the individual, rather than the bank, should be held accountable in this scenario.
I don't agree.
The online banking security is too weak if it is based just on a piece of information (username+password). There's already been cases of viruses that do keylogging to gather online banking information for criminals.
The security needs to be based on a combination of something that you know (username+password), plus something you have (e.g. ATM card). No virus can steal your ATM card, and if your wallet gets stolen your PIN code is hopefully unknown to the thief
I've used online banking both in Sweden and in the US.
In the US, the online bank security seems to be about par with Slashdot's. Once someone has your username+password, they can get your money.
In Sweden most (all?) banks don't let you transfer money from your online account with just a username+password. You also need a one-time code for each transfer. These are either generated by a small device, or sent out on credit-card sized cards with ~100 codes. This is a little bit more cumbersome, but it sure feels more safe, especially when using public terminals that may have keyloggers on them.
I mean, seriously, how useful/safe is online banking if you can only use it on your own computer (because of possible keyloggers on public terminals), and even at home you have to make damn sure that you didn't get a keylogging virus through the latest security exploit???
Arne Carl-August Beurling (February 3, 1905 - November 20, 1986) was a mathematician and professor of mathematics at Uppsala University (1937-1954) and later at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, USA.
In 1940 he single-handedly deciphered and reverse-engineered an early version of the Geheimfernschreiber (one of the "Fish cyphers") used by Nazi Germany, and created a device that enabled Sweden to decipher German teleprinter traffic passing through Sweden from Norway on a cable. In this way, Swedish authorities knew about Operation Barbarossa before it occurred. This became the foundation for the Swedish Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA). (The cypher in the Geheimfernschreiber is generally considered to be more complex than the cypher used in the Enigma machines.)
Not to mention possibly clogging up vital pieces of infrastructure that would be most needed in an emergency...
"We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed, this cell node is currently attempting to send 104,000 SMS messages..."
I use Emacs for editing both C and Python. With Python, it is just a matter of marking the block you'd like to indent/dedent (CTRL-space at the beginning of the block, and ALT-w at the end), and then use "CTRL >" or "CTRL <" to indent/dedent the whole block. This saves a few keypresses compared to C, where the extra braces have to be inserted/removed.
RIAA, ISPs etc seems to be very happy to place restrictions on the products/services we buy from them, such as when and where you can play your music, how the internet can be used, etc.
Why not take this one step further and introduce computerized money that the consumer can put arbitrary restrictions on? That is, RIAA is not allowed to use your money to invest in the tobacco industry/polluting companies/Burma/whatever. That would only be fair since they're trying to tell us in which CD player a disc can be played. See how they like that...
So making a couple million a year is not enough money? These people must be crazy. Well atleast now they can continue making more money in a year than I would need for the rest of my life, and they can do so for the next four years.
I'm sure the same can be said about your salary (>$50k?) by someone making $500 a year.
The affiliate programs run by these drug companies are nothing short of a license to spam on their behalf. The drug companies deny responsibility because they "can't control the affiliates". Bull.
I agree, I've read that and was upset too. However, one thing that I've thought about lately regarding most spammers is that they pretty much all (OK, maybe not the Nigeria letters) have the same achilles heel: They must be able to charge stuff to your credit card!
Seems to me all that is needed to stop 99.99% of all spam is to lean hard enough on MasterCard and Visa so that they yank the CC billing rights of anyone who spams. And this actually sounds feasible to me, compared to going after spam and spammers with spamfilters, laws, etc. Unlike spammers, the credit card companies actually care about bad PR, customer complaints, etc.
For instance, I have both a Visa and a MasterCard for redundancy, I'm sure a lot of people have both. I can easily choose to not use my Visa card (or MasterCard, which one doesn't matter as long as I can use one of them) at all for one or two months. Why not pick May 2004 as "Don't Use Your Visa Card Month"? If enough people (millions) does this, it should definitely get their attention! And it would be easy to explain to non-techies like your mom why they need to join in on the protest (everyone hates spam!), and how to do it (just don't use your Visa card for one month).
After the boycotted credit card company folds, it should be obvious to the other one why it needs to change as well.
Look at how densely packed Japan is. Look at the huge expanses of empty land in the states.
Sweden is the size of California, but has only a quarter (9 million) of the population. Yet the broadband prices are similar to Japan ($40/mo for 26/26 Mbit/s).
users are going to need to find and download a Python runtime environment of some sort. The latest I've found at python's web site is around 9M.
For distributing Python apps under Windows, I like to just copy the installed Python runtime environment and include that as a subfolder to the Python app. The app is started using a.BAT file (py\python.exe main.py). This makes it easy to change the installed source. This takes up less than 2.5M. The equivalent py2exe binary takes up about 900K.
It would seem that anything interpreted is going to suffer the "separate download" problem...
Both of these methods gives the end-user a completely self-contained Python app, no extra downloads needed. It is also possible to do this under Linux.
Ease of learning would also be debatable for probably every language out there. I know folks who are wizards with C/C++/Java/perl/$language1 who could couldn't get a working "Hello, world." out of $language2, while at the same time I know others with the skills in $language2 who couldn't do anything in $language1.
I don't agree, I think it is pretty obvious that different languages have varying levels of abstraction. I have an MSc in Computer Science, and 10 years of professional experience writing hard real-time apps in C + an RTOS. There's no question that C (/C++) will be around for a long time, because for low-level programming you just have to have control over the CPU. But this comes at a pretty high price. Most of the C code I've seen is hard to read and understand because there is so much "plumbing" going on for simple stuff, like managing lists of objects, etc.
About 18 months ago I decided I wanted to learn Python, and I started the Freevo project. Freevo is almost exclusively written in Python, and it has turned out to be a really good choice. Some examples:
Python is very easy to pick up for experienced C programmers. All of the Freevo developers were new to Python before they started working on Freevo.
Dynamic typing is easier to program with, and it doesn't lead to more bugs.
The indentation has not been a problem. In fact, I find it quicker to edit Python code compared to C in Emacs since it is easier to change indentation levels for whole blocks of code.
Python code is generally easier to read since it is higher level than C, and there are no {}; characters cluttering the screen. Spaghetti-coding is still possible of course.
Python has a very good Unix system call abstraction layer. Everything is available, but in much less code compared to C. For instance, a TCP/IP client/server example
Python is also good for multi-threaded apps. It is easy to start and communicate with new threads, compared to C and pthreads.
Execution speed is generally not an issue. And if it turns out to be, it is easier to implement smarter algorithms in Python, or parts of the app can be rewritten in C and called as native functions from Python.
As I said, C/C++ will be around for a long time. But for many new apps that I write, I find that Python lets me write them in 1/10th of the time compared to C (that I know very well). Python also has an amazing ability to work on the first try. I'm sure others have similar experiences with other higher-level languages such as Java, Perl, Ruby, etc.
I hope I didn't get my math wrong, but this doesn't look totally unrealistic as far as the energy goes. The real numbers would probably come out much lower though. The batteries would probably weigh around 500 kg, adding significantly to the horsepowers needed. And I don't think the batteries can sustain hundreds of amps for hours...
One can imagine how the world would be if one single little stupid decision wasn't taken...
Stupid?
Sounds like bill didn't do much work in a whole year. Can't blame the company for firing him, although things might've been a lot different if he worked for some place where they don't care about performance...
I'm not sure I agree that setting up a GCC for cross-compilation belongs in an introductory embedded course (which is what the poster was looking for). I can do it, but most embedded developers use cross-compilers the company bought or the in-house guru set up. Some link map editing should be enough.
Also, an x86 PC can still be used for bare-bones development using uC/OS-II or RTEMS if that is desireable after the Linux part of the course is over. The uC-OS-II kernel is particularly suited for a course since it comes with a pretty good textbook explaining every little detail about its' real-time kernel.
But if you absolutely have to have non-x86 experience many CPU/DSP companies have low-cost ($100-$200) evaluation boards for their chips that often include a C compiler. uC-OS supports a number of different CPU's.
Slashdot Mirror
Chuck Norris always wins over entropy.
I don't agree.
The online banking security is too weak if it is based just on a piece of information (username+password). There's already been cases of viruses that do keylogging to gather online banking information for criminals.
The security needs to be based on a combination of something that you know (username+password), plus something you have (e.g. ATM card). No virus can steal your ATM card, and if your wallet gets stolen your PIN code is hopefully unknown to the thief
I've used online banking both in Sweden and in the US.
In the US, the online bank security seems to be about par with Slashdot's. Once someone has your username+password, they can get your money.
In Sweden most (all?) banks don't let you transfer money from your online account with just a username+password. You also need a one-time code for each transfer. These are either generated by a small device, or sent out on credit-card sized cards with ~100 codes. This is a little bit more cumbersome, but it sure feels more safe, especially when using public terminals that may have keyloggers on them.
I mean, seriously, how useful/safe is online banking if you can only use it on your own computer (because of possible keyloggers on public terminals), and even at home you have to make damn sure that you didn't get a keylogging virus through the latest security exploit???
Arne Carl-August Beurling (February 3, 1905 - November 20, 1986) was a mathematician and professor of mathematics at Uppsala University (1937-1954) and later at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, USA.
In 1940 he single-handedly deciphered and reverse-engineered an early version of the Geheimfernschreiber (one of the "Fish cyphers") used by Nazi Germany, and created a device that enabled Sweden to decipher German teleprinter traffic passing through Sweden from Norway on a cable. In this way, Swedish authorities knew about Operation Barbarossa before it occurred. This became the foundation for the Swedish Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA). (The cypher in the Geheimfernschreiber is generally considered to be more complex than the cypher used in the Enigma machines.)
The article didn't mention TETRA, which is an existing technology for first responder networks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Trunked_R adio.
Not exactly, there's something called "SMS Cell Broadcast": http://www.gsm-modem.de/sms-cell-broadcast.html
What about "dagsböter" (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagsbot)???
I use Emacs for editing both C and Python. With Python, it is just a matter of marking the block you'd like to indent/dedent (CTRL-space at the beginning of the block, and ALT-w at the end), and then use "CTRL >" or "CTRL <" to indent/dedent the whole block. This saves a few keypresses compared to C, where the extra braces have to be inserted/removed.
Actually, it'll be interesting to see how the server holds up. The Chalmers U. network (http://www.cdg.chalmers.se/Natverk/chalmers_bbng. gif) isn't too shabby with Gigabit Ethernet internally, and a 15 GBit/s Internet link (http://www.nordu.net/maps/map_nordunet.png).
The project home page can be found here: http://www.ssc.se/ssd/smart1.html
Why not take this one step further and introduce computerized money that the consumer can put arbitrary restrictions on? That is, RIAA is not allowed to use your money to invest in the tobacco industry/polluting companies/Burma/whatever. That would only be fair since they're trying to tell us in which CD player a disc can be played. See how they like that...
I'm sure the same can be said about your salary (>$50k?) by someone making $500 a year.
Good for you.
Oh my God, I'd better do something about all the huge stacks of money I've got lying around the house. Not.
I've used Linode for about 3 months, and it has worked great for me. No more DSL worries for my servers...
This had nothing to do with interest, it is more like an old-town marketplace where merchants buy and sell wares to make a profit.
But if they had lived according to the Amish way of life (no computers, etc), this would never had happened! So we all need to go Amish, pronto!
I agree, I've read that and was upset too. However, one thing that I've thought about lately regarding most spammers is that they pretty much all (OK, maybe not the Nigeria letters) have the same achilles heel: They must be able to charge stuff to your credit card!
Seems to me all that is needed to stop 99.99% of all spam is to lean hard enough on MasterCard and Visa so that they yank the CC billing rights of anyone who spams. And this actually sounds feasible to me, compared to going after spam and spammers with spamfilters, laws, etc. Unlike spammers, the credit card companies actually care about bad PR, customer complaints, etc.
For instance, I have both a Visa and a MasterCard for redundancy, I'm sure a lot of people have both. I can easily choose to not use my Visa card (or MasterCard, which one doesn't matter as long as I can use one of them) at all for one or two months. Why not pick May 2004 as "Don't Use Your Visa Card Month"? If enough people (millions) does this, it should definitely get their attention! And it would be easy to explain to non-techies like your mom why they need to join in on the protest (everyone hates spam!), and how to do it (just don't use your Visa card for one month).
After the boycotted credit card company folds, it should be obvious to the other one why it needs to change as well.
Bob: You wanted to be Krusty's sidekick since you were five! What
about the buffoon lessons, the four years at clown college.
Cecil: I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way.
Sweden is the size of California, but has only a quarter (9 million) of the population. Yet the broadband prices are similar to Japan ($40/mo for 26/26 Mbit/s).
For distributing Python apps under Windows, I like to just copy the installed Python runtime environment and include that as a subfolder to the Python app. The app is started using a .BAT file (py\python.exe main.py). This makes it easy to change the installed source. This takes up less than 2.5M. The equivalent py2exe binary takes up about 900K.
It would seem that anything interpreted is going to suffer the "separate download" problem...
Both of these methods gives the end-user a completely self-contained Python app, no extra downloads needed. It is also possible to do this under Linux.
Ease of learning would also be debatable for probably every language out there. I know folks who are wizards with C/C++/Java/perl/$language1 who could couldn't get a working "Hello, world." out of $language2, while at the same time I know others with the skills in $language2 who couldn't do anything in $language1.
I don't agree, I think it is pretty obvious that different languages have varying levels of abstraction. I have an MSc in Computer Science, and 10 years of professional experience writing hard real-time apps in C + an RTOS. There's no question that C (/C++) will be around for a long time, because for low-level programming you just have to have control over the CPU. But this comes at a pretty high price. Most of the C code I've seen is hard to read and understand because there is so much "plumbing" going on for simple stuff, like managing lists of objects, etc.
About 18 months ago I decided I wanted to learn Python, and I started the Freevo project. Freevo is almost exclusively written in Python, and it has turned out to be a really good choice. Some examples:
As I said, C/C++ will be around for a long time. But for many new apps that I write, I find that Python lets me write them in 1/10th of the time compared to C (that I know very well). Python also has an amazing ability to work on the first try. I'm sure others have similar experiences with other higher-level languages such as Java, Perl, Ruby, etc.
The difference in Europe (at least Sweden) is that the SSN is like a username instead of a password (like the US SSN is).
Want to get a credit card? You need to show up at the bank with a picture ID.
Ever hear about Darwin? The people who couldn't hack the sauna stuff in Sweden thousands of years ago didn't reproduce :-)
In the comment from Spamhaus it is clearly stated that only the Verio corporate mailserver is blocked in order to protect their ISP users.
Ok, let's see here:
100's of miles at 100 Mph. => 2 hours @ 70 horsepowers (very low estimate).
70 hp => 70 hp * 700 W/hp => 50kW.
50 kW * 2 hours = 100 kWh.
1 car battery is 500 Ah (very high est) @ 12V = 6 kWh.
100 kWh required / 6 kWh per battery = 16 batteries.
I hope I didn't get my math wrong, but this doesn't look totally unrealistic as far as the energy goes. The real numbers would probably come out much lower though. The batteries would probably weigh around 500 kg, adding significantly to the horsepowers needed. And I don't think the batteries can sustain hundreds of amps for hours...
One can imagine how the world would be if one single little stupid decision wasn't taken...
Stupid?
Sounds like bill didn't do much work in a whole year. Can't blame the company for firing him, although things might've been a lot different if he worked for some place where they don't care about performance...
So, after your computer gives you the answer you gotta build an even bigger one that determines the question. Reminds me of some book I read once :-)
Hey Bill, I enjoyed your lectures at ESC/SF02 :-)
I'm not sure I agree that setting up a GCC for cross-compilation belongs in an introductory embedded course (which is what the poster was looking for). I can do it, but most embedded developers use cross-compilers the company bought or the in-house guru set up. Some link map editing should be enough.
Also, an x86 PC can still be used for bare-bones development using uC/OS-II or RTEMS if that is desireable after the Linux part of the course is over. The uC-OS-II kernel is particularly suited for a course since it comes with a pretty good textbook explaining every little detail about its' real-time kernel.
But if you absolutely have to have non-x86 experience many CPU/DSP companies have low-cost ($100-$200) evaluation boards for their chips that often include a C compiler. uC-OS supports a number of different CPU's.