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  1. Re:Methyl hydrate apocalypse averted? on China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor · · Score: 1

    Thats why we must strike first. If we extract all the Methyl Hydrate first then the earth wont have a chance to release it on us. Better yet we will set it on fire and burn it in its face. If we burn it all then there wont be any green house gasses to be released. Best way to prevent the apocalypse.


    Um. Wait a minute.....


    /sarcasm

  2. Oh. For resources. Read that title wrong. on China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor · · Score: 1

    Ahhh. This is mining in the sense of going after energy and ore. When I read that title I thought "WOW. Who uses depth charge exploding sea mines any more? Um, are they preparing for war?"

    Thankfully this is just peaceful science. Right? RIGHT?

  3. Re:There goes the Eternal September on Is AOL Finally Crashing and Burning? · · Score: 3, Informative

    (People won't be geting their Usenet through AOL anymore).

    They already dont. If Eternal September hasn't ended by now then Usenet is screwed. According to Wikipedia article on eternal september:

    On February 9, 2005, AOL discontinued newsgroup access through its service, which it announced on January 25, 2005.

    Best start hunting the source of infection again.

  4. Re:Operating System specific? on Hacker Develops ATM Rootkit · · Score: 1

    Wow your bank charges you AGAIN for using a non-bank atm? My bank actually refunds them because they found it was cheaper for people to use others ATMs and then refund then upkeep their small network.

  5. Operating System specific? on Hacker Develops ATM Rootkit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The title says it is multi-platform but doesnt mention that anywhere in the article. So is this one that runs on CustomFW, Windows and Linux based ATMS?

    To me it would seem better to create a system that would raise the "your-not-with-OUR-bank-so-we-can-stiff-you" charge (charge em 3.50 for the transation then send 2 back to the bank per normal). Slow but would make money over time if EVERY atm had your code.

  6. Re:Man's gotta eat on Epic Releases Free Version of Unreal Engine · · Score: 1

    Well maybe they removed some nice features, or there is no support (highly likely).

    My guess would be they are about to announce UE4 and trying to get people onboard with the UE3 would be the best way to get them to upgrade in the future.

  7. Re:Does anyone know... on New Improvements On the Attacks On WPA/TKIP · · Score: 1

    Yea knew I should have looked around. Here. Wikipedia on WPA will tell the story. Salahx and MobyDisk have it right. It was all stop-gapping. Which is why you have a sprawling landscape of security options.

  8. Re:Does anyone know... on New Improvements On the Attacks On WPA/TKIP · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Well. This attack is used on the less robust TKIP protocol. AES is much stronger. Here is the break down (from my memory weakest to strongest):
    1. WEP
    2. WPA/TKIP
    3. WPA/AES
    4. WPA2/TKIP
    5. WPA2/AES

    WEP Came first. It was one of those "oh we need security" bits. It's about what you would have on a wired network. Yea, no, not really. Broadcast != Hardwire so that quickly began being broken. Collisions were found. Time for something stronger

    WPA came next but it was a bit advanced and all of these older machines didn't have really good processing in them and AES was a bit to intensive so the came up with WPA/TKIP. Lighter encryption but the old devices could pull it. WPA/AES came out around the same time and was stronger but the encryption had a bigger processing overhead.

    Then WPA2 (802.11i) came about with further layers and was what really should have been from the start. Backwards compatibility was a problem here and key to adoption. TKIP stayed as some machines didn't take AES very well. WPA2+AES was the real place most will tell you to be. The whole multiple things was just getting protection out there on a technology that was rapidly falling apart.

    Here is an analogy. US went to war with nearly unprotected Humvees (WEP). They worked well and they did their job. But attackers just blew right through it. So in an effort to get things locked down they welded plates of metal on the Humvee (WPA) some machines could handle more (AES) some less (TKIP). The military went back and developed a new technology similar to the quick field fix and came up with the Armored Humvee (WPA2) with good protection all around and made it standard (802.11i). Still defeatable but it can take a lot more.

    There. I'm sure it would have been easier to find a wikipedia article and link to that but I was bored.

  9. Third party patch on Microsoft Says No TCP/IP Patches For XP · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't be surprised if there is a third party developer that creates a patch that fixes this. Wasn't there something like that a while back?

  10. Re:evil gluten on How Wired's Hiding Writer Was Found · · Score: 1

    It also is the dietary trend of the day.

    Not quite. See we Celiac folk (myself included) who truly suffer take great offense to the "trend" notion. You know why? Becaue while more and more people are trying it out (to see if it will help) the disease actually exists. Its not a 'South Beach' or 'Atkins' fad when you are stuck doing it for the rest of your life. Please, cut us some slack or at least acknowledge that people may really suffer from something like this and are not just 'food fadsters'.

  11. Re:Do the users/sysadmins want to change? on XP Users Are Willing To Give Windows 7 a Chance · · Score: 1

    Nay sir. They COULD care less. They have asked if we are going to upgrade. We have explained that we are out of money and they would need to learn the new system. They go, "Oh... Yea... not quite sure I want to learn the new system. Just wondered." See if they didn't ask then they COULDN'T care less. At this point they have just a little bit of care.

    And yes I didn't actually mention they had asked. Just going with what came out.

  12. Do the users/sysadmins want to change? on XP Users Are Willing To Give Windows 7 a Chance · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The thing with the businesses is CHANGE. See they have this software they know works with XP, Sysadmins who know XP front and back, users who are used to XP, zero in the buy-new-machines fund, and are looking to save money anywhere they can. To justify buying a new version of Windows might be hard since, despite its age, XP works.

    Our university department is cash strapped right now and despite heavy discounts we will NOT be moving to 7 unless it comes installed on a computer. We might if we are lucky get it in the 2011 FY budget. Unlikely though. Our users are so used to the look and feel that they likely would balk at the 7 upgraded look, and ask us to put back in the "classic" look. Yes the Windows 2000 look. Not that new XP Luna stuff. 2000. Thats why we are not switching to 7 anytime soon. The users could care less and our administrators wont give us the money.

    Plus, were a little lazy and dont want to reinstall all of those comptuers.

  13. How about a password to kill the machine on Encryption? What Encryption? · · Score: 1

    Instead of having a "secure" and "super secure" sections how about a third option: "nuke data." That way you give them the byebye data password (you have a hidden backup right?) and when they enter it in the data disappears. You could even have it go through and scramble the data. No real biggie there just trash some bits randomly then relock with an unknown password.

    Scenario: You make a data encrypted area (heck make it the whole harddrive like TrueCrypt can) then backup the encrypted
    Situation: You are forced to give over the password.
    Solution: You give them the "nuke data" password.
    Outcome: Encryption program reports that secure partition has been improperly modified and is corrupt. Now none of your passwords will work.

    Officer: Ok smartie. Whats the decrypt password?
    You: RickAstley (cause your "never gonna give you up". sorry bad joke ill show myself out)
    Officer: Ok. lets try it. Hmm. It says that the partition is corrupt
    You: ARE YOU SERIOUS! I go from having to show you my private data to not having it. Great. Thanks. Way to go.
    Officer: Right. Not working here. What the REAL password.
    You: The full decrypt was "1337Crypt" but if it is corrupt were both screwed
    Officer: Yep still says corrupt. Cannot decrypt information. Well were both screwed I guess.

    So the other question is would this make you just as guilty?

  14. Re:Because Texas is much better on DHS Pathogen Lab To Be Built In "Tornado Alley" · · Score: 1

    Oh. Wow. Its a level 3. News release with the goods in it.

    Here is a google street view of our Level 3 oncampus lab. Street view level look. You may have to look east to see it. Its the one with all the fancy fence around it. The new place will be just north of this one.

  15. Re:Because Texas is much better on DHS Pathogen Lab To Be Built In "Tornado Alley" · · Score: 1

    Im with yea there (Live in town, attend K-State, etc.). In my 15 years of living in Manhappenin' the tornado last summer was the first to actually do damage IN the town. Kinda good odds there.

    Really the thing is going to be right next to a level 2 (it think it a level 2) existing bioresearch center. That thing isn't even buried in the ground its just out there waiting to get hit. This new lab will be built into the hill and will have some isolation rings in it that would require a really powerful tornado (the remnants of a tornado that went through was an EF-0 when it tickled campus) to get to the good stuff.

    I dont know about Shifty Jim but I frankly am not worried about this thing.

    (Oh did I mention there are cows that live 10 feet from were this thing is gonna be built?)

  16. Re:Let the environment help with containment on DHS Pathogen Lab To Be Built In "Tornado Alley" · · Score: 1

    Umm. Not in Manhattan, KS (where the lab is to be located). Average house price is 200k.

  17. Watch it at CH.com 'cause YouTube got pulled on The Kindle 3 · · Score: 1

    Watch it at College Humor

    I laughed. Sadly.

  18. AAC Decoding on FFmpeg Finally Releases Long-Awaited Version 0.5 · · Score: 1

    Really? AAC Decoding is new?

    I thought that this was already done by many things (VLC for one). Unless these were using an SVN build this really surprises me.

    Also for us not in the know. Is WMV9 what WMP10 and WMP11 use?

  19. Re:In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamic on MIT Team Creates Shock That Recharges Your Car · · Score: 1

    Apparently you have never driven an interstate highway or local road in Kansas (or the Midwest in general). You would easily get some power just on a drive around town or to the next.

  20. Enormous Potential on Graphene Sheets Get Easier To Manufacture · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This breakthrough has the same potential to do to graphine research as did mass production of nanotubes and other nanomaterials. The more readily available the more research can be done. As the price goes down more can get a hold of the material. Maybe we can finally create more powerful chips using this as a substrate.

  21. Re:I live in Vermont and have Fairpoint on Fairpoint Pledges To Violate Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Bummer. This is probably the single most authoritative comment on the situation and it is buried at the bottom. Mod this parent up please.

  22. My campus requires it on Apple Quietly Recommends Antivirus Software For Macs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The college I attend actually requires all mac users to install Symantic Corporate to be allowd on the network. Their justification is that this will prevent WINDOWS virus from passing through macs and then hitting the Windows boxes as the mac users send them on. We have a good security team and I can understand why they would want to do this.

    As macs are being used in Enterprise environments they can harbor virus infected files silently before going back into the network. One computer that missed new definitions can be taken down when that file gets passed to it. Its up to you but if you are in Enterprise situations you better comply.

    As for multiple AV systems, that is retarded. They will fight for resources and cause performance to be brought down. Just pick one and run with it. If you want.

  23. OpenWRT and DD-WRT porting boosted by this? on Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if this could be used to help port OpenWRT over to the atheros chipset. Currently the only routers that OpenWRT (and conversely by that DD-WRT) really work well on are the broadcom chipsets. Many routers that use the Atheros chipset have been written off as impossible to port to. Maybe they could be used if this proves any insight to how they operate.

  24. Company VPN or SSH (or RDC?) on Free Tools To Evade China's Web Censorship · · Score: 1

    I have a feeling that if companies are really worried about their people getting blocked they will simply setup a spare computer in their offices and then use that as a VPN or SSH server.

    Does china block RDC connections? This would be the best way I think. Just RDC over a SSH tunnel. This would allow you to actually operate a computer stateside and not behind their firewall. Plus you would not have sensitive files floating around.

  25. Every dollar in we get 9 dollars back. on NASA Turns 50 · · Score: 1

    I find it truly interesting that people seem to dog upon the space program and NASA. What many do not realize is that much of the technology that we enjoy today was developed by NASA and its partners to solve a problem in space. It is when they realized that it had practical applications on earth they were able to make back profits.

    I have heard from others that "For every dollar put into nasa we get 20 dollars back in new tech." Searching around lead me to find that it is actually around 9 dollars back. Still 9:1 return is not found even in the riskiest markets.

    As for tech. Someone told me Velcro was invented to help secure things in zero gravity. Memory Foam (the basis for the Tempurpedic "Swedish Sleep System") was made for beds in space so they would conform. This is all second hand stuff from my parents when I was young so I am going to guess there may be some element of conspiracy to make me interested in science.

    Now my only question is, will NASA make it to 60?