...this code is a work of the US Federal Government, then it is not protected by copyright under 17 USC 105....
Interestingly, this means that the GNU GPL is powerless to protect the work...
Are there any strong arguments against modifying copyright law to allow the United States government to release information under copyright, but only under the GPL or a GPL-style license?
Thursday, February 11, 2000 Computer hackers bring down FBI website
Computer hackers used a large distributed attack against the FBI website (http://www.fbi.org) yesterday for two hours between 2 PM and 5 PM, Eastern U.S. time.
FBI officials said that most of the compromised computers requested two specific files, suggesting that the hackers might have been attempting to exploit a file-system bug that might have led to additional slowdown.
Many of the computers used in the attack sent messages causing the webpage requests to appear to come from different types of browsers, making them difficult to block.
Top FBI spook Drawoc Suomynona finally figured out how to block the attacker. "Most of the requests sent the 'referring page' as the page for a recent slashdot article. We just blocked all requests with that referrer, and the FBI server quickly became unclogged."
Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) is a well-known geek news site. Slashdot editor Rob Malda declined to comment, but was heard mumbling "It's crackers, not hackers, goddamnit."
Suomynona added, "We still have not found the source of these distributed attacks against websites, but we will step up our efforts to find them."
The technical vulnerabilities used to install these denial of service tools are widespread, well-known and readily accessible on most networked systems throughout the Internet.
The tools appear to be undergoing active development, testing and deployment on the Internet.
Don't these statements suggest that it would be easy to work around these problems? In fact, I would expect that the person who carried out those recent attacks was using modified versions of these DDoS daemons in order to avoid detection.
For example, if I were doing it, I would put a large composite number in the daemon. It would only accept a connection after recieving 40 connection attempts, with each group of 10 having a port number representing part of some large prime number, and the product of these two prime numbers equalled the large composite number coded into the program.
Has anyone read Mining the Sky? The reviews on amazon make it sound pretty good, but I already have a huge queue of books to read, so I haven't gotten around to purchasing it yet.
Now, if someone came to MY door, and said "move, I'm about to search your stuff" and didn't have a search warrant signed by a judge and high in his hand, I'd laugh as I pushed him out the door.
Business speech is just as protected as political speech. It's things like this that make me *very* angry.
Actually, it's not. Our government allows us to badmouth it because if it didn't, the government would have too much power.
Consider : Suddenly crackers seem to have become far better than any have ever been before. But then again -- what organization has the best computer and phone-system crackers in the world?! There is "No Such Agency." No we didn't. Here are some, umm, records that show we didn't do it. Want to take it up in federal court (which, btw, is also operated under the government)?
On the other hand, corporations are protected against libel/slander because otherwise, you get a shouting match between corporations or between activist groups and corporations. FUD would be a lot worse if corporations weren't protected against false claims against them.
In this particular case, however, how is "psst, call in sick on christmas" considered "speech about a company"? It sounds more like strike-organization to me, which afaik is not only legal but protected by various laws.
As a site question, how protected are political candidates? Does "Candidate X slept with 40 women in the last 5 years" count as political speech or a slanderous personal attack?
Hmm, maybe slashdot isn't all bad after all. Think we should incorporate and contract with the US government? That would take care of slashdot articles like the one yesterday about Operati.. I mean, those internet attacks carried out by remorselesss crackers.
All I can say is if you use eBay, fer chrissakes don't start the bidding at $20,000,000 unless the name in question is microsoft.com, or something similar.
Actually, the seller gets to set the minimum bid, as well as the reserve (if this hidden value is not met during bidding, then the seller has the right to not follow through on selling the item).
Is it better for an ebay seller trying to sell a domain name to (1) post it at $20 with a reserve of $20M, or (2) post it at $20M with no reserve? I'd say 2, because then ebay buyers don't have to waste their time bidding on it.
[20:10
US Pacific] !Epiphani! Greetings DALnet users, we apoligize for the present network instability. Across the USA this evening, UUnet is experiencing some nation wide problems, and we are incapable of dealing with the situation until they resolve theirs.
I wonder if this is the same attacker. If so, are they targetting the UUnet backbone or is UUnet just getting bogged down by the attacks themselves and people hitting reload on their favorite sites until they come up?
But, with these latest rounds of extremely-effective DoS attacks, nobody's stepped forward.
Maybe the fact that they didn't step forward is a hint that the media (or even just slashdot) is approaching the story from the right angle -- they haven't needed to step forward because other people are making the point for them.
Is it possible to tell, from the outside, whether a network has properly configured routing filters? If so, I'd like to propose that a list of messed-up networks be listed somewhere, and in 3 months, all the sites on this list that hadn't been fixed would be added to one of the popular blackhole lists until they are fixed.
That wouldn't prevent attackers from within those networks from spoofing out, but it would encourage ISP owners to double-check their routing configuration.
Includes the recipe for making your own Apple-flavored Beowulf cluster. "
Aww man, you just took the fun out us of making Beowulf jokes.</silly>
On a more serious note, are the comparisons fair? They seem to be using the same mhz values, but how well does a 450 mhz p2 compare with an apple g4? Most people wouldn't try to compare intel chips with alphas, for example. One way to determine this would be to try doing similar but simpler problems on single intel and single mac computers, and seeing how these two setups compared.
Why p2's and not p3's?
What parellel software are they using on the intel computers?
Were they able to determine why the apple computers run better in parellel than the intel computers? Was it because the intel computers ended up saturating the lines between them?
I've been following this story with interest. Why can't you guys just build a "real Text" to C converter. You know, turn it into real sentences (just substitute words for command/functions/whatever the hell C uses, spell out numbers etc).
Also write a C to "real text" converter, and convert both gcc and the converter to "real text":)
The reading of a thermometer in space would likely be whatever the reading was *before* the thermometer was put into space. Vacuum is a good insulator.:)
Actually.. objects in space tend to radiate energy in the form of electromagnetic waves (light).. at lower temperatures, you don't notice this much because it's infrared light. that's how many night vision systems work, btw.
And continuing on this thread, why did the US embark on an expensive space program when it had a substantial part of its population living in poverty?
Thanks for pointing that out. I actually think I have an answer for that, though.
Macroeconomic theory says that when the US government spends money, the gross domestic product goes up quite a bit more than the original spending. This happens because the employees of the aerospace firms go out and buy stuff, the employees of the companies the aerospace workers buy products from go out and buy stuff, and so on. (This doesn't happen forever because people don't spend every cent out of every additional dollar they earn -- they tend to save some of it, but spend most of it). As a result, unemployment goes down, and more people are happy.
The temperature of space is debatable. Some would say that within the solar system, it's thousands of kelvins because the few particles that are in space are moving very rapidly. Others only count the background radiation and put the temperature at three kelvins.
Slashdot Mirror
o Is made of legos
o Looks like a cow
o Is transparent
o Can survive an EMP blast
o Runs outdoors
o Is any case around a linux box
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I already e-mailed the 3dnews guy asking him if he has a cached copy of the whole thing, so don't flood him
--
Interestingly, this means that the GNU GPL is powerless to protect the work...
Are there any strong arguments against modifying copyright law to allow the United States government to release information under copyright, but only under the GPL or a GPL-style license?
--
Computer hackers bring down FBI website
Computer hackers used a large distributed attack against the FBI website (http://www.fbi.org) yesterday for two hours between 2 PM and 5 PM, Eastern U.S. time.
FBI officials said that most of the compromised computers requested two specific files, suggesting that the hackers might have been attempting to exploit a file-system bug that might have led to additional slowdown.
Many of the computers used in the attack sent messages causing the webpage requests to appear to come from different types of browsers, making them difficult to block.
Top FBI spook Drawoc Suomynona finally figured out how to block the attacker. "Most of the requests sent the 'referring page' as the page for a recent slashdot article. We just blocked all requests with that referrer, and the FBI server quickly became unclogged."
Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) is a well-known geek news site. Slashdot editor Rob Malda declined to comment, but was heard mumbling "It's crackers, not hackers, goddamnit."
Suomynona added, "We still have not found the source of these distributed attacks against websites, but we will step up our efforts to find them."
--
The tools appear to be undergoing active development, testing and deployment on the Internet.
Don't these statements suggest that it would be easy to work around these problems? In fact, I would expect that the person who carried out those recent attacks was using modified versions of these DDoS daemons in order to avoid detection.
For example, if I were doing it, I would put a large composite number in the daemon. It would only accept a connection after recieving 40 connection attempts, with each group of 10 having a port number representing part of some large prime number, and the product of these two prime numbers equalled the large composite number coded into the program.
--
Today was the first time I saw those things on slashdot. And they are annoying.
--
--
Even if he has a gun pointed at you?
--
--
Actually, it's not. Our government allows us to badmouth it because if it didn't, the government would have too much power.
Consider : Suddenly crackers seem to have become far better than any have ever been before. But then again -- what organization has the best computer and phone-system crackers in the world?! There is "No Such Agency." No we didn't. Here are some, umm, records that show we didn't do it. Want to take it up in federal court (which, btw, is also operated under the government)?
On the other hand, corporations are protected against libel/slander because otherwise, you get a shouting match between corporations or between activist groups and corporations. FUD would be a lot worse if corporations weren't protected against false claims against them.
In this particular case, however, how is "psst, call in sick on christmas" considered "speech about a company"? It sounds more like strike-organization to me, which afaik is not only legal but protected by various laws.
As a site question, how protected are political candidates? Does "Candidate X slept with 40 women in the last 5 years" count as political speech or a slanderous personal attack?
--
Hmm, maybe slashdot isn't all bad after all. Think we should incorporate and contract with the US government? That would take care of slashdot articles like the one yesterday about Operati.. I mean, those internet attacks carried out by remorselesss crackers.
--
Actually, the seller gets to set the minimum bid, as well as the reserve (if this hidden value is not met during bidding, then the seller has the right to not follow through on selling the item).
Is it better for an ebay seller trying to sell a domain name to (1) post it at $20 with a reserve of $20M, or (2) post it at $20M with no reserve? I'd say 2, because then ebay buyers don't have to waste their time bidding on it.
--
What others are there?
--
I wonder if this is the same attacker. If so, are they targetting the UUnet backbone or is UUnet just getting bogged down by the attacks themselves and people hitting reload on their favorite sites until they come up?
--
Maybe the fact that they didn't step forward is a hint that the media (or even just slashdot) is approaching the story from the right angle -- they haven't needed to step forward because other people are making the point for them.
--
That wouldn't prevent attackers from within those networks from spoofing out, but it would encourage ISP owners to double-check their routing configuration.
--
--
--
Aww man, you just took the fun out us of making Beowulf jokes.</silly>
On a more serious note, are the comparisons fair? They seem to be using the same mhz values, but how well does a 450 mhz p2 compare with an apple g4? Most people wouldn't try to compare intel chips with alphas, for example. One way to determine this would be to try doing similar but simpler problems on single intel and single mac computers, and seeing how these two setups compared.
Why p2's and not p3's?
What parellel software are they using on the intel computers?
Were they able to determine why the apple computers run better in parellel than the intel computers? Was it because the intel computers ended up saturating the lines between them?
--
Also write a C to "real text" converter, and convert both gcc and the converter to "real text"
--
Actually.. objects in space tend to radiate energy in the form of electromagnetic waves (light).. at lower temperatures, you don't notice this much because it's infrared light. that's how many night vision systems work, btw.
--
Thanks for pointing that out. I actually think I have an answer for that, though.
Macroeconomic theory says that when the US government spends money, the gross domestic product goes up quite a bit more than the original spending. This happens because the employees of the aerospace firms go out and buy stuff, the employees of the companies the aerospace workers buy products from go out and buy stuff, and so on. (This doesn't happen forever because people don't spend every cent out of every additional dollar they earn -- they tend to save some of it, but spend most of it). As a result, unemployment goes down, and more people are happy.
--
--
--
The temperature of space is debatable. Some would say that within the solar system, it's thousands of kelvins because the few particles that are in space are moving very rapidly. Others only count the background radiation and put the temperature at three kelvins.
--