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User: Ernesto+Alvarez

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  1. Re:Not about Pakistan on India First To Build a Supersonic Cruise Missile · · Score: 2, Informative

    Personally, I don't see why something like Phalanx wouldn't be the right system to use against really fast missiles.

    Because supersonic missiles travel so fast and phalanx-type systems have such a short range that in the time it takes the phalanx to reacgt and engage the missile, it'll be so close that it'll blow right next to the defender.

    It might not sink the target ship, but all that 'crap on deck' (more like shrapnel) could easily disable most sensors and cripple the ship, leaving it out of combat anyway.

  2. Re:I'd do it the slow but secure way. on Need Help Salvaging Data From an Old Xenix System · · Score: 1

    But the idea of using zmodem is not a bad one.
    He should check if sz and rz are available in the xenix machine and use it for the BBS files, chances are good, considering a BBS was running on it.

    The rest will probably have to go using dd, through the same serial port, though.

  3. A reader on What Is Holding Back the Paperless Office? · · Score: 1

    What I need is a nice, cheap, rugged and handy document reader.

    Seriously, the number one reason I print documents is because I want to review them while I go to the loo, or because I want to grab something to eat and I'll read it while I wait or because I want to take the doc home and maybe read it while I ride the bus.

    Basically it boils down to something:

    1. Cheap (if it breaks, I don't want to care too much about it)
    2. Rugged (I'm taking it with me on a possibly crowded bus)
    3. Standards compliant(I want to read a fucking PDF, that's all)
    4. No bells and whistles (no wireless, colour, whatever except for a standards compliant interface)
    5. Not a general purpose computer (read PDF, nothing more)
    6. Good battery life (I want it to last at least a week on two AAA NiMH cells, and no custom cells, see point 3)
    7. Did I mention cheap? (I mean it, USD 10 would be all right, might sacrifice cheap for rugged, but not for cpu power)

    Basically, stick some memory, an ARM processor, a PDF decoder and a screen. In fact, forget about most of the memory, just some RAM and a SD connector as an interface, user pays for the memory card.

  4. Re:Exactly backwards on Final Decision Deferred On ".xxx" Domains · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, having part of the hierarchy solely for kids would be a great idea, but not for the obvious reasons.

    You should allocate kids.us (if you yanks are so worried about it, that's where it belongs, the rest of the world doesn't give a damn about it) for such content.

    Then you could create penalties for posting "indecent" material into this subtree of DNS. Since we're talking about DNS, the penalties should go to the owner of the DNS domain. The meaning of "indecent" is irrelevant and can be anything (you'll see as I present my reasoning).

    Now, when someone comes trying to do censorship "for the children", you can just point that there's a perfectly child-safe domain protected by laws, with very harsh penalties for not respecting its intended purpose. All of that would be true.

    However, if you've had read the literature you'd know that making such guarantee is impossible. Therefore no sane person would get a subdomain of "kids.us". However any busybodies can be easily told they should stop complaining and use the tools given to them (after all, the subdomain would indeed be protected by laws, and they should really be enforced). If they balk at the prospect of having such punishments applied to them, telling them that they are obviously not that interested in the children and are clearly hypocrites (maybe they would be tempted to put something "indecent"? or maybe they just talk but aren't trully willing to take the responsibility to make a clean web for the future generations, blah, blah).

    In the end, only extremists will be willing to get .kids.us domains, no sane people would be even interacting with that thing, parents would get to choose if they let their kids out of the walled garden (and if they fail to do so, when they wanted, then they're irresponsable parents), and everybody else gets to browse porn without being distracted by the think-of-the-children crowd.

    I even have a slogan for the domain: "kids.us, the clean place for kids that sucks".

    The most that can happen is that a few extremists get punished (or whatever) when the sites are inevitably hacked.

    Problem solved.

  5. Re:Crypto on ACTA Internet Chapter Leaked — Bad For Everyone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't think you got the idea....

    My proposal's main objective is not technical, it is mostly to give the ISPs the excuse for not intercepting traffic.

    I'm counting on the ISPs not wanting to do the interception in the first place, and using TLS as an excuse for not intercepting. While some people might see eavesdropping as not that bad, tampering with a connection is a different ball game. Besides, they are likely to be discovered unless they coordinate perfectly (how would you explain that the certificate for your site changes when you switch ISPs?).

    Obviously anyone can do a MITM against not only self signed certificates, but also to properly signed ones. If the government decides to interfere, they might as well get a MITM box with a properly signed certificate that will work both for self signed and regular certificates. Then again, if the situation gets like that, you have a police state.

  6. Crypto on ACTA Internet Chapter Leaked — Bad For Everyone · · Score: 1

    ISPs are not even remotely interested in scanning for copyright violations. It is a heavy burden that provides no benefit for them and is a technical and logistical nightmare.

    I think part of the solution is to increase the use of cryptography. By that I mean putting TLS (or whatever) on everything.

    If everybody encrypts everything, even just using self signed certificates, ISPs can no longer monitor the traffic. Even more important it gives them the chance of saying "We're very sorry, but due to the generalized ciphering we are unable to prove any copyright infringement. This month we have not banned anyone.". They could also claim inability to do a man-in-the-middle for fear of discovery when (when, not if) the **AA asks them to do it (after all, you can never be sure if you've exchanged fingerprints before using that self signed certificate).

  7. Re:One-time pad on Keep SSH Sessions Active, Or Reconnect? · · Score: 1

    Apart from all the distribution problems that everybody has been talking about, I'd like to know how you will surmount the problem of creating the pads in the first place.

    To fill your 2TB disks you'd need to toss a coin 16000000000000 times (which I don't think you're willing to do) or have some beefy true RNG (hotbits generates 100 bytes/second, you'd have to have it going for 2500 years).

    Pseudo random is not good enough, and RC4 would give you a similar result if you used a cryptographically secure PRNG (and much better if your PRNG is not good).

  8. Re:Well... on Kodak Wireless Picture Frames Open To Public · · Score: 1

    I meant what was going on with the apostrophe business.
    What sort of logic would get the default feed.

    (I was honestly expecting a database error....)

  9. Re:Mac address anatomy on Kodak Wireless Picture Frames Open To Public · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Try KD9372.

    Also go to the registration page and you'll see a few models. Dunno about the model codes, though.

  10. Looks like you can also reset accounts..... on Kodak Wireless Picture Frames Open To Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was checking some of the links and noticed a few interesting parameters

    http://www.framechannel.com/feeds/pair/index.php/r=1/frameModelCode=KD9372/frameModelId=1/frameId=PAPAPA/reset=0/language=en/7072.jpg

    See that parameter named reset? I activated an account and verified it as activating. Then I triggered that reset parameter to 1 and it went back to the pre-activation state!

  11. Re:Well... on Kodak Wireless Picture Frames Open To Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even more interesting, using an id of "'" (an apstrophe) gets you some sort of default channel with some rather nice pictures. They even change them after some time.

    http://rss.framechannel.com//productId=KD9371/frameId='

    I wonder what's happening behind curtains.

  12. Re:Why guard the border at all? on Patrolling the US Border Via Webcam · · Score: 1

    Question: If our borders were "thoroughly opened" do you think there would be anybody living south of Texas anymore? A few in Brazil, perhaps?

    Spoken like the stereotypical stupid gringo....

    I know I wouldn't live in the US if they threw their borders open, and lost of friends of mine think the same way. You are completely deluded in matters related to your country, thinking it is the greatest country in the world while it goes down the drain.

    Instead of posting comments like that, you might try to figure why tourists try to avoid the US, scientific conferences and business meetings occur in Europe if possible and cruise ships sail from Panama, instead. You might find the answer enlightening.

    (then again, you should have gotten the gist of it reading this same forum)

  13. Re:Artificial vs. Real Meat on Scientists Create Artificial Meat · · Score: 1

    Green ham won't be any guarantee...better choose another colour.

  14. Release a paper on Ethics of Releasing Non-Malicious Linux Malware? · · Score: 1

    Get in touch with the security community as some other poster said.

    Then concentrate in releasing a paper about your software. If your techniques are good, they might be an interesting read. Even more important is that if your software does not escalate privileges (as I understand), cleaning your software should be a straightforward job from the superuser account. Those cleaning techniques will probably be even more interesting.

    I'd use a rather obvious payload that reveals itself when interrogated (instead of BOINC) in order to be useful for evaluating system security.

    I don't think your malware is as nasty as you think, as you said you relied on executing downloaded software on a world with signed repositories and with MD5 hashes/pgp signatures as a normal custom. I also think you're underestimating the difference between administrator-all-the-time windows way and the only-escalate-when-needed model of the unix world. It would be interesting to see what happens, though.

  15. Re:wow on CIA Manual Thought Lost In 1973 Available On Amazon · · Score: 1

    Remember that Machiavelli recommended not hiring mercenaries because their lack of loyalty and their tendency to turn against you when you need them most.

    While it's true that they won't be rampaging and plundering US cities (because of the rather large conventional army, as stated by another poster), it wouldn't be surprising if they did that in some other places like a few african countries or war-torn Iraq. Prolonging a conflict wouldn't be a surprise, too, if it were economically beneficial to them.

    I remember reading somewhere that one of the major complaints about blackwater in Iraq was that they would make a mess and then leave things to the US armed forces for them to fix.

    In certain ways, Blackwater is equivalent to rennaissance mercenaries, and the sections about mercenaries are still valid today.

  16. Re:yep... on Ten Things Mobile Phones Will Make Obsolete · · Score: 1

    I bet your reception is going to be rather lousy when scuba diving.

  17. Re:How about.. The MSN Network ! on Lockheed Snags $31 Million To Reinvent the Internet, Microsoft To Help · · Score: 1

    Remember MSN (the thing that was suppose to kill the internet.. So much better than TCP/IP that Win 95 didn't have a TCP/IP stack to start with) ?

    Yes it did. It was not enabled nor installed by default, but it had one.

  18. Re:Who wants to bet... on Lockheed Snags $31 Million To Reinvent the Internet, Microsoft To Help · · Score: 1

    The parent poster never said anything about that protocol being funded by DARPA.

    While it might seem like the same, this new protocol is being developed behind closed doors by a few companies, known for their budget overruns and their buggy code. This is unlike TCP/IP, designed at universities, using a hands on approach by people not willing to give up nor caring about most bureaucracy.

  19. Re:So Stupid on Irish ISP To Block Access To Pirate Bay · · Score: 1

    The ISP seems to realize that the pirate bay will be worthless to everyone a couple days before they block access to it, which no one will care about since the pirate bays new owners will have basically already blocked access by taking the site as-is down.

    Not only that, but the TPB index itself is for download. In a few days, not only they will be blocking a worthless (and probably aligned with the media industry) site, but they won't be blocking tens of copycat sites.

    Definitely a bullet-foot interaction by the RIAA/MPAA.

  20. Carry the phone with you on Desktop As a Cellphone Extension? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find it amazing that you're asking for a solution that requires no effort to set up, lets you answer the phone everywhere and does not require any investment. It looks like you're asking for the impossible. However the solution is very simple:

    CARRY THE DAMN PHONE WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES

    If you don't want to carry it, that's what extensions are for. You're asking how to convert your PC in an extension. Also, you'll need to rush to the extension (or your PC, and let me tell you that buying an extension is cheaper than buying a PC) every time it rings.

    You're asking for the ultimate solution in telecommunications. It doesn't exist yet.

  21. Before the grammar nazis arrive on Beamed Space Solar Power Plant To Open In 2016? · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know I should have written "We've known".
    I just missed the "n" key.

  22. Re:Um, here's a thought. on Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords · · Score: 1

    Nobody said you shoud enter your passwords in a normal text field, just to make the password fields not masked, without changing the other properties.

  23. Re:hunter2 on Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords · · Score: 1

    Good security involves locking out the user after a certain number of attempts in order to stop a "dictionary attack". I just had to reset a users PW twice this afternoon because she locked herself out of her account. Sure, it's extra hassle but the security is worth it.

    It's a great recipe for a denial of service, too.

    Good security is a process, not just doing one or two things you found on a cookbook.

  24. Re:You could always let the user choose on Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords · · Score: 1

    It's not unpolite to ask somebody to look the other way when inputting passwords. You should try asking the next time.

  25. Re:Dear Canada on Beamed Space Solar Power Plant To Open In 2016? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Memo from Canada
    February 13th, 2020

    Dear United States,

    We've know for long that your education system was in trouble, but we didn't know the situation was so desperate. You might want to get a refresher course in geography, but just FYI, Canada is to the north, not to the south of Oregon. If you needed economic support, you should have asked.

    Sincerely,

    Canada

    PS: Somebody boiled the Bay Area, you might want to check it out.