Seriously. Think about it. You'd have to have a copy of your keyrings on the server... including your private key. Anyone at Google with proper access (plus any 5up3r-31337 h4xx0rz who make a properly malformed e-mail message...) can decrypt your messages at whim and sign messages as you, having only to break your password. (And if you had a huge supercluster like Google does, how long do you think that would take?)
Here's what I do. Turn on POP access, then run a POP client with a GPG plugin (Enigmail for Thunderbird kicks arse). Problem solved: your keyrings are still safe on your hard drive, and your communications are secure.
On another note, for those of you who are shocked that (gasp) someone may be able to read your cleartext e-mails, I have a news flash: e-mail is much more like a post card than an envelope. And, as my mailman once said, never write anything you don't want people to read on a postcard. (Kinda creepy, actually.)
Even lacking an exploit, any machine your message bounces through (gmail to MX to user, at best... with hops in between each host) is capable of sniffing it. Ever submit a form for the first time in a fresh install of a web browser? "Unencrypted information may be observed, blah blah blah." The same goes for e-mail.
You don't need a PDF editor to fill in the forms electronically. Adobe's reader (I've only tried the Windows version; not sure about the Linux version) will let you type in the fields and save and print the results.
here is a fair comparison of wavelengths. -optical wavelength = 1.1 microns. electronic wavelength -(electrons can be compared in energy to an x-ray photons and so wavelength of x-ray photon - this concept is used in electron microscopy) this is in nanometers 2 orders smaller.
OK... first off I don't know anything about this. That said, by optical wavelength, I'm guessing 1.1 microns is a particular color of the visible light spectrum. My guess would be that this technology could work with more than just one wavelength... for instance, X-rays, or something smaller (though who knows what kinds of fun radiation that would produce). My guess would be that smaller wavelengths take more power to produce, but I could be wrong.
Also, someone was talking about photons being able to cross paths without interference. However... Thomas Young's famous double-slit experiment seems to prove otherwise, but like I said I'm not an expert and so would welcome someone's more educated input. It seems, too, like this would act on light waves, rather than individual photons (kind of like how digital signals now are stored as two distinct amounts of voltage), so if this interference is something that only happens when light decides it's a wave, then that might be significant.
Do you see p2p becoming anything other than an academic plaything? It's inherent "sometimes" nature (Sometimes you'll find the file you are looking for, sometimes it's busy/not found due to you not having the right connections) would seem to run counter to most business' requirements for reliability. How do you plan on redressing this?
So, let's say you want to download a file from some random FTP site. It's down. How do you propose you get the file?
Now, picture this. You're on a P2P network like this. The file you're looking for might be on multiple servers (well, client/servers; part of what makes this so cool is the lack of a distinction), which not only makes the file available, but in some P2P systems (especially BitTorrent, to a certain extent WinMX), makes the machines posessing the files' combined bandwidth available, usually resulting in a faster download.
In this respect, P2P is, IMHO, not less reliable but rather more so. If you want your file to get out to the unwashed masses, you'd better make sure it's on a reliable server. P2P increases the possible number of reliable servers; also, I think if *legal* media becomes more popular, more people will leave it online to download, not fearing a cease & desist from some RIAA buttmunch.
As for "not having the right connections," IIRC, this was why the internet (or DARPAnet) was designed the way it was, having a mesh topology (well, really a mesh metatopology with a star topology attached to each link in the mesh...) and multiple routes between hosts. That way, if the Commies took down Norad, Crystal Palace and the Pentagon still had a link (I have no idea where Norad or Crystal Palace is, but I've heard them in movies, so I figured, hell, why not. You get the idea though.:-D)
On a side note... I wonder about how IPv6 will affect P2P, especially its multicasting capabilities and HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE address space. When we are capable of connecting that many machines with their own IP address, and bandwidth and processing speed have doubled a few times more, I think P2P file sharing will look totally different, being (in some cases anyway) the rule rather than the exception. Download some public-domain music to your internet-enabled radio (or maybe a PD movie or show to your internet-ready TV), then it will be available to other users requesting this file until you get rid of it. Burn a [S]VCD or DVD{+|-}R[W] off your TV, take it to a friend's house (or out in the boonies, or anywhere else you might imagine)... we're getting Jetsons-esque technology in baby steps. But maybe baby-steps tested in a competitive worldwide community are the most effective way to get there.
Sorry for the long post... P2P and decentralization is exciting stuff to me.:-D
I know, this may be foreign to the US contingent of the/. crowd, but where is the handheld version?
At least I pretty much never use GPS in a vehicle; even when I want to get to a specific address (not an easy feat in Japan), I would use maps to get to the general area, then get to the actual point (like a geocache or an address) on foot.
Just curious... why would using a GPS on foot have anything to do with being from the US or not?
I used to work at Circuit City... we sold in-car, handheld, CF (maybe SD too, I don't remember), and USB GPS devices. Many people use them to go hiking or in just the same manner as you described just above (especially the customers who navigate in Chicago).
Anyway, the article has pics of the device in someone's hand, makes several mentions of how small it is (one pic shows it next to a RIM Blackberry), and mentions the optional car mounting brackets.
What I'm waiting for is a hovering laptop. That way, I won't slowly cook my crotch......of course, seeing as I'm reading/. at quarter after eleven on a friday night, it's not like it's getting much use, but hey...
Why are you nitpicking? For one thing, the non-pluralization... why give the guy a hard time about a typo? I mean, at least one person (timothy) had to retype (or at least cut-and-paste) the story. He could have fixed that.
Now, this is a product aimed at developers, and the story is on Slashdot. I think it's a pretty safe assumption that anyone who is in either (or both) of those crowds *probably* knows whether their platform is in the subset of Win98-Longhorn. *I* certainly understood it; I'm sorry if *you* had trouble.
And...
FTA: Xamlon built the program from the published technical specifications of Microsoft's own user interface development software, which Microsoft itself doesn't plan to release until 2006.
Doesn't that open your company up for lawsuits? (IANAL)
He said he built it from technical specifications, which were published, of software that's not released yet. AFAIK, that's legal... it'd be (somewhat) like developing an FTP server from reading the applicable RFC, then having Microsoft sue you because it infringes on IIS... which is not to say that that sort of situation is completely farfetched, but...
Oh yes, CYA. IANAL. Always thought that sounded funny... I-ANAL. Nevermind.
I've got a dual-handset 2.4ghz Uniden cordless phone and a Netgear 802.11b Cable/DSL router... they seem to work fine together, but I haven't tested it very extensively yet.
We have at least one example of 200+ year-old pen-and-paper software: the Constitution.
It's open source, in that it is written in a human-readable language and there's a well-defined procedure for changing it. It's software in that it defines procedures and rules governing a system.
Or maybe I'm just grasping. Hell, maybe if the Constitution and our laws were written in a programming lanugage instead of Legalese, some of those ambiguities would go away.
I'm sure some here have read the Ender series... they talk about instant communication through something called an ansible that works on a theory quite similar to what was talked about for wireless quantum communication. It's been a while, but as I remember, two philotes are entangled (or maybe it's one philote is split), and from then on there is a thread of sorts enabling instantaneous communication regardless of distance. If you're interested, there's more information at http://www.philotic.org
If there are particles teleporting around inside my computer, could a bug make particles teleport *outside* the box? What kind of radiation might it create?
One last thing... as I understand it (which I don't really, at least not well:-P), observation changes the state of a particle. Might this serve as a basis for some exploration of the source/seat of consciousness? Does this literally mean that if a living being ascertains the state of a particle that it changes, or is it just that our current methods of making that observation change the observed thing (like light waves bouncing on something)?
It strikes me as kind of funny that M$ won't let you download the patches, since http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/ bears a link to a page that will have them snail mail you a security update CD. I had them send me one and I don't even have a PC running XP!:-P
Slashdot Mirror
You probably don't want this.
Seriously. Think about it. You'd have to have a copy of your keyrings on the server... including your private key. Anyone at Google with proper access (plus any 5up3r-31337 h4xx0rz who make a properly malformed e-mail message...) can decrypt your messages at whim and sign messages as you, having only to break your password. (And if you had a huge supercluster like Google does, how long do you think that would take?)
Here's what I do. Turn on POP access, then run a POP client with a GPG plugin (Enigmail for Thunderbird kicks arse). Problem solved: your keyrings are still safe on your hard drive, and your communications are secure.
On another note, for those of you who are shocked that (gasp) someone may be able to read your cleartext e-mails, I have a news flash: e-mail is much more like a post card than an envelope. And, as my mailman once said, never write anything you don't want people to read on a postcard. (Kinda creepy, actually.)
Even lacking an exploit, any machine your message bounces through (gmail to MX to user, at best... with hops in between each host) is capable of sniffing it. Ever submit a form for the first time in a fresh install of a web browser? "Unencrypted information may be observed, blah blah blah." The same goes for e-mail.
You don't need a PDF editor to fill in the forms electronically. Adobe's reader (I've only tried the Windows version; not sure about the Linux version) will let you type in the fields and save and print the results.
. html.
You can get the forms at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/lists/0,,id=97817,00
here is a fair comparison of wavelengths.
-optical wavelength = 1.1 microns. electronic wavelength
-(electrons can be compared in energy to an x-ray photons and so wavelength of x-ray photon - this concept is used in electron microscopy) this is in nanometers 2 orders smaller.
OK... first off I don't know anything about this. That said, by optical wavelength, I'm guessing 1.1 microns is a particular color of the visible light spectrum. My guess would be that this technology could work with more than just one wavelength... for instance, X-rays, or something smaller (though who knows what kinds of fun radiation that would produce). My guess would be that smaller wavelengths take more power to produce, but I could be wrong.
Also, someone was talking about photons being able to cross paths without interference. However... Thomas Young's famous double-slit experiment seems to prove otherwise, but like I said I'm not an expert and so would welcome someone's more educated input. It seems, too, like this would act on light waves, rather than individual photons (kind of like how digital signals now are stored as two distinct amounts of voltage), so if this interference is something that only happens when light decides it's a wave, then that might be significant.
Do you see p2p becoming anything other than an academic plaything? It's inherent "sometimes" nature (Sometimes you'll find the file you are looking for, sometimes it's busy/not found due to you not having the right connections) would seem to run counter to most business' requirements for reliability. How do you plan on redressing this?
:-D)
:-D
So, let's say you want to download a file from some random FTP site. It's down. How do you propose you get the file?
Now, picture this. You're on a P2P network like this. The file you're looking for might be on multiple servers (well, client/servers; part of what makes this so cool is the lack of a distinction), which not only makes the file available, but in some P2P systems (especially BitTorrent, to a certain extent WinMX), makes the machines posessing the files' combined bandwidth available, usually resulting in a faster download.
In this respect, P2P is, IMHO, not less reliable but rather more so. If you want your file to get out to the unwashed masses, you'd better make sure it's on a reliable server. P2P increases the possible number of reliable servers; also, I think if *legal* media becomes more popular, more people will leave it online to download, not fearing a cease & desist from some RIAA buttmunch.
As for "not having the right connections," IIRC, this was why the internet (or DARPAnet) was designed the way it was, having a mesh topology (well, really a mesh metatopology with a star topology attached to each link in the mesh...) and multiple routes between hosts. That way, if the Commies took down Norad, Crystal Palace and the Pentagon still had a link (I have no idea where Norad or Crystal Palace is, but I've heard them in movies, so I figured, hell, why not. You get the idea though.
On a side note... I wonder about how IPv6 will affect P2P, especially its multicasting capabilities and HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE address space. When we are capable of connecting that many machines with their own IP address, and bandwidth and processing speed have doubled a few times more, I think P2P file sharing will look totally different, being (in some cases anyway) the rule rather than the exception. Download some public-domain music to your internet-enabled radio (or maybe a PD movie or show to your internet-ready TV), then it will be available to other users requesting this file until you get rid of it. Burn a [S]VCD or DVD{+|-}R[W] off your TV, take it to a friend's house (or out in the boonies, or anywhere else you might imagine)... we're getting Jetsons-esque technology in baby steps. But maybe baby-steps tested in a competitive worldwide community are the most effective way to get there.
Sorry for the long post... P2P and decentralization is exciting stuff to me.
Slashdotters go crazy, slow news day all around.
Film at 11.
I know, this may be foreign to the US contingent of the /. crowd, but where is the handheld version?
At least I pretty much never use GPS in a vehicle; even when I want to get to a specific address (not an easy feat in Japan), I would use maps to get to the general area, then get to the actual point (like a geocache or an address) on foot.
Just curious... why would using a GPS on foot have anything to do with being from the US or not?
I used to work at Circuit City... we sold in-car, handheld, CF (maybe SD too, I don't remember), and USB GPS devices. Many people use them to go hiking or in just the same manner as you described just above (especially the customers who navigate in Chicago).
Anyway, the article has pics of the device in someone's hand, makes several mentions of how small it is (one pic shows it next to a RIM Blackberry), and mentions the optional car mounting brackets.
What I'm waiting for is a hovering laptop. That way, I won't slowly cook my crotch... ...of course, seeing as I'm reading /. at quarter after eleven on a friday night, it's not like it's getting much use, but hey...
My niece was killed by a flying lawnmower when she was 4....
I don't have a niece or a flying lawnmower, you insensitive clod!
Anyway, fat and gasoline have about the same energy content...
I can see the next big thing already... fat-powered cars. Hop in, dump in a bucket o' lard, drive for miles.
How's that for alternative energy sources?
Why are you nitpicking? For one thing, the non-pluralization... why give the guy a hard time about a typo? I mean, at least one person (timothy) had to retype (or at least cut-and-paste) the story. He could have fixed that.
Now, this is a product aimed at developers, and the story is on Slashdot. I think it's a pretty safe assumption that anyone who is in either (or both) of those crowds *probably* knows whether their platform is in the subset of Win98-Longhorn. *I* certainly understood it; I'm sorry if *you* had trouble.
And...
FTA: Xamlon built the program from the published technical specifications of Microsoft's own user interface development software, which Microsoft itself doesn't plan to release until 2006.
Doesn't that open your company up for lawsuits? (IANAL)
He said he built it from technical specifications, which were published, of software that's not released yet. AFAIK, that's legal... it'd be (somewhat) like developing an FTP server from reading the applicable RFC, then having Microsoft sue you because it infringes on IIS... which is not to say that that sort of situation is completely farfetched, but...
Oh yes, CYA. IANAL. Always thought that sounded funny... I-ANAL. Nevermind.
And you, sir, are a pradijy.
Why all the Sendmail comparisons? How about qmail?
I've got a dual-handset 2.4ghz Uniden cordless phone and a Netgear 802.11b Cable/DSL router... they seem to work fine together, but I haven't tested it very extensively yet.
We have at least one example of 200+ year-old pen-and-paper software: the Constitution.
It's open source, in that it is written in a human-readable language and there's a well-defined procedure for changing it. It's software in that it defines procedures and rules governing a system.
Or maybe I'm just grasping. Hell, maybe if the Constitution and our laws were written in a programming lanugage instead of Legalese, some of those ambiguities would go away.
I'm sure some here have read the Ender series... they talk about instant communication through something called an ansible that works on a theory quite similar to what was talked about for wireless quantum communication. It's been a while, but as I remember, two philotes are entangled (or maybe it's one philote is split), and from then on there is a thread of sorts enabling instantaneous communication regardless of distance. If you're interested, there's more information at http://www.philotic.org
:-P), observation changes the state of a particle. Might this serve as a basis for some exploration of the source/seat of consciousness? Does this literally mean that if a living being ascertains the state of a particle that it changes, or is it just that our current methods of making that observation change the observed thing (like light waves bouncing on something)?
If there are particles teleporting around inside my computer, could a bug make particles teleport *outside* the box? What kind of radiation might it create?
One last thing... as I understand it (which I don't really, at least not well
I agree. It's unfair discrimination, especially if you're a hermaphrodite.
You don't want to give your name? Then don't read the site. It is all pretty simple really.
:)
This coming from an anonymous coward...
Just don't use a Netgear or Linksys router. I hear they have some security problems or something. :)
It strikes me as kind of funny that M$ won't let you download the patches, since http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/ bears a link to a page that will have them snail mail you a security update CD. I had them send me one and I don't even have a PC running XP! :-P