- Wrote "Applied Cryptography", the best introductory book to the field of cryptography and cryptanalysis; - Wrote the Blowfish algorithm; - Wrote with others the Twofish algorithm, one of the finalists of NIST's new Advanced Encryption Standard
How so? Everything Schneier said about the NSAKey problem up to now is almost exactly what is now published in his site. And he is probably one of the most capable persons to comment on it. I will go with his opinion on any crypto matter over the opinions of every journalist that has written about it, any day.
So, please give references to what you are saying.
The line is a direct answer to "Americans will use any excuse to riot...". On the other hand, it could be moderated down as "Bad spelling". But then afain there is no such an option.
As for the post, its is not the europeans, but the English that are more prone to riot, mostly during soccer games (so we know where the Americans got the idea, right?).
And the funny thing is that Explorer present marketshare is not a guess or a rant. It is a fact backed up by a good number of sources.
I think that moderating down crude proselitism may be aceptable in some cases. But moderating down an on-topic post for stating a fact the moderator dislikes is a very serious issue.
So it os not worth discussing the kind of competition Mozilla is up against? So it is not worth discussing how a open source project deals with the marketshare issues (even if the answer is not to deal at all)? Or how standards compliance affects the public perception, in contrast with bells and whistles?
And just as a sidenote, I knew this issue could be understood as a provocation, so I tried to write it so as NOT to sound as one. It seems that I failed.
It is unfortunate that such a landmark project will probably get wasted. Explorer has the market and the momentum once enjoyed by Netscape. To regain it back Mozilla would have to be so much better than its nemesis that it would really have to be another application entirely.
Naturally, if AOL decides to make Mozilla THE AOL browser, the nature of the game may change. But will them?
A long time ago in a far away galaxy I was able to compile Tierra in a Sparc. Never tried the Windows version. The Unix stuff compiled and run fine out of the (then) very long ftp session. Eventually the sysadmin started to pay attention to my use of disk space and cpu cycles and told me to stop. Pity.:)
See, the business logic behind antivirus software production dictates that these companies executives be always spreading panic among the innocent userbase. Otherwise, who'd bother to upgrade/buy their products?
There is also a fine similaritie between Microsoft/Intel relationship (upgrade existing bloatware/upgrade processor/upgrade bloatware/...) and Microsoft/Antivirus makers relationship (upgrade bloatware/discover new hole/exploit new hole - this step the kids will do for free/upgrade antivirus/...)
Wouldn't that be a pretty good opportunity for Linus and anyone of us who cares about such things to start using some Pretty Good Privacy (international edition only, please - let us see the anticrypto paranoids prove everybody is a terrorist) generated signature?
"The United States of America was America before your country even existed."
Brazil exists by this name since 1500. And, as far as I remember my maps, NORTH America has 3 countries.
"You think anyone but Nazi war criminals would immigrate to your pathetic country?"
And even then, only those your space program didn't want, right? But, seriously, the answer is yes again. As Brazil is far less racist that USA, lots of asians and africans prefer to come live here. Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside Japan.
American lack of historical information never ceases to amaze me.
Interesting to notice how little industry support Microsoft has on this one. Also, how strong Real is.
Also, WMT does MP3, too.
Introducing new genes in the genepool.
on
Gene Leakage
·
· Score: 1
Introducing new genes in a population is not quite like destroying poor ones.
One recent example was the introduction of the african bee in America. They arrived probably by ship in Brazil, and set out to happily exterminate the local bee population in vast areas of the continent. Last time I heard they were already a plague in the southern areas of United States.
The main point is that the modified genes will probably escape. Genes are rather trick when it come to reproduce themselves. They will go to extremes such as building nuclear weapons and creating technology for space travel.
I agree with the article in that this is the main problem and we should be prepared to deal with it. Your point does not really apply, unless you are prepared to cope with the extermination of whole species of insects. Some of these species may be essential for some other plants to reproduce. Then these plants go away also. Once started, this cycle can go on and on and leave you with very different, no necessarily improved, ecosystems.
In a world such as ours, it is not ethics or compassion that improve the lifes of the billions. It is profit.
Like it or not, every other scientific advance to date has begun it is life as a toy for the economic and scientific elite (this division is somewhat didatic, as usually the economic and the scientific elite are the same people), evolving then to very expensive corporate tools and finnaly reaching the mass market.
The above steps work also as a evolutuonary pyramid. Some technologies never go anywhere beyond being expensive toys. Some never become viable for mass market.
When a technology or a technique reach the point where mass distribution/application become viable, it is usually due to to cost reduction via mass production. This is also the point where it becomes possible to defend the dissemination of this technology on ethical/moral/human rights grounds.
Internet, genetic technologies and alternative sources of energy are all working their way from the second step to the third.
The Internet is posed to become the most important communication channel in the world. Connectivity will probably be force-feed on poorer countries(and probably to their own losing, for the money could well be expended somewhere else). In twenty or so years, lacking Internet access will be like having no TV and phone today.
Genetics will probably take a little longer to become as widespread as, say, penicilyn today. But, as every important medical advance, it will eventually reach every country (with the help of multilateral humanitarian organisations).
As for alternative sources of energy, I dare to think that those are more likely to flourish first in some of the more advanced "developing" nations than in the richer ones. Those nations are more affected by oil prices and nuclear energy prices.
The monopoly lock on Office forces the upgrade
on
The Cost of Bug Fixes
·
· Score: 1
Other companies do not enjoy Microsoft's unique position. Microsoft can and do use its Office monopoly to force users to upgrade the OS.
Usually, Office bugs are far more important to day-to-day users than Windows bugs (see Melissa).
It always worked like this. They will release the Win98 upgrade now. Some months after that an Office upgrade will come out, but this upgrade will only work with the Win98 upgrade in place.
Other companies usually can not use this kind of tatic because they only cover a segment of the market. If I use Oracle, I can keep using it without problems if the bugs corrected by a given upgrade are irrelevant to me.
Forget the article's Mac bias and look at the picture from another angle.
I would not buy a browser machine(or a WebTV). But I would certanly take a computer for free with Linux on it. Such a configuration would be an appliance for the less technical user, but it would still be a complete computer.
On the other hand, the "incomplete machine" argument makes less and less sense as the hardware prices go down. Twenty years ago, the idea of a "text processing" machine failed because it would be too expensive for the end user. I am not sure if this idea wouldn't sell a lot today.
And it makes a lot of sense to AOL. They not only hurt Microsoft, they also lock their audience in "their" Internet.
Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The various types and formats of open source licenses have been causing many griefs among coders. The time lost reading licenses, comparing licenses and commenting on licenses has already caused the normal coder average coding time to drop by 20%. This document proposes a simple, easily implemented protocol for constructing an open source license that conforms with the many open source/free software definitions.
The GUIDs are generated using the machine MAC address, the machine's clock time and two counter that serve to compensate for clock changes. In the absence of a network card, a value statiscally unique for the current machine is generated.
Although a value generated in a machine without a network card is unique only for that machine, given the size of a GUID (128 bits) it is unlikely that you will find many repeated ones around.
And the dial-up does not play any role in GUID computation.
And GUID in this context is COM specific, not Microsoft specific. So, any application relying on COM is likely to use GUIDs in one form or another. But no other company was found inserts GUIDs in the data generated by its applications.
I was just pointing out that a GUID can be generated and used in COM programming out of the blue, without connection to specific machines, users and/or any other trackable number.
And, in case you haven't noticed, the page is a joke...
Slashdot Mirror
Phrack 55
Bruce Schneier:
- Wrote "Applied Cryptography", the best introductory book to the field of cryptography and cryptanalysis;
- Wrote the Blowfish algorithm;
- Wrote with others the Twofish algorithm, one of the finalists of NIST's new Advanced Encryption Standard
There is a lot more. Look around the site...
How so? Everything Schneier said about the NSAKey problem up to now is almost exactly what is now published in his site. And he is probably one of the most capable persons to comment on it. I will go with his opinion on any crypto matter over the opinions of every journalist that has written about it, any day.
So, please give references to what you are saying.
The line is a direct answer to "Americans will use any excuse to riot...". On the other hand, it could be moderated down as "Bad spelling". But then afain there is no such an option.
As for the post, its is not the europeans, but the English that are more prone to riot, mostly during soccer games (so we know where the Americans got the idea, right?).
And the funny thing is that Explorer present marketshare is not a guess or a rant. It is a fact backed up by a good number of sources.
I think that moderating down crude proselitism may be aceptable in some cases. But moderating down an on-topic post for stating a fact the moderator dislikes is a very serious issue.
So it os not worth discussing the kind of competition Mozilla is up against? So it is not worth discussing how a open source project deals with the marketshare issues (even if the answer is not to deal at all)? Or how standards compliance affects the public perception, in contrast with bells and whistles?
And just as a sidenote, I knew this issue could be understood as a provocation, so I tried to write it so as NOT to sound as one. It seems that I failed.
It is unfortunate that such a landmark project will probably get wasted. Explorer has the market and the momentum once enjoyed by Netscape. To regain it back Mozilla would have to be so much better than its nemesis that it would really have to be another application entirely.
Naturally, if AOL decides to make Mozilla THE AOL browser, the nature of the game may change. But will them?
A long time ago in a far away galaxy I was able to compile Tierra in a Sparc. Never tried the Windows version. The Unix stuff compiled and run fine out of the (then) very long ftp session. Eventually the sysadmin started to pay attention to my use of disk space and cpu cycles and told me to stop. Pity. :)
See, the business logic behind antivirus software production dictates that these companies executives be always spreading panic among the innocent userbase. Otherwise, who'd bother to upgrade/buy their products?
There is also a fine similaritie between Microsoft/Intel relationship (upgrade existing bloatware/upgrade processor/upgrade bloatware/...) and Microsoft/Antivirus makers relationship (upgrade bloatware/discover new hole/exploit new hole - this step the kids will do for free/upgrade antivirus/...)
Secure webmail:0 02
http://www.hushmail.com/
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990526S0
I do not use any of these services, but they seem to be a good place to start. Hushmail's source code is available.
Wouldn't that be a pretty good opportunity for Linus and anyone of us who cares about such things to start using some Pretty Good Privacy (international edition only, please - let us see the anticrypto paranoids prove everybody is a terrorist) generated signature?
"The United States of America was America before your country even existed."
Brazil exists by this name since 1500. And, as far as I remember my maps, NORTH America has 3 countries.
"You think anyone but Nazi war criminals would immigrate to your pathetic country?"
And even then, only those your space program didn't want, right? But, seriously, the answer is yes again. As Brazil is far less racist that USA, lots of asians and africans prefer to come live here. Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside Japan.
American lack of historical information never ceases to amaze me.
Even if it did, and it doesn't, there is no such thing as root in Windows world...
In "Snow Crash" Neil Stephenson came up with a partially organic dog robot, used mainly for residential areas security.
Maybe that is how Sony plan to enter the american market, selling upgraded versions of this pet to rich neighbourhoods.
Forgeting Linux for a moment, how dare they rate Solaris worst than NT? How can they say straight-face that the cream of Unix is worst than NT?
This alone is enough to dismiss the article as worthless.
Depending on your browser configuration the above link will fail (the ftp server will deny the login request).
Use this one.
This article talks about the announcement of Windows Media Technologies 4.0.
Interesting to notice how little industry support Microsoft has on this one. Also, how strong Real is.
Also, WMT does MP3, too.
Introducing new genes in a population is not quite like destroying poor ones.
One recent example was the introduction of the african bee in America. They arrived probably by ship in Brazil, and set out to happily exterminate the local bee population in vast areas of the continent. Last time I heard they were already a plague in the southern areas of United States.
The main point is that the modified genes will probably escape. Genes are rather trick when it come to reproduce themselves. They will go to extremes such as building nuclear weapons and creating technology for space travel.
I agree with the article in that this is the main problem and we should be prepared to deal with it. Your point does not really apply, unless you are prepared to cope with the extermination of whole species of insects. Some of these species may be essential for some other plants to reproduce. Then these plants go away also. Once started, this cycle can go on and on and leave you with very different, no necessarily improved, ecosystems.
In a world such as ours, it is not ethics or compassion that improve the lifes of the billions. It is profit.
Like it or not, every other scientific advance to date has begun it is life as a toy for the economic and scientific elite (this division is somewhat didatic, as usually the economic and the scientific elite are the same people), evolving then to very expensive corporate tools and finnaly reaching the mass market.
The above steps work also as a evolutuonary pyramid. Some technologies never go anywhere beyond being expensive toys. Some never become viable for mass market.
When a technology or a technique reach the point where mass distribution/application become viable, it is usually due to to cost reduction via mass production. This is also the point where it becomes possible to defend the dissemination of this technology on ethical/moral/human rights grounds.
Internet, genetic technologies and alternative sources of energy are all working their way from the second step to the third.
The Internet is posed to become the most important communication channel in the world. Connectivity will probably be force-feed on poorer countries(and probably to their own losing, for the money could well be expended somewhere else). In twenty or so years, lacking Internet access will be like having no TV and phone today.
Genetics will probably take a little longer to become as widespread as, say, penicilyn today. But, as every important medical advance, it will eventually reach every country (with the help of multilateral humanitarian organisations).
As for alternative sources of energy, I dare to think that those are more likely to flourish first in some of the more advanced "developing" nations than in the richer ones. Those nations are more affected by oil prices and nuclear energy prices.
Other companies do not enjoy Microsoft's unique position. Microsoft can and do use its Office monopoly to force users to upgrade the OS.
Usually, Office bugs are far more important to day-to-day users than Windows bugs (see Melissa).
It always worked like this. They will release the Win98 upgrade now. Some months after that an Office upgrade will come out, but this upgrade will only work with the Win98 upgrade in place.
Other companies usually can not use this kind of tatic because they only cover a segment of the market. If I use Oracle, I can keep using it without problems if the bugs corrected by a given upgrade are irrelevant to me.
Forget the article's Mac bias and look at the picture from another angle.
I would not buy a browser machine(or a WebTV). But I would certanly take a computer for free with Linux on it. Such a configuration would be an appliance for the less technical user, but it would still be a complete computer.
On the other hand, the "incomplete machine" argument makes less and less sense as the hardware prices go down. Twenty years ago, the idea of a "text processing" machine failed because it would be too expensive for the end user. I am not sure if this idea wouldn't sell a lot today.
And it makes a lot of sense to AOL. They not only hurt Microsoft, they also lock their audience in "their" Internet.
Sorry, I forgot the tags... :))
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The various types and formats of open source licenses have been causing many griefs among coders. The time lost reading licenses, comparing licenses and commenting on licenses has already caused the normal coder average coding time to drop by 20%. This document proposes a simple, easily implemented protocol for constructing an open source license that conforms with the many open source/free software definitions.
etc etc etc...
The GUIDs are generated using the machine MAC address, the machine's clock time and two counter that serve to compensate for clock changes. In the absence of a network card, a value statiscally unique for the current machine is generated.
Although a value generated in a machine without a network card is unique only for that machine, given the size of a GUID (128 bits) it is unlikely that you will find many repeated ones around.
And the dial-up does not play any role in GUID computation.
And GUID in this context is COM specific, not Microsoft specific. So, any application relying on COM is likely to use GUIDs in one form or another. But no other company was found inserts GUIDs in the data generated by its applications.
I was just pointing out that a GUID can be generated and used in COM programming out of the blue, without connection to specific machines, users and/or any other trackable number.
And, in case you haven't noticed, the page is a joke...