By now, all the patent-trollster-lurkers who passively phish in the/. pool must be rushing with suitably edited claims to their frienly neighborhood USPTO.
Can anyone who works in the IP (intellectual property NOT Internet Protocol) post a list of known trollster companies that are full of lawyers who acquire patents (by any means) and make patent litigation their primary business model?
sorry about formatting in parent - corrected
on
No Noise PC Reviewed
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Same thing - only prettier formatting.
Hush ATX Here at TrustedReviews we like the idea of quiet PCs. In fact it wasnâ(TM)t too long ago that we wrote a feature â" Silent Solution - detailing how to make your PC as quiet as possible. But even if you follow the same route that we did in that feature, you still wonâ(TM)t have a truly silent machine, although it will be far quieter than it was before. Even large, low rpm fans still produce noise, and although you can get power supplies with variable fan speeds, they will still add to the noise pollution in your room. If you want a PC thatâ(TM)s truly silent, you need it to be completely passive, and that means that you canâ(TM)t go for your run of the mill, mix and match PC build â" youâ(TM)re going to have to go to a specialist and one such specialist is Hush Technologies. The Hush ATX system is a full PC built using pretty standard components, but without the use of a single fan. This isnâ(TM)t the first totally passive system weâ(TM)ve seen though. A while back we looked at the Poweroid 1204 which was based on a Zalman fanless case. This was a very impressive system, but it was very large and designed to be used as a performance PC, despite its silent operation. Hush on the other hand, designs its own system cases, and is more interested in the style conscious consumer who wants something that makes a visual impression rather than an audible one.
Leaving aside the fact that this Hush is a silent PC, letâ(TM)s look at it from a purely aesthetic point of view. Quite simply, there wasn't anyone in the TrustedReviews offices that didnâ(TM)t think that the Hush looked superb. Finished in solid aluminium with a brushed finish, the Hush wouldnâ(TM)t look out of place in any living room â" no matter how much high-end AV equipment you happen to have in there. But unlike many PCs, the Hushâ(TM)s beauty is far more than skin deep. The build quality of the Hush is nothing short of staggering, and at the risk of sounding stereotypical, the whole package has a feel of precision German engineering â" like the PC equivalent of a Porsche Carrera GT.
The system case isnâ(TM)t just finished in brushed aluminium, the case is constructed from solid billets of aluminium and if youâ(TM)ve got a bad back, you better get someone else to lift it for you â" this is one heavy PC. Itâ(TM)s the sides of the case that add weight, both visually and literally. Both sides of the case are constructed from solid aluminium fins, designed specifically to dissipate heat from inside. Looking closely at the fins youâ(TM)ll see that Hushâ(TM)s attention to detail is admirable, with each fin ridged for ultimate heat exchange. The top of the case has 28 round holes in it, with an aluminium grille behind them. Once again, this helps heat escape from inside the chassis and once again it looks great.
First of all, a small clarification - I agree that critical, life-saving infrastructure must be secure. That unauthorized access to these systems must be prevented. That public confidence in the sources of information is key to saving lives in the event of a disaster - and hence must be guaranteed to be genuine. A 100% of the time.
That said - don't y'all sprain yer hamstrings to jump up and point fingers at the "government" or twist this into an open-source vs. closed source issue.
Every system is designed in relation to its operating environment. The EBS was originally designed for a far more benign environment than exists today. I bet the primary goal of the designers was to come up with a system that was simple and effective and would work even if large parts of the power grid and the telephone network collapsed. It is inconceivable that they did not ask themselves if they needed bullet-proof authentication mechanisms - it is equally probable that they discarded that requirement as being potentially failure-prone. Given the fairly benign security environment that they designed for, and given the technology available and the overarching goal of simplicity - they cam up with what is really quite functional.
And then the world changed (surprise, surprise). the environment that surrounded the EMS changed, rapidly and unpredictably. Where previously it was safe to assume that natural disasters would bring people in the community together to work in co-operation to face the threat, we now wonder which sleeper cells activate in these situations. The comfortable security blanket of yore that RipVanVinkle aka RVV dozed is suddenly yanked off - exposing us to the elements.
Its like waking up one day in the shadow of a dam and suddenly seeing a thousand leaks in it. The small leaks have always been there - all dams leak and sweat a little. But now we know that there are people out there that seek to widen the cracks and stuff them with C4 and stick some fulminate in them (amazing how much chemistry you can pick up from the newspapers isnt it?). So RVV franctically tries to seal the leaks in the dam. Paranoia? Perhaps.
The real tragedy is that the time that should be spent tending to his crops, playing with his children, making hot, sweaty love to his wife and dreaming big dreams in his afternoon nap is now spent in searching and classifying and closing the leaks in the dam.
Will RipVanVinkle make his dam perfect? Can any dam be made perfectly leak free? Go figure.
Dont most medical systems (CAT scanners, heart-lung machines, dialisys units, monitoring units etc) have purpose built firmware and software? When did they start to put M$ OSes or code into machinery that directly affects/controls/reports what goes into a patients body or comes out of it?
Of course administrative computers used for record-keeping do run M$ mostly (somebody should point out to the HMO's how much money they'd save with Linux! They'd be onto it in a shot). But the "patients lives on the line" threat there is not as great as the having faulty code controlling a laser in a brain surgeons hands.
I suppose that M$ must be developing a real RTOS for use in medical machinery. They would have managed to get in some OS variant into some non-critical systems. And they will probably penetrate the critical medical systems market at some point in time.
Thats one mast for every 15 households. Given that it is Denmark, estimate that as one mast every 35 people. And miles and miles of wasted electromagnetic waves "wasting their sweetness on the desert air" (in winter, it IS a desert!)
The technology isnt new, its not art, the scale isnt mind boggling and it doesnt address the digital divide at all. OTOH, a Wi-Fi project that covers 15000 households is much more "useful" and newsworthy.
The only thing that redeems the newsworthiness of this article is the hope that the 150 participants from 30 countries intend to apply what they learn at this convention to actually try and bridge the digital divide. In any case, the skeptic in me suspects that the convention is about getting people to come and applaud a project that at best is technology for technology's sake.
Whether he will be featured in this new movie as the dashing, libidinous Kirk of the golden years (c'mon how difficult is it to contrive a story plot that zips through a time-warp?), or an old aging over-the-hill suited brass-hat admiral, Digital Kirk is probably a better choice than a Shatner-Kirk.
The flexibility and dynamic range that this affords the director will make for a better movie.
Now all we need is for someone to take hit Al Pacino over the head, steal his copy of Simpone and adapt:)
Most r&d into fuel cells for use in laptops is directed at methanol cells which will contain mathanol....so you could stretch the point and think of it as a gas can.
Thanks to some (a) late-nite editorial misadventure which seemed like a good idea at the time and (b) a groundswell of outraged reader sentiment, even if some of it is pure overreaction this thread is indefinitely closed for repairs.
Moderators please report to the front office before the reptiloid workers can inter this thread in the time capsule. Your services are needed by other info-lunkers.
Either you're becoming especially keen-sighted or this scene has all the clarity of a Mondrian. Abstract splotches of green and violet burst with healthy orange meadow poppies that waft an eye-opening fragrance which keeps you wide awake.
The transplanted poppy, still resplendent, is drooping a little about the blossoms. It is now day.
The democratic convention is only providing wired security so that people who bring their own notebooks to the party can plug in and share their dirty pictures with each other.
So WiFi security is not something the Convention IT staff can control, with or without WEP
Nearly a 100% of all notebook computers brought to the convention will have WiFi built-in to them. A few sensible folks will have their notebooks configured to only latch onto "known" access points using wep. The rest will have their WiFi settings set to allow both ad-hoc and infrastructure mode and to connect automatically.
These people, while probably smart and successful in other ways, are likely to be morons who are network-retarded.
As a result they are unlikely to realise that while they are busy and connected to the wired network, their computers have also connected automatically to the blackHatAP that has been setup in the closed-for-the weekend in the Pizzeria across the street. A convenient and cheap SEP field will prevent them from seeing small message dialogs that inform them of these events.
Some of these notebooks, as a result of belonging to irresponible morons, will already be 0wn3d. They are twice as likely to not be updated using windos update..
In short these computers will behave pretty much the same as the drunk chick flahing her tits at Dayton Beach on spring break (altho why we only see photos of them on the internet and never meet any of these tipsy goddesses IRL is beyond me. Oh wait, that probably cuz I'm here instead of there.!)
I would lay a wager of 10 bucks at odds of 5-1 that at least 5% of the notebooks on-site will automatically latch onto the first available AP AND be unpatched enough to allow arbitrary code execution using a buffer overflow vulnerability on some port OR have a trojan installed which can be leveraged to execute said code
What is the hapless IT support guy to do? Here are a few ideas -
1. Ban all notebooks since you cant physically inspect the WiFi settings for the visitors. This idea will probably get you fired though. The morons are rich and powerful and will get their way in penetrating your network with their toys. Being a BOFH is only going to get you shafted.
2. Set up your own AP with repeaters all over the place and hope the ho-ing notebooks latch on to your WiFi network first. I am sure this is not foolproof, but will probably bring down your risk by 70%. The boundary cases here are truly that - the notebooks on the wifi edge might see a better signal from blackHatAP and kiss up to it.
3. This may not be legal in your Locale/state/country. Adherence to local laws is your responsibility. Disclaimer made, heres the option - Install a jammer for WiFi frequencies. Better yet, if you have the Secret servce on hand, get them to do it. Simple and efficient. Unintended Interference is a bizatch though.
I thought about the option of setting up a WiFi farm that would create its own/. effect on the BlackHatAP but that wouldn't scale well if the BlackHat set up more than one AP....
I totally agree that the editors have the right to (a) choose the story (b) have different tastes in the choice of stories.
Thats not really the issue here - we are talking about the same story - I am pointing out that there is proably a provess flaw which takes a story out of the queue and drops it in the trash, even if another editor would like to publish it .
This is probably bad for my karma but my conscience demands that I speak out against arbitrary selection.
Let me first state for the record that I am happy that story was published, even if it was not my submission.
OTOH I posted this story a full 9 hours before this submission and it totally sucks that it was rejected by one ed, taking it out of the wait queue; while another ed chooses to publish the same story by a much later submitter.
And this ain't the first time either. I broke the story on US-CERT suggesting that we all dump IE in favor of other browsers - wham Rejected - and a few hours later - there it was - as someone else!/. - we have a problem.
Now, are we supposed to track the preferences of the various eds, guess which one is on the prowl by looking at the latest stories and then post appropriately? One omelette, many chefs!
Having gone through a gifted infancy, a troubled toddlerdom and an uncertain childhood, p2p is now officially adolescent. The kind of testosterone-driven head-butting that this represents cannot be accounted for in any other way. This is a case of nose-thumbing while jumping up and down screaming "I dare ya, nyaah na na nyaah na" to a Confirmed Texan(TM) who roams a mean praire...
I am guessing this is one site that will have reason to be thankful for being./ed.
Good for Open-source, bad for the world at large and for mainstream US industry in particular.
Cost is not the only criterion here. It is a sad truth that countries which suspect/fear that the US will cut off their access to technology by issuing a Department of Commerce export notification are increasingly turning to Open Source as a viable option that circumvents real or prophesized export controls.
Does that make Open Source unpatriotic? If it is, who is culpable? Is Joe Coder a traitor because he fixed a header file macro in an Open Source project which helps to bypass US laws? Will Ashkroft send his goons to nab Joe? What if Joe lives in Switzerland or New Zealand? Will Ashkroft still send his goons anyway?
Netiquette, like profit, depends on how much the market will withstand. It is entirely possible that the same medium will tolerate a completely different "Protocol for interacting via the Internet using both real-time and store and forward technologies" (remember you saw this posited as an RFC here first!). This "RFC" would have large sections that were extremely "locale-specific" (read culture specific) - what is taboo in the Internet of the here and the now may be completely legitimate in another time and place.
Those of you who've driven in Mexico city (or in New Delhi or Djakarta) will remember the keening claustrophbia that engulfs the American driver as cars hedge them in on all sides with literal inches to spare - and in moving traffic - not just at traffic intersections!
The Internet(TM) is evolving to more closely mirror the real world each day. Newer modes of interaction are being deployed all th etime - the common factor between them all being that they are designed to render the intervening network as inconspicious and invisilbe as possible.
The downside is that even virus propagation in the Internet is starting to resemble its real-world analogue. A decade ago a virus infection was like a sexually transmitted disease - it needed the user to perform an act (of inserting the infected floppy) that would infect his computer. Till recently Internet borne viruses would still need a user action (click a link, open an atatchment, execute a file etc) to spread. Now, its like riding a bus and catching a cold - keeping a computer on and connected causes infection for those without the immune systems to resist. The Sasser plague is a case in point.
As the number and character of the diverse peoples inhabiting the Internet grows, the Internet itself will continue to morph to better mirror the realities of its inhabitants. And so will the acceptable conventions of behaviour aka Netiquette.
I can vouch for the desirability of the domain name portable email approach too - I finally got myself a domain and use it to provide portable addresses for my family using email forwarding.
The good thing is that email forwarding is free from most registrars. Some support only a limited number of specific email address forwards while others allow an unlimited number, so shop around for a good registrar....it is an educational experience to read about the Verisign evil emipire for example.
I would recommend that you turn off the catch all option (or at least set filters in your mail client to weed out mail to any address you havent specifically configured). That way you don't habve to stay up all night wondering if you need bre??t or pe??s enlargement depending on your sex. Of course, you are more likely to receive spam on the email ids that you leave sprinkled around in the mandatory registration pages - so use a different email address for that - instead of your permanent one. Or just get the Mozilla plug-in to bypass registrations.
Of course that means you lose out on some really entertaining spam - the best I have ever received offered to teach me everything I ever wanted to know about septic tank cleaning systems. Now thats a cathartic experience...:)
For those of you who RTFA and are still left mumbling "what the heck is an OLED.." here it is
OLED is an Electroluminescent display technology.
It is cnsidered one of the most promising emerging display technologies and exploits ultrathin films of organic compounds, either small molecules or polymers, which emit light (luminescence) when subjected to a voltage. These organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) produce bright, lightweight displays. A number of small independent firms in Europe and the US have been developing devices based on various luminescent molecules.
On a related note, in its 2004 MiniDV camcorders of the HC-XX series Sony claims to use a "Hybrid LCD display" which is claimed to perform significantly better than the regular LCD screens it renders obsolete (like the one in my 2003 MiniDV). I tried to find out what Hybrid meant and failed - what is the big secret I wonder...
...AT&T for all the six links. I would have thought it made sense to go with multiple service providers if I was spreading out my options for 99.9% availability.
I just loved this gem from the link in the article "NBC will be able to send live feeds from Greece to the U.S. over all six links at once or use them for separate transmissions." Hmmm...six identical high-speed digital transmissions of Marion Jones tumbling in ignominy - yeeesh, wot a waste of bandwidth!
The only novel idea in this whole thing is the open tank shower cooler - which also poses the spill hazard. Admittedly the tank looks like a futuristic acrylic ventilated crab and could be considered cool in some sub-cultures - BUT - if you have kids (yeah, some./ers do!) or pets KEEP THIS system away from your PC. If you think you have problems with your dog drinking outta the toilet bowl now....
...the Etch-a-Sketch itself (yeah, yeah, I know they got it for free but you could source one for a dollar).
I am impressed with this project as a teaching aid. Combines a whole lot slew of concepts in one fun project! So what if it isnt practical - technlogia gratia artis.
Slashdot Mirror
Congratulations /.
/. pool must be rushing with suitably edited claims to their frienly neighborhood USPTO.
By now, all the patent-trollster-lurkers who passively phish in the
Can anyone who works in the IP (intellectual property NOT Internet Protocol) post a list of known trollster companies that are full of lawyers who acquire patents (by any means) and make patent litigation their primary business model?
Same thing - only prettier formatting.
Hush ATX
Here at TrustedReviews we like the idea of quiet PCs. In fact it wasnâ(TM)t too long ago that we wrote a feature â" Silent Solution - detailing how to make your PC as quiet as possible. But even if you follow the same route that we did in that feature, you still wonâ(TM)t have a truly silent machine, although it will be far quieter than it was before. Even large, low rpm fans still produce noise, and although you can get power supplies with variable fan speeds, they will still add to the noise pollution in your room. If you want a PC thatâ(TM)s truly silent, you need it to be completely passive, and that means that you canâ(TM)t go for your run of the mill, mix and match PC build â" youâ(TM)re going to have to go to a specialist and one such specialist is Hush Technologies.
The Hush ATX system is a full PC built using pretty standard components, but without the use of a single fan. This isnâ(TM)t the first totally passive system weâ(TM)ve seen though. A while back we looked at the Poweroid 1204 which was based on a Zalman fanless case. This was a very impressive system, but it was very large and designed to be used as a performance PC, despite its silent operation. Hush on the other hand, designs its own system cases, and is more interested in the style conscious consumer who wants something that makes a visual impression rather than an audible one.
Leaving aside the fact that this Hush is a silent PC, letâ(TM)s look at it from a purely aesthetic point of view. Quite simply, there wasn't anyone in the TrustedReviews offices that didnâ(TM)t think that the Hush looked superb. Finished in solid aluminium with a brushed finish, the Hush wouldnâ(TM)t look out of place in any living room â" no matter how much high-end AV equipment you happen to have in there. But unlike many PCs, the Hushâ(TM)s beauty is far more than skin deep. The build quality of the Hush is nothing short of staggering, and at the risk of sounding stereotypical, the whole package has a feel of precision German engineering â" like the PC equivalent of a Porsche Carrera GT.
The system case isnâ(TM)t just finished in brushed aluminium, the case is constructed from solid billets of aluminium and if youâ(TM)ve got a bad back, you better get someone else to lift it for you â" this is one heavy PC. Itâ(TM)s the sides of the case that add weight, both visually and literally. Both sides of the case are constructed from solid aluminium fins, designed specifically to dissipate heat from inside. Looking closely at the fins youâ(TM)ll see that Hushâ(TM)s attention to detail is admirable, with each fin ridged for ultimate heat exchange. The top of the case has 28 round holes in it, with an aluminium grille behind them. Once again, this helps heat escape from inside the chassis and once again it looks great.
The front fascia is also carved from a single billet of aluminium and is about a centimetre thick. On the left of the fascia youâ(TM)ll find a round power button that glows blue when the machine is on. Although blue lights are becoming somewhat passé on technology products these days, the Hush pulls it off with aplomb. On the right of the fascia, is an optical drive. Since Hush builds to order, you can choose whether you want a vanilla CD-ROM drive, a CD/DVD combo or a DVD writer. Obviously with a machine like this itâ(TM)s worth going for the DVD writer, since youâ(TM)re probably going to want to burn content either recorded from TV or downloaded from a digital camcorder to disc. The drives used are notebook versions which means theyâ(TM)re slim and quiet â" of course the tray has a solid piece of aluminium attached to it to keep those minimalist lines in order. Beneath the optical drive youâ(TM)ll find two USB 2.0 ports, two six-pin FireWire ports, as well as mic and headphone sockets
I got to the first page of the three page review ok....and then the plainitive screams of a server under load - Stack Trace: [HttpException (0x80004005): Server Too Busy] System.Web.HttpRuntime.RejectRequestInternal(HttpW orkerRequest wr) +148 Anyway, heres the first page content pulled out of my Mozilla cache - Hush ATX Here at TrustedReviews we like the idea of quiet PCs. In fact it wasnâ(TM)t too long ago that we wrote a feature â" Silent Solution - detailing how to make your PC as quiet as possible. But even if you follow the same route that we did in that feature, you still wonâ(TM)t have a truly silent machine, although it will be far quieter than it was before. Even large, low rpm fans still produce noise, and although you can get power supplies with variable fan speeds, they will still add to the noise pollution in your room. If you want a PC thatâ(TM)s truly silent, you need it to be completely passive, and that means that you canâ(TM)t go for your run of the mill, mix and match PC build â" youâ(TM)re going to have to go to a specialist and one such specialist is Hush Technologies. The Hush ATX system is a full PC built using pretty standard components, but without the use of a single fan. This isnâ(TM)t the first totally passive system weâ(TM)ve seen though. A while back we looked at the Poweroid 1204 which was based on a Zalman fanless case. This was a very impressive system, but it was very large and designed to be used as a performance PC, despite its silent operation. Hush on the other hand, designs its own system cases, and is more interested in the style conscious consumer who wants something that makes a visual impression rather than an audible one. Leaving aside the fact that this Hush is a silent PC, letâ(TM)s look at it from a purely aesthetic point of view. Quite simply, there wasn't anyone in the TrustedReviews offices that didnâ(TM)t think that the Hush looked superb. Finished in solid aluminium with a brushed finish, the Hush wouldnâ(TM)t look out of place in any living room â" no matter how much high-end AV equipment you happen to have in there. But unlike many PCs, the Hushâ(TM)s beauty is far more than skin deep. The build quality of the Hush is nothing short of staggering, and at the risk of sounding stereotypical, the whole package has a feel of precision German engineering â" like the PC equivalent of a Porsche Carrera GT. The system case isnâ(TM)t just finished in brushed aluminium, the case is constructed from solid billets of aluminium and if youâ(TM)ve got a bad back, you better get someone else to lift it for you â" this is one heavy PC. Itâ(TM)s the sides of the case that add weight, both visually and literally. Both sides of the case are constructed from solid aluminium fins, designed specifically to dissipate heat from inside. Looking closely at the fins youâ(TM)ll see that Hushâ(TM)s attention to detail is admirable, with each fin ridged for ultimate heat exchange. The top of the case has 28 round holes in it, with an aluminium grille behind them. Once again, this helps heat escape from inside the chassis and once again it looks great. The front fascia is also carved from a single billet of aluminium and is about a centimetre thick. On the left of the fascia youâ(TM)ll find a round power button that glows blue when the machine is on. Although blue lights are becoming somewhat passé on technology products these days, the Hush pulls it off with aplomb. On the right of the fascia, is an optical drive. Since Hush builds to order, you can choose whether you want a vanilla CD-ROM drive, a CD/DVD combo or a DVD writer. Obviously with a machine like this itâ(TM)s worth going for the DVD writer, since youâ(TM)re probably going to want to burn content either recorded from TV or downloaded from a digital camcorder to disc. The drives used are notebook versions which means theyâ(TM)re slim and quiet â" of course the tray has a
That said - don't y'all sprain yer hamstrings to jump up and point fingers at the "government" or twist this into an open-source vs. closed source issue.
Every system is designed in relation to its operating environment. The EBS was originally designed for a far more benign environment than exists today. I bet the primary goal of the designers was to come up with a system that was simple and effective and would work even if large parts of the power grid and the telephone network collapsed. It is inconceivable that they did not ask themselves if they needed bullet-proof authentication mechanisms - it is equally probable that they discarded that requirement as being potentially failure-prone. Given the fairly benign security environment that they designed for, and given the technology available and the overarching goal of simplicity - they cam up with what is really quite functional.
And then the world changed (surprise, surprise). the environment that surrounded the EMS changed, rapidly and unpredictably. Where previously it was safe to assume that natural disasters would bring people in the community together to work in co-operation to face the threat, we now wonder which sleeper cells activate in these situations. The comfortable security blanket of yore that RipVanVinkle aka RVV dozed is suddenly yanked off - exposing us to the elements.
Its like waking up one day in the shadow of a dam and suddenly seeing a thousand leaks in it. The small leaks have always been there - all dams leak and sweat a little. But now we know that there are people out there that seek to widen the cracks and stuff them with C4 and stick some fulminate in them (amazing how much chemistry you can pick up from the newspapers isnt it?). So RVV franctically tries to seal the leaks in the dam. Paranoia? Perhaps.
The real tragedy is that the time that should be spent tending to his crops, playing with his children, making hot, sweaty love to his wife and dreaming big dreams in his afternoon nap is now spent in searching and classifying and closing the leaks in the dam.
Will RipVanVinkle make his dam perfect? Can any dam be made perfectly leak free? Go figure.
So tragic that the partial l337 mis-spell ruined it.
I can see the author mentally doing "lines"... .....
I must spell it 0wn3d I must spell it 0wn3d
Two comments and The Bug has been squashed by the almighty /. effect.
Of course administrative computers used for record-keeping do run M$ mostly (somebody should point out to the HMO's how much money they'd save with Linux! They'd be onto it in a shot). But the "patients lives on the line" threat there is not as great as the having faulty code controlling a laser in a brain surgeons hands.
I suppose that M$ must be developing a real RTOS for use in medical machinery. They would have managed to get in some OS variant into some non-critical systems. And they will probably penetrate the critical medical systems market at some point in time.
That would be a bad time to visit a hospital.
Thats one mast for every 15 households. Given that it is Denmark, estimate that as one mast every 35 people. And miles and miles of wasted electromagnetic waves "wasting their sweetness on the desert air" (in winter, it IS a desert!)
The technology isnt new, its not art, the scale isnt mind boggling and it doesnt address the digital divide at all. OTOH, a Wi-Fi project that covers 15000 households is much more "useful" and newsworthy.
The only thing that redeems the newsworthiness of this article is the hope that the 150 participants from 30 countries intend to apply what they learn at this convention to actually try and bridge the digital divide. In any case, the skeptic in me suspects that the convention is about getting people to come and applaud a project that at best is technology for technology's sake.
The flexibility and dynamic range that this affords the director will make for a better movie.
Now all we need is for someone to take hit Al Pacino over the head, steal his copy of Simpone and adapt :)
Most r&d into fuel cells for use in laptops is directed at methanol cells which will contain mathanol....so you could stretch the point and think of it as a gas can.
(a) late-nite editorial misadventure which seemed like a good idea at the time and
(b) a groundswell of outraged reader sentiment, even if some of it is pure overreaction
this thread is indefinitely closed for repairs.
Moderators please report to the front office before the reptiloid workers can inter this thread in the time capsule. Your services are needed by other info-lunkers.
Either you're becoming especially keen-sighted or this scene has all the clarity of a Mondrian. Abstract splotches of green and violet burst with healthy orange meadow poppies that waft an eye-opening fragrance which keeps you wide awake.
The transplanted poppy, still resplendent, is drooping a little about the blossoms.
It is now day.
So WiFi security is not something the Convention IT staff can control, with or without WEP
Nearly a 100% of all notebook computers brought to the convention will have WiFi built-in to them. A few sensible folks will have their notebooks configured to only latch onto "known" access points using wep. The rest will have their WiFi settings set to allow both ad-hoc and infrastructure mode and to connect automatically. These people, while probably smart and successful in other ways, are likely to be morons who are network-retarded.
As a result they are unlikely to realise that while they are busy and connected to the wired network, their computers have also connected automatically to the blackHatAP that has been setup in the closed-for-the weekend in the Pizzeria across the street. A convenient and cheap SEP field will prevent them from seeing small message dialogs that inform them of these events.
Some of these notebooks, as a result of belonging to irresponible morons, will already be 0wn3d. They are twice as likely to not be updated using windos update..
In short these computers will behave pretty much the same as the drunk chick flahing her tits at Dayton Beach on spring break (altho why we only see photos of them on the internet and never meet any of these tipsy goddesses IRL is beyond me. Oh wait, that probably cuz I'm here instead of there.!)
I would lay a wager of 10 bucks at odds of 5-1 that at least 5% of the notebooks on-site will automatically latch onto the first available AP AND be unpatched enough to allow arbitrary code execution using a buffer overflow vulnerability on some port OR have a trojan installed which can be leveraged to execute said code
What is the hapless IT support guy to do? Here are a few ideas -
1. Ban all notebooks since you cant physically inspect the WiFi settings for the visitors. This idea will probably get you fired though. The morons are rich and powerful and will get their way in penetrating your network with their toys. Being a BOFH is only going to get you shafted.
2. Set up your own AP with repeaters all over the place and hope the ho-ing notebooks latch on to your WiFi network first. I am sure this is not foolproof, but will probably bring down your risk by 70%. The boundary cases here are truly that - the notebooks on the wifi edge might see a better signal from blackHatAP and kiss up to it.
3. This may not be legal in your Locale/state/country. Adherence to local laws is your responsibility. Disclaimer made, heres the option - Install a jammer for WiFi frequencies. Better yet, if you have the Secret servce on hand, get them to do it. Simple and efficient. Unintended Interference is a bizatch though.
I thought about the option of setting up a WiFi farm that would create its own /. effect on the BlackHatAP but that wouldn't scale well if the BlackHat set up more than one AP....
Thats not really the issue here - we are talking about the same story - I am pointing out that there is proably a provess flaw which takes a story out of the queue and drops it in the trash, even if another editor would like to publish it .
So dont get on my case about the 9 hour claim - I recant on that !
And of course, I fully expect someone will point out that I did post later, so just mod me down and end my misery.
Of I go to eat my crow pie
Let me first state for the record that I am happy that story was published, even if it was not my submission.
OTOH I posted this story a full 9 hours before this submission and it totally sucks that it was rejected by one ed, taking it out of the wait queue; while another ed chooses to publish the same story by a much later submitter.
And this ain't the first time either. I broke the story on US-CERT suggesting that we all dump IE in favor of other browsers - wham Rejected - and a few hours later - there it was - as someone else! /. - we have a problem.
Now, are we supposed to track the preferences of the various eds, guess which one is on the prowl by looking at the latest stories and then post appropriately? One omelette, many chefs!
Darn, I shoulda gone AC on this - Bye bye karma.
I am guessing this is one site that will have reason to be thankful for being ./ed.
Cost is not the only criterion here. It is a sad truth that countries which suspect/fear that the US will cut off their access to technology by issuing a Department of Commerce export notification are increasingly turning to Open Source as a viable option that circumvents real or prophesized export controls.
Does that make Open Source unpatriotic? If it is, who is culpable? Is Joe Coder a traitor because he fixed a header file macro in an Open Source project which helps to bypass US laws? Will Ashkroft send his goons to nab Joe? What if Joe lives in Switzerland or New Zealand? Will Ashkroft still send his goons anyway?
Those of you who've driven in Mexico city (or in New Delhi or Djakarta) will remember the keening claustrophbia that engulfs the American driver as cars hedge them in on all sides with literal inches to spare - and in moving traffic - not just at traffic intersections!
The Internet(TM) is evolving to more closely mirror the real world each day. Newer modes of interaction are being deployed all th etime - the common factor between them all being that they are designed to render the intervening network as inconspicious and invisilbe as possible.
The downside is that even virus propagation in the Internet is starting to resemble its real-world analogue. A decade ago a virus infection was like a sexually transmitted disease - it needed the user to perform an act (of inserting the infected floppy) that would infect his computer. Till recently Internet borne viruses would still need a user action (click a link, open an atatchment, execute a file etc) to spread. Now, its like riding a bus and catching a cold - keeping a computer on and connected causes infection for those without the immune systems to resist. The Sasser plague is a case in point.
As the number and character of the diverse peoples inhabiting the Internet grows, the Internet itself will continue to morph to better mirror the realities of its inhabitants. And so will the acceptable conventions of behaviour aka Netiquette.
The good thing is that email forwarding is free from most registrars. Some support only a limited number of specific email address forwards while others allow an unlimited number, so shop around for a good registrar....it is an educational experience to read about the Verisign evil emipire for example.
I would recommend that you turn off the catch all option (or at least set filters in your mail client to weed out mail to any address you havent specifically configured). That way you don't habve to stay up all night wondering if you need bre??t or pe??s enlargement depending on your sex. Of course, you are more likely to receive spam on the email ids that you leave sprinkled around in the mandatory registration pages - so use a different email address for that - instead of your permanent one. Or just get the Mozilla plug-in to bypass registrations.
Of course that means you lose out on some really entertaining spam - the best I have ever received offered to teach me everything I ever wanted to know about septic tank cleaning systems. Now thats a cathartic experience... :)
On a related note, in its 2004 MiniDV camcorders of the HC-XX series Sony claims to use a "Hybrid LCD display" which is claimed to perform significantly better than the regular LCD screens it renders obsolete (like the one in my 2003 MiniDV). I tried to find out what Hybrid meant and failed - what is the big secret I wonder...
I just loved this gem from the link in the article "NBC will be able to send live feeds from Greece to the U.S. over all six links at once or use them for separate transmissions." Hmmm...six identical high-speed digital transmissions of Marion Jones tumbling in ignominy - yeeesh, wot a waste of bandwidth!
Now here is an article about the design of the media center and its redundant systems that is more in tune with my ./er persona
Seriously if the article say you can probably use it as an aquarium, its reasonable to be doubtfula bout that.
And then there is this thing we have called "sarcasm" which you seem to have missed....aw heck - whatever.
The only novel idea in this whole thing is the open tank shower cooler - which also poses the spill hazard. Admittedly the tank looks like a futuristic acrylic ventilated crab and could be considered cool in some sub-cultures - BUT - if you have kids (yeah, some ./ers do!) or pets KEEP THIS system away from your PC. If you think you have problems with your dog drinking outta the toilet bowl now....
Does the temperature of the water go high enuff to poach them??!
...the Etch-a-Sketch itself (yeah, yeah, I know they got it for free but you could source one for a dollar). I am impressed with this project as a teaching aid. Combines a whole lot slew of concepts in one fun project! So what if it isnt practical - technlogia gratia artis.