Posts by Suricou Raven 1643 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jun 2007
I made my own 'cloud storage.' It's actually just a bit of perl script and .htaccess trickery on a VM server I rent for IRC bots, website and minecraft.
It doesn't take much to handle simple file uploading, if you're only doing it for one user and don't need to enforce advertising.
Some of them might me genuine paranoid patriots, believing that the NSA's spying ability is essential to preserve the safety of their country.
Others might be in it for the money. Well-paid work is hard to find. Do you want to respect freedoms for all people, or do you want to pay the rent? Choose.
It's possible that the Guardian were so useless they had the password written down. But it's stretching things a little - that's incompetence of comic proportions.
I've a theory to offer: The investigators actually got the password through another channel, one of dubious legality. Perhaps they have phone and email monitoring operations on everyone who works for the Guardian (I would be very surprised if they do not) or even bugs in the offices, or maybe someone on the inside leaking details, or perhaps GCHQ were able to use some advanced cryptoanalytics magic to find the key left behind in the swap file. However they got it, they don't want to admit how - so the 'password on a postit' line is just a lie made up to give a plausible explanation for how the investigators got that password, thus protecting the secrecy of whatever cloak-and-dagger operations they have going on. It even has the added bonus of making the Guardian look like a bunch of idiots.
Or the documents found might just be a plant, and he wasn't really carrying anything at all. At this point I think we've demonstrated that both US and UK governments are more than willing to outright lie to the public and frequently violate their own laws - planting evidence isn't that much of a leap. Being able to threaten Miranda with jail time could be a way to apply pressure to Greenwald. He may already have recieved the deniable communication: 'One way or another your boyfriend is going to jail for a few months - but if you publish any more documents, we'll see to it that he is locked up for five years before he so much as sees a trial, and thirty more after that.'
Wild speculation is quite acceptable here because we now know that government *lies* - even more so than was previously thought.
Not as easy as you think. Getting the rocks up even that little well would still need launchers and fuel, which means local manufacturing ability, which means extensive facilities for mining and processing material and fabricating parts. That or a magnetic launcher, but that requires lots of bulky materials be sent up first.
An established, self-sustaining moon base would be able to do it - but building that may just be the single most expensive project ever undertaken by mankind.
China might try it though. Just because it would give them something their government craves: Respectability. Just look at how much money they threw at their olympics hosting.
Actually, there is a good use for 3D printing in long-term manned flight - such as Mars missions. In-space manufacture of spare parts. Without 3D printing, you'd need to take several spares for every vital component that could fail during the journey. With 3D printing, you can ditch all the spares for solid-plastic parts (Lots of life support things - impellers, seals, valves, plungers, pipes) and just take a 3D printer and a supply of feed plastic. Potentially that can mean space and weight savings.
The TPM itsself can't do very much without cooperation from the OS - all it can do is make sure BIOS updates are signed and enforce Secure Boot - a feature which, for now, Microsoft still generously permits you to disable. So if you run linux, it won't bother you. On the upside, the TPM does include a cryptographic accelerator and RNG (True R, not PR) - so if you get the linux drivers working, it could be used to give an SSL webserver or something a performance boost.
I'm promoting retroshare to everyone I know. I've gotten quite a few friends using it now. It's not a social network, though it can manage basic forums and messaging. It's more of an IM program. Decentralised. Encrypted. Authenticated via first exchanging keys with contacts. Probably not NSA-proof, but at least NSA-resistant enough to make cracking it take real effort, and plenty enough to stop intrusive advertising companies trying to intercept your messages and profile you.
UDP:
[Client]: Give me an A-record for theregister.co.uk
[Server] 95.52.96.89
Time taken: 1x RT
Packets: 2
TCP:
[Client] Give me an A-record for theregister.co.uk
[Server] No can do. TCP only.
[client] SYN! Request conversation!
[server] Acknowledge. Fire away!
[Client]: Conversation ok. Give me an A-record for theregister.co.uk
[server]: 95.52.96.89. I'm done talking.
[Client] Me too. Over and out.
Time taken: 3x RT (not including final packet).
Packets: 7
At an RT of 300ms (Hardly unusual), that's more than half a second extra delay. Now multiply that by all the domains holding different scripts, static image servers, ads and such on a typical webpage...
They don't have the power to ban tiny phones. That would require an act of Parliament. But there are certain legal tricks that can be used to achieve an 'indirect' ban. In this case, by noticing that these tiny phones are often in violation of trademark laws or don't have all the legal boxes ticked on their electrical safety checks - so a ban is simply a matter of strictly enforcing existing laws in an area which would otherwise be considered too trivial to bother with.
Another example could be seen in the national porn filtering scheme. Forcing the ISPs legally to block pornography would, again, require an act of Parliament - that'd be a long, awkward process, but it could be done. A simpler way is to just threaten them with it: Cameron just stated that he doesn't *want* to go through the legislative hassle, but he will if the ISPs don't do as he asks voluntarily. As they would rather have a filtering system they can run themselves than have to deal with likely arbitrary and confusing guidelines from an act, it's in their best interests to give in.
This type of political sneaking is much more common in the US due to their split-layer government. The US congress, state congress, local officials and the courts are often pushing contradictory agendas and constantly trying to find ways to outmaneuver each other.
That would be the Dunning–Kruger effect.
People's self-impression of competence in a field and their actual competence are not well correlated. Those who possess some knowledge, but not much, tend to vastly overestimate their true ability. With further education they will be able to look back on their earlier selves and see just how arrogantly overconfident they were.
But that only works if they get that further education. The typical self-confident internet commenter, believing themselves to be a perfect expert on social media policy, has no reason to study psychiatry or sociology or political theory. So they continue to babble their half-coherent ramblings, unable to understand why others laugh at them.
Because being sociable includes complaining about the family member who can barely find the on-button and screams 'The Internet is broken!' every time a page takes more than five seconds to load.
And such complaints depend upon the family member not finding them.
I have a folder containing the family photos. Several gigabytes. No-one is ever, ever going to look at this. The family have no reason to look back at what we were up to on the holiday in Skegness of 1998. Yet the data still remains because.... well, it's policy to retain the family photos indefinitely.
I imagine much the same goes on at the corporate level. Gigantic mountains of useless data kept either for reasons of regulatory compliance or because storage is cheap, and it just might come in handy some day in future.
Radio 4 already did a radio play about it.
It is a very depressing play. The main theme seems to be the utter lack of hope. There is no prospect of escape, or a legal out-manouvering. The only times any other characters speak are to state that they are under orders not to converse with the prisoner. Towards the end he manages to give a short monologue to the officer in charge explaining his actions, and for a moment you think he might have won some leniency - but the officer is one of those uber-patriot types, and gets so offended that the moral character of his country has been insulted that he declares Manning a suicide risk and orders that his glasses and clothing be confiscated for his own protection.
In some ways this is actually one of their fairer trials, as there is so much publicity around it. The prosecution hasn't had to resort to some standard-issue dirty tricks often used on lesser criminals. There are a few common ones I know of:
- The overworked public defender: He has half an hour to devote to your case, and he knows that his job depends upon you agreeing to the plea bargin - if he actually gets too many people off, he'll be fired on a pretext for embarassing the department and someone of more flexible morals will take his place.
- Freezing of assets so the defendant can't afford a lawyer. Sure, they may have the money to buy one - but with all their bank accounts frozen, there is no way to pay, and lawyers generally don't work for credit.
- Seizing of all assets that could possibly be related to a crime. Usually applies to either electronic devices of vehicles. Added bonus: Can sell at police auction. That's one reason police in the US love drug prosecutions: If the convicted used a car to drive to a dealing location, then the car has been used in commission of a crime. That means police auction, and money for the department.
The only dirty trick they are using from the civilian world is the pileing-of-the-charges, trying to intimidate the accused with the possibility of severe punishment. In the civilian world it's used to apply pressure for the accused to plead guilty - that's the approach used on Swartz, which instead drove him to suicide. In this case it's being used to make an example - to show any other potential leakers that the government is willing and able to throw the book at them, and they'll be lucky to ever see daylight again.
There's a fair bit of evidence-hiding going on as well - there are claims made by thr prosecution that the leaks have lead to the deaths of some US agents, but as this is all strictly classified stuff they aren't able to say who or how. The judge just has to take their word that the leaks resulted in friendly deaths - and this is a military trial, so the word of the intelligence services is beyond contest.
There is something fiddley to be aware of.
If cardlanes == slotlanes, they fit together easily.
If cardlanes < slotlanes, the card fits in and works, though the slot will have a few lanes wasted.
if cardlanes > slotlands, then *electronically* they work - though the card won't run at full speed. Mechanically, it won't actually fit into the slot. Not until you do some delicate work with a dremel. Once the appropriate (literal) hacking has been done, then you can use it.
They have something of a history of whipping up hysteria. I imagine this happened once or maybe twice, but the IWF is trying to make it seem like some sort of epidemic of child abuse images.
Anonymous Coward: There was a study a while ago that found the most dangerous sites on the internet, malware-wise, were church websites. Even more than porn or piracy. Simply because few churches pay a professional administrator, they just have a volunteer muddle their way through.
Mars's pressure is under a kilopascal. Even breathing pure oxygen, you wouldn't get enough partial pressure to stay alive, much less do any science. So a pressure suit is essential.
It doesn't have to be as thick and durable as a spacesuit though. Less radiation, for a start. One idea is a stretchy-suit, using elastic to remain form-fitting while keeping an internal pressure just high enough to be workable on pure oxygen. That approach would give much more flexibility than the clunky, stiff spacesuit design.
Barbie isn't wearing that though, as her suit is noticeably loose and doesn't seal at hands and feet. The only way barbie might be able to function on that suit would be if some major oxygen-consuming organ was removed to lessen the load...
Humans do not explode in space. NASA tested it with animal models, and there's been one case of accidental depressurisation of a human. He survived. The loss of pressure results in very rapid unconsciousness, but no pop.
True explosive decompression has occured, but not in space. One-to-zero atmosphere just isn't enough. The only incident in which that has happened an accident with a pressurised divers' chamber on the Byford Dolphin drilling rig. That was a drop from nine atmospheres to one.
It was messy.
One diver's lungs exploded with so much force, the *blew his spine out of his body*. Chunks of ex-human were found ten meters away - upwards. That's one impressive way to die.
Left hand: We need to do something to aid political expression in certain repressive regimes, and prevent those governments snooping on dissidents, as social change in those countries is essential for continued peaceful coexistence.
Right hand: We need to set up improved monitoring and tracing systems systems for the internet - it'll be impossible to enforce the law effectively online if anyone can disappear into electronic mist at will, not to mention the potential for money laundering.
I don't think they were communicating at the time.
The second will be cheaper, because it's a CG-heavy movie. A great deal of the data is reuseable - character models, rigging, etc. Remember these aren't your little FPS game models we are dealing with - they use muscle modeling to make sure they move realistically, crazy-high resolution, and surface models that include the effects of pores and sub-surface anatomy. Each one represents weeks of work.
Here's my idea:
That Unobtainium is good stuff. You think Earth is just going to leave alone? No, they are sending back a new ship, and this time going prepared. Not only does it have a real military force, but after the events of the first movie they know not to discount that 'spiritual' rubbish - there is proof that the planet has an interconnected neural network spanning species, and human technology is rather good at interfacing to neural networks now. After all, they can sync brains between a human and an avatar body.
Sully has been living the life of a native for the last ten years, and now fits in as one of their own - his off-world origins almost forgotten. He is happy in this life, but for one flaw: Children. His body is still half-human, and infertile, a condition that adversely affects his relationship with whats-her-name from the first movie - family lines are very important to na'vi, and is inability to sire a future priestess is an insult to the community.
One day Sully jacks into a tree, an is passed a vision by that transcended scientist woman, taken from the memories of a Na'vi from the area: The sky is falling. Great birds, trailing fire, dropped from the clouds. To the distant tribe this is a worrying and incomprehensable event - but Sully recognises the description of a spacecraft in reentry and landing. He knows that the tribe there knows almost nothing of humans - he is the sole Na'vi expert on them. So he and whats-her-name travel to this costal region to learn what is going on, and to defend Pandora if they must.
On arrival they find that the humans have been more sensible this time. Aided by mapping data from the previous operation they have set up in a less tropical region, where the local wildlife is a little less dangerous. Further, they are mining offshore - a costal base serves as a dock, while giant dredgers scoop unobtainium from a seabed deposit. This is promissing: They won't need to expel anyone from their land. What's-her-name expresses hope that maybe coexistence is possible - but Sully is suspicious, and concerned that the deposit will eventually be depleted. Further, there are already signs of water pollution from the toxic refining process. Sully tells whats-her-name the basic base layout.
Further strange activity is noticed too. The animal life is acting strangely. The locals report that the trees are giving them strange visions. Sully investigates this by jacking in himself, and sees strangely familiar things: Human writing, pictures and symbols. Things that have no place on Pandora. Still spying on the Humans, Sully, What's-her-name and one of the locals are caught and taken into the human base. Sully plays dumb, pretending to be a technologically ignorant native so he can try to observe inside - he sees scientific equipment through the windows, computer banks, screens displaying MRI data and networks and a bank of avatar interface tanks on his way to a holding cell before someone notices his extra fingers. This confuses the humans - they see an avatar body, recognise Sully, but say they have none themselves and ask where his tank is. Sully confesses that he no longer needs his human body, but this sounds impossible - he is dismissed as crazy.
Sully escapes - not using his knowledge, for Avatar isn't that type of franchise, but because the three of them are able to cooperate to break out. As they flee, Sully witnesses something even stranger: A dredger dumps its load into a floating barge, before a whale-analog swims up to the surface and starts pushing it towards the human base. This triggers a crisis of faith for the Na'vi: If the animals are aiding humans, that means Enwya is on their side. How could the Na'vi be abandoned by their goddess?
Whats-her-name cannot accept this, and nor can Sully: He has seen what humans do to a world. In a search for answers he attempts to make contact again with dead scientist - but this time when he jacks in, he is bombarded with noise and scattered imagery. Pictures of earth, chemstry, space travel, and through it all the sense of others - sensing him, reacting, chasing him down. Dead Scientist struggles through this chaos, but can only guide him to a key image stronger than the rest: A map.
Sully, whats-her-name and a few escorts are guided to the ocean and swim down where the map says. There they find roots - a tree of souls, made of coral and concealed below the water. The locals say they knew of this place, but it is a most holy site and approached only on the rarest occasions. The humans have found it already: Technology covers the natural formation, with cables running undersea towards the human base. Now he understands.
Humans learned to control an avatar body. Now they no longer need one. They can be the animals. They can be the planet itsself. This time Enwya isn't going to come to their aid - she is too overwhelmed by the humans now hooked up.
Before the team can consider disconnecting the device, an ambush of very hostile wildlife arrives to claw and catch them. The local human defenders. The team escapes, barely - but as they look back they see the place heavily guarded by pandoran crabs.
Now things escalate. The local tribe are first disbelieving, then outraged at this sacrilidge. A war is declared - but Sully knows they cannot win this time. They defeated a mining operation before, but barely, and only with aid they won't have a second time. Now they are up against a full military force. Worse - flying drones are broadcasting a message: Hand over the human and avatar, or face destruction. No more nice hippy humans now: They are in a state of war.
Whats-her-name asks to trust in Enywa. Sully realises this could work - and Dead Scientist tells them how. Enywa is overwhelmed with alien thoughts - mining plans, ore transport routes, the idle background of the operators as they think of home. But that could go both ways. As war is launched (The locals riding into battle on giant mantas), a daring operation is carried out to capture one of the crabs and link Sully to it before the operator can disconnect. Contact established, Sully is able to use their own tech against them - disrupting the control system long enough for a whale to bite through the undersea cables. Even then the battle goes badly, with human weaponry slicing the incoming Na'vi before they can get close - but whats-her-name sees an opening. Flying overhead on her lizardbirdthing she dive-bombs, making an abrupt landing inside the base in the area Sully earlier told her was the environmental room. She doesn't know tech, but she can break things - pulling pipes, smashing controls, stabbing her spear through panels and tearing tanks apart. With the base now flooded with Pandoran air, the humans have no option but to set the auto-destruct and run to their shuttles.
Say is saved, humans defeated, Sully and whats-her-name once again hailed as heroes. Oh, yeah - they find an orphaned na'vi to raise too. Everyone is happy.
Cameron: If you use that, I'll settle for even a tiny 0.1% royalty - that's still a lot of money to me. And I want that gross, not net - I'm not stupid.
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