>>> "..the FISA court judges' security clearances weren't good enough to let them oversee this perfectly legal but so supersecret we can't tell the judges about it program...
It seems all too obvious that the judges just need to have their clearances increased to the level that does allow them to hear the case. If they're a FISA judge they'll already have some reasonable clearance so it shouldn't be 'impossible' like some would try to have us believe. And it also shouldn't take forever. If they've managed to clear some 20 YO Johhny analyst, surely they can clear a FISA judge.
Very soon we'll hear a story of a hijacker smashing in the cockpit door of an airliner only to find an empty room with no controls, no instruments, no windows; just a Federal Agent sitting there with a big gun, some tape and a pair of handcuffs.
If this technology is available, why bother with pilots at all? I know, I know, human in the loop safety etc, etc. But if the fares were cheap enough, I'd risk it.
>>>> "part of my job is to take complicated mathematical specifications from our actuarial department......vaguely defined arguments in pages of calculations........not to mention the annoying contradictory footnotes...."
Wow, if you're having trouble figuring out how the Insurance calculations are carried out, then that leaves little hope for the rest of us 'customers' to figure out how to lower our premiums...
It also shows that the insurers probably want to charge more no matter what you do.
Dropping MS office for the Mac could hurt MS Office for the PC long term - Why?
Apple might consider including OpenOffice.Org then advertising it:
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac,
PC: and I'm a PC
PC: So what is that your doing
Mac: Oh, just some office stuff, you know, spreadsheets, documents, presentations
PC: I can do those too
Mac: Yeah, but I don't use your monopoly expensive as shit software, I use this free one which is actually better. It doesnt try to format shit I don't want. Oh, and it's free and works on a PC too. You should try it.
PC: Hey you're right! This OpenOffice.org is the shnizzer! All the PC users should download it from www.openoffice.org right now!
>>> For example, he teaches a course in "Information Warfare", the entire thrust of which is that the internet is dangerous and insecure in the extreme. He teaches students all about the infinite numbers of vulnerabilities.
Then this:
Q. Can you think of any possible security vulnerabilities in the computer that was in Marie Lindor's apartment?
A. I didn't examine the hard drive that was given to me for security vulnerabilities, so I can't attest to what vulnerabilities may have been present in that hard drive.
He did not answer the question. Of course he should be able to say he could think of an 'infinite' number of vulnerabilities given enough time.
>>>" Editable Text Configuration
>That sounds like the most reasonable response to me, but do you have any references (so that we can correct wikipedia)?
I think you're quite safe to use GP's Slasdot entry as the reference.
>>>>..once you have 5 years of experiance under your belt that schooling doesn't matter quite as much (although it will stand out on your Resume when you decide to move on).
I agree with this 100%. These days, the technical area that requires someone new gives their requirements to their HR division, who in turn place the ads do the filtering etc. Now, it's easy to say "Comp Sci degree or equivalent experience", but for the HR people to look at all your certs and work out your experience, they will find it easier to pick the degree guy, and more likely to pick the person with the Degree and the Certs.
2: The products they want are high-priced....
on
DRM Causes Piracy
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Principle 2: "The products they want are high-priced, so there's a fair amount of money to be saved by stealing them"
I can attest to this 100% - in a different, but similar area many are familiar with. My example is my experience with WindowsXP. When I lived in New Zealand, I could not afford the NZD$536 (USD$377) for XP home to keep my CS:S habit alive, so I used a 'less than legitimate' copy of XP. Anyway, when I moved to the US I thought I'd go legit only because after a visit to Frys i saw i could pick up XP off the shelf at (USD$199) - almost half the price. Even better I managed to get an OEM XP home for just over a hundred bucks.
Now there's no way I'm paying NZ$536 (USD$377) for an OS. No way. No way in hell. However, I was happy enough to part with a hundy for the OEM version. I didnt know of Linux at the time (now have 3 PC's on Ubuntu), but wanted XP to play CS:S and various other Windows games I'd paid for over the years (because they were well priced!!!)
So yeah, hopefully big business will wake up and smell the coffee one of these days.
>>>> The real issue here is whether or not they have the right to go after you for things that you're doing off school property
Thanks for the tip on In Loco Parentis, I looked it up on Wikipedia and the excerpt below demonstrates a court case that disagrees with your point of view. I agree with you and don't believe the school should have this power, unless you're representing the school i.e. in school uniform. I added the bold for emphasis:
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), when the Supreme Court decided that "conduct by the student, in class or out of it, which for any reason - whether it stems from time, place, or type of behavior - materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others is, of course, not immunized by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech."
>>> Why not just, like, meet? It can be pretty productive with all of the 'high productivity' tools out there like... pencils, paper, whiteboards and pens."
Because it takes FOREVER to write debug errors on the whiteboard.
>>>"If I were the judge, I'd pled innocent that Brad William put all of it on his hacked computer"
... and the judge would also have to explain how Brad broke into his house and wrote in his diary and printed out pictures and hid them. Oh, and then broke into his work computer and planted those pictures too. Brad must have also 'conned' another kid into believing they were molested, as these are all things that are part of the case against the judge. Brads work was as a tipster. Nobody has said they were using the computer that Brad hacked as evidence, exactly for the reason you outlined.
>>> In essence, the Linux Samba Client was reverse-engineered by an individual, who crafted his code through straight trial-and-error on an SMB terminal, then packaged and released the client under GPL.
There is a great interview with Jeremy Allison of Samba on FLOSS weekly #14,
http://www.twit.tv/floww14 where he basically tells how he made Samba. Quite a good listen really. Most interesting is his trial and error causing the Windows computer to which he was sending packets to reboot/hang/crash. I recall he said he submitted bug reports to MSFT to help them fix issues (like being able to remotely crash a windows machine over the network).
If everything Steve says is true (which I personally believe it is), then M$FT don't have a leg to stand on. If someone within the MSFT organization has looked at the Samba code and seen similarities it is only because they're talking to the same system with the same messages.
I'm talking to you in semi-coherent English, but that does not mean I've infringed any Patents on LCD/Plasma/CRT/Ass display you're reading this on.
For a moment I thought you were talking about me....
But seriously. My IT department guys were kind enough to give me admin privileges on my workstation and on my colleagues workstations in my department. I didn't ask for it, but they obviously trust me to some extent and i've built that trust over time. I'm not a sysadmin and have never been one.
It could have something to do with the fact I'm overseeing a highly technical project involving setup of IT systems of sorts. This leads me to the same problem the article mentions. Our system must stay isolated from the world - physically and connectively (no inter-tubes for you!). The problem is its users 'think' they know better and think its ok to put in a CD, or plug in a USB drive to play MP3's or whatever because they can at home. (I don't think I need to tell/.'ers of the dangers of CD's after the Sony rootkit debacle). Of course we've removed all accessible means in - CDROMS/USB slots etc... and have some very harsh rules. But still, it's only a matter of time before I walk in and find some guy with his mp3 player hanging from a machine, or installing something unauthorized... because they thought they knew better.
>>> And biometric ID systems, as he claims, make it extremely difficult to fake your identity.
Exactly. (i didn't want to use the music/HDDVD/Blueray analogy but here goes). No matter how much money they spend on this system, a determined terrorist group will find a way to nullify it.
These come to mind:
- The people that commit the acts of terrorism are exactly who their ID says they are.
- The terrorists assume the identity of someone who looks very similar to them, similar age, etc.
- One of the many Social engineering attack vectors, such as a terrorist managing to get a job in the DMV etc.
>>> Which means do everything they can to shut down thepiratebay
Firstly, I expect the FBI and MPAA will be tainted to train to American laws. Obviously the Unless copyright laws are aligned between the two countries we're likely to see the Swedish Police overstepping the mark, like they did when they confiscated TPB servers previously - didn't that turn out to be against local law (TPB was working within the law?).
>>> So how do you know that we^H^Hthey aren't here right now?
It's always crossed my mind that a couple of hundred thousand years ago, a ship (crash?) landed on the African continent and gave birth to civilization.
Perhaps it was the 'Greys' that passed on genes to existing primates thus evolving Homosapiens and derivative species, estimating one would likely survive long term given their relative diversity. If we ever do meet an extra-terrestrial species, I personally wont be that surprised if we discover some common genetics.
Well, not that surprised after having encountered an extra-terrestrial species anyway.
My DVD player actually does this - its an LG something. It's in the setup - It just finds the longest track and plays that. Great for movies, but if you're watching a series it'll play the longest episode unless you remember to press the menu button.
>>> So does their device withstand extremes of temperature duration both
operation and storage? High humidity? Is it impervious to dust?
How does it handle shock and vibration?
20+ years ago, I worked for a company that designed & manufactured
power supplies for the military. It's one thing to design a quick
& dirty one-off, proof-of-concept. It's quite another to build a
production device that will withstand continued use in a multitude
of military environments.
Exactly what I was thinking. Also; they're are some other considerations that appear to be missed:
- Who repairs the broken units?
- Where are the manuals / training to tell newbies how to use them accurately
- precautions / warnings etc (like dont leave on the charger overnight/unattended)
- Where are the specs for the database?
- Is the database open? - can other devices be used to populate it? later models?
- What is the accuracy of the equipment? Will a 'close match' label an innocent man as a terrorist?
Which leads me to: How does someone labeled as an 'insurgent' get out of the database if they've been incorrectly implicated?
I'm certain that Hotmails lack of 'forwarding' and export of contacts has prevented about half of their members switching to Gmail/other.
What you can do is this: Send an e-mail to everyone in your parents e-mail list from their Hotmail account telling them you're switching to Gmail & CC the Gmail account. Then, from the Gmail account 'reply to all' saying "this is my new account, please delete any others you have for me, I will only be using this from now on". All your contacts will automatically be added to Gmail contacts with the outgoing mail.
You'll need to check their hotmail once every couple of weeks to catch the stray's, but will mostly get there. Oh, and put a shortcut on the desktop to the gmail account, cos parents are really good at typing in the URL for hotmail as habit long after they've switched. Has worked for me a couple of times.
Slashdot Mirror
>>> "Google would be shooting themselves in the face to spite a pimple".
In this case, Google would be shooting themselves in the face to spite a large cancerous growth.
>>> "..the FISA court judges' security clearances weren't good enough to let them oversee this perfectly legal but so supersecret we can't tell the judges about it program...
It seems all too obvious that the judges just need to have their clearances increased to the level that does allow them to hear the case. If they're a FISA judge they'll already have some reasonable clearance so it shouldn't be 'impossible' like some would try to have us believe. And it also shouldn't take forever. If they've managed to clear some 20 YO Johhny analyst, surely they can clear a FISA judge.
Very soon we'll hear a story of a hijacker smashing in the cockpit door of an airliner only to find an empty room with no controls, no instruments, no windows; just a Federal Agent sitting there with a big gun, some tape and a pair of handcuffs.
If this technology is available, why bother with pilots at all? I know, I know, human in the loop safety etc, etc. But if the fares were cheap enough, I'd risk it.
>>>> "part of my job is to take complicated mathematical specifications from our actuarial department......vaguely defined arguments in pages of calculations ........not to mention the annoying contradictory footnotes...."
Wow, if you're having trouble figuring out how the Insurance calculations are carried out, then that leaves little hope for the rest of us 'customers' to figure out how to lower our premiums...
It also shows that the insurers probably want to charge more no matter what you do.
You really should post their formula you know....
true. Haven't watched enough Law and Order.. or Judge Judy
Dropping MS office for the Mac could hurt MS Office for the PC long term - Why?
Apple might consider including OpenOffice.Org then advertising it:
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac,
PC: and I'm a PC
PC: So what is that your doing
Mac: Oh, just some office stuff, you know, spreadsheets, documents, presentations
PC: I can do those too
Mac: Yeah, but I don't use your monopoly expensive as shit software, I use this free one which is actually better. It doesnt try to format shit I don't want. Oh, and it's free and works on a PC too. You should try it.
PC: Hey you're right! This OpenOffice.org is the shnizzer! All the PC users should download it from www.openoffice.org right now!
Then this: He did not answer the question. Of course he should be able to say he could think of an 'infinite' number of vulnerabilities given enough time.
>>>" Editable Text Configuration
>That sounds like the most reasonable response to me, but do you have any references (so that we can correct wikipedia)?
I think you're quite safe to use GP's Slasdot entry as the reference.
Hear Hear! The Moss is the man.
Roy: [singing] We don't need no education.
Moss: Yes you do; you've just used a double negative
>>>> ..once you have 5 years of experiance under your belt that schooling doesn't matter quite as much (although it will stand out on your Resume when you decide to move on).
I agree with this 100%. These days, the technical area that requires someone new gives their requirements to their HR division, who in turn place the ads do the filtering etc. Now, it's easy to say "Comp Sci degree or equivalent experience", but for the HR people to look at all your certs and work out your experience, they will find it easier to pick the degree guy, and more likely to pick the person with the Degree and the Certs.
Principle 2: "The products they want are high-priced, so there's a fair amount of money to be saved by stealing them"
I can attest to this 100% - in a different, but similar area many are familiar with. My example is my experience with WindowsXP. When I lived in New Zealand, I could not afford the NZD$536 (USD$377) for XP home to keep my CS:S habit alive, so I used a 'less than legitimate' copy of XP. Anyway, when I moved to the US I thought I'd go legit only because after a visit to Frys i saw i could pick up XP off the shelf at (USD$199) - almost half the price. Even better I managed to get an OEM XP home for just over a hundred bucks.
Now there's no way I'm paying NZ$536 (USD$377) for an OS. No way. No way in hell. However, I was happy enough to part with a hundy for the OEM version. I didnt know of Linux at the time (now have 3 PC's on Ubuntu), but wanted XP to play CS:S and various other Windows games I'd paid for over the years (because they were well priced!!!)
So yeah, hopefully big business will wake up and smell the coffee one of these days.
Thanks for the tip on In Loco Parentis, I looked it up on Wikipedia and the excerpt below demonstrates a court case that disagrees with your point of view. I agree with you and don't believe the school should have this power, unless you're representing the school i.e. in school uniform. I added the bold for emphasis:
>>> How are Xerox planning on coping with dog-earing, tearing, scuffing and otherwise deformed paper?
My thoughts exactly.
I also expect a few patents on the paper itself, and it'll cost a pretty penny.
Sales pitches will be based on saving a few dollars if you recycle 90% of your paper, but we all know you'd be lucky if 50% of it gets reused.
It'll be the old case of 'looks cheaper on paper' but ultimately costs more than all the ink in India.
>>> Why not just, like, meet? It can be pretty productive with all of the 'high productivity' tools out there like... pencils, paper, whiteboards and pens."
Because it takes FOREVER to write debug errors on the whiteboard.
(stoopid whiteboard with no cut-n-paste.)
>>>"If I were the judge, I'd pled innocent that Brad William put all of it on his hacked computer"
... and the judge would also have to explain how Brad broke into his house and wrote in his diary and printed out pictures and hid them. Oh, and then broke into his work computer and planted those pictures too. Brad must have also 'conned' another kid into believing they were molested, as these are all things that are part of the case against the judge. Brads work was as a tipster. Nobody has said they were using the computer that Brad hacked as evidence, exactly for the reason you outlined.
>>> In essence, the Linux Samba Client was reverse-engineered by an individual, who crafted his code through straight trial-and-error on an SMB terminal, then packaged and released the client under GPL.
There is a great interview with Jeremy Allison of Samba on FLOSS weekly #14, http://www.twit.tv/floww14 where he basically tells how he made Samba. Quite a good listen really. Most interesting is his trial and error causing the Windows computer to which he was sending packets to reboot/hang/crash. I recall he said he submitted bug reports to MSFT to help them fix issues (like being able to remotely crash a windows machine over the network).
If everything Steve says is true (which I personally believe it is), then M$FT don't have a leg to stand on. If someone within the MSFT organization has looked at the Samba code and seen similarities it is only because they're talking to the same system with the same messages.
I'm talking to you in semi-coherent English, but that does not mean I've infringed any Patents on LCD/Plasma/CRT/Ass display you're reading this on.
For a moment I thought you were talking about me....
/.'ers of the dangers of CD's after the Sony rootkit debacle). Of course we've removed all accessible means in - CDROMS/USB slots etc... and have some very harsh rules. But still, it's only a matter of time before I walk in and find some guy with his mp3 player hanging from a machine, or installing something unauthorized... because they thought they knew better.
But seriously. My IT department guys were kind enough to give me admin privileges on my workstation and on my colleagues workstations in my department. I didn't ask for it, but they obviously trust me to some extent and i've built that trust over time. I'm not a sysadmin and have never been one.
It could have something to do with the fact I'm overseeing a highly technical project involving setup of IT systems of sorts. This leads me to the same problem the article mentions. Our system must stay isolated from the world - physically and connectively (no inter-tubes for you!). The problem is its users 'think' they know better and think its ok to put in a CD, or plug in a USB drive to play MP3's or whatever because they can at home. (I don't think I need to tell
>>> And biometric ID systems, as he claims, make it extremely difficult to fake your identity.
Exactly. (i didn't want to use the music/HDDVD/Blueray analogy but here goes). No matter how much money they spend on this system, a determined terrorist group will find a way to nullify it.
These come to mind:
- The people that commit the acts of terrorism are exactly who their ID says they are.
- The terrorists assume the identity of someone who looks very similar to them, similar age, etc.
- One of the many Social engineering attack vectors, such as a terrorist managing to get a job in the DMV etc.
ah. sry for the sh!te grammer, sp etc.. forgot to delete rest of sentence. no coffee yet.
>>> Which means do everything they can to shut down thepiratebay
Firstly, I expect the FBI and MPAA will be tainted to train to American laws. Obviously the Unless copyright laws are aligned between the two countries we're likely to see the Swedish Police overstepping the mark, like they did when they confiscated TPB servers previously - didn't that turn out to be against local law (TPB was working within the law?).
>>> So how do you know that we^H^Hthey aren't here right now?
It's always crossed my mind that a couple of hundred thousand years ago, a ship (crash?) landed on the African continent and gave birth to civilization.
Perhaps it was the 'Greys' that passed on genes to existing primates thus evolving Homosapiens and derivative species, estimating one would likely survive long term given their relative diversity. If we ever do meet an extra-terrestrial species, I personally wont be that surprised if we discover some common genetics.
Well, not that surprised after having encountered an extra-terrestrial species anyway.
My DVD player actually does this - its an LG something. It's in the setup - It just finds the longest track and plays that. Great for movies, but if you're watching a series it'll play the longest episode unless you remember to press the menu button.
>>>"thats gotta be a pretty massive database, any ideas about the tech running underneath?
FlickR with Tagging.
Exactly what I was thinking. Also; they're are some other considerations that appear to be missed:
- Who repairs the broken units?
- Where are the manuals / training to tell newbies how to use them accurately
- precautions / warnings etc (like dont leave on the charger overnight/unattended)
- Where are the specs for the database?
- Is the database open? - can other devices be used to populate it? later models?
- What is the accuracy of the equipment? Will a 'close match' label an innocent man as a terrorist?
Which leads me to: How does someone labeled as an 'insurgent' get out of the database if they've been incorrectly implicated?
I'm certain that Hotmails lack of 'forwarding' and export of contacts has prevented about half of their members switching to Gmail/other.
What you can do is this: Send an e-mail to everyone in your parents e-mail list from their Hotmail account telling them you're switching to Gmail & CC the Gmail account. Then, from the Gmail account 'reply to all' saying "this is my new account, please delete any others you have for me, I will only be using this from now on". All your contacts will automatically be added to Gmail contacts with the outgoing mail.
You'll need to check their hotmail once every couple of weeks to catch the stray's, but will mostly get there. Oh, and put a shortcut on the desktop to the gmail account, cos parents are really good at typing in the URL for hotmail as habit long after they've switched. Has worked for me a couple of times.