The attacks occured in the aftermath of another Estonian/Russian diplomatic incident. A bit of history:
During WW2, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbintrop pact, which carved up eastern Europe between Stalin and Hitler. Hitler later reneged, and invaded the area assigned to Stalin, taking over the Baltic States (Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania). The Russians later retook Eastern Europe, and re-occupied the Baltics. They didn't leave until the early 90s. Many Russians resettled in Estonia during the occupation, mostly taking lower level jobs - the standard of living has always been better there than in Russia. They now form about 1/3 of the population.
In central Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) the Soviets set up a war memorial to the Soviet 'liberators'
who died driving out the Nazis. To the Estonians, however, the 'Bronze Soldier' just commemorated a
second occupation - one that went on for nearly 50 years. In 2007 the now-independent Estonian government
decided to move the statue to a Soviet military cemetary in the edge of town. The ethnic Russian
Estonians objected, as did Russia, and Putin personally called it a desecration. There were riots, and even one death in Tallinn.
The statue was moved, and it was at this point that the cyberattack was launched.
The kid accused is a Russian Estonian. It remains unclear who ordered the attack - Putin's gang could easily have provoked otherwise uninvolved hackers in the Russian diaspora to act.
The attack certainly served Russia's interests at the time, punishing a tiny, resented upstart for
daring to act with sovereignty. That there is plausible deniability doesnt clear Putin and his
ex-KGB cronies.
NYC currently uses 800 pound refrigerator sized MECHANICAL
voting machines, made by RF Shoup in 1962. You enter the booth, pull
a big lever that shuts the curtain behind you, flip metal switches
to make your selections, then pull the big lever again, which (1)
increments mechanical counters for each lever, (2) resets the switches
so that your vote can't be observed, and (3) opens the curtain
behind you. I don't recall them needing electricity at all.
At least, that was how they are supposed to work.
As I understand it, they are subject to compromise - failing to
set the internals correctly could result in zero votes for one of
the switches, for example. Also a sensor which prevented you from
pulling the big handle without voting was disabled for mysterious
reasons in the mid-60s.
Of course, there is no receipt, no paper trail, and no way to
assure that your vote has been recorded correctly, or at all.
Re:The average user does not know about useFIREFOX
on
RIAA Sues Usenet.com
·
· Score: 1
Thunderbird has a moderately useful Usenet
client.
It doesn't handle binaries very well, since
it can't handle multi-part posts or most
yenc encoded postings, but for non-binary
use its fine.
I'm 50, and of the generation that went through the transition. In middle and high school we used slide rules, and books of log and trig tables for physics, chemistry, and maths.
Calculators started to appear when I was about 13, and I got a 4 function model when the
price came down to about 200 dollars.
There was a *lot* of debate about the wisdom of letting students use them, as they wouldn't
understand the algorithms involved in, say, long division, and in exams, students who had
them would be at an unfair advantage (there are still some restrictons today, I understand).
I went into college still using a slide rule (1975), but by the time I left, they were
considered obsolete.
This is actually an idea which has been around for some time. As the article notes, while humans can be outrun by almost every mammal in the sprint, there are only a very few wild animals with comparable endurance - the horse, the wolf, and the hyena. No other mammals can run a marathon.
This means that humans can run down prey. Chase an antelope, and it'll run a few hundred yards far faster than you can, then stop to rest. If you just keep dogtrotting after it, it'll do it again, and again. But after a couple miles, it'll be so tired that you can catch up with it and hit it over the head with a big stick.
This is called 'cursorial hunting'. Only wolves, hyenas, and humans can do this - chase after a quarry till it drops in its tracks.
The AWB is not about Assault Weapons.
on
Assault Weapons Ban
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Assault Weapons are submachineguns, which usually fire relatively low power cartridges. They are fully automatic - if you pull the trigger back, they'll fire until the magazine is empty. They are used for close-in assaults - clearing buildings, etc.
The AWB does not ban these - they are covered under an earlier law which does not expire (they can still be owned under certain onerous conditions).
The AWB, despite its name, actually covers semi-automatic rifles which resemble to certain assault rifles.
Semis fire only one bullet each time the trigger is pulled, in the same way that a policeman's pistol or a cowboy's revolver does. They are not assault weapons since they cannot be fired in automatic mode. The AWB lists guns resembling certain assault weapons, or which have more than a certain number of specific features, such as a bayonet lug, a pistol grip, a flash hider, or a telescoping stock.
The AWB bans semi-automatic rifles which look scary, ignoring the fact that the average deer rifle is far more powerful and has better range.
I own an AR15
which I use in CMP target matches. While this rifle fires essentially the same round as our soldiers are using in Iraq, in many places I could not even use it to hunt deer legally, since its too feeble a round. Something like this
packs a much bigger punch. Of course, there is no talk of banning this rifle, since it does not look scary.
A good analogy to the AWB would be if the legislature decided to attack dangerous driving by banning fuzzy dice and chrome exhausts. It might make some people feel better, but actually attacks the wrong target. (The right target is the criminal, not the gun.)
The (so-called) "Assault Weapons Ban" is a very silly law which did not ban Assault Weapons, or
detectably reduce crime. I'm glad its dying. I'm not going out to buy any of the 'scary features' for my rifle - it's fine as it is. But I will like having the ability to do so if I wanted - that's what freedom is all about.
The notion of 9 films (3 trilogies) has been around since before The Empire Strikes Back was released. At one point, an article in Analog stated that there were plans for 12 films, but I've never seen this claim repeated.
At the very first screening I went to, the 'Episode 4' title was missing. This was added as soon as it was obvious Lucas had a hit on his hands.
As to why the rosin separates from the solder, I don't know. But I think I know why it spins.
Heat is being conducted into the rosin ball from the molten solder. The rosin is boiling or vaporising. Initially, this is symettric, but if only a small jiggle occurs, one side of the blob gets cooled by the air, and starts to vaporize at a lower rate. The other, trailing side vaporizes at a higher rate, and in reaction of the ball experiences a push from that side. The movement increases the cooling effect on the upwind side, and the process feeds on itself. Since the rosin blob touches only the liquid solder, there is little or no friction , and these tiny effects can build up.
The astronaut was lucky the rosin ball didn't come right off and hit him in the eye.
Both my wife and I are very senior engineers, with
over 20 years programming experience each. We have
two kids, 13 and 9 (both girls).
It really helps to have understanding managers - ideally, managers who are parents themselves. I would not want to be at startup where the life of the company depends on deathmarch mode work - in fact I turned down several such jobs during the bubble specifically to avoid that.
One thing that helps a lot is that we're both pretty damn well paid (~$250k total). This means that we could buy very good day care when that was needed, and hire sitters/minders to stay with the kids during summer vacation.
Try looking for a situation where the boss doesnt care what your actual hours are, so long as the major milestones get hit each month. This works better when you are not in a big team - you can pretty well set your own hours.
In sum, it can be done, but not at a startup which expects to own you 24/7.
Slashdot Mirror
During WW2, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbintrop pact, which carved up eastern Europe between Stalin and Hitler. Hitler later reneged, and invaded the area assigned to Stalin, taking over the Baltic States (Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania). The Russians later retook Eastern Europe, and re-occupied the Baltics. They didn't leave until the early 90s. Many Russians resettled in Estonia during the occupation, mostly taking lower level jobs - the standard of living has always been better there than in Russia. They now form about 1/3 of the population.
In central Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) the Soviets set up a war memorial to the Soviet 'liberators' who died driving out the Nazis. To the Estonians, however, the 'Bronze Soldier' just commemorated a second occupation - one that went on for nearly 50 years. In 2007 the now-independent Estonian government decided to move the statue to a Soviet military cemetary in the edge of town. The ethnic Russian Estonians objected, as did Russia, and Putin personally called it a desecration. There were riots, and even one death in Tallinn.
The statue was moved, and it was at this point that the cyberattack was launched.
The kid accused is a Russian Estonian. It remains unclear who ordered the attack - Putin's gang could easily have provoked otherwise uninvolved hackers in the Russian diaspora to act.
The attack certainly served Russia's interests at the time, punishing a tiny, resented upstart for daring to act with sovereignty. That there is plausible deniability doesnt clear Putin and his ex-KGB cronies.
...someone had to say it.
At least, that was how they are supposed to work.
As I understand it, they are subject to compromise - failing to set the internals correctly could result in zero votes for one of the switches, for example. Also a sensor which prevented you from pulling the big handle without voting was disabled for mysterious reasons in the mid-60s.
Of course, there is no receipt, no paper trail, and no way to assure that your vote has been recorded correctly, or at all.
Give me mark-sense card systems any day. Even IBM cards, hanging chads and all, are better then these 45 year old antiques. You can see one at http://www.newscopy.org/voting_machines/index.html .
Thunderbird has a moderately useful Usenet client. It doesn't handle binaries very well, since it can't handle multi-part posts or most yenc encoded postings, but for non-binary use its fine.
I'm 50, and of the generation that went through the transition. In middle and high school we used slide rules, and books of log and trig tables for physics, chemistry, and maths. Calculators started to appear when I was about 13, and I got a 4 function model when the price came down to about 200 dollars. There was a *lot* of debate about the wisdom of letting students use them, as they wouldn't understand the algorithms involved in, say, long division, and in exams, students who had them would be at an unfair advantage (there are still some restrictons today, I understand). I went into college still using a slide rule (1975), but by the time I left, they were considered obsolete.
This means that humans can run down prey. Chase an antelope, and it'll run a few hundred yards far faster than you can, then stop to rest. If you just keep dogtrotting after it, it'll do it again, and again. But after a couple miles, it'll be so tired that you can catch up with it and hit it over the head with a big stick.
This is called 'cursorial hunting'. Only wolves, hyenas, and humans can do this - chase after a quarry till it drops in its tracks.
The AWB does not ban these - they are covered under an earlier law which does not expire (they can still be owned under certain onerous conditions).
The AWB, despite its name, actually covers semi-automatic rifles which resemble to certain assault rifles. Semis fire only one bullet each time the trigger is pulled, in the same way that a policeman's pistol or a cowboy's revolver does. They are not assault weapons since they cannot be fired in automatic mode. The AWB lists guns resembling certain assault weapons, or which have more than a certain number of specific features, such as a bayonet lug, a pistol grip, a flash hider, or a telescoping stock.
The AWB bans semi-automatic rifles which look scary, ignoring the fact that the average deer rifle is far more powerful and has better range.
I own an AR15 which I use in CMP target matches. While this rifle fires essentially the same round as our soldiers are using in Iraq, in many places I could not even use it to hunt deer legally, since its too feeble a round. Something like this packs a much bigger punch. Of course, there is no talk of banning this rifle, since it does not look scary.
A good analogy to the AWB would be if the legislature decided to attack dangerous driving by banning fuzzy dice and chrome exhausts. It might make some people feel better, but actually attacks the wrong target. (The right target is the criminal, not the gun.)
The (so-called) "Assault Weapons Ban" is a very silly law which did not ban Assault Weapons, or detectably reduce crime. I'm glad its dying. I'm not going out to buy any of the 'scary features' for my rifle - it's fine as it is. But I will like having the ability to do so if I wanted - that's what freedom is all about.
The notion of 9 films (3 trilogies) has been around since before The Empire Strikes Back was released. At one point, an article in Analog stated that there were plans for 12 films, but I've never seen this claim repeated.
At the very first screening I went to, the 'Episode 4' title was missing. This was added as soon as it was obvious Lucas had a hit on his hands.
As to why the rosin separates from the solder, I don't know. But I think I know why it spins.
Heat is being conducted into the rosin ball from the molten solder. The rosin is boiling or vaporising. Initially, this is symettric, but if only a small jiggle occurs, one side of the blob gets cooled by the air, and starts to vaporize at a lower rate. The other, trailing side vaporizes at a higher rate, and in reaction of the ball experiences a push from that side. The movement increases the cooling effect on the upwind side, and the process feeds on itself. Since the rosin blob touches only the liquid solder, there is little or no friction , and these tiny effects can build up.
The astronaut was lucky the rosin ball didn't come right off and hit him in the eye.
Both my wife and I are very senior engineers, with over 20 years programming experience each. We have two kids, 13 and 9 (both girls).
It really helps to have understanding managers - ideally, managers who are parents themselves. I would not want to be at startup where the life of the company depends on deathmarch mode work - in fact I turned down several such jobs during the bubble specifically to avoid that.
One thing that helps a lot is that we're both pretty damn well paid (~$250k total). This means that we could buy very good day care when that was needed, and hire sitters/minders to stay with the kids during summer vacation.
Try looking for a situation where the boss doesnt care what your actual hours are, so long as the major milestones get hit each month. This works better when you are not in a big team - you can pretty well set your own hours.
In sum, it can be done, but not at a startup which expects to own you 24/7.