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User: Spikeles

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Comments · 349

  1. Re:TFA does a poor job of defining what's happenin on How Your Compiler Can Compromise Application Security · · Score: 4, Informative

    The TFA links to the actual paper. Maybe you should read that.

    Towards Optimization-Safe Systems:Analyzing the Impact of Undefined Behavior

    struct tun_struct *tun = ...;
    struct sock *sk = tun->sk;
    if (!tun)
    return POLLERR; /* write to address based on tun */

    For example, when gcc first sees the dereference tun->sk, it concludes that the pointer tun must be non-null, because the C standard states that dereferencing a null pointer is undefined [24:6.5.3]. Since tun is non-null, gcc further determines that the null pointer check is unnecessary and eliminates the check, making a privilege escalation exploit possible that would not otherwise be.

  2. Re:Pity it doesn't work as a peripheral... on Microsoft Cuts Surface Pro Price By $100 · · Score: 1

    It's a pity that the Surface can't act as a monitor/input device (optionally, while charging at your desk, for example, it could go from a waste of space to an extra monitor) for more powerful computers.

    With the right kind of software and a little help from Reddit, anything is possible.

  3. Re:Turned off, not removed on In Australian Town, Public CCTV Off Over Privacy Concerns · · Score: 1

    The Australian Privacy act defines personal information as: personal information means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

  4. Re:One major reason why AV is a dead-end on Botched Security Update Cripples Thousands of Computers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is no way to prevent these things from happening

    Sure there is. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Security Center has a Update Verification module built in, that allows a sysadmin to install the update to a known-clean test group and then run a virus scan BEFORE the update is applied to the rest of the machines. If the scan fails(ie, finds anything), the update is aborted and an email is sent to the admin. If Malwarebytes had that kind of thing(or if it did and the sysadmins actually used it), this wouldn't even be an issue.

  5. Re:it sure would be nice to get a PNG.. on 4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not the exact same picture, but here one with a 88mb TIFF. Here's another with an 88mb TIFF, and here is a whole lot more for your desktop pleasure.

  6. Re:Hmm... on Fantastic js1k Submissions · · Score: 2

    Not JS, but if you are impressed by large results in small code you'll probably love this and maybe this

  7. Re:Can I dream... on Electronics Arts CEO Ousted In Wake of SimCity Launch Disaster · · Score: 1

    just for the surreal aspect that mixes magic and technology

    Try this: E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy

  8. Happened with Star Trek Online on Ask Slashdot: How To Convince a Company Their Subscriber List Is Compromised? · · Score: 1

    Star Trek Online had this happen. I had an email address specific to that site and it got spammed. Heaps of other people with similar site only email addresses mentioned the same thing on the forums. Don't know if they ever publicly admitted it.

  9. Re:$3600 ship on How EVE Online Dealt With a 3,000-Player Battle · · Score: 2

    Real Money($) can be converted into in game money (ISK) through the use of PLEX so it's pretty simple to calculate the amount of ISK lost and convert the value back into dollars to get an approximate real money value. The current lowest sell of a 30 day PLEX is about 530,000,000.00 ISK and it looks like 30 Days PLEX costs $20. So some division (*depending on if billion means thousand or million million) and some multiplication gives you a rough Real Money cost.

  10. Productivity Commission Report on Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There was a report last year from the Productivity Commission which is "the Australian Government's principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy and regulation. It is an independent statutory authority in the Treasury Portfolio and responds to references from the Treasurer. "

    This specific report is for the Retail industry, but there is a very good chapter on online and price differences, which includes some parts talking about things like Apple's Price Discrimination. For those interested, the report can be found here Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry. The price differences part is Chapter 6.

    I'll quote some relevant parts:

    Box 6.4 - Apple’s international price discrimination
    Costs associated with the distribution of Australian specific content and marketing could mean that higher fixed costs apply to the Australian subsidiary. But given the costs associated with the distribution of music and other media are only likely to be a relatively small share of total costs, this does not fully explain or justify the price differential.

    The Commission considers that Australian consumers will buy goods where they feel they get the best deal regardless of retail format and that retailers that do not, or are unable to, respond effectively to competitive pressures will face serious challenges.

  11. Re:Nope, Apple did not start it on Wozniak On the Samsung Patent Verdict · · Score: 5, Funny

    I prefer this version

  12. Re:The ISS seems to be in a area of lax copyright on Copyrights To Reach Deep Space · · Score: 1

    Just because a movie is still in theaters doesn't mean it can't be shown anywhere else if the person/organization (eg, NASA) has permission from the copyright owner(s). That permission may even include being able to stream it from a central file server.

  13. Re:8.8.8.8 on Paul Vixie: 100,000 DSL Modems May Lose Their DNS On July 9 · · Score: 2

    You're right, I'm in Australia. Google does have a presence here and I get a ping of about 64ms to 8.8.8.8.
    8 google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8) 82.579 ms 64.420 ms 65.664 ms
    I've tried the 8.8.8.8 resolver a couple of times, and in all cases iTunes will give slow downloads, simply due to not optimal resolution of the CDN host. Switch it to another DNS resolver, and everything is fine again. Querying the DNS of our ISP (Internode):

    #nslookup a1.phobos.apple.com 192.231.203.132
    Server: 192.231.203.132
    Address: 192.231.203.132#53

    Non-authoritative answer:
    a1.phobos.apple.com canonical name = a1.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net. a1.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net canonical name = a1.da1.akamai.net.
    Name: a1.da1.akamai.net
    Address: 203.206.129.11
    Name: a1.da1.akamai.net
    Address: 203.206.129.16

    #traceroute 203.206.129.16
    [snip]
    8 203-206-129-16.deploy.akamaitechnologies.net (203.206.129.16) 81.438 ms 67.101 ms 67.139 ms


    This kind of issue isn't exactly Unknown.

    In addition, in Australia we have quotas for most of our internet plans. If you were on an ISP such as iiNet, then you could end up using up your quota since iiNet provides "unmetered" downloads from iTunes, on the condition that it comes from their mirror. iiNet mirrors Apple servers, and uses their DNS to redirect to those own mirrors. If you were to use 8.8.8.8 for someone on iiNet, you'd end up with them being charged extra since it probably wouldn't resolve to their mirror.

  14. Re:8.8.8.8 on Paul Vixie: 100,000 DSL Modems May Lose Their DNS On July 9 · · Score: 1

    Read the first couple of paragraphs here.

  15. Re:8.8.8.8 on Paul Vixie: 100,000 DSL Modems May Lose Their DNS On July 9 · · Score: 1

    Maybe someone should let Google know that it doesn't work.
    nslookup a1.phobos.apple.com 8.8.8.8
    Name: a1.da1.akamai.net
    Address: 203.106.85.64

    tracert 203.106.85.64
    7 pos0-3-0.bdr2.nrt1.internode.on.net (203.16.211.6) 180.163 ms 180.985 ms 182.178 ms
    8 as4788.ix.jpix.ad.jp (210.171.224.194) 229.548 ms 213.651 ms 214.562 ms
    9 * * *
    10 203.106.85.64 (203.106.85.64) 230.374 ms 228.848 ms 229.060 ms

    nslookup a1.phobos.apple.com
    Name: a1.da1.akamai.net
    Address: 203.206.129.16
    7 te1-4.syd-ult-bdr1.iinet.net.au (203.215.20.31) 77.949 ms 79.208 ms 80.695 ms
    8 203-206-129-16.deploy.akamaitechnologies.net (203.206.129.16) 82.029 ms 66.178 ms 66.436 ms

  16. Re:I read tfa and Im still not sure what happened on Snoozing Pilot Mistakes Venus For Aircraft; Panic, Injuries Ensue · · Score: 1

    Maybe read the report(which was linked in the article) instead of just the news article?

  17. Re:Lived Through This on Ask Slashdot: Experience Handling DDoS Attacks On a Mid-Tier Site? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unless the third party proxy were the extortionists DDOSing you.

  18. Re:Livescribe on Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Note-Taking Device For Conferences? · · Score: 1

    Depending on the pen, you can however use it to play a piano

  19. What? on Software Bug Caused Qantas Airbus A330 To Nose-Dive · · Score: 5, Informative

    "I can't help wondering just how could a piece of code, which presumable didn't test its' input data for validity before acting on it, become part of a modern jet's onboard software suit?"" - pdcull

    What are you? some kind of person that doesn't read the actual articles or documents? Oh wait.. this is slashdot. Here let me copy paste some text for you

    If any of the three values deviated from the median by more than a predetermined threshold for more than 1 second, then the FCPC rejected the relevant ADR for the remainder of the flight.

    The FCPC compared the three ADIRUs’ values of each parameter for consistency. If any of the values differed from the median (middle) value by more than a threshold amount for longer than a set period of time, then the FCPC rejected the relevant part of the associated ADIRU (that is, ADR or IR) for the remainder of the flight.

    So there you go, there actually really was validity checking performed. Multiple times per second in fact, by three separate, redundant systems. Unfortunately all 3 systems had the bug. Here is the concise summary for you:

    The FCPC’s AOA algorithm could not effectively manage a scenario where there were multiple spikes such that one triggered a memorisation period and another was present 1.2 seconds later. The problem was that, if a 1.2-second memorisation period was triggered, the FCPCs accepted the next values of AOA 1 and AOA 2 after the end of the memorisation period as valid. In other words, the algorithm did not effectively handle the transition from the end of a memorisation period back to the normal operating mode when a second data spike was present.

  20. Re:this is not reasonable on Australian ISP's To Crack Down On Piracy · · Score: 3, Informative
    Wrong. Please read full proposal. Note specifically this section:

    3.6 Discovery Notice from ISP to Account Holder

    In the event that an Account Holder is sent one Education Notice and [three] Warning Notices, the ISP will match the IP address from its scheme database and then send a Discovery Notice to the Account Holder.

    The Discovery Notice will inform the Account Holder that:

    • the Rights Holder may then seek to apply for access to the Account Holders details by way of a preliminary discovery or subpoena application, for the sole purpose of the Rights Holder taking direct copyright infringement action against the Account Holder
    • the ISP will notify the Rights Holder that the Account Holder has apparently failed to address the matters set out in the Notices
    • should the ISP be served with a valid preliminary discovery order (or subpoena) the ISP will be required to comply with the order, which may require the ISP to disclose the Account Holders details to the Rights Holder.

    So, in effect, the customer will get 4 warnings, then the ISP will respond to the rights holder, saying this ID number accessed files 4 times. Only then, may the rights holder start a court process to get the name and details of the account holder. Until the time that the court says so, the ISP will not divulge any of their customer details.

  21. Re:#0 on 11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do · · Score: 1

    No person will be, but there will be plenty of satellites. (if they happen to be in the right place at the right time)

  22. The Virgin Digital EULA was at least fun to read. on EULAs Don't Have To Suck · · Score: 1

    At least some people have a sense of humor when writing them.

  23. Re:Bipartisan support on Bipartisan Internet Sales Tax Bill Introduced · · Score: 0
    If you are talking Federal Government, then no, that's wrong. A sovereign government issuing it's own currency(fiat) can NEVER become insolvent, run out of money, and it does not need taxes to pay for things. Bill Mitchell says it best:

    The orthodox conception is that taxation provides revenue to the government which it requires in order to spend. In fact, the reverse is the truth. Government spending provides revenue to the non-government sector which then allows them to extinguish their taxation liabilities.

  24. Re:Idiot. on Helping the FBI Track You · · Score: 1

    Its a shame it's illegal to lie to a federal officer, but not illegal for them to lie to you.

  25. Re:Australia does a simple job here on Student Loans In America: the Next Big Credit Bubble · · Score: 1

    If you earn below AU$47,196, you don't have to pay back any of your loan. It doesn't get charged interest, it only gets indexed with CPI.
    If you earn above that amount, they start charging as a percentage of your income starting at 4% to a maximum of 8% at an income of AU$87,650

    When you get a job, you give over your tax file number, and the payment for the loan is automatically deducted from your wages/salary/etc each pay as part of your payment for income tax. At the end of the year, when you do your tax return if you overpaid they give you back your money, or if you underpaid, they'll send you a bill.