A friend of mine rewired his car so that the headlights will only stay on for about a minute or so after you cut the ignition. In fact, there are some cars now that come with that feature, iirc.
For example, several vulnerabilities have been discovered over recent years in the widely used open-source implementation of Secure Shell protocol, OpenSSH.
Of course you're going to find vulnerabilities more easily in an open source implementaion. If you can't see the source, it's harder to find problems. It doesn't mean they're not there.
That being said, I can understand how the frequent patches can present a problem in a large-scale network. I'm just not a fan of security through obscurity.
Somebody at one of those associations knows somebody who's on a mailing list with me and thus I got these talking points; I can't say for sure who wrote them, but I can guess. Let's give them a look, then walk through point by point.
Yep, nothing like first-hand information. So now, I've read this from a guy who posted an article based on information he got from a guy on a mailing list who knows a guy... I'm confused already.
I see that Microsoft reported 7.915 billion profit on $11.013 billion in revenues for "Information Worker" products (i.e. Office).
. ..
But (see previous discussion) there will also be some pay-offs; you take the pain now or you support a 72% profit margin forever.
This is rather trivial, but I should point out that profit margin is calculated as profit/cost (cost to the producer, not the consumer). The cost to the producer (Microsoft) would be their $10.013 billion in revenues, minus their $7.915 billion profit.
This makes for a profit margin of 255%. In other words, they're getting back more than 2-1/2x what their paying in. Not a bad return on investment, if you ask me.
Dr Finch's research leads her to doubt that any scheme for national ID cards will work, even if it is backed up by biometric data such as eye scans - because the criminals will simply adapt their strategies to try to get around the hurdle.
I wonder how that would be accomplished. Steal your eyeball? I think that might look a bit suspicious.
To rebuild the internet is insane. To slowly change the direction we are building it is more likely.
Agreed. This looks like a good idea in theory, but it's going to be quite difficult to implement. Kinda reminds me of IPv6. It has lots of advantages over the old IPv4 protocol, but hardly anybody uses it.
Personally, I'd be upset if the GIMP were to switch to an MDI-style interface. It would probably also result in a lot of extra code to handle all of the stuff that is now taken care of by the OSes window manager. Although, I could be wrong.
Personally, I'd prefer to see that effort put into adding new innovative features, but that's just me.
While the article certainly has a point in pointing out the problem, at least in this scenario the criminal has to hit his targets old school: manually and one-at-a-time. This is a time-consuming, slow process that forces them to be in the geographic neighborhood of their victims.
Or work for the post office.
I am more concerned about security privacy issues with data stored online, where you can hack a database 3,000 miles away and get 10 million PINs in an afternoon. Now *that's* an increase in productivity.
Often the software used to change a password can spot a weak one (sequential numbers/letters, dictionary words, etc.) and prevent a user from setting it. With decent software and configuration, it isn't necessary to have a password "approved" by an actual person.
Not the mention, the more inconvenient it is for a user to change his/her password, the less likely it is that s/he will do it.
I remember many years back, when I was working in the electronics department of a large well-known department store, a woman came in looking at two different games for her 12-year-old son.
One was Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater, and the other was Diablo II (I believe). I attempted to explain to her that Diablo was the most violent game we had on the shelves at the time, and I strongly recommended Tony Hawk if she was to chose one over the other.
In the end (despite my protests) she went with Diablo, because she was afraid he son would try to do crazy tricks on his skateboard, getting himself hurt in the process.
CD-Rs in general have improved over the years. When they were new, many of them weren't properly sealed, and when exposed to the air, the foil inside would actually rust over time. This has not been a problem in recent years (to my knowledge).
As for the foil flaking off, I've never heard of such a thing. Guess you learn something new every day.
The reason it's so hard for the courts to go after P2P networks is because they say the software isn't intended for distribution of copyrighted material. It'd be pretty difficult to justify a feature like that.
True, there are situations where it's just as easy (as far as the user is concerned, at least) to search for a string of text, but I can see practical applications.
They mentioned in the article about using facial recognition for identifying criminals with a photo. I'd be pretty impressed if they managed to pull that off. Mind you, I don't even want to think about the privacy issues it would raise.
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Glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that. :)
A friend of mine rewired his car so that the headlights will only stay on for about a minute or so after you cut the ignition. In fact, there are some cars now that come with that feature, iirc.
It could also be a problem if you ever got a virus. Even booting off a clean disk wouldn't be a guarantee.
Of course, if there were some way to manually reset the memory, that'd be alright.
c: create a firefox plugin to strip out stories that contain whatever-words-you-don't-want-to-hear-about.
;)
All very true, but now you're going to get flamed for posting about firefox (you missed that one in your list). It's a no-win scenario, my friend.
For example, several vulnerabilities have been discovered over recent years in the widely used open-source implementation of Secure Shell protocol, OpenSSH.
Of course you're going to find vulnerabilities more easily in an open source implementaion. If you can't see the source, it's harder to find problems. It doesn't mean they're not there.
That being said, I can understand how the frequent patches can present a problem in a large-scale network. I'm just not a fan of security through obscurity.
You're right. It's only a matter of time. Even if the technology is too limited now, it's on it's way.
After all, who would have thought 10-15 years ago that you'd be able to get a virus on your cell phone or electronic organizer?
I stand corrected. Not sure what I was thinking there.
I still stand behind my argument on the credibility of the information in the article, though.
Somebody at one of those associations knows somebody who's on a mailing list with me and thus I got these talking points; I can't say for sure who wrote them, but I can guess. Let's give them a look, then walk through point by point.
.
Yep, nothing like first-hand information. So now, I've read this from a guy who posted an article based on information he got from a guy on a mailing list who knows a guy... I'm confused already.
I see that Microsoft reported 7.915 billion profit on $11.013 billion in revenues for "Information Worker" products (i.e. Office).
. .
But (see previous discussion) there will also be some pay-offs; you take the pain now or you support a 72% profit margin forever.
This is rather trivial, but I should point out that profit margin is calculated as profit/cost (cost to the producer, not the consumer). The cost to the producer (Microsoft) would be their $10.013 billion in revenues, minus their $7.915 billion profit.
This makes for a profit margin of 255%. In other words, they're getting back more than 2-1/2x what their paying in. Not a bad return on investment, if you ask me.
What about all those people with contact lenses, because they don't like wearing glasses?
From TFA:
Dr Finch's research leads her to doubt that any scheme for national ID cards will work, even if it is backed up by biometric data such as eye scans - because the criminals will simply adapt their strategies to try to get around the hurdle.
I wonder how that would be accomplished. Steal your eyeball? I think that might look a bit suspicious.
You see, that's where you're wrong.
:P
The first killer app was Pong.
Have you ever tried to fit groceries in a Smart car?
:)
Good luck with that.
For some reason, I'm more bothered by people who think it's a backslash.
But that's neither here nor there.
To rebuild the internet is insane. To slowly change the direction we are building it is more likely.
Agreed. This looks like a good idea in theory, but it's going to be quite difficult to implement. Kinda reminds me of IPv6. It has lots of advantages over the old IPv4 protocol, but hardly anybody uses it.
Mod parent up.
Personally, I'd be upset if the GIMP were to switch to an MDI-style interface. It would probably also result in a lot of extra code to handle all of the stuff that is now taken care of by the OSes window manager. Although, I could be wrong.
Personally, I'd prefer to see that effort put into adding new innovative features, but that's just me.
While the article certainly has a point in pointing out the problem, at least in this scenario the criminal has to hit his targets old school: manually and one-at-a-time. This is a time-consuming, slow process that forces them to be in the geographic neighborhood of their victims.
Or work for the post office.
I am more concerned about security privacy issues with data stored online, where you can hack a database 3,000 miles away and get 10 million PINs in an afternoon. Now *that's* an increase in productivity.
Agreed.
I guess so.
:P
That's how I found the article.
Often the software used to change a password can spot a weak one (sequential numbers/letters, dictionary words, etc.) and prevent a user from setting it. With decent software and configuration, it isn't necessary to have a password "approved" by an actual person.
Not the mention, the more inconvenient it is for a user to change his/her password, the less likely it is that s/he will do it.
Cool, now the warranty's been voided out of the box. :)
From TFA:
Google already has an instant messenger. "Hello" is a product that they received along with Picasa.
I remember many years back, when I was working in the electronics department of a large well-known department store, a woman came in looking at two different games for her 12-year-old son.
One was Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater, and the other was Diablo II (I believe). I attempted to explain to her that Diablo was the most violent game we had on the shelves at the time, and I strongly recommended Tony Hawk if she was to chose one over the other.
In the end (despite my protests) she went with Diablo, because she was afraid he son would try to do crazy tricks on his skateboard, getting himself hurt in the process.
Some people.
What? You mean they're in business to make money?
Who'da thunk it?
CD-Rs in general have improved over the years. When they were new, many of them weren't properly sealed, and when exposed to the air, the foil inside would actually rust over time. This has not been a problem in recent years (to my knowledge).
As for the foil flaking off, I've never heard of such a thing. Guess you learn something new every day.
Good idea, but I don't think it'll happen.
The reason it's so hard for the courts to go after P2P networks is because they say the software isn't intended for distribution of copyrighted material. It'd be pretty difficult to justify a feature like that.
True, there are situations where it's just as easy (as far as the user is concerned, at least) to search for a string of text, but I can see practical applications.
They mentioned in the article about using facial recognition for identifying criminals with a photo. I'd be pretty impressed if they managed to pull that off. Mind you, I don't even want to think about the privacy issues it would raise.