For a good, prescient treatment of our current state, you could do worse by checking out Frederick Pohl's "Merchant Wars". Out-of-print, tragically, but worth looking for in the used stores.
I find it bemusing the "should've done X" arguments being made here and in the referenced article.
Facebook is bigger than anything you've ever done, or likely ever will do, and despite Stonebraker's impressive cred, bigger than anything he's ever done, or will do. That it works as well as it does is enormously impressive. Articles like "oh, just throw Oracle at it, or DB2 could handle it with a couple dozen machines" are completely ludicrous. Is it that easy? Then build it. Throw down or shut up.
I'd like to see a nuclear pilot plant project, where small (<200MW) next-gen reactors are deployed so that we can get some operational hands-on time with these designs before we start phasing out the big BWRs and PWRs, and before we just commit our resources to big multiple GW reactor complex. I find it difficult to believe that nuclear power won't eventually become the major part of our accepted energy inventory, even if in the short term, there's a retrenchment.
A few aspects of security as practiced in the military-industrial complex occur that you may be unaware of: - daily automated audits; these regularly flag new vulnerabilities; - entire teams dedicated to evaluation of controls and failure therein - segmentation of computing resources by sensitivity; if it's really sensitive, it's not on any network you can get to. - physical barriers (gates, armed guards, man traps)
There are literally thousands of pages of controls concerning security just for non-classified resources: http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/ They all depend on the integrity of the persons entrusted to safeguard this data. Intentional violation of those controls as allegedly practiced by PFC Bradley Manning show how these safeguards can break down. Ultimately, you need humans to be able to keep a secret if you have the notion of "classified". That's the real security mechanism right there. That's why security clearances are designed to identify whether or not an individual is "loyal" and not likely to be coerced into revealing state secrets. In any human endeavor, though - some human will conspire to fuck it up. The end-result is almost always massive and persistent headache for everyone else.
Notwithstanding Apple's market posturing - it seems like a reasonable goal for people to want: to not have to take care of your computer except in rare exceptions. I can understand folks largely buying into the belief that the Mac is generally a more care-free environment than Windows or Linux. Sure, things do go wrong on it - but in this case, PEBKAC (I agree with the above posters that identify Safari's auto-install functionality is a serious liability).
I respect people's right to make their own, INFORMED decision about the risk-benefit equations of nuclear power and its associated problems. If you understand the risks, their likelihood, and the consequences when things go south, feel free to advocate however you want - pro or con, that's a values choice.
However, I see an unusual body of misplaced fear around anything "nuclear" that clouds people's ability to make rational decisions and weigh the actual risks, relative to other risks. That inability to make critical decisions or one's ability to self-educate is frustrating, to those of us who have done a modicum of research and are weighing our own decisions.
Healthy respect for the tiger you've got by the tail is required to operate nuclear power as safely as possible. As in all human endeavors, there will always be risk, no matter how safe the system.
Yes, already: radiation BAD, m'kay?!?! But just try to live without it.
Also bad: cyanide leach pits (half-life: infinity), TNT, mining tails, many industrial chemical processes, driving down the street, crossing the street, eating poorly, smoking, water, too much sunshine (omg nuclear poniez AGAIN!).
The world is risk. As the saying goes: if our first experience with gasoline was napalm, we'd all be driving electric cars. Overall, nuclear power is safe - not because it is inherently so, but precisely because it isn't.
The two linked articles give summaries, one from CBS boiling down what the NRC posted. Here's the actual NRC response to TVA: http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/idmws/DocContent.dll?library=PU_ADAMS^pbntad01&LogonID=ddd68cc56fab25b578ba7c25d96ac246&id=111300164
Lots of good stuff on nrc.gov. Note that all inspections and enforcement actions for all power-generating plants are listed. Most plants have had a few issues over the years - most of which had minimal chance of causing a serious incident.
Given that the US has mandated PKI using SmartCards for 6+ years now, yes, Schmidt knows what a CA and a smartcard is.
It's good that your bank provides you a security token; the proposed initiative is a good one, and lays out a common strategy for something-you-have authentication that can then be potentially used in a much wider variety of venues than your bank.
It worked for me as well - BUT: I think the barrier for entry is too high for kids today; in the early 80s when Byte was truly at the top of its game, there just wasn't a lot you could DO with computers without access to great resources like Byte or Creative Computing.
Nationwide, not much better: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary
For something as important as education of our children, yeah, those salaries are WAY too low. You should not be able to make more at the post office than as a teacher.
Thank you for serving our country. My point is to differentiate between "major damage" to our country, and any other issues. Our country will survive without substantial change because of Wikileaks.
I hear you, and I still don't see any major damage done here. None of those that you have mentioned strike me as substantially harming our country in any significant way. The sun'll still rise tomorrow, and McDonald's will still be serving coffee.
What "major damage" done to the country? Serious question here. Other than egg on face and some ruffled feathers, how has the US been harmed in any significant way?
- Communications disrupted? Nope (well, except for the Air Force...) - Major utilities infrastructure compromised? Nope - Mass casualties? Nope - Economic catastrophe? Nope, same ol' recession.
Seriously, the Wikileaks releases mostly show that shit is classified that shouldn't be, that the gov't is afraid of the masses, and that our diplomatic corps are pretty catty.
Sensitive.mil data, however, DOES have the option of being passed over the internet, depending upon application. An example might be management of military benefits, wherein service members have a reasonable expectation of being able to interact and query their benefit data without having to find a red terminal.
John - here's the report that suggests it may well have been operated as a transit network: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=249#
The relevant bits: "This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this large amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect."
Read again, closely. Look at the FAQs. There is definitely preparation ongoing, and units that operate limited platforms, but there certainly is not an AUTOMATED system in place.
I don't think this much of that is true: even popular kids probably only text a handful of folks, and even those less social certainly can text and interact plenty with the friends that they do have.
Slashdot Mirror
For a good, prescient treatment of our current state, you could do worse by checking out Frederick Pohl's "Merchant Wars". Out-of-print, tragically, but worth looking for in the used stores.
I find it bemusing the "should've done X" arguments being made here and in the referenced article.
Facebook is bigger than anything you've ever done, or likely ever will do, and despite Stonebraker's impressive cred, bigger than anything he's ever done, or will do. That it works as well as it does is enormously impressive. Articles like "oh, just throw Oracle at it, or DB2 could handle it with a couple dozen machines" are completely ludicrous. Is it that easy? Then build it. Throw down or shut up.
Where'd that come from?
Somehow, produce is still available in places like Europe at reasonable prices. And Cotton is still King in the US.
Nothing prevents the streaming data being delivered now from being retained as a local file, except the wishes of the content owners.
I'd like to see a nuclear pilot plant project, where small (<200MW) next-gen reactors are deployed so that we can get some operational hands-on time with these designs before we start phasing out the big BWRs and PWRs, and before we just commit our resources to big multiple GW reactor complex. I find it difficult to believe that nuclear power won't eventually become the major part of our accepted energy inventory, even if in the short term, there's a retrenchment.
A few aspects of security as practiced in the military-industrial complex occur that you may be unaware of:
- daily automated audits; these regularly flag new vulnerabilities;
- entire teams dedicated to evaluation of controls and failure therein
- segmentation of computing resources by sensitivity; if it's really sensitive, it's not on any network you can get to.
- physical barriers (gates, armed guards, man traps)
There are literally thousands of pages of controls concerning security just for non-classified resources: http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/
They all depend on the integrity of the persons entrusted to safeguard this data. Intentional violation of those controls as allegedly practiced by PFC Bradley Manning show how these safeguards can break down. Ultimately, you need humans to be able to keep a secret if you have the notion of "classified". That's the real security mechanism right there. That's why security clearances are designed to identify whether or not an individual is "loyal" and not likely to be coerced into revealing state secrets. In any human endeavor, though - some human will conspire to fuck it up. The end-result is almost always massive and persistent headache for everyone else.
Notwithstanding Apple's market posturing - it seems like a reasonable goal for people to want: to not have to take care of your computer except in rare exceptions. I can understand folks largely buying into the belief that the Mac is generally a more care-free environment than Windows or Linux. Sure, things do go wrong on it - but in this case, PEBKAC (I agree with the above posters that identify Safari's auto-install functionality is a serious liability).
I respect people's right to make their own, INFORMED decision about the risk-benefit equations of nuclear power and its associated problems. If you understand the risks, their likelihood, and the consequences when things go south, feel free to advocate however you want - pro or con, that's a values choice.
However, I see an unusual body of misplaced fear around anything "nuclear" that clouds people's ability to make rational decisions and weigh the actual risks, relative to other risks. That inability to make critical decisions or one's ability to self-educate is frustrating, to those of us who have done a modicum of research and are weighing our own decisions.
Healthy respect for the tiger you've got by the tail is required to operate nuclear power as safely as possible. As in all human endeavors, there will always be risk, no matter how safe the system.
No need for China Syndrome histrionics. What do you think the cores are being cooled with?
omg nuclear poniez!
Yes, already: radiation BAD, m'kay?!?! But just try to live without it.
Also bad: cyanide leach pits (half-life: infinity), TNT, mining tails, many industrial chemical processes, driving down the street, crossing the street, eating poorly, smoking, water, too much sunshine (omg nuclear poniez AGAIN!).
The world is risk. As the saying goes: if our first experience with gasoline was napalm, we'd all be driving electric cars. Overall, nuclear power is safe - not because it is inherently so, but precisely because it isn't.
The two linked articles give summaries, one from CBS boiling down what the NRC posted. Here's the actual NRC response to TVA:
http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/idmws/DocContent.dll?library=PU_ADAMS^pbntad01&LogonID=ddd68cc56fab25b578ba7c25d96ac246&id=111300164
Lots of good stuff on nrc.gov. Note that all inspections and enforcement actions for all power-generating plants are listed. Most plants have had a few issues over the years - most of which had minimal chance of causing a serious incident.
The shit we get ourselves riled up about is downright depressing.
I'll note that prior to cell phones, every time you used your phone, the telco already had location info on you - the service address!
Given that the US has mandated PKI using SmartCards for 6+ years now, yes, Schmidt knows what a CA and a smartcard is.
It's good that your bank provides you a security token; the proposed initiative is a good one, and lays out a common strategy for something-you-have authentication that can then be potentially used in a much wider variety of venues than your bank.
Expect this to become part of the PCI standard.
It worked for me as well - BUT: I think the barrier for entry is too high for kids today; in the early 80s when Byte was truly at the top of its game, there just wasn't a lot you could DO with computers without access to great resources like Byte or Creative Computing.
I was kind of surprised about this, too. I think there are two things going on:
1. It's science, so it shouldn't matter who submitted it, it either stands on its own or it doesn't, BUT:
2. It DOES matter that kids did this work.
And maybe a third thing:
3. people have forgotten joy and have become grumpy curmudgeons.
Bullshit. Average teacher salary here in Montana (yay, 45th in the nation) is $38k.
http://www.teacher-world.com/statespages/Montana.html
Nationwide, not much better:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary
For something as important as education of our children, yeah, those salaries are WAY too low. You should not be able to make more at the post office than as a teacher.
Thank you for serving our country. My point is to differentiate between "major damage" to our country, and any other issues. Our country will survive without substantial change because of Wikileaks.
I hear you, and I still don't see any major damage done here. None of those that you have mentioned strike me as substantially harming our country in any significant way. The sun'll still rise tomorrow, and McDonald's will still be serving coffee.
It sounds like we'll have to agree to disagree.
What "major damage" done to the country? Serious question here. Other than egg on face and some ruffled feathers, how has the US been harmed in any significant way?
- Communications disrupted? Nope (well, except for the Air Force...)
- Major utilities infrastructure compromised? Nope
- Mass casualties? Nope
- Economic catastrophe? Nope, same ol' recession.
Seriously, the Wikileaks releases mostly show that shit is classified that shouldn't be, that the gov't is afraid of the masses, and that our diplomatic corps are pretty catty.
Easy way to fix it is to use the botnet itself.
They're 56. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/670.html
Sensitive .mil data, however, DOES have the option of being passed over the internet, depending upon application. An example might be management of military benefits, wherein service members have a reasonable expectation of being able to interact and query their benefit data without having to find a red terminal.
John - here's the report that suggests it may well have been operated as a transit network:
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=249#
The relevant bits:
"This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this large amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect."
They
Read again, closely. Look at the FAQs. There is definitely preparation ongoing, and units that operate limited platforms, but there certainly is not an AUTOMATED system in place.
I don't think this much of that is true: even popular kids probably only text a handful of folks, and even those less social certainly can text and interact plenty with the friends that they do have.