But the truth is, 99% of gun use is against people.
Not that this belongs here at all, but I can't sit and let such an obviously ignorant (and I mean that in the Merriam-Webster sense not the pejorative I'm sure you assumed) comment go unanswered.
The majority of firearms are owned by responsible, law-abiding citizens, and are used for a variety of reasons. How about hunting? (contrary to the animal rights radical point of view, animals are NOT people too...don't start the whole "hunting is bad" thing. If I hunt to suppliment my freezer, and eat what I kill, and happen to enjoy the sport of it, I'm no worse than a guy ordering a burger at McD's) How about sport? Shooting as a competative sport likely uses far more rounds of ammunition between practice and competition (1000+ rounds a week in practice, plus several hundred in competition for a lot of competitive shooters). No matter what you may think, it's quite an enjoyable challenge to just shoot at paper targets and put all the rounds through the same hole in the paper. People play DOOM and that's ok...I choose to shoot REAL guns for entertainment. There's also collectors. you know, the folks who appreciate a firearm as a marvel of modern engineering (anybody who has looked at and doesn't see the elegance in the functional and ergonomic design of John M. Browning's Model 1911.45 must have their eyes closed), or as an important piece of history. Like it or not, your freedom (if you are in the US) was won with guns, and they still keep you safe to this day.
As far as your 99% goes, I'd like to see ANY verifiable statistic to back that up. I can easily produce research performed by many institutions (including US government bodies) that demonstrate that more firearms in the hands of more responsible law abiding citizens results in fewer violent crimes and fewer gun related deaths. Sometimes a weapon is effective as a deterrant you know...
So, since nobody has mentioned it, I'll actually break my normal./ silence and point this out.
The attacks they're using were developed by KoreK and released last summer. Then Christophe Devine re-implemented the attacks in Aircrack.
The FBI had nothing to do with development of this, they're just advertising that they're script kiddies. On top of that, the methods they used to for packet generation so they had something to capture were freaking LAME. Anybody with any form of wireless IDS would see this a mile away (oh yeah, they couldn't even write their own deauth tool...they had to be skript kiddies again and use void11...).
I wasn't AT the talk, any maybe the Tom's Networking guy didn't properly convey the message, but I feel that credit should go to the folks who deserve it, not script kiddies who got some face time at a conference.
The manufactureres are affraid that releasing drivers will get them in trouble with the US government. Apparantley the card can be reconfigured to transmit on military/police/other "forbidden" frequencies.
I keep hearing this, and while I'm admittedly not a firmware/driver coder, I do read (and in a fair number of cases understand) a lot of 802.11b wireless driver code. I have to for research I'm working on. From everything I've seen thus far, this argument looks a lot like a Red Herring. That being said, I suppose that I should back my statements by trying to hack a driver up to broadcast out of bounds... AFAIK, it would cost the chipset manufacturers MORE to manufacture chipsets with a wider frequency range (otherwise, would a quality scanner cost so much?). It's hard enough to get decent frequency descrimination in a limited band, much less generically across a wide band. Since the aim of chipset companies is to drive down per-chip costs in order to beat a competetor's prices it just doesn't make sense for them to "add" features.
Not to rain further on the SCA parade, but to say that the SCA folks are "pretty much the only people left in the world who make battle-quality chain mail, scale mail, and plate mail in the medieval style." is just ignorance. In fact, much of the "SCA" maille I've seen is anything but "battle quality" or truly in the "medieval style". True medieval style maille was not only not made from galvanized fencing wire (more like wraught iron, and simple carbon steel), but it also generally had every link rivetted, by hand, in ways that we're still trying to figure out how to properly duplicate.
In fact, there is a thriving maille-making culture, and it's not just dorks wearing steel shirts (though they're certainly there, just like not all./ers are bespectacled geeks who are afraid of sunlight, but a BUNCH still are). It's also not just for "traditionalists" anymore. Modern-day maillers work in everything from silver to steel to titanium, and make and use custom rings from 3" across all the way down to 1/32" across (and sometimes smaller!). Check out M.A.I.L. , The Ring Lord's Forums and Spider's Work if you don't believe me.
Depending on the vehicle, you may be able to do some crazy things with it. As has already been said, after '96 all cars in the US have to speak OBDII (used for emissions testing...at least in some states). There are different physical interfaces, but for OBDII cars not all that many.
IMHO, the real fun is with OBDI cars. My weapons of choice are a '94 Firebird Formula (5.7L LT1) and the following interfaces/software:
- Datamaster PCM Diagnostic software from TTS Power Systems. This is some of the best software ever, and they have versions for LOTS of OBDI and OBDII vehicles. I get realtime powertrain info from the PCM as well as lots of great ways to interpret/display it.
- LT1Edit PCM re-flashing software from Carputing LLC. I can tweak any tunable value in my PCM and re-flash it in about 5 minutes through the under-dash ALDL connector. They also have LS1_Edit for the LS1 crowd (newer Firebirds/Camaros, and they support V8 trucks, etc now too).
Other goodies available are:
- Mike Chaney's Home Dyno/Road Dyno. Is a sweet little software/hardware package to measure engine performence generall within +/- 3% of a real inertial dyno. And cheap too!
- Andy Whittaker's FreeScan for ALDL OBDI vehicles is a free scan tool for realtime engine data. Pretty nice.
- The DIY_EFI folks at diy-efi.org run a GREAT mailing list for those interested in do-it-yourself fuel injection tuning.
- TunerCat is a suite of tools for dumping/modifying/flashing (or burning) PCM programs for various GM ECMs.
- The old standby Diacom from Rinda Technologies is DOS-based ECM scan tool software. It's OK, but they really should update it and lower prices to compete.
- For the Mustang crowd there is the Tweecer for tuning EEC-based Ford 5.0L engines. I don't have a Mustang, but this appears to be the sweetest little package for tuning them.
I could keep going on for days here, but real work calls...:)
- Complete coverage of IPSec VPNs w/ OpenBSD (as well as some client-side examples, perhaps FreeS/WAN, OpenBSD dislup clients, etc)
- Good coverage of PF/ALTQ with lots of examples
- Good security coverage explaining that just because it's OpenBSD doesn't mean it's invulnerable. Take the time to explain some good
practices for securely CONFIGURING services, etc. I'd also like to see some coverage of Stephanie and the newly-added ProPolice.
- More performance tuning information. I've found precious little of this that's OpenBSD specific.
- Good intro to BSD-style kernel configuration and compilation for newbies/linux users.
- Introduction to the OpenBSD ports collection for newbies/linux users. Also, some coverage of packages so that people know they don't have to
compile EVERYTHING.
- An OpenBSD guide to configuring XFree86 and installing some of the "more familliar" desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, etc).
Dude...Gauss *REALLY* wouldn't appreciate having his name mentioned so close to that twit xenophile's. Not to mention, lgas never lived in Philly. *shrug*
This probably would be WAAAY out of the question for the needs of the guy asking the question here. OPS requires at least 2 Solaris boxes ($$), Sun Cluster software ($$, and Sun will *NOT* support you AT ALL unless you buy whatever they tell you to buy during the ordering process, which is consequently, really obfuscated and lengthy), plus you need the Oracle licenses themselves. For a minimal system (say, 2 Ultra 2s, 300Mhz processor in each) You're looking at 600 "power units" @ $150/ea for RISC processors. So, just for Oracle licenses (not including Parallel Server) you're looking at $90k. Sure, it's nice if you're a big buck company, but it's out of reach for most mere mortals.
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But the truth is, 99% of gun use is against people.
.45 must have their eyes closed), or as an important piece of history. Like it or not, your freedom (if you are in the US) was won with guns, and they still keep you safe to this day.
Not that this belongs here at all, but I can't sit and let such an obviously ignorant (and I mean that in the Merriam-Webster sense not the pejorative I'm sure you assumed) comment go unanswered.
The majority of firearms are owned by responsible, law-abiding citizens, and are used for a variety of reasons. How about hunting? (contrary to the animal rights radical point of view, animals are NOT people too...don't start the whole "hunting is bad" thing. If I hunt to suppliment my freezer, and eat what I kill, and happen to enjoy the sport of it, I'm no worse than a guy ordering a burger at McD's) How about sport? Shooting as a competative sport likely uses far more rounds of ammunition between practice and competition (1000+ rounds a week in practice, plus several hundred in competition for a lot of competitive shooters). No matter what you may think, it's quite an enjoyable challenge to just shoot at paper targets and put all the rounds through the same hole in the paper. People play DOOM and that's ok...I choose to shoot REAL guns for entertainment. There's also collectors. you know, the folks who appreciate a firearm as a marvel of modern engineering (anybody who has looked at and doesn't see the elegance in the functional and ergonomic design of John M. Browning's Model 1911
As far as your 99% goes, I'd like to see ANY verifiable statistic to back that up. I can easily produce research performed by many institutions (including US government bodies) that demonstrate that more firearms in the hands of more responsible law abiding citizens results in fewer violent crimes and fewer gun related deaths. Sometimes a weapon is effective as a deterrant you know...
Just my $.03...Keep the change.
So, since nobody has mentioned it, I'll actually break my normal ./ silence and point this out.
The attacks they're using were developed by KoreK and released last summer. Then Christophe Devine re-implemented the attacks in Aircrack.
The FBI had nothing to do with development of this, they're just advertising that they're script kiddies. On top of that, the methods they used to for packet generation so they had something to capture were freaking LAME. Anybody with any form of wireless IDS would see this a mile away (oh yeah, they couldn't even write their own deauth tool...they had to be skript kiddies again and use void11...).
I wasn't AT the talk, any maybe the Tom's Networking guy didn't properly convey the message, but I feel that credit should go to the folks who deserve it, not script kiddies who got some face time at a conference.
-d
The manufactureres are affraid that releasing drivers will get them in trouble with the US government. Apparantley the card can be reconfigured to transmit on military/police/other "forbidden" frequencies.
I keep hearing this, and while I'm admittedly not a firmware/driver coder, I do read (and in a fair number of cases understand) a lot of 802.11b wireless driver code. I have to for research I'm working on. From everything I've seen thus far, this argument looks a lot like a Red Herring. That being said, I suppose that I should back my statements by trying to hack a driver up to broadcast out of bounds... AFAIK, it would cost the chipset manufacturers MORE to manufacture chipsets with a wider frequency range (otherwise, would a quality scanner cost so much?). It's hard enough to get decent frequency descrimination in a limited band, much less generically across a wide band. Since the aim of chipset companies is to drive down per-chip costs in order to beat a competetor's prices it just doesn't make sense for them to "add" features.
Just my $.02.
-d
Not to rain further on the SCA parade, but to say that the SCA folks are "pretty much the only people left in the world who make battle-quality chain mail, scale mail, and plate mail in the medieval style." is just ignorance. In fact, much of the "SCA" maille I've seen is anything but "battle quality" or truly in the "medieval style". True medieval style maille was not only not made from galvanized fencing wire (more like wraught iron, and simple carbon steel), but it also generally had every link rivetted, by hand, in ways that we're still trying to figure out how to properly duplicate.
./ers are bespectacled geeks who are afraid of sunlight, but a BUNCH still are). It's also not just for "traditionalists" anymore. Modern-day maillers work in everything from silver to steel to titanium, and make and use custom rings from 3" across all the way down to 1/32" across (and sometimes smaller!). Check out M.A.I.L. , The Ring Lord's Forums and Spider's Work if you don't believe me.
In fact, there is a thriving maille-making culture, and it's not just dorks wearing steel shirts (though they're certainly there, just like not all
-d
Depending on the vehicle, you may be able to do some crazy things with it. As has already been said, after '96 all cars in the US have to speak OBDII (used for emissions testing...at least in some states). There are different physical interfaces, but for OBDII cars not all that many.
:)
IMHO, the real fun is with OBDI cars. My weapons of choice are a '94 Firebird Formula (5.7L LT1) and the following interfaces/software:
- SerialALDL interface from AKMCables
- Datamaster PCM Diagnostic software from TTS Power Systems. This is some of the best software ever, and they have versions for LOTS of OBDI and OBDII vehicles. I get realtime powertrain info from the PCM as well as lots of great ways to interpret/display it.
- LT1Edit PCM re-flashing software from Carputing LLC. I can tweak any tunable value in my PCM and re-flash it in about 5 minutes through the under-dash ALDL connector. They also have LS1_Edit for the LS1 crowd (newer Firebirds/Camaros, and they support V8 trucks, etc now too).
Other goodies available are:
- Mike Chaney's Home Dyno/Road Dyno. Is a sweet little software/hardware package to measure engine performence generall within +/- 3% of a real inertial dyno. And cheap too!
- Andy Whittaker's FreeScan for ALDL OBDI vehicles is a free scan tool for realtime engine data. Pretty nice.
- The DIY_EFI folks at diy-efi.org run a GREAT mailing list for those interested in do-it-yourself fuel injection tuning.
- TunerCat is a suite of tools for dumping/modifying/flashing (or burning) PCM programs for various GM ECMs.
- The old standby Diacom from Rinda Technologies is DOS-based ECM scan tool software. It's OK, but they really should update it and lower prices to compete.
- For the Mustang crowd there is the Tweecer for tuning EEC-based Ford 5.0L engines. I don't have a Mustang, but this appears to be the sweetest little package for tuning them.
I could keep going on for days here, but real work calls...
-d
Things I would like to see covered in some depth:
- Complete coverage of IPSec VPNs w/ OpenBSD (as well as some client-side examples, perhaps FreeS/WAN, OpenBSD dislup clients, etc)
- Good coverage of PF/ALTQ with lots of examples
- Good security coverage explaining that just because it's OpenBSD doesn't mean it's invulnerable. Take the time to explain some good
practices for securely CONFIGURING services, etc. I'd also like to see some coverage of Stephanie and the newly-added ProPolice.
- More performance tuning information. I've found precious little of this that's OpenBSD specific.
- Good intro to BSD-style kernel configuration and compilation for newbies/linux users.
- Introduction to the OpenBSD ports collection for newbies/linux users. Also, some coverage of packages so that people know they don't have to
compile EVERYTHING.
- An OpenBSD guide to configuring XFree86 and installing some of the "more familliar" desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, etc).
-d
Dude...Gauss *REALLY* wouldn't appreciate having his name mentioned so close to that twit xenophile's. Not to mention, lgas never lived in Philly. *shrug*
hmm..oracle has a parallel server option
This probably would be WAAAY out of the question for the needs of the guy asking the question here. OPS requires at least 2 Solaris boxes ($$), Sun Cluster software ($$, and Sun will *NOT* support you AT ALL unless you buy whatever they tell you to buy during the ordering process, which is consequently, really obfuscated and lengthy), plus you need the Oracle licenses themselves. For a minimal system (say, 2 Ultra 2s, 300Mhz processor in each) You're looking at 600 "power units" @ $150/ea for RISC processors. So, just for Oracle licenses (not including Parallel Server) you're looking at $90k. Sure, it's nice if you're a big buck company, but it's out of reach for most mere mortals.