Well, Thompson's "hack" is a not simple (nor all that likely, right now) in practice, but is certainly not simple to get around in theory. To put it simply, it's a problem of infinite regress. Even if you have the source to the compiler, you may not have the source to the compiler which will compile the new compiler. AND, even if you write a compiler in assembly (not recommended), you do not have access to a hack planted in the assembler. As Thompson points out, such a viral "hack" could planted in the very hardware microcode of the processor.
Here's where things become suddenly a little bit scarier. With things like Palladium and other "Trusted Computing" platforms being proposed by BIOS and hardware manufactures, some sort of security backdoor embedded so deeply that it is inaccessible to programmers becomes a real possibility. Already Trusted Computing proponents are arguing for some sort of hardware-level censorship of software ("For Your Security" (TM) ), so taking the next proactive step to allow rights owners, investigators, etc. unfettered access to your system (again, "In The Interest of National Security And/Or Federal Law" (TM) ) at a hardware level becomes not only possible, but even plausible.
This may be trite : but that kind of argument could have been used to allow the Nazis to exterminate a whole lot more than 6 million Jews, or to assert that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was immoral, or other such drivel.
It's not that it's trite, it's just that you've exercised Godwin's Law.. Game over, man, game over.
Completely ignorant question, as I can't be bothered to RTFA at this hour, but isn't the latest theory about the evolution birds is that THEY are in fact, the closest living descendants of dinosaurs? If modern bird descended from archaeopteryx, then how did these survive if only buried/underwater creatures made it through the inferno? Or for that matter, how did any modern reptile make it that did not descend from an amphibious ancestor?
That brings back memories for me as well...memories of giggling with glee that I found a loophole to escape to the library to play video games under the guise of "education."
(This guy in TFA seems to get that. They don't call him Mr. McCool for nothing)
I loved the game, but honestly, I learned nothing about the Oregon trail from except that shooting bears is easier than shoot rabbits. And little sisters get sick and die a lot.
Uhm, one cannot sufficiently minimize its importance?...Hate to go grammar nazi on your ass, but I'm pretty sure you meant to say its importance cannot be overstated.
S'aright.
Sociobiologically inconsistent
on
eyeBlog
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The thing is, men make eye contact to initiate a conversation, but usually do NOT maintain eye contact throughout the conversation. It's a well known ethological fact that men look away often during conversations, sometime conducting entire face to face conversations without almost no eye contact. It's a primal aggression thing: looking away signals submission, trust, or goodwill, while holding gaze is a challenge. The same does not generally hold true for women, or men talking to women. Eye contact is held much more consistently.
Notice next time you're talking to a male colleague. Feel the discomfort if you try to prolong eye contact. Then compare when talking to a woman.
For them to sue you for no-compliance, they have to reveal that the letter existed in the first place...
Haha! I love the quaint notion of "due process" implied in your scenario. It's cute. But, seriously, if we let silly things like the Fifth Amendment get in the way of Security, the terrorists have already won.
No, they just have knock down your door and haul you away as a "material witness" in a matter they don't have to mention as it's of "national security." The last such string of "terrorism suspects" arrested has shown the government can hold you without due process (hell without even filing charges!) for YEARS.
From the article: The ACLU first filed its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such demands, known as national security letters, on April 6, but the secrecy rules of the Patriot Act required the challenge to be filed under seal. A ruling April 28 allowed the release of a heavily censored version of the complaint, but the ACLU is still forbidden from revealing many details of the case, including the identity of another plaintiff who has joined in the lawsuit. The law forbids targets of national security letters to disclose that they have received one.
So, this law is so secret that even challenging it must be done in secret, and if the law exercised against you, that must also be kept secret.
Phew. And here I thought the War on Terror might cause us to compromise the principles we're fighting to defend.
A forthcoming addendum: "..with liberty and justice for all who having nothing to hide, and so, nothing to fear."
I don't think that will do it (and I would think that everyone already gets billed for this anyway, just like summoning an ambulance). It's not like most of the time these emergencies aren't legitimate. People don't plan on calling search and rescue, it's just that they don't sufficiently plan for other contingencies because of inexperience. Their risk taking is more liberal, and their tolerance for hardship is reduced thanks to an easy call to rescue.
There's obvious answers to this "Ask Slashdot" like "keep it voluntary," but perhaps giving people technological security blankets for outdoorsmanship is actually a disservice? I remember reading an article a while back how cell phones have become, paradoxically, both a lifesaver for lost hikers, and a bane for search and rescue teams. The problem is that novice hikers/climbers push themselves farther than their abilities because they feel like they can just fall back on their cell phones if they get stuck--and they do. People overextend themselves either physically or in terms of terrain, and then waste search & rescue resources by calling in for an extraction. One example in this article was a hiking party that just got "too tired" and didn't feel like recouping for the return trip. The first step in not getting stuck in the wilderness is adequate training and knowing your limits, not simply constructing a better (and more abusable) safety net.
- Always be careful with the label side (e.g. don't put that side on the table, dirt could cause scratches)
I don't get this tip. Could you elaborate? One would think the "data" side should be handled with more care...If I have to put a CD on the desk, I usually put it label side down. Is the label side more delicate than the "data" side?
The next big thing in fuel efficiency for conventional piston engines is the variable timing and lift technology now available in BMW's 4.5liter V8 and soon to come form other manufacturers. Fully variable timing and lift allow optimization of pumping losses across the rev range, as well as improved combustion efficiency for higher torque at equivalent RPM, at the price of potentially larger valve train mechanical losses.
Can't mention dynamic valve train management for air/fuel optimization without proper credit to the pioneer: Honda'sVTEC. Introduced way back in 1989 on the Integra in Japan and on the NSX in 1990 in the US. Elegant engineering genius.
OK, here is an excellent site that systematically weighs the scientific evidence regarding just about every biblical claim having to do with geological and biological origins, including the age of the earth, and the world-wide flood of Genesis. I highly, highly recommend this site to anyone who doesn't want to just "take the scientists' word for it." Their several essays which carefully explain evolutionary theory--so horribly butchered by the media and most lay people--is especially remarkable.
It once was a geek favorite, and is still my workout companion: My old NEX II. I have been thinking about upgrading to the NEX IA, but the review in the posted article was less than overwhelming.
Here's my beef with every single portable player review I've ever seen: They completely neglect the interoperability and unlimited expansion of flash storage media. I love my NEX partly because it uses (relatively) cheap CompactFlash, that I can turn around and pop right into my Canon digital cam. AND, I can use a little flash reader to use the card as a universal storage medium anywhere. The review compares the NEX IA's storage as being less than a quarter of an iPod mini...but that's grossly unfair because the IA has a REMOVABLE card! AND they list its price at $250 WITH a 1 GB card, but you can get them brand new, bare bones for less than $100 from Choke Slam Media on eBay. The review also bitches about the IA's crappy battery life, but here's where knowing if they used a 1GB microdrive (battery hog) or flash card would be crucial (they ambiguously call it a Flash Drive..who knows what PC Mag editors think that is).
Anyway, I really would like a CF player that has a FM receiver (mainly to be able to listen to TV broadcasts at the gym). I'll only trust a flash player for working out. The IA also has a stoopidly designed headphone cord that come out the bottom of the device, making it hard to work with my Tunebelt armband case (highly recommend, BTW).
Unfortunately certain manufacturers (Honda and BMW) have demanded alldata cease releasing their service bulletins to consumers. See the message at the bottom here, or just try signing up will alldata for a Honda, Acura, or BMW car. That's just pure control greed.
You can still see the titles, but not the text. And the titles are usually ambiguous.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, Thompson's "hack" is a not simple (nor all that likely, right now) in practice, but is certainly not simple to get around in theory. To put it simply, it's a problem of infinite regress. Even if you have the source to the compiler, you may not have the source to the compiler which will compile the new compiler. AND, even if you write a compiler in assembly (not recommended), you do not have access to a hack planted in the assembler. As Thompson points out, such a viral "hack" could planted in the very hardware microcode of the processor.
Here's where things become suddenly a little bit scarier. With things like Palladium and other "Trusted Computing" platforms being proposed by BIOS and hardware manufactures, some sort of security backdoor embedded so deeply that it is inaccessible to programmers becomes a real possibility. Already Trusted Computing proponents are arguing for some sort of hardware-level censorship of software ("For Your Security" (TM) ), so taking the next proactive step to allow rights owners, investigators, etc. unfettered access to your system (again, "In The Interest of National Security And/Or Federal Law" (TM) ) at a hardware level becomes not only possible, but even plausible.
This may be trite : but that kind of argument could have been used to allow the Nazis to exterminate a whole lot more than 6 million Jews, or to assert that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was immoral, or other such drivel.
It's not that it's trite, it's just that you've exercised Godwin's Law.. Game over, man, game over.
Done and done. :-)
There was a server on a farm...
E-I E-I EIOffice.
And that server got slashdotted.
E-I E-I EIOffice.
With a packet dropped here...and a packet dropped there...
(why? why hurt?)
Completely ignorant question, as I can't be bothered to RTFA at this hour, but isn't the latest theory about the evolution birds is that THEY are in fact, the closest living descendants of dinosaurs? If modern bird descended from archaeopteryx, then how did these survive if only buried/underwater creatures made it through the inferno? Or for that matter, how did any modern reptile make it that did not descend from an amphibious ancestor?
That brings back memories for me as well...memories of giggling with glee that I found a loophole to escape to the library to play video games under the guise of "education."
(This guy in TFA seems to get that. They don't call him Mr. McCool for nothing)
I loved the game, but honestly, I learned nothing about the Oregon trail from except that shooting bears is easier than shoot rabbits. And little sisters get sick and die a lot.
I cannot figure out what's so difficult about just following the rules.
Hmm, last time I heard that was...oh, around Nuremberg, 1945-1949ish.
(Up yours, Godwin.)
Because it's more established quackery that has been mainstreamed. The insurance companies have been had.
Yeah! I get it!
but its importance cannot be understated.
Uhm, one cannot sufficiently minimize its importance?...Hate to go grammar nazi on your ass, but I'm pretty sure you meant to say its importance cannot be overstated.
S'aright.
The thing is, men make eye contact to initiate a conversation, but usually do NOT maintain eye contact throughout the conversation. It's a well known ethological fact that men look away often during conversations, sometime conducting entire face to face conversations without almost no eye contact. It's a primal aggression thing: looking away signals submission, trust, or goodwill, while holding gaze is a challenge. The same does not generally hold true for women, or men talking to women. Eye contact is held much more consistently.
Notice next time you're talking to a male colleague. Feel the discomfort if you try to prolong eye contact. Then compare when talking to a woman.
Oh, wait. This is Slashdot....
For them to sue you for no-compliance, they have to reveal that the letter existed in the first place...
Haha! I love the quaint notion of "due process" implied in your scenario. It's cute. But, seriously, if we let silly things like the Fifth Amendment get in the way of Security, the terrorists have already won.
No, they just have knock down your door and haul you away as a "material witness" in a matter they don't have to mention as it's of "national security." The last such string of "terrorism suspects" arrested has shown the government can hold you without due process (hell without even filing charges!) for YEARS.
Habeas whatus?
From the article:
The ACLU first filed its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such demands, known as national security letters, on April 6, but the secrecy rules of the Patriot Act required the challenge to be filed under seal. A ruling April 28 allowed the release of a heavily censored version of the complaint, but the ACLU is still forbidden from revealing many details of the case, including the identity of another plaintiff who has joined in the lawsuit. The law forbids targets of national security letters to disclose that they have received one.
So, this law is so secret that even challenging it must be done in secret, and if the law exercised against you, that must also be kept secret.
Phew. And here I thought the War on Terror might cause us to compromise the principles we're fighting to defend.
A forthcoming addendum:
"..with liberty and justice for all who having nothing to hide, and so, nothing to fear."
OK, but the debate is about where computer skills are lie relative to the Three R's, not to sort the three R's themselves.
I don't think that will do it (and I would think that everyone already gets billed for this anyway, just like summoning an ambulance). It's not like most of the time these emergencies aren't legitimate. People don't plan on calling search and rescue, it's just that they don't sufficiently plan for other contingencies because of inexperience. Their risk taking is more liberal, and their tolerance for hardship is reduced thanks to an easy call to rescue.
There's obvious answers to this "Ask Slashdot" like "keep it voluntary," but perhaps giving people technological security blankets for outdoorsmanship is actually a disservice? I remember reading an article a while back how cell phones have become, paradoxically, both a lifesaver for lost hikers, and a bane for search and rescue teams. The problem is that novice hikers/climbers push themselves farther than their abilities because they feel like they can just fall back on their cell phones if they get stuck--and they do. People overextend themselves either physically or in terms of terrain, and then waste search & rescue resources by calling in for an extraction. One example in this article was a hiking party that just got "too tired" and didn't feel like recouping for the return trip. The first step in not getting stuck in the wilderness is adequate training and knowing your limits, not simply constructing a better (and more abusable) safety net.
- Always be careful with the label side (e.g. don't put that side on the table, dirt could cause scratches)
I don't get this tip. Could you elaborate? One would think the "data" side should be handled with more care...If I have to put a CD on the desk, I usually put it label side down. Is the label side more delicate than the "data" side?
I'm not a grammer/spelling nazi.
Obviously.
Yeah, yeah. Call me when they've implemented the wrap-around tunnel.
The next big thing in fuel efficiency for conventional piston engines is the variable timing and lift technology now available in BMW's 4.5liter V8 and soon to come form other manufacturers. Fully variable timing and lift allow optimization of pumping losses across the rev range, as well as improved combustion efficiency for higher torque at equivalent RPM, at the price of potentially larger valve train mechanical losses.
Can't mention dynamic valve train management for air/fuel optimization without proper credit to the pioneer: Honda's VTEC.
Introduced way back in 1989 on the Integra in Japan and on the NSX in 1990 in the US. Elegant engineering genius.
OK, here is an excellent site that systematically weighs the scientific evidence regarding just about every biblical claim having to do with geological and biological origins, including the age of the earth, and the world-wide flood of Genesis. I highly, highly recommend this site to anyone who doesn't want to just "take the scientists' word for it." Their several essays which carefully explain evolutionary theory--so horribly butchered by the media and most lay people--is especially remarkable.
His. Stair. Rickle.
High. Larry. Us.
I laff.
How's your calculus?
Oy, let me tell you, I got this discontinuity in my second derivative that's giving me a real pain in the asymptote.
It once was a geek favorite, and is still my workout companion: My old NEX II. I have been thinking about upgrading to the NEX IA, but the review in the posted article was less than overwhelming.
Here's my beef with every single portable player review I've ever seen: They completely neglect the interoperability and unlimited expansion of flash storage media. I love my NEX partly because it uses (relatively) cheap CompactFlash, that I can turn around and pop right into my Canon digital cam. AND, I can use a little flash reader to use the card as a universal storage medium anywhere. The review compares the NEX IA's storage as being less than a quarter of an iPod mini...but that's grossly unfair because the IA has a REMOVABLE card! AND they list its price at $250 WITH a 1 GB card, but you can get them brand new, bare bones for less than $100 from Choke Slam Media on eBay. The review also bitches about the IA's crappy battery life, but here's where knowing if they used a 1GB microdrive (battery hog) or flash card would be crucial (they ambiguously call it a Flash Drive..who knows what PC Mag editors think that is).
Anyway, I really would like a CF player that has a FM receiver (mainly to be able to listen to TV broadcasts at the gym). I'll only trust a flash player for working out. The IA also has a stoopidly designed headphone cord that come out the bottom of the device, making it hard to work with my Tunebelt armband case (highly recommend, BTW).
Any recs besides the Nex IA?
Unfortunately certain manufacturers (Honda and BMW) have demanded alldata cease releasing their service bulletins to consumers. See the message at the bottom here, or just try signing up will alldata for a Honda, Acura, or BMW car. That's just pure control greed.
You can still see the titles, but not the text. And the titles are usually ambiguous.