Even if that were true, 71% of servers sending spam does not necessarily mean that they account for the same amount of spam messages in our mboxes. It takes only a single mail server on an OC-12 or OC-48 network to counter thousands (!) of servers on 56k lines that are very common in China!
I've analyzed over 4 years of spam and the distribution didn't change over the time. According to the originating IPs, over 86% of spam originates from US netblocks. That most spam originates from China is (still) a myth. Sorry guys.
The fact that Microsoft hasn't been forced to either abandon their business model for one that is compatible with competition, or been placed under strong regulation and become effectively a public utility, is just one of many warning signs that should give us all pause.
In other news... Microsoft tortures their programmers in Abu Redmond. Pics (.BMP) at 11.
Seriously, when has a monopoly really been dismantled from the outside? It takes both a huge outcry and inner rot before that happens.
Isn't it actually spying? When a spy takes snapshots of secret documents, he's not stealing them. He just changes their nature from "SECRET" to "LETS PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED" (aka. "TOP SECRET"). But stealing?
That would be a lot of software to backdoor! As you've said, it is impossible to watch everyone 24/7/365. It would also be extremely difficult to force every software shop to install backdoors either in domestic or export versions. If you want to do this, you have to coerce either library/toolkit vendors or even operating system vendors to put backdoors in for you. And this means stuff like crypto libraries, kernel modules etc. I'm quite sure that most software vendors are honest and not very keen about helping their government spy on their customers.
Well said! In earlier (pre WWW) days, a hacker journal used to publish tricks how to circumvent the plain old telephone system. They knew that those tricks were illegal, but they used phrasing like: "if you ground wire a and connect b to c, you would prevent the tariff meter from starting, but this is highly illegal. Don't do it." You get the idea. They got sued many times by phone companies and by the attorney general, but they (or their legal advisers) were so clever, they always got away with it.
The point here is fair use. If you published a recipe for, say, a nuclear bomb, in a physics forum, that would be okay, but it would be frowned upon if you did it elsewhere. Strange, but true.
Really? I've looked at the leaked IOS code, and it doesn't look
like anything special at all. Pretty standard implementation of
most protocols. The only really interesting part was EIGRP, because
it was never published elsewhere. But really, IOS didn't contain
any substantial surprises.
Anyone could build a decent router with standard TCP/IP stack,
like, say, from BSD. But such home-made router would never achieve
the performance level of Cisco equipment, if you have to pass
every IP packet through the main CPU. Cisco's hardware arch is
much more clever, because most of the processing is relegated
to the interface processor (cards), most of it transiting very
efficiently through the backplane. The main CPU runs OSPF or
EIGRP and a few other protocols that maintain global state.
That's it, and that's good(tm).
Sorry, no. CDMA is code division multiple access, a technique
that is totally different from the FDM+TDM combo (frequency hopping)
used in GSM. It is not proprietary at all. It is even an International Standard.
A german court in Hamburg decided that you can be liable
for the contents of pages that you link to. Because of this
silly ruling, a lot of web sites in Germany include a
standard disclaimer citing this ruling, and that the
linking webside authors distance themselves from the
content of linked-to websites. It's a pretty ugly disclaimer,
that is useless, because it doesn't protect you from being
sued and convicted anyway. Effectively, this ruling (or
similar jurisprudence in other countries) prevents you
from linking to any other site with impunity.
Should we follow Germany's example here and put the blame
on people who link to sites over which content they don't
have any influence?
but the NSA could do crack it if they really wanted to.
winzip is not open source, isn't it? NSA has probably the source code, or they may have a backdoor, installed courtesy of winzip makers. Remember NSA's master key in Windows crypto libraries?
One of CDMA's most intriguing properties, is that it is extremely difficult to jam effectively. That's the reason it's being used by the military in combat theater. CDMA is used in the US, Japan als a few other countries' cellphone networks.
But even if it were possible to build an effective jammer that operates on wide bandwidth, a custom sender/receiver pair could still circumvent jamming effectively. Building this is not easy, but it's possible.
Finally, what would prevent terrorists from using a combination of timer and cellphone triggered detonator? Imagine a detonator being reset every 15 minutes by a remote phone call. If they don't get a special call within a certain time period, BOOM. Or even worse: they could detect the jammers and assume that an important protected target is approaching, so they would detonate when the jammer's signal reaches its peak.
IOS source code is no big deal. It's Cisco's hardware implementation and architecture that is the real interesting part. At least for the core router functionality. Some fringe aspects would be interesting to study, but it's not really that critical.
Slashdot Mirror
Good point. How about some nice HOWTO links for configuring common MTAs, a la O'Reilly Cookbooks?
Even if that were true, 71% of servers sending spam does not necessarily mean that they account for the same amount of spam messages in our mboxes. It takes only a single mail server on an OC-12 or OC-48 network to counter thousands (!) of servers on 56k lines that are very common in China!
I've analyzed over 4 years of spam and the distribution didn't change over the time. According to the originating IPs, over 86% of spam originates from US netblocks. That most spam originates from China is (still) a myth. Sorry guys.
Writing an efficient kernel is much more difficult. L4ka::Pistachio is a good example.
They may be (alive), but are not considered alive. This is merely how you define life, not what life may actually be.
A lot of protein-like structures reproduce, but aren't considered to be alive
Computer virii reproduce too, but aren't considered alive either...
The fact that Microsoft hasn't been forced to either abandon their business model for one that is compatible with competition, or been placed under strong regulation and become effectively a public utility, is just one of many warning signs that should give us all pause.
In other news... Microsoft tortures their programmers in Abu Redmond. Pics (.BMP) at 11.
Seriously, when has a monopoly really been dismantled from the outside? It takes both a huge outcry and inner rot before that happens.
Isn't it actually spying? When a spy takes snapshots of secret documents, he's not stealing them. He just changes their nature from "SECRET" to "LETS PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED" (aka. "TOP SECRET"). But stealing?
The verb 'take' does not necessarily imply that what is taken is in fact removed
"Okay guys, let's take some pictures..." Reporters picking up pictures from the office walls. Airplane I.
Linus Torvalds should sue the author for libel and defamation of character
Linus is not Darl. He has a real kernel to maintain...
If Linus were not the father of Linux, then who would not be Linus' father? His mother? Huh?
And they most likely browsed the net, made reservations etc... with MSIE on their MS boxes. Yeah, MS makes terrorism really easy!
You only sue someone for libel, if you think they're important. Who are those AdTI creeps anyway?
That would be a lot of software to backdoor! As you've said, it is impossible to watch everyone 24/7/365. It would also be extremely difficult to force every software shop to install backdoors either in domestic or export versions. If you want to do this, you have to coerce either library/toolkit vendors or even operating system vendors to put backdoors in for you. And this means stuff like crypto libraries, kernel modules etc. I'm quite sure that most software vendors are honest and not very keen about helping their government spy on their customers.
Well said! In earlier (pre WWW) days, a hacker journal used to publish tricks how to circumvent the plain old telephone system. They knew that those tricks were illegal, but they used phrasing like: "if you ground wire a and connect b to c, you would prevent the tariff meter from starting, but this is highly illegal. Don't do it." You get the idea. They got sued many times by phone companies and by the attorney general, but they (or their legal advisers) were so clever, they always got away with it.
The point here is fair use. If you published a recipe for, say, a nuclear bomb, in a physics forum, that would be okay, but it would be frowned upon if you did it elsewhere. Strange, but true.
Really? I've looked at the leaked IOS code, and it doesn't look like anything special at all. Pretty standard implementation of most protocols. The only really interesting part was EIGRP, because it was never published elsewhere. But really, IOS didn't contain any substantial surprises.
Anyone could build a decent router with standard TCP/IP stack, like, say, from BSD. But such home-made router would never achieve the performance level of Cisco equipment, if you have to pass every IP packet through the main CPU. Cisco's hardware arch is much more clever, because most of the processing is relegated to the interface processor (cards), most of it transiting very efficiently through the backplane. The main CPU runs OSPF or EIGRP and a few other protocols that maintain global state. That's it, and that's good(tm).
Hmm, scrap the last sentence about International Standard. This is more precise. Sorry for the confusion.
Sorry, no. CDMA is code division multiple access, a technique that is totally different from the FDM+TDM combo (frequency hopping) used in GSM. It is not proprietary at all. It is even an International Standard.
A german court in Hamburg decided that you can be liable for the contents of pages that you link to. Because of this silly ruling, a lot of web sites in Germany include a standard disclaimer citing this ruling, and that the linking webside authors distance themselves from the content of linked-to websites. It's a pretty ugly disclaimer, that is useless, because it doesn't protect you from being sued and convicted anyway. Effectively, this ruling (or similar jurisprudence in other countries) prevents you from linking to any other site with impunity.
Should we follow Germany's example here and put the blame on people who link to sites over which content they don't have any influence?
Clearly you meant to say Microsoft has a backdoor into the NSA.
Well, that is true as well, but at least, the NSA knows how to firewall their backbone (at least we hope so).
Here's the link: Backdoor in MS crypto API (in german).
but the NSA could do crack it if they really wanted to.
winzip is not open source, isn't it? NSA has probably the source code, or they may have a backdoor, installed courtesy of winzip makers. Remember NSA's master key in Windows crypto libraries?
text analysis and dictionary software declared as Weapons of Mass Destruction!
Wasn't that Weapons of Mass Deception?
One of CDMA's most intriguing properties, is that it is extremely difficult to jam effectively. That's the reason it's being used by the military in combat theater. CDMA is used in the US, Japan als a few other countries' cellphone networks.
But even if it were possible to build an effective jammer that operates on wide bandwidth, a custom sender/receiver pair could still circumvent jamming effectively. Building this is not easy, but it's possible.
Finally, what would prevent terrorists from using a combination of timer and cellphone triggered detonator? Imagine a detonator being reset every 15 minutes by a remote phone call. If they don't get a special call within a certain time period, BOOM. Or even worse: they could detect the jammers and assume that an important protected target is approaching, so they would detonate when the jammer's signal reaches its peak.
IOS source code is no big deal. It's Cisco's hardware implementation and architecture that is the real interesting part. At least for the core router functionality. Some fringe aspects would be interesting to study, but it's not really that critical.
once called for parking an US aircraft carrier off the coast of france to intimidate them.
It would be funny indeed, esp. when they send their Charles de Gaulle carrier in vicinity of NYC.
Just in case you've forgot, France is a nuclear power too. They'll be the last to be intimidated by such bullying.