I don't know how many people knew this, but about 5 years ago there was an exploit for Internic where you could actually change the DNS entry via their web interface without being the owner of that domain.
The only catch at all was that once you'd changed the domain servers, the domain owner had an email letting them know. If they didn't spot this within 24 hours you could fully transfer ANY domain on the web.
Sadly I was just a dumb 16 year old when I figured this out, so didn't use it wisely, but I took over a bunch of domains (won't name names because I probably caused a lot of lost business) and pointed them at my own little site for about a month before anyone found me. I tried Microsoft.com too, but they saw the transfer going through, blocked it, and chased me up with some very threatening calls.
The funny thing is this exploit was so easy, but I've never heard of anyone else doing it. Was this ever known publicly?
enable astronomers to probe the early evolution of our galaxy, about 14 billion years after the universe began with the Big Bang
Without veering too far off topic, I have a philosophical/mathematical question which always pops to mind when the age of the universe is mentioned:
If the universe were to continue to expand forever, giving it an infinite timespan, isn't it statistically impossible that we would exist to observe it a non-infinite time period from its birth? That is, any random year to exist from 0 to infinity is infinity, and 14 billion while a big number is still finite. Extrapolating this, can't we make some probabilistic prediction as to the future age of the universe?
But once you try to walk, duck, roll, etc, you run into the limits of the system quite quickly.
But what if you mix VR with a physical setting? Imagine mapping the physical parameters of your house in a Doom3 map, then texturing it up like the Mars research facility descended into hell. If your VR headset is portable and can track location accurately you'd have a physical VR simulation! You could then spawn some monsters and play co-op or deathmatch with your fellow housemates. Could even be extended to a commercial scale, imagine renting a cluttered warehouse and doing the same thing for a LAN party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography
Quantum cryptography is an approach to securing communications based on certain phenomena of quantum physics. Unlike traditional cryptography, which employs various mathematical techniques to restrict eavesdroppers from learning the contents of encrypted messages, quantum cryptography is focused on the physics of information. The process of sending and storing information is always carried out by physical means, for example photons in optical fibres or electrons in electric current. Eavesdropping can be viewed as measurements on a physical object---in this case the carrier of the information. What the eavesdropper can measure, and how, depends exclusively on the laws of physics. Using quantum phenomena such as quantum superpositions or quantum entanglement one can design and implement a communication system which can always detect eavesdropping. This is because measurements on the quantum carrier of information disturb it and so leave traces.
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The only catch at all was that once you'd changed the domain servers, the domain owner had an email letting them know. If they didn't spot this within 24 hours you could fully transfer ANY domain on the web.
Sadly I was just a dumb 16 year old when I figured this out, so didn't use it wisely, but I took over a bunch of domains (won't name names because I probably caused a lot of lost business) and pointed them at my own little site for about a month before anyone found me. I tried Microsoft.com too, but they saw the transfer going through, blocked it, and chased me up with some very threatening calls.
The funny thing is this exploit was so easy, but I've never heard of anyone else doing it. Was this ever known publicly?
There is at least some validity to my query. It seems I was proposing a less refined version of the "Doomsday argument": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument
Without veering too far off topic, I have a philosophical/mathematical question which always pops to mind when the age of the universe is mentioned:
If the universe were to continue to expand forever, giving it an infinite timespan, isn't it statistically impossible that we would exist to observe it a non-infinite time period from its birth? That is, any random year to exist from 0 to infinity is infinity, and 14 billion while a big number is still finite. Extrapolating this, can't we make some probabilistic prediction as to the future age of the universe?
But what if you mix VR with a physical setting? Imagine mapping the physical parameters of your house in a Doom3 map, then texturing it up like the Mars research facility descended into hell. If your VR headset is portable and can track location accurately you'd have a physical VR simulation! You could then spawn some monsters and play co-op or deathmatch with your fellow housemates. Could even be extended to a commercial scale, imagine renting a cluttered warehouse and doing the same thing for a LAN party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography Quantum cryptography is an approach to securing communications based on certain phenomena of quantum physics. Unlike traditional cryptography, which employs various mathematical techniques to restrict eavesdroppers from learning the contents of encrypted messages, quantum cryptography is focused on the physics of information. The process of sending and storing information is always carried out by physical means, for example photons in optical fibres or electrons in electric current. Eavesdropping can be viewed as measurements on a physical object---in this case the carrier of the information. What the eavesdropper can measure, and how, depends exclusively on the laws of physics. Using quantum phenomena such as quantum superpositions or quantum entanglement one can design and implement a communication system which can always detect eavesdropping. This is because measurements on the quantum carrier of information disturb it and so leave traces.