One of python's features is that it Plays unusually Well With Others. Making an API that allows these tools to be scripted by other languages probably won't be too hard.
No doubt there is a flaw in this method. I was hoping that someone could point it out to me.
What is to stop the interceptor from cloning a photon A has sent, and then passing one of the clones along to the legitimate recipient, B? Then after B has made his measurement, the interceptor can measure the copy that he has kept for himself.
It seems as if the interceptor could at least get partial information about the bits that A has sent this way.
In my experience, you have to work pretty hard to write hard-to-follow control flows in python.
My problem has always been getting the data structures clean. I usually end up re-writing scripts that I change frequently, because I see an easier way to arrange the data. But the appropriate data-structure is problem-specific.
Come on, you don't need the degree you get from a computer science education, you need the education. Any potential employer can get a sense for how much you know from a short interview with you. The piece of paper is not going to count for much.
I have friends with excellent hi-tech jobs who dropped out of Uni.
I set up Mandrake with the 'paranoid' security option. Afterward, I was unable to log in except as root, because root was the only one who could read any files on the system! I fixed this with the command
find / -type d | xargs chmod a+rx
...but did I open any security holes in the process?
Newman believes other such smart devices, though, will soon move toward the wearable area, where he thinks he can fend off competitors because of several patents his company holds. One of these patents covers a computer that is worn, has a display and that a user navigates by voice.
Somehow, I don't think that patent is going to stand for long.
I wonder if finding an instance of this "invention" in a science fiction movie would be enough to prove it's obvious.
I don't mean this is a flame. I've seen this happen a number of times, but I can't imagine how. It seems that to reply to the wrong topic, you would have to go back to the main page, click on some other topic, and click "reply to this" there. That seems like too elaborate a sequence to be pure accident.
Is there some more flattened out way to access the stuff on slashdot?
Their algorithms have been published. There was a Scientific American article about it a while back. It is listed in other comments attached to this article.
I imagine that the algorithm would not be difficult to implement on top of a standard search engine, either.
> For example if your favourite writer was reveald to be a child molester could you still enjoy his/her books?
Something similar to this happened to me. One of my favourite authors used to be Graham Greene. Then I read his biography, and found out that he was a philandering hypocrite. After that, everything by him stank of pompous moralizing.
So I would say yes, particularly in the case of a writer or someone else you admire because of the philosophy they espouse.
Yeah, but presumably most developers would like to take credit for their work. If their names show up in a crypto package developed in Finland, the authorities in the US wouldn't have to decrypt their actual submission.
If someone's post drops off the end of the karma scale, perhaps the moderation points that were spent on suppessing him up to that point could be returned to their owners.
They aren't trying to guard against the threat posed to them by networking and encryption. But I believe futile measures like this censorship law are going to become increasingly widespread -- and increasingly ignored -- as people make greater use of networking to circumvent local legislation and mores.
The government can ask for records till it's blue in the face. Up to this point, as I understand it, it's been able to go in and physically take records of recalcitrant citizens, or figure out their financial status by analyzing their transactions with other businesses.
When all financial records are encrypted, neither of these approaches will work, and the government is going to have great difficulty coercing people to pay.
I'm not saying this is morally appropriate. I'm saying I think you'll be able to get away without paying taxes fairly soon. I worry about the implications of this for poor people a bit, too.
I think that goverments presiding over extremely large groups of people will soon be obsolete, and draconian measures like this entertainment censorship bill will gain more popularity with governments as they see that they are losing control.
To the extant that if I were wedded to the idea of preserving nations as we know them today, I would do the same thing, I suppose you could say I understand the U.S. government's position. But I'm not, and I believe measures like this do little more than stave off the inevitable.
The constitution has nothing to do with this. It's simply economics. If people in knowledge- based industries don't like the constraints placed on them by their local jurisdictions, they will soon be able to take their business elsewhere, conduct it with whatever currency they choose, and exercise near-total discretion in who knows about it. And they won't have to move physically at all to do this.
What would the U.S. government say to a pornographic game that was being sold through web site in Russia, and took anonymous, digital currency in payment? They could tell Russia to turn it off, but Russia might not want to if it's doing well out of it. And the vendor could set up such a web site from L.A., and get his cash in a Cayman Islands bank account if he wanted to.
Aside from its complete inability to censor such a scheme, the U.S. would also be completely unable to coerce the vendor to pay taxes on his profits.
If that happened enough, the U.S. government would be pretty impotent pretty soon.
Alex. video game that you could download jurisdiction, they can easily conduct most of
This isn't happening because the government specifically wants to take away your freedom. It's that they feel like they're losing control, and justifiably. For instance, what is going to happen to taxation when all financial transactions can be conducted anonymously, under the auspices of any government in the world, and records of them can be stored with unbreakable encryption? Taxation will be voluntary, and governments are going to lose a lot of power.
Their struggles won't matter in the long run, I think. Encryption and knowledge-based markets shift the balance of power too far in favour of the individual for totalitarianism to be feasible anymore.
I know very little about mucking around with binaries, but perhaps it's difficult to provide a patch in source code form to a program that you don't have the source code for.
Slashdot Mirror
One of python's features is that it Plays
unusually Well With Others. Making an API that
allows these tools to be scripted by other
languages probably won't be too hard.
Alex.
It's slower than a wet week, using the free
service, but perhaps you will be able to read
such sites using www.anonymizer.com
Alex.
No doubt there is a flaw in this method. I was
hoping that someone could point it out to me.
What is to stop the interceptor from cloning a
photon A has sent, and then passing one of the
clones along to the legitimate recipient, B? Then
after B has made his measurement, the interceptor
can measure the copy that he has kept for himself.
It seems as if the interceptor could at least get
partial information about the bits that A has sent
this way.
Alex.
In my experience, you have to work pretty hard
to write hard-to-follow control flows in python.
My problem has always been getting the data
structures clean. I usually end up re-writing
scripts that I change frequently, because I see
an easier way to arrange the data. But the
appropriate data-structure is problem-specific.
Alex.
But an error in a format string couldn't lead
to corruption of control flow. Could it?
Alex.
Come on, you don't need the degree you get from
a computer science education, you need the
education. Any potential employer can get a sense
for how much you know from a short interview with
you. The piece of paper is not going to count for
much.
I have friends with excellent hi-tech jobs who
dropped out of Uni.
Alex.
What do you mean, a computer illiterate?
My understanding is that he has had coding jobs in
the past. He certainly knows perl.
Alex
I set up Mandrake with the 'paranoid' security
option. Afterward, I was unable to log in except
as root, because root was the only one who could
read any files on the system! I fixed this with
the command
find / -type d | xargs chmod a+rx
...but did I open any security holes in the
process?
Alex.
I think he's actually British. I went to a talk by him once in
Canberra, Australia, and he didn't sound Australian to me.
Alex.
Somehow, I don't think that patent is going to
stand for long.
I wonder if finding an instance of this
"invention" in a science fiction movie would
be enough to prove it's obvious.
Alex.
This is very interesting. Could you point
me to some references about alternatives schemes.
Alex.
I made a text version by munging the output from
lynx -dump. I could pass it on if you like.
Alex.
I don't mean this is a flame. I've seen this
happen a number of times, but I can't imagine
how. It seems that to reply to the wrong topic,
you would have to go back to the main page,
click on some other topic, and click "reply to
this" there. That seems like too elaborate a
sequence to be pure accident.
Is there some more flattened out way to access
the stuff on slashdot?
Alex.
This is probably a good idea. There was a
thread discussing it on sci.crypt a couple
of weeks ago, if you're interested in it.
Alex.
Their algorithms have been published. There
was a Scientific American article about it
a while back. It is listed in other comments
attached to this article.
I imagine that the algorithm would not be
difficult to implement on top of a standard
search engine, either.
Alex.
> For example if your favourite writer was reveald to be a child molester could you still enjoy his/her books?
Something similar to this happened to me. One of my favourite authors used to be Graham Greene. Then I read his biography, and
found out that he was a philandering hypocrite. After that, everything by him stank of pompous moralizing.
So I would say yes, particularly in the case of a writer or someone else you admire because of the philosophy they espouse.
Alex.
Yeah, but presumably most developers would like
to take credit for their work. If their names
show up in a crypto package developed in Finland,
the authorities in the US wouldn't have to decrypt
their actual submission.
Alex.
It will be hard to judge the accuracy of a
moderation at times, as the comment to which
it pertains will be seen out of context.
Alex.
If someone's post drops off the end of the karma
scale, perhaps the moderation points that were
spent on suppessing him up to that point could
be returned to their owners.
Alex.
They aren't trying to guard against the threat
posed to them by networking and encryption. But
I believe futile measures like this censorship law
are going to become increasingly widespread -- and
increasingly ignored -- as people make greater
use of networking to circumvent local
legislation and mores.
Alex.
The government can ask for records till it's
blue in the face. Up to this point, as I
understand it, it's been able to go in and
physically take records of recalcitrant citizens,
or figure out their financial status by
analyzing their transactions with other
businesses.
When all financial records are encrypted, neither
of these approaches will work, and the government
is going to have great difficulty coercing people
to pay.
I'm not saying this is morally appropriate. I'm
saying I think you'll be able to get away without
paying taxes fairly soon. I worry about the
implications of this for poor people a bit, too.
Alex.
I'm not sympathetic in the least.
I think that goverments presiding over extremely
large groups of people will soon be obsolete, and
draconian measures like this entertainment
censorship bill will gain more popularity with
governments as they see that they are losing
control.
To the extant that if I were wedded to the idea of
preserving nations as we know them today, I would
do the same thing, I suppose you could say I
understand the U.S. government's position. But
I'm not, and I believe measures like this do
little more than stave off the inevitable.
The constitution has nothing to do with this. It's
simply economics. If people in knowledge-
based industries don't like the constraints placed
on them by their local jurisdictions, they will
soon be able to take their business elsewhere,
conduct it with whatever currency they choose, and
exercise near-total discretion in who knows about
it. And they won't have to move physically at all
to do this.
What would the U.S. government say to a
pornographic game that was being sold through
web site in Russia, and took anonymous, digital
currency in payment? They could tell Russia to
turn it off, but Russia might not want to if it's
doing well out of it. And the vendor could set
up such a web site from L.A., and get his cash
in a Cayman Islands bank account if he wanted to.
Aside from its complete inability to censor such
a scheme, the U.S. would also be completely
unable to coerce the vendor to pay taxes on his
profits.
If that happened enough, the U.S. government
would be pretty impotent pretty soon.
Alex.
video game that you could download
jurisdiction, they can easily conduct most of
This isn't happening because the government
specifically wants to take away your freedom.
It's that they feel like they're losing control,
and justifiably. For instance, what is going to
happen to taxation when all financial transactions
can be conducted anonymously, under the auspices
of any government in the world, and records of
them can be stored with unbreakable encryption?
Taxation will be voluntary, and governments are
going to lose a lot of power.
Their struggles won't matter in the long run, I think.
Encryption and knowledge-based markets shift the
balance of power too far in favour of the
individual for totalitarianism to be feasible
anymore.
Alex.
I know very little about mucking around with
binaries, but perhaps it's difficult to provide
a patch in source code form to a program that
you don't have the source code for.
Alex.
OK. I'm amazed that this topic has generated almost 500 responses in that case. Alex.