That's a good point... I suppose that USA/UK data sharing could be a possibility: there's been the whole NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. Don't know about other jurisdictions.
Depends where the nodes are located. More Tor nodes based in the UK will be bad as they'll just make traffic analysis more feasible given that data connected to all of the UK nodes Tor nodes can be watched.
Secondly, what if I decide to run a Tor exit node (more of which will also be needed) and my node connects to something that the government finds objectionable or illegal? With this system, they'll now know and the owner could be prosecuted or investigated for it. Apprentice to a crime, maybe?
Yes, Tor is known vulnerable to traffic analysis but if you can bounce between non-UK nodes, you should still be ok (I think). I guess that VPNing out to a proxy in a neutral country and then connecting to the Tor network might also bypass it.
"P.S - How do they figure out who is emailing whom again? Unless the mail server is with an ISP or the SMTP session is in plain text, you cannot read the email headers."
Doesn't the law give real time access to logs?
Don't like law, did sign it, also know that it won't make a jot of difference. As a cynic, I'm fairly sure that e-petitions are merely designed as a kind of theater in which a disaffected citizen is made to feel as if their government actually listens to them.
Well, sure, Tor provides very good anonymity and should be able to do so even when this system is introduced: ultimately, they're not going to know what you're doing and shouldn't be able to see who you're connecting to on the other side of the Tor network. The problem is that your ISP knows who you are, knows where you live and knows that you're using Tor for some reason (one could deduce from the logs that you're using Tor as they'll show that you're connecting to a Tor node or they'll be able to use packet inspection). Given that the government will have access to your ISP's logs, they'll know that you're using Tor and, consequently, you reveal that you've got something to hide.
End results is that you look suspicious: even if you're only trying to hide a minor secret (researching an embarrassing health condition over your landlord's wifi, say), it might cause the government to use heavier tactics against you in order to learn what it is. While this sounds paranoid, most people forget that the UK has a huge amount of existing legislation that would allow them to do this legally, easily and sometimes without court oversight. Examples: tap your phone, track your cellphone, inspect your mail, watch your credit card transactions, read your email or, perhaps scarily of all, track your car using the automated license plate recognition system that exists on all UK highways. I'm not making this stuff up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police-enforced_ANPR_in_the_UK UK domestic surveillance is frighteningly draconian and, amazingly, none of the population (many of who are convinced by "won't somebody please think of the children?") actually seem to give a damn.
Use Tor and you've told them everything they need to know...
Seriously though, it will be interesting to see how the government responds to suddenly seeing an entire nation's Tor use. Either:
(i) Everyone ends up becoming a suspect and gets subjected to other kinds of surveillance
(ii) Tor (and similar methods) get banned.
(iii) The system allows good statistical traffic analysis to be performed (less likely, as you'll be crossing borders but not impossible) and makes you less anonymous.
Ultimately though, the system cannot catch smart criminals, criminals who were operating in the open (and might have been caught) will start going underground and will no longer be caught which means the system will only be useful against dumb criminals (who would have been caught anyway) and a entire nation of innocent suspects.
Um, e-petition, anyone? http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32400
How can the the same nation that gave the world Orwell, Huxley, Oxford and Cambridge decide to pass something as dumb and self-defeating as this?
This is ridiculous. It appears to me that Apple has not released a bad product per se, they've released a good product within the confines of the technology that currently exists.
As I understand it, all smartphones can suffer from some degree of signal attenuation and this is usually caused by the inherent limitations of current antennae design as opposed to careless design or testing by the manufacturer. This is just the nature of antennae - they're complicated and so far, no one has discovered a perfect design. In time, one would hope though that given enough R&D dollars, we will find a better antennae.
This is not surprising and it certainly isn't cause for uproar.
Whether Apple and others should be bundling bumper cases is a different question (I don't know how wide spread signal attenuation problems are, but if they're sizable and a bumper case solves the issue then, IMHO, all phones should come with bumper cases).
(By the way, I don't use an iPhone, I use a BlackBerry 8120 and signal attenuation occasionally causes issues given poor network coverage. Maybe if I ask nicely, RIM will send me a shiny new bumper case too).
You seem to be suggesting that a satellite crashed. But I see some problems with the hydrazine theory:
If hydrazine was used as a propellant, it would be reasonable to assume that due to the high temperatures reached on re-entry, the hydrazine would react fully on impact (i.e. explode) and so no longer be present in the environment in large amounts.
From the same article, "Accidental discharge into water, air, and soil may occur during storage, handling, transport, and improper waste disposal. However, hydrazine rapidly degrades in the environment and is rarely encountered."
From these two, I'm not convinced that hydrazine would be present in large quantities following such a crash. Consequently, I wouldn't expect that people would become ill through exposure to hydrazine.
It's also true that I don't know much about hydrazine chemistry, its physiological effects or how much is present in an average satellite.
Maybe it would be useful to consider other examples of satellite crashes and see if any data was collected that could indicate levels of hydrazine in the local atmosphere following the crash.
Transmission is a very lightweight Bittorrent Client for Linux, Mac OS X, BeOS and BSD. It has minimal CPU, RAM or HD requirements and is very stable. There's even a tiny CLI version if you choose to be ultra-efficient.
This is ridiculous. Just by watching the show, it is clear to anyone with the most basic of science/math backgrounds that the MythBuster's methods lack rigour. But it would be wrong to criticise them for this - they do not claim to be scientists, statisticians or to offer great rigour and completeness in their experiments. They illustrate scientific principles and do cool stuff that's great fun to watch (and show some impressive creativity and intelligence in their designs).
The MythBuster's are not publishing papers or writing books and so this sort of criticism is redundant.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a good point... I suppose that USA/UK data sharing could be a possibility: there's been the whole NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. Don't know about other jurisdictions.
Depends where the nodes are located. More Tor nodes based in the UK will be bad as they'll just make traffic analysis more feasible given that data connected to all of the UK nodes Tor nodes can be watched.
Secondly, what if I decide to run a Tor exit node (more of which will also be needed) and my node connects to something that the government finds objectionable or illegal? With this system, they'll now know and the owner could be prosecuted or investigated for it. Apprentice to a crime, maybe?
Yes, Tor is known vulnerable to traffic analysis but if you can bounce between non-UK nodes, you should still be ok (I think). I guess that VPNing out to a proxy in a neutral country and then connecting to the Tor network might also bypass it.
"P.S - How do they figure out who is emailing whom again? Unless the mail server is with an ISP or the SMTP session is in plain text, you cannot read the email headers."
Doesn't the law give real time access to logs?
In the UK, it's already illegal not to disclose encryption keys on request. Being senile or having internet induced ADHD isn't a defense either.
Two words: feature creep.
Don't like law, did sign it, also know that it won't make a jot of difference. As a cynic, I'm fairly sure that e-petitions are merely designed as a kind of theater in which a disaffected citizen is made to feel as if their government actually listens to them.
Well, sure, Tor provides very good anonymity and should be able to do so even when this system is introduced: ultimately, they're not going to know what you're doing and shouldn't be able to see who you're connecting to on the other side of the Tor network. The problem is that your ISP knows who you are, knows where you live and knows that you're using Tor for some reason (one could deduce from the logs that you're using Tor as they'll show that you're connecting to a Tor node or they'll be able to use packet inspection). Given that the government will have access to your ISP's logs, they'll know that you're using Tor and, consequently, you reveal that you've got something to hide.
End results is that you look suspicious: even if you're only trying to hide a minor secret (researching an embarrassing health condition over your landlord's wifi, say), it might cause the government to use heavier tactics against you in order to learn what it is. While this sounds paranoid, most people forget that the UK has a huge amount of existing legislation that would allow them to do this legally, easily and sometimes without court oversight.
Examples: tap your phone, track your cellphone, inspect your mail, watch your credit card transactions, read your email or, perhaps scarily of all, track your car using the automated license plate recognition system that exists on all UK highways. I'm not making this stuff up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police-enforced_ANPR_in_the_UK
UK domestic surveillance is frighteningly draconian and, amazingly, none of the population (many of who are convinced by "won't somebody please think of the children?") actually seem to give a damn.
Use Tor and you've told them everything they need to know...
Seriously though, it will be interesting to see how the government responds to suddenly seeing an entire nation's Tor use. Either:
(i) Everyone ends up becoming a suspect and gets subjected to other kinds of surveillance
(ii) Tor (and similar methods) get banned.
(iii) The system allows good statistical traffic analysis to be performed (less likely, as you'll be crossing borders but not impossible) and makes you less anonymous.
Ultimately though, the system cannot catch smart criminals, criminals who were operating in the open (and might have been caught) will start going underground and will no longer be caught which means the system will only be useful against dumb criminals (who would have been caught anyway) and a entire nation of innocent suspects. Um, e-petition, anyone? http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32400
How can the the same nation that gave the world Orwell, Huxley, Oxford and Cambridge decide to pass something as dumb and self-defeating as this?
Link to e-petition: Scrap Plans to Monitor all Emails and Web Usage
Steve, you've been a true inspiration.
Best CEO ever.
Apple: Market Cap $ 309 bn
Netgear: Market Cap $ 1 bn
(src: Yahoo Finance)
He's just jealous.
This is ridiculous. It appears to me that Apple has not released a bad product per se, they've released a good product within the confines of the technology that currently exists.
As I understand it, all smartphones can suffer from some degree of signal attenuation and this is usually caused by the inherent limitations of current antennae design as opposed to careless design or testing by the manufacturer. This is just the nature of antennae - they're complicated and so far, no one has discovered a perfect design. In time, one would hope though that given enough R&D dollars, we will find a better antennae.
This is not surprising and it certainly isn't cause for uproar.
Whether Apple and others should be bundling bumper cases is a different question (I don't know how wide spread signal attenuation problems are, but if they're sizable and a bumper case solves the issue then, IMHO, all phones should come with bumper cases).
(By the way, I don't use an iPhone, I use a BlackBerry 8120 and signal attenuation occasionally causes issues given poor network coverage. Maybe if I ask nicely, RIM will send me a shiny new bumper case too).
From the article,
.NET Framework, with support from Microsoft...
"...The new technology platform has been developed using the Microsoft
Yup, that ought to explain it...
You're burning alcohol!
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14250-microwave-ray-gun-controls-crowds-with-noise.html
first post
This is truly terrifying.
You seem to be suggesting that a satellite crashed. But I see some problems with the hydrazine theory:
If hydrazine was used as a propellant, it would be reasonable to assume that due to the high temperatures reached on re-entry, the hydrazine would react fully on impact (i.e. explode) and so no longer be present in the environment in large amounts.
From the same article, "Accidental discharge into water, air, and soil may occur during storage, handling, transport, and improper waste disposal. However, hydrazine rapidly degrades in the environment and is rarely encountered."
From these two, I'm not convinced that hydrazine would be present in large quantities following such a crash. Consequently, I wouldn't expect that people would become ill through exposure to hydrazine.
It's also true that I don't know much about hydrazine chemistry, its physiological effects or how much is present in an average satellite.
Maybe it would be useful to consider other examples of satellite crashes and see if any data was collected that could indicate levels of hydrazine in the local atmosphere following the crash.
Transmission is a very lightweight Bittorrent Client for Linux, Mac OS X, BeOS and BSD. It has minimal CPU, RAM or HD requirements and is very stable. There's even a tiny CLI version if you choose to be ultra-efficient.
I'd prefer A non-perfect sphere of Silicone .
# strings foo.mp4 | grep YourName
I wonder if it's easy to remove?
But it's still not big enough to hold my pr0n collection.
This is ridiculous. Just by watching the show, it is clear to anyone with the most basic of science/math backgrounds that the MythBuster's methods lack rigour. But it would be wrong to criticise them for this - they do not claim to be scientists, statisticians or to offer great rigour and completeness in their experiments. They illustrate scientific principles and do cool stuff that's great fun to watch (and show some impressive creativity and intelligence in their designs).
The MythBuster's are not publishing papers or writing books and so this sort of criticism is redundant.