There was an episode of "The Simpsons" (from back when that show did real satire) that summed it up nicely. We see a Republican convention, and the conventioneers are holding up signs that read "We're evil" and "We only care about the rich!" Then it cuts to the Democratic convention and they're holding up signs that read "We can't govern!" and "Incompetence Now!"
Schumer, while not evil, is wholly corrupted by vote-whoring.
It's funny you should mention him. I was watching Casino Jack and The United States of Money (a documentary about the Abramoff scandal) just last night and Schumer was one of the Democrats cited on the DVD as being a complete Wall Street whore. Most of the scumbags in that documentary are Republicans (let's face it, that's just in their nature), but a few are Demo's too (most notably Harry Reid, Schumer, and Patrick Kennedy).
Most TV's with smart sound don't support it when you're using a cable box or satellite receiver, only when you're using the TV's built in tuner. It pisses me off because I have smart sound on my TV too, but it's useless to me (who the fuck still watches over-the-air broadcasts only?).
This has always been a problem, but lately it seems to have gotten completely out of hand. To get decent mid-range sound on my HDTV channels (which have a broad dynamic range), I have to turn them up pretty high. When the commercials come on, they're so much louder than the shows that they come damn close to damaging my speakers. Even though I have a DVR and try to avoid them altogether, I still have to put up with these commercials on occasion, and I'm tired of jumping for the mute button before some McDonald's ad blows out my goddamned speakers.
It's a wildly popular bill with broad bi-partisan support, a true no-brainner. With that said, don't worry, the Democrats will still find some way to fuck it up.
Your mileage may vary, but most of the astronauts I've met were attention-whoring, arrogant douchebags. Never saw much of what I would call "bravery" there.
Don't forget that they also can't be fat, have to spend several weeks at Basic Training getting yelled at before they can even start, and will likely be given some half-assed enlisted man or warrant office status instead of real rank. All this and they get to put up with all the military bullshit and bureaucracy on top of an already crap job. Who WOULDN'T want to sign up?
These sorts of well-intentioned pieces of legislation are the kind of thing that ostensibly are for our betterment and they always look great on paper. But when you're actually have to design a website and you start running into the requirements of Section 508 and other such well-meaning laws, the feel-good shine wears off fast. Inevitably they mean considerably more work in the best case scenario, and a "dumbing down" of a website in the worst case scenario (if you follow the "suggested" best-practices). You can look at the "cultural heritage" laws in Quebec as an example of where good intentions can go. It starts off with a noble goal of not excluding French-speakers from public life, and eventually leads to something like Bill 101, which all but outlawed English in the region, complete with a language gestapo.
I'm all for the blind being able to use the web. But wouldn't it be much better to approach the issue as a technological one on the viewer's end, and not a legislative one on the designer's end? I would much rather be asked to do something that TOLD to do it, under threat of law.
I somehow doubt that a good Samaritan did this as a proof of concept. But, yes, it is certainly a warning. And hopefully businesses will take this seriously and take serious steps to improve their security measures. But considering how lax a lot of companies already are in regards to security against existing conventional viruses, I think that's unlikely.
Well, since it was only targeting two very specific models of PLC and apparently released at only one point of release (in Iran, if you believe Symantec), it obviously wasn't intended to be a general purpose virus that spreads around the world.
You have a point with Natanz, but not Buschehr. Buschehr is a civilian power plant with little possibility of producing nuclear fuel. It's not a new thing either. Construction of the facility actually started before the 1979 revolution. It's been off-and-on since then, with Russian contractors finally coming in to finish the job. It's really more of a symbolic thing for Ahmadinejad to finish it now (to demonstrate that Iran is a serious technological power). In practice; it will only generate about 2%-3% of the country's power, will probably never pay for itself, and will do nothing to further their nuclear weapon ambitions.
I'm don't know that much about PLC's or the software used to program them. But, from what I gather, Stuxnet sends the specifics on how the PLC's are configured to an offsite server from the WinCC/PCS 7 software itself at the time of infection.
These models of PLC have a function block at OB 35 that automatically executes every 100 milliseconds. Stuxnet hides its own code at the beginning of this block (while also allowing the original code to run afterward). This allows it to mimic the original functions of the PLC, while it quietly runs in the background.
Why is this guy labeled a troll? It's no secret that the Israelis have forced the Palestinians into ghettos for decades now (a sad irony considering that many of the Jews who did this had themselves had just come from the jewish ghettos of Germany), and that bigotry on both sides pervades the country. Even many jews admit as much, and condemn the radical Zionists who would gladly plow over the Palestinians as if they were animals. I'm no fan of the Palestinians either, BTW, but I'm under no illusions that Israel is just filled with a bunch of innocent, noble, oppressed Jews just trying to living in fucking harmony with the world.
Having looked carefully at this worm (I'm preparing for a presentation on it at a local security conference), I can tell you it almost certainly wasn't written by one guy. It's the most complex piece of malware I've ever seen. It's written in three languages (C and C++ on the Windows side, MC 7 assembly language on the PLC side), it uses four different Windows exploits and two stolen code-signing certificates from companies in Taiwan (both of which read as legit until just recently), and it has one of the most aggressive and clever rootkits I've ever seen. And that's not even getting into how it can update itself. Unless said disgruntled employee was the goddamn jedi master of hackers in addition to his day-job, I would say this is definitely a major team effort (a very specialized team).
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Well, it certainly worked in 2000--just not in the way most voters intended.
There was an episode of "The Simpsons" (from back when that show did real satire) that summed it up nicely. We see a Republican convention, and the conventioneers are holding up signs that read "We're evil" and "We only care about the rich!" Then it cuts to the Democratic convention and they're holding up signs that read "We can't govern!" and "Incompetence Now!"
It's funny you should mention him. I was watching Casino Jack and The United States of Money (a documentary about the Abramoff scandal) just last night and Schumer was one of the Democrats cited on the DVD as being a complete Wall Street whore. Most of the scumbags in that documentary are Republicans (let's face it, that's just in their nature), but a few are Demo's too (most notably Harry Reid, Schumer, and Patrick Kennedy).
If you don't like the way your dealer is treating you, feel free to quit the crack.
No?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Most TV's with smart sound don't support it when you're using a cable box or satellite receiver, only when you're using the TV's built in tuner. It pisses me off because I have smart sound on my TV too, but it's useless to me (who the fuck still watches over-the-air broadcasts only?).
This has always been a problem, but lately it seems to have gotten completely out of hand. To get decent mid-range sound on my HDTV channels (which have a broad dynamic range), I have to turn them up pretty high. When the commercials come on, they're so much louder than the shows that they come damn close to damaging my speakers. Even though I have a DVR and try to avoid them altogether, I still have to put up with these commercials on occasion, and I'm tired of jumping for the mute button before some McDonald's ad blows out my goddamned speakers.
It's a wildly popular bill with broad bi-partisan support, a true no-brainner. With that said, don't worry, the Democrats will still find some way to fuck it up.
They prefer to let the free market decide. You know, like it did with the big banks.
Okay, everyone in Congress NOT owned by corporations and rich interest groups please step forward. ...Whoa, not so fast Democrats
Your mileage may vary, but most of the astronauts I've met were attention-whoring, arrogant douchebags. Never saw much of what I would call "bravery" there.
If that's a Demolition Man reference, I hereby proclaim you winner of the Internet.
Yeah, but if you meat the requirements, you'll get the impressive rank of SERGEANT. Woohoo!
Don't forget that they also can't be fat, have to spend several weeks at Basic Training getting yelled at before they can even start, and will likely be given some half-assed enlisted man or warrant office status instead of real rank. All this and they get to put up with all the military bullshit and bureaucracy on top of an already crap job. Who WOULDN'T want to sign up?
These sorts of well-intentioned pieces of legislation are the kind of thing that ostensibly are for our betterment and they always look great on paper. But when you're actually have to design a website and you start running into the requirements of Section 508 and other such well-meaning laws, the feel-good shine wears off fast. Inevitably they mean considerably more work in the best case scenario, and a "dumbing down" of a website in the worst case scenario (if you follow the "suggested" best-practices). You can look at the "cultural heritage" laws in Quebec as an example of where good intentions can go. It starts off with a noble goal of not excluding French-speakers from public life, and eventually leads to something like Bill 101, which all but outlawed English in the region, complete with a language gestapo.
I'm all for the blind being able to use the web. But wouldn't it be much better to approach the issue as a technological one on the viewer's end, and not a legislative one on the designer's end? I would much rather be asked to do something that TOLD to do it, under threat of law.
I somehow doubt that a good Samaritan did this as a proof of concept. But, yes, it is certainly a warning. And hopefully businesses will take this seriously and take serious steps to improve their security measures. But considering how lax a lot of companies already are in regards to security against existing conventional viruses, I think that's unlikely.
Well, since it was only targeting two very specific models of PLC and apparently released at only one point of release (in Iran, if you believe Symantec), it obviously wasn't intended to be a general purpose virus that spreads around the world.
You misunderstand. It's a sure thing that the aliens WON'T come.
Oops, meant to say I could get better than 1% interest by putting the money in a good bank for a year.
I could be better than 1% interest by putting the money in a good bank for a year. A sure thing, indeed...but still not worth the bet.
You have a point with Natanz, but not Buschehr. Buschehr is a civilian power plant with little possibility of producing nuclear fuel. It's not a new thing either. Construction of the facility actually started before the 1979 revolution. It's been off-and-on since then, with Russian contractors finally coming in to finish the job. It's really more of a symbolic thing for Ahmadinejad to finish it now (to demonstrate that Iran is a serious technological power). In practice; it will only generate about 2%-3% of the country's power, will probably never pay for itself, and will do nothing to further their nuclear weapon ambitions.
I'm don't know that much about PLC's or the software used to program them. But, from what I gather, Stuxnet sends the specifics on how the PLC's are configured to an offsite server from the WinCC/PCS 7 software itself at the time of infection.
These models of PLC have a function block at OB 35 that automatically executes every 100 milliseconds. Stuxnet hides its own code at the beginning of this block (while also allowing the original code to run afterward). This allows it to mimic the original functions of the PLC, while it quietly runs in the background.
Why is this guy labeled a troll? It's no secret that the Israelis have forced the Palestinians into ghettos for decades now (a sad irony considering that many of the Jews who did this had themselves had just come from the jewish ghettos of Germany), and that bigotry on both sides pervades the country. Even many jews admit as much, and condemn the radical Zionists who would gladly plow over the Palestinians as if they were animals. I'm no fan of the Palestinians either, BTW, but I'm under no illusions that Israel is just filled with a bunch of innocent, noble, oppressed Jews just trying to living in fucking harmony with the world.
...and Europeans like to claim that no American ever invented anything.
Having looked carefully at this worm (I'm preparing for a presentation on it at a local security conference), I can tell you it almost certainly wasn't written by one guy. It's the most complex piece of malware I've ever seen. It's written in three languages (C and C++ on the Windows side, MC 7 assembly language on the PLC side), it uses four different Windows exploits and two stolen code-signing certificates from companies in Taiwan (both of which read as legit until just recently), and it has one of the most aggressive and clever rootkits I've ever seen. And that's not even getting into how it can update itself. Unless said disgruntled employee was the goddamn jedi master of hackers in addition to his day-job, I would say this is definitely a major team effort (a very specialized team).