Ok Sun is less reliable... So why NT didn't live more than 2 weeks on a IBM NetFinity server? Why I had to reboot it a few times during the day? Why no SPs, bugfixes, hackings helped to make it more stable? Why with all IBM support I couldn't get it to work? Why launching an administrator tool, just launchng it, was enough to crash the whole thing?
Then why, in that same computer, Solaris 7 worked non-stop 3 monthes? Why I had to reboot it only because a power cut and now is working 1 month non-stop? Why I have to worry only with a few security patches and nothing more? Why it is serving directly 70 workstations and nearly 4000 users without major glitches, bugs and features? Why the filesystem didn't get corrupted after nearly an year of work?
Well Sun maybe less reliable... Because we can't talk about reliability on Windows at all...
A: To use Windows on a DoS Wargame is just stupid. You would get a bigger chance that the attacker machine would get down (and WELL down) rather than even slightly harass the victim...
B: Naaaa. Microsoft is not behind this. Neither the Greys, the Shadow Governemnt, the KGB/FSB/MOSSAD/BOSS/Hezbollah/CIA/FBI/NASA. It's a smart and nasty kids play. Or some stupid jerks doing "Morrison experiments" on the net. Or some guys who think that is time to "revive" the anti-worm/virus/exploit market...
C: Don't trust these "we'll check the stuff for you". There is always the risk that such offers carry some stuff "behind the scenes". Or that tempatation will not be hold on a possible future. On this point I had already found several "do all jobs for you" stuff, from very serious companies, where VERY SERIOUS information suddenly travels from your net right into their offices...
D: It is sad that such thing is happening and seems to still happening after so many days. This rather strange passivity does not offer anything good in the future. If FBI is readying for another "super-operation" that ends in a mess, then what will be the "next day"? These kinds of DoS are not the worst of te worst. In fact, presently, any Internet Wargame is rather stupid, because it still is enough to pull a few plugs and "KABUUM", everything ends in a simple and calm silence... So building things as if this is Waterloo could lead to some sad consequences.
Patents are a paradox in computers. And why? Because they try to cope an ancient "mechanical" view of enginnering with an quantum-artistic world of computers. A long time ago it was easy to make a patent. Classic mechanics are, by nature, quite deterministic. And so every appliance of its laws is quite straightforward. Besides Mechanics still lays in the capacity of humans to build instruments, mechanisms. Most of these things are palpable, some may require a microscope or something similar to be "seen". However a careful examination can always determine how the "mechanism" was made. And this was the fundament of the patent system. In one way or the other you can determine of one or other mechanism "copies" a patented one.
This does not happen anymore with computers. Yes, you still can determine something on them. But you most of the time can fall in two problems. Two problems that make the classical patenting systems quite awkward in the Wonderful New World.
First most of the computer "mechanisms" are not palpable or either visible. Most of them are "abstractions" of the behaviour of quantum laws in a relatively defined environment. Such environment can be a processor, a computer, a network or Internet. No matter the initial conceptions to create a functional structure for a specifical purpose, such creation has a high potential to overcome the expectations of its creator. You cannot always predict on computers where your idea may lead to. It is a problem that Intel had to deal with in the time when i286 came up. Protected mode was an "idea in the air" that was left on the 286 for a future. Most aspects of its functionality was never expected to be used in the way that later people used it. When it was occasionaly leaked out to the public, it created a different series of protected mode systems. Every of them depended on a inner nature of the processor. Some followed the "original idea" Intel had to create protected mode. But others went so much to the bottom that they exploited every single feature of the processor in this mode. Exactly in one of these "strange modes" one friend of mine used 286 for real-time control of system for observations of electro-magnetic ressonance.
Intel tried to stop this thing and turn the "tides" back to where they thought things should go. However we have to note that some of the functionality of modern Intel processors carries somehow the remains of the ancient Flood...
The second problem comes from the first and it is what puts in cause the use of patenting system. For most of computer uses, you have to use an "abstraction". Something that translates your ideas to the computer world. That is what for computer languages are used. But as every "abstraction" you loose some of the determinism innerent to mechanics. In one way or the other, the computer languages determine also an "art of programming". And so it is natural that they become abstract, that one "style" copies "another", that you may find two similar ideas in two different programs. More than this, as time goes, programs start to cite "old sources", programs start to embed over each other. Sometimes plagiates start to happen. Good or bad. Conscious or occasional.
How one can determine what is correct or wrong in such world? Well somehow a programm is still a piece of text in most cases. So one may determine, u to some extent, if anyone violates the copyrights of the original author. But can this be used for patents? Certainly not. You cannot determine the full extent of the mechanism. Or if try to determine it then you cannot fully acknowledge its potential application. It would be the same as trying to jump over Heisenberg's Law. You may try to find either the position or the velocity of the electron. But you can't know both at the same time.
There is one site in Russia that monitors the use of SORM systems and publishes uses and abuses of it (in Russian):
http://www.libertarium.ru/libertarium/sorm
They also have a small and very outdated english page about SORM:
http://www.libertarium.ru/eng/sorm/index.html
On what concerns Mother Jones story about Bayard-Slavia Communications. In the region where these company works, Volgograd, the local FSB department decided to "look over" the law. And tried to force the ISP to provide them even means to control his network! Presently things have not ended yet but the attempts to revoke the license have already failed. The Attorney has already agreed with some conclusions of the ISP and ordered to stop a series of acts until court.
I don't know where Mother Jones picked up this crap but most part of the story is old. Second they are mixing two things in one. Third they are quite stupid to think that FSB is trying to hear everyone everybody. Fourth we have laws here, and while the system may work badly, it still works. And besides SORM-2 is as good as it is. A reglementation defining "rules of behaviour" between FSB and ISPs. For both sides.
SORM one was a piece of crap. A big piece of crap. It made a wholescale scandal as it was completely wrong and stupid in every way. And it was presented as a technical spec. After nearly one year of long talks everyone came into SORM-2. It is just a formal reglementation for cases when FSB needs to hear someone. Well its not pretty but that's their right, as far as they follow the law.
Re:generalizing about "russians"?
on
NASA Gets Smart
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Hold on a bit man. Russians are not red commies. As frequently red commies are far from loving Russia. And on what counts about the "civilized world" I would put a lot of... here.
Russia is hard to understand even for a Russian. No wonder everyone here says "Rossiya umom ne ponyat" (Russian cannot be understood by reason).
About downhills. "Khotelos kak luche a poluchilos kak vsegda". (Wanted the best but got the usual as always)
There is one such platoform. Russia and Ucrania had a big role on it. And it was built during the current state of affairs.
Sorry but is not maybe because corruption and graft have lowered downhill? Frankly things are much better now. With exception of a few big towns that seem to run the other way...
Man, this is Russia. To get into it you must be a Russian. Even if your father was a jew, your mother a german, your roots from China and you have lived among Papuasians. "To be a Russian you must become a Russian".
Yes there is corruption, crime, moneylaundering, the economy is in bad state and democracy is still far from being perfect. But Russia still lives. 17 of August 98 passed by and we are still living and running on. Chechnya is in its second war and this time we are going to kick these bandits outta here. Yeap everyone thought that cutting IMF credits would "reason" Russia but it is now that Russia is pushing the new phase of the Space Program.
Personally I live much better than 10 years ago. And many of my colleagues have noted a serious lifwe improvement since 1995. My living conditions are not the same as in America. But they are not worse or better. They are _different_. Please note this. We are _different_. we would be glad to work with you on ISS but it seems that politicians and some burrocrates are messing a lot around here. That is there main reason why ISS is not going further. Please understand, can you accept the command of someone that thinks "my country is a worldleader and yours a banana republic". Meanwhile you carry almost 20 years of round-the-clock space experience and no one has nearly such experience.
Frankly I know what will be ISS if such thing happens. A wholescale mess. In Siberia I have worked with a few westerners. One thing I remember. Panick in their eyes when, in the middle of a serious problem, someone cries "I have an idea". Yeah the crazy Russians decided once again to "go through the ass"...
Ok Russia has problems and serious ones. Starting from all the mess that came out from the fall of Soviet Union and its crappy economy. Sincerly what have happened with the Soviet Space Program in its last years can be called only a circus. There was one cosmonaut that had to pass almost an year on Mir because there was no money to pick him up... (Besides he became the first time-traveller:) he lift-off from USSR and landed in the Russian Federation). That Russian Space Project is suffering a lot of drawbacks is a fact. And that Mir has to be sent to ground sooner or later is also a fact. However when NASA is playing a lot of negativisms all over that state of Russian cosmonautics, when Russians only hear that they have crap, dissidency and corruption, when they only hear ISS rulez and Mir sucks, then they start seriously thinking.
Frankly the problem is not only money. It is more a political problem than financial. Yes there is crap, dissidency and corruption. But there is a piece of metal and electronics that's still working after 15 years and Russians are damn proud of it. Because after the all mess that is passed through the thing still works. And Russians should be damn proud for it. Because after all attempts made by other countries have FAILED. Note: FAILED. And one reason for ISS was the fact US had big troubles to proceed it on their own. Remember where project "Freedom" was ending into when people arised ISS idea.
I am pretty sure that Russians could have ended ISS module long ago. Among all the crap, dissidency and corruption they have. However when some distinguished American citizens made a lot f silly comments about ISS and specially about some "foggy" leading role of the US on it, then it is natural that there is no money for ISS. Russians are not rich but also not stupid. They will not make a favur to the US and then get kicked of Space while Mir is laying 2 kilometers under water.
Note that the last of the least on ISS started when these "foggy" comments appeared on mass media and when all over we heard about how Mir sucks to the bottom of the heart. Naturally Russian started thinking. And now they made a choice. Resources dedicated to ISS are being redirected to Mir. Why? Because they are not willing to build "Freedom" station to US. They cooperated with the US as long as ISS was a cooperation enterprise among several countries. It is no more.
If anyone thinks that Russians are in this way buuilding their own grave then beware. These guys have surprised everyone everytime. Just in case remember that Mir II is still on the ground... I wouldn't be very surprised if suddenly they took it, made a wholescale refurbisment and sent it to Space. They are smart to deal with resources.
I have noted for quite a few time before DeCSS that DVD piracy is already a serious industry. Methods range from "kitchen tricks" running from software hacks and ending in "fake" hardware (some even go to produce special chips).
You have had already some "experience":) on you contacts with those "defending" MPAA. So what do you think? Why you? And why DeCSS which clearly is a small rock in the Ocean? Do you think that this has only to do with the fact that they what to "show and hang" someone or anything else? Or that, by some reason, that don't want to expand DVD market from a small "feud" of OSes or software systems (that ocasionally play only in a few OSes)?
You're deeply wrong. First because not only The United States of America has done something on computers. Second because the main issue is not piracy but monopoly. And is not a problem of freelancers running wild but copyright owners getting nuts. And sincerly you "community-awarness" reminds something we call in Russia "sovki", people with a deep lack of individual awarness and with a full nostalgy of old Soviet times. As you, they consider that a community responsability shall overcome an individual's interests. As you they consider that community may address common goals by subsizing personal autonomy.
The result is well known. The Law of the Crowd. Anyone who tries to rise up will be pushed down by the members of the community. That is what Soviet Union has come into: great ideals and a huge social swamp. For a US patriot it is rather interesting to read you...
Even if it is a controversy no one ever used, this does not mean that we should drop this out. Let us note the main problem. DeCSS is a piece of software someone created to make OS Linux play DVDs. One person may use it. Two, three, five persons may use it. A whole crowd may use it. Or no one. But the problem is not here. The problem is that a group of producers are restraining the use of DVD technology. They may doing this for logic or selfish reasons.
Now shall I be forced to use only a restricted group of software/hardware to see DVDs? In many countries, Russia included, there are a set of provisions allowing reverse engineering to provide functionality on areas a software/hardware producer left untouched. I can adapt software hardware systems to my needs, upon the condition that I am not running over the rights of the copyright owner. I can, in certain cases, offer my own functionality add-on, upon condition that it does not impair the rights of the copyright author.
Frankly deCSS falls in middle of a copyright embroglio. First it adds a non-supplied functionality to a system. Second it may be used to pirate copyrighted stuff. And here it does not matter how many people use or don't use it.
However there is something that may turn the arrows against MPAA. It seems that many slashdotters don't realize that DVD piracy is becoming a HUGE industry. And it started long before this deCSS stuff. Frankly it took me less than 10 minutes to find two sites dealing with several ways to break DVD restrictions. One of these sites claims to be an year and a half old: dvdpiracy.com. Considering the content, the methods, the level of hardware/software "hacks", one wonders why such a small thing like deCSS came to rise such a noise.
Considering what goes on it seems that MPAA is not interested on restricting piracy but controlling the market. By restricting the use of their production to a subset of software/hardware (btw Apple's Mac and *NIXes have also problems with DVD compatiblity). Why they do that is still a bit in the shadows. But the fact is that, presently, not everyone can use DVD. And when one tries to overcome this problem MPAA and alikes rise a BIG noise about it.
If it comes to the fact that deCSS got the attention of MPAA because they do not want to have Linux in their market then we are dealing with monopoly policies. In such case the curse may turn against the curserer...
Wrong decision for the wrong view. The fact that there is no contact is just a signal that Mars is not so simple as it seems. You see a planet that looks too much like Earth. But which is not Earth. Laws of Nature may play the same role in Mars as in Earth. However how, when and why they happened make Earth and Mars radically different. Note: going to Mars is the same way as running over a beach like field and suddenly note that they are in fact moving sands.
This view has consquently a price. The price is high. But it is natual that it should be this way. Humans have no more than 40 years experience in Space. And if we consider their landing experience then we should consider it miserable. Try to compare it to thousands of years that humans have taken to learn about Earth.
Now there is a problem on giving up. Yes one lows the risks. But also it lows the stakes for a lot of things. Imagine that ARPA decided to "close doors" on Internet when it possessed a few hundreds of hosts. Can you imagine what Net we would have today?
It is a very risky venture to send probes to Space. While humans do not get serious with going to Space, this will had an extreme risk that failures may be deemed as net losses. The provincial ape still does not fill quite ok in a spacesuit. And that's the real problem. By making Space a permanent Terra Incognita ("humans out") we are just shortening the chances for evolution.
Finally Humans gave up all attempts to find their piece of cosmic junk. After nearly a month of bombarding Mars with radiowaves of all frequencies and types we can finally take a good rest from them. And it is probable that we are not going to hear anything from them for the next 2-5 years. They are still breaking their heads on how their "mega-super-techological marvel" managed to get lost in our planet. And the last news is that they will try to make a whole redesign of their trashbaskets. While the next probe is scheduled in half year from now, it is highly probable that it will be delayed. We have some hope that their nature known as "beaurocracy" and the usual pedantism on budget cutting will give a chance for us to see it 5 years from now (10 Earth years)
Anyway Mars Surveyor Productions keeps successfully to manage their probe and sending quite monotonic images back to Earth. On what concerns the fate of their new probe the government thinks to offer it to one school so that kids can play with it and to learn something about our neighbors. However this seems to meet some resistence of private groups that consider it worth to have a place in the Etnographic Museum.
This article is a typical tabloid boom. It starts with a "It has issued ransom demands of up to £10m and is also suspected of hiring out its services" and later talks about "Visa confirmed last week that it had received a ransom demand last month, believed to have been for £10m."
In general this thing looks much like a bad plot for another Hollywood blockbuster. There is only some lack of green color and antenas over the head of the baddies...
I have noted this on a previous slashdot article and once again I can confirm this. In Eurasian region there is already a market of pirated DVDs and it its taking momentum. Most DVDs come from China. And *NOTE CAREFULLY* these DVDs started to appear a few monthes before this DeCSS hype. And by looking at them there are a few methods to break or pirate DVDs
It seems that these guys have found some good "bad sheeps" to go after. It seems that they are afraid of making a direct face-to-face with the whole community. However their claims don't go over the Defendents "sins" (proclaiming piracy, links to pirated films and such). They are trying to use these "bad sheeps" to get a chance to come over us all. So, no matter who these Defendents are or did I think that we should defend them because they are just paws in a bigger game. However we should be careful to divide "the black sheeps" from the "real matter".
Some people talk about "export zones" on distribution of DVDs. Some years ago there was a similar feature with software. Even some Microsoft licenses strictly showed where you could or could go, sell or use software you bought in one country/region/continent. There were even some stories about customs agencies getting ready to control "import/export" of software. As far as I know these things went mostly into oblivion with Internet and WTO. Now DVD is a piece of data software. Ho matter the content. So how such export/import regions may still exist for films/music on such media?
It is interesting to see this news coming out when finally we are seeing US lawmakers trying to ease the use of encryption. So does this means that NSA decided to "if you cannot win them, join them"? Maybe. And that will be funny. Because then we are starting to face Open Source not as an outsider but its opponents. IBM is here (and some IBMers smiled at me a year ago when I said that IBM would join the bandwagon...). Intel, Sun, Apple, AT&T, Cisco are, with some caveats, here. Thousands of companies, corporations and individuals are here. Governments and state institutions are coming into it...
Novell seems on the outside somehow. It started with good intentions but nothing seems to move there. Strange when Noorda's second child, Caldera, is one of the big players. Microsoft seems to make one step further, two steps back all the time since 1998. A few seem to step back into old methods. But the fact is: Open Source is now the main software player.
From the same Universe we live in. With an highly strong terrestrial taste. Sincerly I think there is much hype going on about making a new sub-scientific mythology. A very weird "where are we from"? And sincerly making Mars a point to it is making things realtively stupid.
Let me note one thing. Some specialized books on meteorites have, already in the 80's, put into a serious question some points on the origins of the so-called "martian" rocks. And the reasoning is quite serious. Many people may not know but some of these "martian" rocks do have some relationships with more "meteoritic" rocks and suggest an origin of a "third" planet. A planet with dimensions much like Io but with a nature more near to Ganymede.
However it should be noted that this does not deny absolutely the Martian hypotesis. And we have to count that Mars had a few serious crashes in its past. Sincerly there are a few scares that suggest three or four huge impacts or even more. And Hellas is probably second in the row. These impacts were enough to turn Mars into a geological, astronomical and physical mess. If we consider here the biological hypotesis, some ideas/theories/myths about aliens and our won experience with it, then the thing is a huge mega-mess.
Are we Martians? Well hard to believe. Anyway I think that we should not ignore other important doors. Frankly, academicists tend to ignore one fact. No matter how "isolated" we are, every piece of our solar system has somehow an "outside" origin. Could there be a chance that nearly 4 billion years ago we got a "galactic spaceship" made of rock and ice, with a "crew" of a few hundred "visitors", falling into Earth? And that we are the grand^10000000000 sons of these "little green beings"? Also not very probable but it is an idea no less crazy than Martian origins.
Anyway there is a serious problem to all this. We in fact are too Earthly. And even if Mars, Phaeton, X or Y would look much like Earth there would be chances that an "alien" would die upon arrival, even if it survived landing. Physical conditions can be very substantial for biological systems and a slight environmental change can be enough to start Armageddon all over. Well there could be chances but they are a Hell of a chance.
We probably are 99% earthlings. and there is nothing strange in this. Note that every system, upon certain conditions, has a tendency to create organisation. And some, like Earth, tend to create a very complex organisation. And note that this happens everywhere. And this does not go against the controversial Second "Law" of Thermodynamics (in fact an undemonstrated Principle). The Second "Law" is just a small water mirror of very complex processes. And it can only act if somewhere nearby there is something getting more organised. Earth is one of the places where a lottery of many many factors gave a chance to have slashdotters in its surface:)
There are a lot more of such worlds around. Soemwhere, at this moment, planets come and go, living beings born and dies. In a minute one civilization comes up and one goes into oblivion. Earthlings are still too Earthlings to note this moment. In fact their main origin is so embedded in their livings that they ignore 99,9999999999999999999999% of this Universe. And sometimes remember it to speak a few silly words about the worst tomb in the Solar System. There seems that Humans had always a salty taste for dark origins...
I think that this happened for the following reasons:
-Y2K is a problem. But it is a problem much like thousand of other problems when programmers miss a few bytes in their "for - to"'s "while"'s and alikes. We have a certain degree of immunity to this because the computer world has already demonstrated how unreliable it is. In fact I think that the only main feature of y2k was the potential widespreading of the bug.
-Y2k was a very good target to make a marketing campaign on "upgrading" the whole computer world. But sincerly I think that everyone understood this point and there was a general conivence on pushing everything to this solution.
-It seems that our society looks divided on three echelons. Those who know almost nothing about computers, those who know something about computers and a strange group of those who think they can fool the first group to declare the second a bunch of jerks. And curiously this group is made mainly of journalists and some other mass-media scum. This is my feeling after several face-to-face or near contact with journalists. They were not worried to hear anything. They were worried to catch the word "trouble" and run all over by claiming I said "catastrophe". And that I and my colleagues were stupid to be so optimist, because in fact we were waiting "Armageddon"...
-The y2k is also a religious and political game. Somehow and by several reasons I suspect many state institutions and consulting firms decided to create an hype. This helped the "mystical" meaning of 2000. It was an attempt to test how people can be mass controlled. It was an attempt to provoke whole nations to follow a pattern of behaviour. It was a very opprtune moment to collect a mass of information on the computer systems all over the world. It was also a very opportune moment to collect the results of a mass experiment
The argument that CSS protects DVD's against encryption is completely false. Before this DeCSS whoopla I have noted that a lot of DVD started to appear in the market that are far from showing "the real thing". They come from a lot of sources but the main part of the pie comes from Chinese ones (they can be traced by some errors chinese usually do on translating from chinese to english). I can classify for the moment the pirate DVD's in three categories:
-Bit to bit copies -"Broken" DVD's -Copies from mpg or VCR sources
Bit to bit copies are usually european or asian (american pirates are not seen around but I suspect this is just an "oceanic" problem)
Broken DVD are copies where encryption was broken somehow. I saw two such DVD's but people have told me that there are a lot more. In fact they are becoming a major segment. However these DVDs are quite problematic. Do don't always go and sometimes hang either the viewer or the machine. Quality is poor.
mpg or VCR copies. Some people have managed to make such a crazyness to copy from such sources to DVDs. It is understandable. Even pirate DVDs cost more than a videocassete. But such copies are usually horrible in their quality.
Now the market in many places is running over such pirated copies. Note! This is been hapenning before DeCSS came out. Sincerly I have not seen DeCSS or alikes to change tendencies or creating boosts in piracy. The most I have seen is that people have grown their tastes to borrow DVDs to each other and to write them in the HDDs. But I think this is a very questionable point to consider it as piracy or not. Anyone is allowed to make personal photocopies of a book. And anyone is allowed to borrow a book to his colleague or gilrfriend.
Commercial piracy has been growing on its own and I don't think that anyone will stop it. Much like CD history, when Sony claimed over all winds that it had given a blow to piracy. Today we not only have pirated cassettes but also pirated CDs...
This story rises some serious questions. Why DVD Control Association is so eager to give a blow over a rather primitive tool like DeCSS, while it keeps quite silent over the "real" threat? Considering many issues over commercial piracy I think that they are just pushing over people to forbid them the free use of DVDs. Note that many pirated products are made with the blessing of these same corporations behind DVD Control Association. I know that because I saw what happens in the VCR market and how smart these guys "collect" their part on the pie. At least, in the places where I have been, I know that even officially they collect some cents on every pirated copy. Something much like Microsoft Tax.
So the only interpretation of this story is that they are trying to avoid people to be free in their use of DVD. To turn DVD into Coca-Cola bottles (no offense Coke!:) ). If you wanna have another drink you have to buy another. Instead of being a similar to a book, on which, recorded information resembles, DVDs become soemthing like fast-food consumption...
If Google's search engine is so original and they manage to keep it on tracks then there will be minimal problems. Maybe we will loose some dynamism in its progress but it is hard to level this point. Meanwhile if they do not touch similar algorithms that may slightly resemble their engine then we have all doors open to progress and an healthy competition.
However if they jump on the bandwagon on "how unique" their search engine is and stop making any serious developements on it. If, beyond this, they start playing lawsuits over similar systems. And if they simply try to hold market tighten to their original idea then we will have a lot of trouble. We have tons of examples on how such policies killed whole technologies. I cannot evaluate what benefits/losses we got from such thing as STAC vs Microsoft. But we can be sure that this story placed "disk compression" systems into a marginal alley. Today we have 6, 9, 13, 20, 28 Gb disks. Most of us may not feel how critical such systems can be sometimes, even if you have a lot of space laying around for most of the time. However, there are situations when a flexible, fast and light compression system would do a lot of help, specially in some extreme moments. However there are a lot of caveats on those systems that exist today. And I believe that this happens because disk compression is still healing from this conflict.
The relatives of several potential users reported a bug in the installation of Windows2500. According to reports, many users could not install Windows2500 as the vacuum pump remained turned on. Due to this Windows2500 was sucked by the pump, aborting the installation. Due to a bug in the human body, caused by a timeout in certain functions, most users died.
To issue this problem we have created a workaround. To install Windows2500 you need the assistence of a third person, preferably a person with Windows2500 already installed. He must control the work of the vacuum pump. However this issue should be taken with extreme care:
1. The pump should not be turned of too early. The vacuum force should give time for Installation Bug (TM) to enter the brain. 2. Any cerebral remains may cause the Bug to work incorrectly. 3. If the pump is turned off to late this may result in irrevocable damage.
We are now working on a Service Patch to conclusively issue the problem.
Your brain is incompatible with Windows2500. To install Windows2500 you have to first remove your brain. There are some steps to achieve this:
1. Get a vacuum pump. We recomend an industrial strenght pump for better preformance 2. Insert a tube into one of your nostrils. On the other insert Windows2500 Install Bug (TM) 3. Turn on the pump. Note that while your brain is being sucked you may feel a little dizzy. 4. When our MS Bug Wizard (TM) will detect that no brain remains lay inside your skull, it will preform installation automatically.
It is a good attempt to systematize problems related to security. However it presents a lot of problems to be a good viable model.
1. It has a serious need on known data. However a big part of attacks are made with data not known apriori.
2. It is a linear model. Most of the decision-making is made trough choosing branches of the tree. However attacks are frequently a recursive operation (ex. exploiting several ways to login through an interface)
3. It is a flat model and here it is the biggest problem. Today most attacks are combined attacks where one tries several programs, packets makes decisions through experiment and tries to preform a break-in much like making a wormhole all over the system.
For those who like too much of maths I think that it would be much moe correct to draw a multidimensional net instead of this. And use more complex things like fuzzy logics. This way I think that we can give a more correct picture
Each dimension is a net that is constitued of a program or an application package. It has to be noted that one may visit a node several times. Between each packet/dimension there are drawn lines of contact. These can be the UNIX forks, OLE/COM/DCOM/CABUUM, CORBA or any other stuff. The idea is to draw contacts evaluating a probability of action. With a monetary or a subjective weight to it.
Under such assumption I would consider that a serious security flaw would be a very short path with a very short weight. A problem. Can we systematiza such thing? And how can we have a good evaluation of the possible unkonowns many crackers use?
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Ok Sun is less reliable...
So why NT didn't live more than 2 weeks on a IBM NetFinity server? Why I had to reboot it a few times during the day? Why no SPs, bugfixes, hackings helped to make it more stable? Why with all IBM support I couldn't get it to work? Why launching an administrator tool, just launchng it, was enough to crash the whole thing?
Then why, in that same computer, Solaris 7 worked non-stop 3 monthes? Why I had to reboot it only because a power cut and now is working 1 month non-stop? Why I have to worry only with a few security patches and nothing more? Why it is serving directly 70 workstations and nearly 4000 users without major glitches, bugs and features? Why the filesystem didn't get corrupted after nearly an year of work?
Well Sun maybe less reliable... Because we can't talk about reliability on Windows at all...
A: To use Windows on a DoS Wargame is just stupid. You would get a bigger chance that the attacker machine would get down (and WELL down) rather than even slightly harass the victim...
B: Naaaa. Microsoft is not behind this. Neither the Greys, the Shadow Governemnt, the KGB/FSB/MOSSAD/BOSS/Hezbollah/CIA/FBI/NASA. It's a smart and nasty kids play. Or some stupid jerks doing "Morrison experiments" on the net. Or some guys who think that is time to "revive" the anti-worm/virus/exploit market...
C: Don't trust these "we'll check the stuff for you". There is always the risk that such offers carry some stuff "behind the scenes". Or that tempatation will not be hold on a possible future. On this point I had already found several "do all jobs for you" stuff, from very serious companies, where VERY SERIOUS information suddenly travels from your net right into their offices...
D: It is sad that such thing is happening and seems to still happening after so many days. This rather strange passivity does not offer anything good in the future. If FBI is readying for another "super-operation" that ends in a mess, then what will be the "next day"? These kinds of DoS are not the worst of te worst. In fact, presently, any Internet Wargame is rather stupid, because it still is enough to pull a few plugs and "KABUUM", everything ends in a simple and calm silence... So building things as if this is Waterloo could lead to some sad consequences.
Patents are a paradox in computers. And why? Because they try to cope an ancient "mechanical" view of enginnering with an quantum-artistic world of
computers. A long time ago it was easy to make a patent. Classic mechanics are, by nature, quite deterministic. And so every appliance of its laws is quite
straightforward. Besides Mechanics still lays in the capacity of humans to build instruments, mechanisms. Most of these things are palpable, some may require
a microscope or something similar to be "seen". However a careful examination can always determine how the "mechanism" was made. And this was the
fundament of the patent system. In one way or the other you can determine of one or other mechanism "copies" a patented one.
This does not happen anymore with computers. Yes, you still can determine something on them. But you most of the time can fall in two problems. Two
problems that make the classical patenting systems quite awkward in the Wonderful New World.
First most of the computer "mechanisms" are not palpable or either visible. Most of them are "abstractions" of the behaviour of quantum laws in a relatively
defined environment. Such environment can be a processor, a computer, a network or Internet. No matter the initial conceptions to create a functional structure for
a specifical purpose, such creation has a high potential to overcome the expectations of its creator. You cannot always predict on computers where your idea
may lead to. It is a problem that Intel had to deal with in the time when i286 came up. Protected mode was an "idea in the air" that was left on the 286 for a future.
Most aspects of its functionality was never expected to be used in the way that later people used it. When it was occasionaly leaked out to the public, it created
a different series of protected mode systems. Every of them depended on a inner nature of the processor. Some followed the "original idea" Intel had to create
protected mode. But others went so much to the bottom that they exploited every single feature of the processor in this mode. Exactly in one of these "strange
modes" one friend of mine used 286 for real-time control of system for observations of electro-magnetic ressonance.
Intel tried to stop this thing and turn the "tides" back to where they thought things should go. However we have to note that some of the functionality of modern
Intel processors carries somehow the remains of the ancient Flood...
The second problem comes from the first and it is what puts in cause the use of patenting system. For most of computer uses, you have to use an "abstraction".
Something that translates your ideas to the computer world. That is what for computer languages are used. But as every "abstraction" you loose some of the
determinism innerent to mechanics. In one way or the other, the computer languages determine also an "art of programming". And so it is natural that they
become abstract, that one "style" copies "another", that you may find two similar ideas in two different programs. More than this, as time goes, programs start to
cite "old sources", programs start to embed over each other. Sometimes plagiates start to happen. Good or bad. Conscious or occasional.
How one can determine what is correct or wrong in such world? Well somehow a programm is still a piece of text in most cases. So one may determine, u to
some extent, if anyone violates the copyrights of the original author. But can this be used for patents? Certainly not. You cannot determine the full extent of the
mechanism. Or if try to determine it then you cannot fully acknowledge its potential application. It would be the same as trying to jump over Heisenberg's Law.
You may try to find either the position or the velocity of the electron. But you can't know both at the same time.
There is one site in Russia that monitors the use of SORM systems and publishes uses and abuses of it (in Russian):
http://www.libertarium.ru/libertarium/sorm
They also have a small and very outdated english page about SORM:
http://www.libertarium.ru/eng/sorm/index.html
On what concerns Mother Jones story about Bayard-Slavia Communications. In the region where these company works, Volgograd, the local FSB department decided to "look over" the law. And tried to force the ISP to provide them even means to control his network! Presently things have not ended yet but the attempts to revoke the license have already failed. The Attorney has already agreed with some conclusions of the ISP and ordered to stop a series of acts until court.
I don't know where Mother Jones picked up this crap but most part of the story is old. Second they are mixing two things in one. Third they are quite stupid to think that FSB is trying to hear everyone everybody. Fourth we have laws here, and while the system may work badly, it still works. And besides SORM-2 is as good as it is. A reglementation defining "rules of behaviour" between FSB and ISPs. For both sides.
SORM one was a piece of crap. A big piece of crap. It made a wholescale scandal as it was completely wrong and stupid in every way. And it was presented as a technical spec. After nearly one year of long talks everyone came into SORM-2. It is just a formal reglementation for cases when FSB needs to hear someone. Well its not pretty but that's their right, as far as they follow the law.
Hold on a bit man. Russians are not red commies. As frequently red commies are far from loving Russia. And on what counts about the "civilized world" I would put a lot of ... here.
Russia is hard to understand even for a Russian. No wonder everyone here says "Rossiya umom ne ponyat" (Russian cannot be understood by reason).
About downhills. "Khotelos kak luche a poluchilos kak vsegda". (Wanted the best but got the usual as always)
There is one such platoform. Russia and Ucrania had a big role on it. And it was built during the current state of affairs.
Sorry but is not maybe because corruption and graft have lowered downhill? Frankly things are much better now. With exception of a few big towns that seem to run the other way...
Man, this is Russia. To get into it you must be a Russian. Even if your father was a jew, your mother a german, your roots from China and you have lived among Papuasians. "To be a Russian you must become a Russian".
Yes there is corruption, crime, moneylaundering, the economy is in bad state and democracy is still far from being perfect. But Russia still lives. 17 of August 98 passed by and we are still living and running on. Chechnya is in its second war and this time we are going to kick these bandits outta here. Yeap everyone thought that cutting IMF credits would "reason" Russia but it is now that Russia is pushing the new phase of the Space Program.
Personally I live much better than 10 years ago. And many of my colleagues have noted a serious lifwe improvement since 1995. My living conditions are not the same as in America. But they are not worse or better. They are _different_. Please note this. We are _different_. we would be glad to work with you on ISS but it seems that politicians and some burrocrates are messing a lot around here. That is there main reason why ISS is not going further. Please understand, can you accept the command of someone that thinks "my country is a worldleader and yours a banana republic". Meanwhile you carry almost 20 years of round-the-clock space experience and no one has nearly such experience.
Frankly I know what will be ISS if such thing happens. A wholescale mess. In Siberia I have worked with a few westerners. One thing I remember. Panick in their eyes when, in the middle of a serious problem, someone cries "I have an idea". Yeah the crazy Russians decided once again to "go through the ass"...
Ok Russia has problems and serious ones. Starting from all the mess that came out from the fall of Soviet Union and its crappy economy. Sincerly what have happened with the Soviet Space Program in its last years can be called only a circus. There was one cosmonaut that had to pass almost an year on Mir because there was no money to pick him up... :) he lift-off from USSR and landed in the Russian Federation).
(Besides he became the first time-traveller
That Russian Space Project is suffering a lot of drawbacks is a fact. And that Mir has to be sent to ground sooner or later is also a fact.
However when NASA is playing a lot of negativisms all over that state of Russian cosmonautics, when Russians only hear that they have crap, dissidency and corruption, when they only hear ISS rulez and Mir sucks, then they start seriously thinking.
Frankly the problem is not only money. It is more a political problem than financial. Yes there is crap, dissidency and corruption. But there is a piece of metal and electronics that's still working after 15 years and Russians are damn proud of it. Because after the all mess that is passed through the thing still works. And Russians should be damn proud for it. Because after all attempts made by other countries have FAILED. Note: FAILED. And one reason for ISS was the fact US had big troubles to proceed it on their own. Remember where project "Freedom" was ending into when people arised ISS idea.
I am pretty sure that Russians could have ended ISS module long ago. Among all the crap, dissidency and corruption they have. However when some distinguished American citizens made a lot f silly comments about ISS and specially about some "foggy" leading role of the US on it, then it is natural that there is no money for ISS. Russians are not rich but also not stupid. They will not make a favur to the US and then get kicked of Space while Mir is laying 2 kilometers under water.
Note that the last of the least on ISS started when these "foggy" comments appeared on mass media and when all over we heard about how Mir sucks to the bottom of the heart. Naturally Russian started thinking. And now they made a choice. Resources dedicated to ISS are being redirected to Mir. Why? Because they are not willing to build "Freedom" station to US. They cooperated with the US as long as ISS was a cooperation enterprise among several countries. It is no more.
If anyone thinks that Russians are in this way buuilding their own grave then beware. These guys have surprised everyone everytime. Just in case remember that Mir II is still on the ground... I wouldn't be very surprised if suddenly they took it, made a wholescale refurbisment and sent it to Space. They are smart to deal with resources.
I have noted for quite a few time before DeCSS that DVD piracy is already a serious industry. Methods range from "kitchen tricks" running from software hacks and ending in "fake" hardware (some even go to produce special chips).
:) on you contacts with those "defending" MPAA. So what do you think? Why you? And why DeCSS which clearly is a small rock in the Ocean? Do you think that this has only to do with the fact that they what to "show and hang" someone or anything else? Or that, by some reason, that don't want to expand DVD market from a small "feud" of OSes or software systems (that ocasionally play only in a few OSes)?
You have had already some "experience"
You're deeply wrong. First because not only The United States of America has done something on computers. Second because the main issue is not piracy but monopoly. And is not a problem of freelancers running wild but copyright owners getting nuts. And sincerly you "community-awarness" reminds something we call in Russia "sovki", people with a deep lack of individual awarness and with a full nostalgy of old Soviet times. As you, they consider that a community responsability shall overcome an individual's interests. As you they consider that community may address common goals by subsizing personal autonomy.
The result is well known. The Law of the Crowd. Anyone who tries to rise up will be pushed down by the members of the community. That is what Soviet Union has come into: great ideals and a huge social swamp. For a US patriot it is rather interesting to read you...
Even if it is a controversy no one ever used, this does not mean that we should drop this out. Let us note the main problem. DeCSS is a piece of software someone created to make OS Linux play DVDs. One person may use it. Two, three, five persons may use it. A whole crowd may use it. Or no one. But the problem is not here. The problem is that a group of producers are restraining the use of DVD technology. They may doing this for logic or selfish reasons.
Now shall I be forced to use only a restricted group of software/hardware to see DVDs? In many countries, Russia included, there are a set of provisions allowing reverse engineering to provide functionality on areas a software/hardware producer left untouched. I can adapt software hardware systems to my needs, upon the condition that I am not running over the rights of the copyright owner. I can, in certain cases, offer my own functionality add-on, upon condition that it does not impair the rights of the copyright author.
Frankly deCSS falls in middle of a copyright embroglio. First it adds a non-supplied functionality to a system. Second it may be used to pirate copyrighted stuff. And here it does not matter how many people use or don't use it.
However there is something that may turn the arrows against MPAA. It seems that many slashdotters don't realize that DVD piracy is becoming a HUGE industry. And it started long before this deCSS stuff. Frankly it took me less than 10 minutes to find two sites dealing with several ways to break DVD restrictions. One of these sites claims to be an year and a half old: dvdpiracy.com. Considering the content, the methods, the level of hardware/software "hacks", one wonders why such a small thing like deCSS came to rise such a noise.
Considering what goes on it seems that MPAA is not interested on restricting piracy but controlling the market. By restricting the use of their production to a subset of software/hardware (btw Apple's Mac and *NIXes have also problems with DVD compatiblity). Why they do that is still a bit in the shadows. But the fact is that, presently, not everyone can use DVD. And when one tries to overcome this problem MPAA and alikes rise a BIG noise about it.
If it comes to the fact that deCSS got the attention of MPAA because they do not want to have Linux in their market then we are dealing with monopoly policies. In such case the curse may turn against the curserer...
Wrong decision for the wrong view. The fact that there is no contact is just a signal that Mars is not so simple as it seems. You see a planet that looks too much like Earth. But which is not Earth. Laws of Nature may play the same role in Mars as in Earth. However how, when and why they happened make Earth and Mars radically different. Note: going to Mars is the same way as running over a beach like field and suddenly note that they are in fact moving sands.
This view has consquently a price. The price is high. But it is natual that it should be this way. Humans have no more than 40 years experience in Space. And if we consider their landing experience then we should consider it miserable. Try to compare it to thousands of years that humans have taken to learn about Earth.
Now there is a problem on giving up. Yes one lows the risks. But also it lows the stakes for a lot of things. Imagine that ARPA decided to "close doors" on Internet when it possessed a few hundreds of hosts. Can you imagine what Net we would have today?
It is a very risky venture to send probes to Space. While humans do not get serious with going to Space, this will had an extreme risk that failures may be deemed as net losses. The provincial ape still does not fill quite ok in a spacesuit. And that's the real problem. By making Space a permanent Terra Incognita ("humans out") we are just shortening the chances for evolution.
Finally Humans gave up all attempts to find their piece of cosmic junk. After nearly a month of bombarding Mars with radiowaves of all frequencies and types we can finally take a good rest from them. And it is probable that we are not going to hear anything from them for the next 2-5 years. They are still breaking their heads on how their "mega-super-techological marvel" managed to get lost in our planet. And the last news is that they will try to make a whole redesign of their trashbaskets. While the next probe is scheduled in half year from now, it is highly probable that it will be delayed. We have some hope that their nature known as "beaurocracy" and the usual pedantism on budget cutting will give a chance for us to see it 5 years from now (10 Earth years)
Anyway Mars Surveyor Productions keeps successfully to manage their probe and sending quite monotonic images back to Earth. On what concerns the fate of their new probe the government thinks to offer it to one school so that kids can play with it and to learn something about our neighbors. However this seems to meet some resistence of private groups that consider it worth to have a place in the Etnographic Museum.
This article is a typical tabloid boom. It starts with a "It has issued ransom demands of up to £10m and is also suspected of hiring out its services" and later talks about "Visa confirmed last week that it had received a ransom demand last month, believed to have been for £10m."
In general this thing looks much like a bad plot for another Hollywood blockbuster. There is only some lack of green color and antenas over the head of the baddies...
http://dvdpiracy.com
With sites of such kind one THINKS A LOT about the real purpose the big corps are following...
I have noted this on a previous slashdot article and once again I can confirm this. In Eurasian region there is already a market of pirated DVDs and it its taking momentum. Most DVDs come from China. And *NOTE CAREFULLY* these DVDs started to appear a few monthes before this DeCSS hype. And by looking at them there are a few methods to break or pirate DVDs
It seems that these guys have found some good "bad sheeps" to go after. It seems that they are afraid of making a direct face-to-face with the whole community. However their claims don't go over the Defendents "sins" (proclaiming piracy, links to pirated films and such). They are trying to use these "bad sheeps" to get a chance to come over us all. So, no matter who these Defendents are or did I think that we should defend them because they are just paws in a bigger game. However we should be careful to divide "the black sheeps" from the "real matter".
Some people talk about "export zones" on distribution of DVDs. Some years ago there was a similar feature with software. Even some Microsoft licenses strictly showed where you could or could go, sell or use software you bought in one country/region/continent. There were even some stories about customs agencies getting ready to control "import/export" of software. As far as I know these things went mostly into oblivion with Internet and WTO. Now DVD is a piece of data software. Ho matter the content. So how such export/import regions may still exist for films/music on such media?
It is interesting to see this news coming out when finally we are seeing US lawmakers trying to ease the use of encryption. So does this means that NSA decided to "if you cannot win them, join them"? Maybe. And that will be funny. Because then we are starting to face Open Source not as an outsider but its opponents. IBM is here (and some IBMers smiled at me a year ago when I said that IBM would join the bandwagon...). Intel, Sun, Apple, AT&T, Cisco are, with some caveats, here. Thousands of companies, corporations and individuals are here. Governments and state institutions are coming into it...
Novell seems on the outside somehow. It started with good intentions but nothing seems to move there. Strange when Noorda's second child, Caldera, is one of the big players. Microsoft seems to make one step further, two steps back all the time since 1998. A few seem to step back into old methods. But the fact is: Open Source is now the main software player.
From the same Universe we live in. With an highly strong terrestrial taste. Sincerly I think there is much hype going on about making a new sub-scientific mythology. A very weird "where are we from"? And sincerly making Mars a point to it is making things realtively stupid.
:)
Let me note one thing. Some specialized books on meteorites have, already in the 80's, put into a serious question some points on the origins of the so-called "martian" rocks. And the reasoning is quite serious. Many people may not know but some of these "martian" rocks do have some relationships with more "meteoritic" rocks and suggest an origin of a "third" planet. A planet with dimensions much like Io but with a nature more near to Ganymede.
However it should be noted that this does not deny absolutely the Martian hypotesis. And we have to count that Mars had a few serious crashes in its past. Sincerly there are a few scares that suggest three or four huge impacts or even more. And Hellas is probably second in the row. These impacts were enough to turn Mars into a geological, astronomical and physical mess. If we consider here the biological hypotesis, some ideas/theories/myths about aliens and our won experience with it, then the thing is a huge mega-mess.
Are we Martians? Well hard to believe. Anyway I think that we should not ignore other important doors. Frankly, academicists tend to ignore one fact. No matter how "isolated" we are, every piece of our solar system has somehow an "outside" origin. Could there be a chance that nearly 4 billion years ago we got a "galactic spaceship" made of rock and ice, with a "crew" of a few hundred "visitors", falling into Earth? And that we are the grand^10000000000 sons of these "little green beings"? Also not very probable but it is an idea no less crazy than Martian origins.
Anyway there is a serious problem to all this. We in fact are too Earthly. And even if Mars, Phaeton, X or Y would look much like Earth there would be chances that an "alien" would die upon arrival, even if it survived landing. Physical conditions can be very substantial for biological systems and a slight environmental change can be enough to start Armageddon all over. Well there could be chances but they are a Hell of a chance.
We probably are 99% earthlings. and there is nothing strange in this. Note that every system, upon certain conditions, has a tendency to create organisation. And some, like Earth, tend to create a very complex organisation. And note that this happens everywhere. And this does not go against the controversial Second "Law" of Thermodynamics (in fact an undemonstrated Principle). The Second "Law" is just a small water mirror of very complex processes. And it can only act if somewhere nearby there is something getting more organised. Earth is one of the places where a lottery of many many factors gave a chance to have slashdotters in its surface
There are a lot more of such worlds around. Soemwhere, at this moment, planets come and go, living beings born and dies. In a minute one civilization comes up and one goes into oblivion. Earthlings are still too Earthlings to note this moment. In fact their main origin is so embedded in their livings that they ignore 99,9999999999999999999999% of this Universe. And sometimes remember it to speak a few silly words about the worst tomb in the Solar System. There seems that Humans had always a salty taste for dark origins...
I think that this happened for the following reasons:
-Y2K is a problem. But it is a problem much like thousand of other problems when programmers miss a few bytes in their "for - to"'s "while"'s and alikes. We have a certain degree of immunity to this because the computer world has already demonstrated how unreliable it is. In fact I think that the only main feature of y2k was the potential widespreading of the bug.
-Y2k was a very good target to make a marketing campaign on "upgrading" the whole computer world. But sincerly I think that everyone understood this point and there was a general conivence on pushing everything to this solution.
-It seems that our society looks divided on three echelons. Those who know almost nothing about computers, those who know something about computers and a strange group of those who think they can fool the first group to declare the second a bunch of jerks. And curiously this group is made mainly of journalists and some other mass-media scum. This is my feeling after several face-to-face or near contact with journalists. They were not worried to hear anything. They were worried to catch the word "trouble" and run all over by claiming I said "catastrophe". And that I and my colleagues were stupid to be so optimist, because in fact we were waiting "Armageddon"...
-The y2k is also a religious and political game. Somehow and by several reasons I suspect many state institutions and consulting firms decided to create an hype. This helped the "mystical" meaning of 2000. It was an attempt to test how people can be mass controlled. It was an attempt to provoke whole nations to follow a pattern of behaviour. It was a very opprtune moment to collect a mass of information on the computer systems all over the world. It was also a very opportune moment to collect the results of a mass experiment
"The argument that CSS protects DVD's against encryption"
should be read
"The argument that CSS protects DVD's through encryption"
Sorry for the typo
The argument that CSS protects DVD's against encryption is completely false. Before this DeCSS whoopla I have noted that a lot of DVD started to appear in the market that are far from showing "the real thing". They come from a lot of sources but the main part of the pie comes from Chinese ones (they can be traced by some errors chinese usually do on translating from chinese to english).
:) ). If you wanna have another drink you have to buy another. Instead of being a similar to a book, on which, recorded information resembles, DVDs become soemthing like fast-food consumption...
I can classify for the moment the pirate DVD's in three categories:
-Bit to bit copies
-"Broken" DVD's
-Copies from mpg or VCR sources
Bit to bit copies are usually european or asian (american pirates are not seen around but I suspect this is just an "oceanic" problem)
Broken DVD are copies where encryption was broken somehow. I saw two such DVD's but people have told me that there are a lot more. In fact they are becoming a major segment. However these DVDs are quite problematic. Do don't always go and sometimes hang either the viewer or the machine. Quality is poor.
mpg or VCR copies. Some people have managed to make such a crazyness to copy from such sources to DVDs. It is understandable. Even pirate DVDs cost more than a videocassete. But such copies are usually horrible in their quality.
Now the market in many places is running over such pirated copies. Note! This is been hapenning before DeCSS came out. Sincerly I have not seen DeCSS or alikes to change tendencies or creating boosts in piracy. The most I have seen is that people have grown their tastes to borrow DVDs to each other and to write them in the HDDs. But I think this is a very questionable point to consider it as piracy or not. Anyone is allowed to make personal photocopies of a book. And anyone is allowed to borrow a book to his colleague or gilrfriend.
Commercial piracy has been growing on its own and I don't think that anyone will stop it. Much like CD history, when Sony claimed over all winds that it had given a blow to piracy. Today we not only have pirated cassettes but also pirated CDs...
This story rises some serious questions. Why DVD Control Association is so eager to give a blow over a rather primitive tool like DeCSS, while it keeps quite silent over the "real" threat? Considering many issues over commercial piracy I think that they are just pushing over people to forbid them the free use of DVDs. Note that many pirated products are made with the blessing of these same corporations behind DVD Control Association. I know that because I saw what happens in the VCR market and how smart these guys "collect" their part on the pie. At least, in the places where I have been, I know that even officially they collect some cents on every pirated copy. Something much like Microsoft Tax.
So the only interpretation of this story is that they are trying to avoid people to be free in their use of DVD. To turn DVD into Coca-Cola bottles (no offense Coke!
If Google's search engine is so original and they manage to keep it on tracks then there will be minimal problems. Maybe we will loose some dynamism in its progress but it is hard to level this point. Meanwhile if they do not touch similar algorithms that may slightly resemble their engine then we have all doors open to progress and an healthy competition.
However if they jump on the bandwagon on "how unique" their search engine is and stop making any serious developements on it. If, beyond this, they start playing lawsuits over similar systems. And if they simply try to hold market tighten to their original idea then we will have a lot of trouble. We have tons of examples on how such policies killed whole technologies. I cannot evaluate what benefits/losses we got from such thing as STAC vs Microsoft. But we can be sure that this story placed "disk compression" systems into a marginal alley. Today we have 6, 9, 13, 20, 28 Gb disks. Most of us may not feel how critical such systems can be sometimes, even if you have a lot of space laying around for most of the time. However, there are situations when a flexible, fast and light compression system would do a lot of help, specially in some extreme moments. However there are a lot of caveats on those systems that exist today. And I believe that this happens because disk compression is still healing from this conflict.
How to stop the vacuum pump.
The relatives of several potential users reported a bug in the installation of Windows2500. According to reports, many users could not install Windows2500 as the vacuum pump remained turned on. Due to this Windows2500 was sucked by the pump, aborting the installation. Due to a bug in the human body, caused by a timeout in certain functions, most users died.
To issue this problem we have created a workaround. To install Windows2500 you need the assistence of a third person, preferably a person with Windows2500 already installed. He must control the work of the vacuum pump. However this issue should be taken with extreme care:
1. The pump should not be turned of too early. The vacuum force should give time for Installation Bug (TM) to enter the brain.
2. Any cerebral remains may cause the Bug to work incorrectly.
3. If the pump is turned off to late this may result in irrevocable damage.
We are now working on a Service Patch to conclusively issue the problem.
Your brain is incompatible with Windows2500. To install Windows2500 you have to first remove your brain. There are some steps to achieve this:
1. Get a vacuum pump. We recomend an industrial strenght pump for better preformance
2. Insert a tube into one of your nostrils. On the other insert Windows2500 Install Bug (TM)
3. Turn on the pump. Note that while your brain is being sucked you may feel a little dizzy.
4. When our MS Bug Wizard (TM) will detect that no brain remains lay inside your skull, it will preform installation automatically.
Enjoy your new installation.
It is a good attempt to systematize problems related to security. However it presents a lot of problems to be a good viable model.
1. It has a serious need on known data. However a big part of attacks are made with data not known apriori.
2. It is a linear model. Most of the decision-making is made trough choosing branches of the tree. However attacks are frequently a recursive operation (ex. exploiting several ways to login through an interface)
3. It is a flat model and here it is the biggest problem. Today most attacks are combined attacks where one tries several programs, packets makes decisions through experiment and tries to preform a break-in much like making a wormhole all over the system.
For those who like too much of maths I think that it would be much moe correct to draw a multidimensional net instead of this. And use more complex things like fuzzy logics. This way I think that we can give a more correct picture
Each dimension is a net that is constitued of a program or an application package. It has to be noted that one may visit a node several times.
Between each packet/dimension there are drawn lines of contact. These can be the UNIX forks, OLE/COM/DCOM/CABUUM, CORBA or any other stuff.
The idea is to draw contacts evaluating a probability of action. With a monetary or a subjective weight to it.
Under such assumption I would consider that a serious security flaw would be a very short path with a very short weight. A problem. Can we systematiza such thing? And how can we have a good evaluation of the possible unkonowns many crackers use?