Sure, this law won't stop these tools from leaving the USA, but may still be effective in bullying and retaliating against US based security researchers when they piss off the wrong people.
You presented your research at a conference outside the US? => That's export. You put your software up on the web for everyone? => That's export. You posted details to a mailing list which is hosted outside the US? => That's export.
1) The idea of choosing your language has already been tried. Microsoft tried it with VBScript. 2) Plugins?!? seriously. You want to go back to a plugin world where nothing works reliably because people don't have the right plugins installed.
If you want different languages, then compile to JS. It works today.
No DRM or Copy Protection has ever in the history of computer games survived uncracked for more than a few days!
Assassin's Creed II on the PC was released around the start of March 2010, but a working crack was only available at the end of April. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PC was released on 12 June 2010, and the crack released on 28 June 2010. That is a bit more than a few days.
Consoles are different story of course. They last much much longer relatively speaking before they are cracked.
The main results of the statistical analysis were:
About 69% of the cases were judged known or identified (38% were considered conclusively identified while 31% were still "doubtfully" explained); about 9% fell into insufficient information. About 22% were deemed "unknown", down from the earlier 28% value of the Air Force studies.
In the known category, 86% of the knowns were aircraft, balloons, or had astronomical explanations. Only 1.5% of all cases were judged to be psychological or "crackpot" cases. A "miscellaneous" category comprised 8% of all cases and included possible hoaxes.
The higher the quality of the case, the more likely it was to be classified unknown. 35% of the excellent cases were deemed unknowns, whereas only 18% of the poorest cases. This was the exact opposite result predicted by skeptics, who usually argued unknowns were poorer quality cases involving unreliable witnesses that could be solved if only better information were available.
In all six studied sighting characteristics, the unknowns were different from the knowns at a highly statistically significant level: in five of the six measures the odds of knowns differing from unknowns by chance was only 1% or less. When all six characteristics were considered together, the probability of a match between knowns and unknowns was less than 1 in a billion.
Despite this, the summary section of the Battelle Institute's final report declared it was "highly improbable that any of the reports of unidentified aerial objects... represent observations of technological developments outside the range of present-day knowledge." A number of researchers, including Dr. Bruce Maccabee, who extensively reviewed the data, have noted that the conclusions of the analysts were usually at odds with their own statistical results, displayed in 240 charts, tables, graphs and maps.
It could be that it is cheaper just to wear the occasional losses.
Of course it is cheaper. The shipping companies take out insurance for this situation, and the pirates are careful to keep their demands high enough to make a profit, but low enough that they don't scare the ships away, or force the ships to take a different route or escalate the situation into an armed conflict with the west. It is a straight business decision.
NPR's Planet Money blog did a good podcast a while ago about how the pirating business operates.
She doesn't identify with the crews of those ships she's indirectly helping to board, terrorize, brutalize, and murder.
Probably because although the crews may be 'terrorised', or at least frightened, the crews aren't being brutalised or murdered. How often do you hear of crews being murdered? I've been googling and I can't find any reports of crews being killed. I do find reports of the US Navy and British forces killing pirates though.
These pirates are in this to make money and get the hell out of there. They aren't doing this to brutalise and kill. That is totally counterproductive to their real goals.
SWIG doesn't really cut it for a C++ project with these size/performance requirements.
yep, and that is why Riverbank developed their binding tool SIP. Because SWIG wasn't good enough. That's also why the name SIP was chosen. A sip is a little swig.
I agree with you 100% that games are a soft target. But the obvious 'hard' target which they ignored in this case isn't tobacco, but the television and film industries, aka the media. The reasons are obvious. As a government you don't offend the media industry when it has such powerful control over the airwaves and public opinion.
Actually that rule applies to everyone in the west. Millions of people from all parts of the population spend countless hours of the day parked on the couch, motionless, staring at a box each day. When was the last time you heard anyone suggest in public (or private) that maybe that might not be such a good thing?
Jambi's changing status, I think, is due to Java's evolution as THE backend language for server heavy processing things like databases (Oracle) or massively parallel scientific computations. At the same time, Java isn't used for graphical applications nearly as much as it was back in say '99.
Jambi tried to solve the problem with Java (namely the UI libraries are terrible), but maybe it was too late?
I don't think that is really the case. I remember being at a Java conference for work once and there being a show of hands. Half of the developers attending were server side (and web), and other client side.
The main reason why Jambi probably didn't catch on, IMHO, is that Swing is standard in Java and is much much more established, regardless of its flaws.
PyQt is developed as a commercial product which is available under a closed source license and under the GPL plus the other FOSS licenses that Qt itself used before the recent change to LGPL.
-- Simon
Re:KDE is a perfect cross-platform environment
on
Qt Becomes LGPL
·
· Score: 1
...and now without needing a Qt license, I imagine PyQt becomes a much cheaper proposition for most closed source developers.
-- Simon
Re:In a consumer market that's headed toward mobil
on
Chrome Vs. IE 8
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Ok, so In a consumer market that's headed toward mobile devices that can deliver a decent web experience and are getting smaller and smaller each quarter.
These two Leaders of industry come out with new browsers that would only be suitable for a multi core desktop?
The kind of web based applications that Chrome aims at making possible don't make a lot sense on a mobile platform. I'm talking about things like Google Docs etc. These are applications which require large screens, a keyboard and are generally used for extended periods of time (usually while sitting down too).
People keep telling me that Perl is less readable than other languages, but i disagree. It's only less readable when you dont know the language specific semantics used
And that is the problem with Perl. The syntax and semantics in Perl are so big and cryptic that you have to work full time and deliberately study to climb the syntax and semantics learning curve. Once you climb up the curve you need to remain in constant practice to stay there. All this stuff in the base language is simply not memorable and relies too much on implicit behaviour. And to add insult to injury, the simple programming techniques like passing arguments to a function, or defining classes are not directly supported like in practically every other language.
Every other language designer aims at keeping the core language as small and simple as practical and letting extra functionality be built up in libraries where it can be exposed using meaningful English (or whatever) names which actually aid the reader in understanding what it does. Perl tries to stuff everything into the core language and expose it using cryptic symbols.
That is a good point which you make. The ABN AMRO have that covered too, for the most part. For most transactions this attack is possible, but there is an extra security precaution which kicks in when you try a transaction above a certain amount (1000 euros? I can't remember, I've only hit it once). When this happens you are also requested to enter the target bank account number and the sum into the device. Basically signing those details of the transaction too.
I'm generally very impressed with the ABN's solution to this. It actually seems to solution the problem and is not just another case of security theater.
There is one big difference between increases in hardware performance making XP usable and the situation now for Vista. The 32 bit memory limit has basically been reached. Where do PC makers go after 2Gb RAM is standard in PCs? 4Gb RAM just doesn't get along with 32 bit Vista. The only alternative is to go to 64 bit Vista which is going to be whole other world of pain, possibly worse than the transition from XP to Vista.
Here is the 2nd article on the subject from google:
In close to a decade now of workplace programming, I have yet to actually have a need for any systems level programming of any kind. I used to be extremely fluent in C and even dabbled with assembly language for fun, but those are skills I just don't need at work generally speaking.
You're forgetting about all of the knowledge about how computers work and the concepts about how different programming languages and styles work that you picked up when you learnt C and asm. Although you haven't used C for a long time, you are still using the knowledge about how the whole software/hardware stack fits together when you run your Java or PHP programs. This stuff is valuable to know and makes you more capable of using the tools and hardware you have.
Programming concepts tend to reappear. Consider the C qsort() function. It takes another comparator function as an argument. Programmers that only know Java won't learn this concept of passing function, and they won't be prepared for it when it resurfaces in Javascript code for example. It's about broadening people's understanding of computation and how it can be done.
Big business is one of the most powerful forces in the world today. It should come as no surprise that a big network campanies which are paid by advertisers (read: big business), are only interested in promoting their business friendly view of the world, reality by damned. How can you expect TV news organisations to report on things like the war when they are being paid by the same companies that profitting from it?
For-profit news reporting has been a continuing disaster.
What you have just described is totally different and doesn't in anyway address the class of attack (Cross Site Request Forgery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSRF ) talked about in the article. It has little to do with scripting or zones, or that one browser is IE or the other is Firefox. Is has everything to do with the fact that two *separate* browsers are used, and that web sites in the untrusted browser can't send requests to the guy's logged in banking session.
Turning off scripting doesn't guard against CSRF either BTW. I wish people would read the bloody article (and understand it!).
XMLHttpRequest comes from the golden age of the browser wars when the WWW was the hot new thing which was set to change the industry, and the head of this new company called Netscape was claiming that the WWW would "reduce Windows to an unimportant collection of slightly buggy device drivers". The web was new and out of Microsoft's control. They had no choice but to tackle it head on and gain control of the browser market any way possible, even by bundling it Windows 98, which got them into antitrust trouble with the US government. It was Netscape vs Microsoft in a features arms race until Microsoft finally gained control and market share. Netscape then opted to more or less leave the browser war. With the browser war won, the stream of features stopped and after IE 6 the stream of new innovative browsers stopped to. This effectively froze the functionality of the web browser as a platform for years to come, stopping it from encroaching on any more desktop territory.
It is only relatively recently with IE 7 that the world learnt that Microsoft's Internet Explorer team even existed still. Despite the popularity of Web 2.0 style graphic effects and GUIs, Microsoft still doesn't dare extend their browser and the web platform with more functionality. Any new functionality must come in a standard that Microsoft can completely control, Silverlight that is. It is kind of ironic that the features that Microsoft brought out to try to win the first browser war are also powering Web 2.0 sites all these years later. Microsoft also gave us "design mode", WYSIWYG style editting functionality in a browser too, by the way.
This concludes the history lesson for today.
(I didn't know about Outlook web access. Very interesting!)
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, this law won't stop these tools from leaving the USA, but may still be effective in bullying and retaliating against US based security researchers when they piss off the wrong people.
You presented your research at a conference outside the US? => That's export.
You put your software up on the web for everyone? => That's export.
You posted details to a mailing list which is hosted outside the US? => That's export.
1) The idea of choosing your language has already been tried. Microsoft tried it with VBScript.
2) Plugins?!? seriously. You want to go back to a plugin world where nothing works reliably because people don't have the right plugins installed.
If you want different languages, then compile to JS. It works today.
No DRM or Copy Protection has ever in the history of computer games survived uncracked for more than a few days!
Assassin's Creed II on the PC was released around the start of March 2010, but a working crack was only available at the end of April. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PC was released on 12 June 2010, and the crack released on 28 June 2010. That is a bit more than a few days.
Consoles are different story of course. They last much much longer relatively speaking before they are cracked.
--
Simon
And in particular it is worth reading the section about Project Blue Book Special Report No 14 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book#Project_Blue_Book_Special_Report_No._14 ) which contained the most interesting statistics and some conclusions which were in direct conflict with their own data.
Quoting from wikipedia:
It could be that it is cheaper just to wear the occasional losses.
Of course it is cheaper. The shipping companies take out insurance for this situation, and the pirates are careful to keep their demands high enough to make a profit, but low enough that they don't scare the ships away, or force the ships to take a different route or escalate the situation into an armed conflict with the west. It is a straight business decision.
NPR's Planet Money blog did a good podcast a while ago about how the pirating business operates.
--
Simon
She doesn't identify with the crews of those ships she's indirectly helping to board, terrorize, brutalize, and murder.
Probably because although the crews may be 'terrorised', or at least frightened, the crews aren't being brutalised or murdered. How often do you hear of crews being murdered? I've been googling and I can't find any reports of crews being killed. I do find reports of the US Navy and British forces killing pirates though.
These pirates are in this to make money and get the hell out of there. They aren't doing this to brutalise and kill. That is totally counterproductive to their real goals.
--
Simon
SWIG doesn't really cut it for a C++ project with these size/performance requirements.
yep, and that is why Riverbank developed their binding tool SIP. Because SWIG wasn't good enough. That's also why the name SIP was chosen. A sip is a little swig.
I agree with you 100% that games are a soft target. But the obvious 'hard' target which they ignored in this case isn't tobacco, but the television and film industries, aka the media. The reasons are obvious. As a government you don't offend the media industry when it has such powerful control over the airwaves and public opinion.
Actually that rule applies to everyone in the west. Millions of people from all parts of the population spend countless hours of the day parked on the couch, motionless, staring at a box each day. When was the last time you heard anyone suggest in public (or private) that maybe that might not be such a good thing?
--
Simon
Jambi's changing status, I think, is due to Java's evolution as THE backend language for server heavy processing things like databases (Oracle) or massively parallel scientific computations. At the same time, Java isn't used for graphical applications nearly as much as it was back in say '99.
Jambi tried to solve the problem with Java (namely the UI libraries are terrible), but maybe it was too late?
I don't think that is really the case. I remember being at a Java conference for work once and there being a show of hands. Half of the developers attending were server side (and web), and other client side.
The main reason why Jambi probably didn't catch on, IMHO, is that Swing is standard in Java and is much much more established, regardless of its flaws.
--
Simon
PyQt is developed as a commercial product which is available under a closed source license and under the GPL plus the other FOSS licenses that Qt itself used before the recent change to LGPL.
--
Simon
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebindings/csharp/
The C# support has been steadily worked on for the last few years and should be quite mature by now.
--
Simon
...and now without needing a Qt license, I imagine PyQt becomes a much cheaper proposition for most closed source developers.
--
Simon
Ok, so In a consumer market that's headed toward mobile devices that can deliver a decent web experience and are getting smaller and smaller each quarter.
These two Leaders of industry come out with new browsers that would only be suitable for a multi core desktop?
The kind of web based applications that Chrome aims at making possible don't make a lot sense on a mobile platform. I'm talking about things like Google Docs etc. These are applications which require large screens, a keyboard and are generally used for extended periods of time (usually while sitting down too).
--
Simon
People keep telling me that Perl is less readable than other languages, but i disagree. It's only less readable when you dont know the language specific semantics used
And that is the problem with Perl. The syntax and semantics in Perl are so big and cryptic that you have to work full time and deliberately study to climb the syntax and semantics learning curve. Once you climb up the curve you need to remain in constant practice to stay there. All this stuff in the base language is simply not memorable and relies too much on implicit behaviour. And to add insult to injury, the simple programming techniques like passing arguments to a function, or defining classes are not directly supported like in practically every other language.
Every other language designer aims at keeping the core language as small and simple as practical and letting extra functionality be built up in libraries where it can be exposed using meaningful English (or whatever) names which actually aid the reader in understanding what it does. Perl tries to stuff everything into the core language and expose it using cryptic symbols.
--
Simon
Why had this taken so long?
eeerrr... because they have been busy porting it from Qt3 to Qt4.
--
Simon
Ok, so you are saying that we didn't know decades ago that being dependent on oil might be a bad idea and that we should try to get off it?
--
Simon
That is a good point which you make. The ABN AMRO have that covered too, for the most part. For most transactions this attack is possible, but there is an extra security precaution which kicks in when you try a transaction above a certain amount (1000 euros? I can't remember, I've only hit it once). When this happens you are also requested to enter the target bank account number and the sum into the device. Basically signing those details of the transaction too.
I'm generally very impressed with the ABN's solution to this. It actually seems to solution the problem and is not just another case of security theater.
--
Simon
Dude, as was mentioned at PyCon 2007, there are more Python frameworks than reserved Python keywords. A framework shortage isn't the problem. ;-) http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/feb/23/pycon-2007-web-frameworks-panel/
--
Simon
There is one big difference between increases in hardware performance making XP usable and the situation now for Vista. The 32 bit memory limit has basically been reached. Where do PC makers go after 2Gb RAM is standard in PCs? 4Gb RAM just doesn't get along with 32 bit Vista. The only alternative is to go to 64 bit Vista which is going to be whole other world of pain, possibly worse than the transition from XP to Vista.
Here is the 2nd article on the subject from google:
http://www.vistaclues.com/reader-question-maximum-memory-in-32-bit-windows-vista/
--
Simon
You're forgetting about all of the knowledge about how computers work and the concepts about how different programming languages and styles work that you picked up when you learnt C and asm. Although you haven't used C for a long time, you are still using the knowledge about how the whole software/hardware stack fits together when you run your Java or PHP programs. This stuff is valuable to know and makes you more capable of using the tools and hardware you have.
Programming concepts tend to reappear. Consider the C qsort() function. It takes another comparator function as an argument. Programmers that only know Java won't learn this concept of passing function, and they won't be prepared for it when it resurfaces in Javascript code for example. It's about broadening people's understanding of computation and how it can be done.
--
Simon
Big business is one of the most powerful forces in the world today. It should come as no surprise that a big network campanies which are paid by advertisers (read: big business), are only interested in promoting their business friendly view of the world, reality by damned. How can you expect TV news organisations to report on things like the war when they are being paid by the same companies that profitting from it?
For-profit news reporting has been a continuing disaster.
--
Simon
What you have just described is totally different and doesn't in anyway address the class of attack (Cross Site Request Forgery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSRF ) talked about in the article. It has little to do with scripting or zones, or that one browser is IE or the other is Firefox. Is has everything to do with the fact that two *separate* browsers are used, and that web sites in the untrusted browser can't send requests to the guy's logged in banking session.
Turning off scripting doesn't guard against CSRF either BTW. I wish people would read the bloody article (and understand it!).
--
Simon
XMLHttpRequest comes from the golden age of the browser wars when the WWW was the hot new thing which was set to change the industry, and the head of this new company called Netscape was claiming that the WWW would "reduce Windows to an unimportant collection of slightly buggy device drivers". The web was new and out of Microsoft's control. They had no choice but to tackle it head on and gain control of the browser market any way possible, even by bundling it Windows 98, which got them into antitrust trouble with the US government. It was Netscape vs Microsoft in a features arms race until Microsoft finally gained control and market share. Netscape then opted to more or less leave the browser war. With the browser war won, the stream of features stopped and after IE 6 the stream of new innovative browsers stopped to. This effectively froze the functionality of the web browser as a platform for years to come, stopping it from encroaching on any more desktop territory.
It is only relatively recently with IE 7 that the world learnt that Microsoft's Internet Explorer team even existed still. Despite the popularity of Web 2.0 style graphic effects and GUIs, Microsoft still doesn't dare extend their browser and the web platform with more functionality. Any new functionality must come in a standard that Microsoft can completely control, Silverlight that is. It is kind of ironic that the features that Microsoft brought out to try to win the first browser war are also powering Web 2.0 sites all these years later. Microsoft also gave us "design mode", WYSIWYG style editting functionality in a browser too, by the way.
This concludes the history lesson for today.
(I didn't know about Outlook web access. Very interesting!)
--
Simon
The article says that it took them two hours to disconnect the two computers. Big mac minis.
--
Simon
The brazen airport computer theft that has Australia's anti-terror fighters up in arms
--
Simon