drive , easier administration etc. BUt guys wake up. The industry has created an aswer to all this and it's called THIN-CLIENT. That,s right. On the local machine they run an os of some ROM or even better boot from the network. On one central server there is a shared drive, permissions for applications etc. I reckon that is the future of entreprise desktop. Do this remind AS/400 to anybody else but me? Is history repeating itself or what?
Revenues have nothing to do with Profit! Shareholders are not interested in revenues but share price. No profit no dividend. You should look at the PER (profit earnings ratio = number of years of current profit to pay market price) in this industry. It is near 50, which means profit would pay back the investment in 50years. Darn risky if you ask me
You Now what, customers are gonna pick up the bill. That's right. Here in Europe everybody got frenzy when the governments put teh 3G licenses on auction. Well all our operators forked out Billion$. How are they paying for it? Well we are! Altough there are ever more susbcribers to their service prices have not come down. Forget about the whole economies of scale and inversed moores law for telecommunication prices. We have kept a steady Price tag. Every time we text we have to pay roughly 20 Us cents for a 160 caracter SMS! Beter yet whenever we travel abroad (to another EU country) we end up paying calls for about 1.2$ per minute. That's for inbound calls too. I'm sick of it and have decided to ease off on my phone. Email is massively back in my live. Welcome to the club America
As stupid as it may sound, does VT still have the right to claim their Supercomputer is in 3rd place? Before you start flaming me think about it. They have changed all teh hardware for "equivalent" hardware. Nothing tells us the XServes run any faster or Slower than the desktops. If the performance is anyhow different a new Inspector would need to validate the tests again. We all assume it should run the same and all, but technically the record is no longer valid as it is not the same computers! Anybody have some idea on the validity of their record now they have changed the machines? Heck if they even change the network design, performance might drop!
I wish there was some kind of engraving on the aluminium casing stating something like "Virginia Tech, Supercomputer node #758 - 2003" Then they could definitively sell it at a Premium. I mean I can get this kind of computer off ebay for more or less the smae price. I need some kind of souvenir that it's from Virginia. How about sending it through the IPOD engraving shop?
You have a valid point. However I am more and more "obliged" to buy phones with cameras, color screens etc simply because simpler ones are less and less available. I don't argue that some people need and actually want convergence, I'm just saying that those who do not want this still have to go with it (and pay the price, security wise, and money wise). My second complain was about adding features not securely: Why not use linux or whatever else if you wish. But make sure it works! I don't want to end up running "Nokia update" every week as on my Windows box. More features, yes but not at the expense of security and reliability.
Think about the damages on windows PCs. Users are advised to keep their machines up to date and yet a significant proportion of them do not listen (want proof? Mydoom is now in version C and still taking hits at MSFTs website). Now how many of you have updated your phones firmware? Think about all those non PDA phones which don't come with a PC connection Kit. All these Nokia phones WILL remain vulnerable for as long as they will work because hardly anybody hassles to go in a Nokia centre to upgrade their firmware. I stand by my original statement. Commodity electronics are not meant to be upgraded as computers and users will not give them that kind of attention. With the advent of GPRS and other always on Data connection, be prepared for some more trouble as people hack into your phone from miles away. No need to be in bluetooth range.
Keep It Simple Stupid. Phones are tools. We don't "need" them to be fully featured akin a full OS. Today we have Bluetooth hole sin a few phones. What's next tomorrow on MSFT Smart Phones? Hackers turning in using your line to call 0900 numbers? People hacking your e-wallet? When it comes to commodity devices we should make sure they do reliably and securely work. I don't expect anything less.
First barrier would be having to pay spammers to harm a said company. Also, in my model, spammers are not the ones to blame; just like in the "Real world" where poster printers and the post office are not liable for the unsollicited advertising. Spammers would come out into the light and they could more easily be summoned to deliver their clients name. A good idea would be to oblige spammers to verify the identity of the company solliciting advertisement. Think of it like this, would anybody on the local radio advertise against another company? No because their are laws against that and Radios don't want to lose their businesses. If spammers become legit they too will try to protect their business.