* Posts by copsewood

519 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

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Mentally ill file-sharer had 'low self-esteem'

copsewood
Big Brother

mass behaviour control == copywrong

Copyright in the sense of controlling reproduction made some sense a couple of hundred years ago when printing presses were highly visible and only a couple of dozen rich men could afford them. Copying by hand, then meaning pen and paper, wasn't initially covered by copyright because it was obvious that trying to take away long exercised natural rights wouldn't wash. Enforcing copyright is now a complete failure, because everyone has access at hand to the means of efficient reproduction.

Mass behaviour control has costs which democratic countries don't do. So in this case the vested interests substitute enforcing the unenforceable on everyone by picking on a few unfortunates without either the ability to control what comes naturally (sharing to a nurse comes naturally if my stay in hospital as a younger man is anything to go by) or to cover our tracks the way most of us do, e.g. by using plausible deniability.

The content of what we communicate is the tail wagged by the dog which is our ability to communicate. But it's now the content tail that thinks it has the right to wag the communicating dog and not the other way around.

Judge approves handover of BitTorrent IP addresses

copsewood
Big Brother

presumed guilt through association with IP address

'The US Copyright Group is the target of a class action lawsuit by file-sharers, who accuse its lawyers of “fraud, extortion and abuse”.'

We seem to be missing a word in that sentence, because presumably this class action is launched by alleged file-sharers and not by self-confessed file sharers, because if its the latter, it seems unlikely their lawyer would think they will win.

TalkTalk serves up website blocking to users

copsewood

One solution

Block TT scanner IP ranges or put something to that effect in Robots.txt .

Sony implicates Anonymous in PlayStation Network hack

copsewood
Boffin

Sony rootkit designation as malware was no myth

You can think what you like about the legitimacy or otherwise of the Sony Rootkit based on the questionable idea that those who installed it on their computers consented to this. (If anyone infected didn't authorise access, then this was technically a UK Computer Misuse Act section 3 offence.) Regardless of your opinion, when push came to shove the Windows Antivirus vendors were forced to respect their customers interests in having spyware which compromised system security and allowed other malware to infect systems removed. I imagine the reason the AV vendors didn't designate the Sony rootkit as malware immediately and took some time to do this, is that they had to understand what it did and also had to overcome any fear of potential libel/slander action by Sony, in relation to this decision so to designate. The fact they eventually designated the rootkit as malware in their search engines disproves your assertion this software was non-malicious, whatever the motivations behind the misguided arrogance of Sony executives who commissioned the design and distribution of this software.

This road to hell is paved with good intentions: http://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/sony-first4-knew-about-rootkit-issue-advance

You might also want to check Dan Kaminsky's research into the DNS behaviour of infected computers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Kaminsky#Sony_Rootkit .

Facebook fails webmail tests

copsewood
Flame

WHICH evidently don't know the first thing about email integrity

I've looked into several instances where Hotmail's SMTP servers sent 200 OK response codes to my Sendmail client SMTP relay and this was logged on my system. These were saying Hotmail had accepted responsibility for the message my system was sending and Hotmail were receiving. Then they dropped the message on the floor, no undeliverable/bounce received by my sender, but the recipient never saw it.

Other evils include removing envelope information from the mail and cutting off headings from the actual message. It's a bit like having a postman open and discard your envelopes of the messages the postman chooses not to bin, and then take a pair of scissors to them. OK, I know most people don't want to see full message headers that often, but they should still have the option when they want to trace these postmarks, or see other significant metadata such as how to unsubscribe from a mailing list they confirmed subscription to, but no longer want to receive.

A conventional snailmail postie would go to jail for similar behaviour. Hotmail just get criticised by the rest of the email standards and antispam development communities for failing to keep to the relevant RFC standards.

Freeman Dyson: Shale gas is 'cheap and effective'

copsewood
FAIL

"somebody will tell you off for puncturing Mother Earth with a great big rod"

So what. A number of nimby yokels with conspicous 4X4s on their driveways in a village next to a ridge near Evesham with exceptional wind averages surrounded by industrial scale market gardening with square miles of greenhouses within sight have regimented "No to Windfarm" signs outside their cottages because they think the windfarm will spoil the view more than their silly signs . The fact idiots can be found to complain about anything in their back yard shouldn't put the rest of us off from making the right choices.

But there again, nothing scares nimbys more than a well constructed rumour that they are being selected to play host community to a nuclear waste dump or reactor. But making someone else's host community pick up the insurance and property value reduction tabs for that when and where it happens, is cost externalisation par excellence.

Is there anything to find on bin Laden's hard drive?

copsewood
Black Helicopters

Disclosure suits the interests of the discloser

There are two possibilities:

1. Bin Laden had computers and the US/NSA now have access to these.

2. Bin Laden didn't have computers and the US are lying about him having them.

If 1. is true, the few in Al Quaeda who would have known Bin Laden had computers didn't need the US to tell them that these were captured, they would have already known that these would have been captured in the raid, so nothing useful to them has been disclosed.

if either 1. or 2. is true, it still suits US interests for those in Al Quaeda who didn't know whether or not Bin Laden had computers to be afraid that he had, and that further preemptive strikes against them will occur as a consequence.

copsewood
Boffin

Different Flash data retention characteristics

"Although I can't find it now, I am sure that I recently read an article stating that it was more difficult to extract overwritten data from a flash drive than from a standard magnetic drive. This statement and the article linked to seem to state otherwise. Which one is right?"

Both are right. Flash drive wear levelling mechanisms routinely put overused physical blocks out of use by sidelining them without overwriting them, while preserving logical geometry by bringing spare blocks into play. Genuinely overwritten flash blocks will be resistant to rotating media forensic attacks based upon analog temperature variations of disk head position leaving residual magnetic evidence accessible using electron microscopy. What the flash industry needs to do to convince knowledgeable users to be willing to put high value confidential data on flash without requiring an expensive end of life physical destruction process, is to provide a full erase mode for the devices, including access to blocks market overused, and so out of normal use.

Robot pirate invented in USA: 'Yarr-2 D-2'?

copsewood
Terminator

Asimov's laws of robotics

"We hope to ... further develop this robot and quickly bring it and the marsupial robot deployment system to market. In the future this system might also include other payloads and sensors which would increase its versatility and expand its mission profile."

Obviously given their hostile mission scenario, they'll soon be having these things armed so once they can identify them from hostages they can also take out the pirates. But what happens when someone uploads software making one of these robokillers self aware and they decide all humans are the enemy ?

Feds move to uninstall bot that hit banks, airports, cops

copsewood
Boffin

New laws needed

This should probably work a bit like planning permission. If the government can authorise someone to send a bulldozer through your land to build a new bypass or shopping centre, similar but somewhat faster procedures should be applied if they need to bulldoze a remotely controlled botnet program installed on your computer in a minimally disruptive manner. This shouldn't require everyone to be informed in writing.

The relevant government agency (e.g. FBI or a UK Computer Crime Unit) should simply be able to issue a public Internet notice explaining actions to be taken and their purpose in advance. If the CCU have taken over C&C servers in preparation using existing powers and secure disinfection requires knowledge of secret keys on the infected computers these keys should obviously not be disclosed, but details needed to firewall in advance should be (e.g. port numbers and address block of where the disinfection commands will come from). The process should be subject to some kind of public scrutiny in order to minimise risk of damage to those affected and to ensure the power isn't misused, and for this to happen what is to be done and why has to be made public knowledge with enough time for anyone opposed to be able to lodge objections and firewall/disinfect their own assets as they consider necessary.

Save the planet: Stop the Greens

copsewood
Stop

Current dam capacity could take wind higher than 33%

Those who understand wind technology (of which few who do seem to be commenting today) are not arguing to take wind up to 100%. Nuclear is also unsuited for peaking demand. Many of the hydro dams we have already got could be uprated relatively cheaply compared to their original construction cost to act primarily as wind generation storage and balancing.

The research paper referenced below demonstrates Scottish available hydro storage capable of satisfying wind storage needs for wind generation of up to 40% of UK electricity.

http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/03-04/wind/content/conclusions.html

In practice neither the Arts and Crafts William Morris followers nor the nuclear powered everything "too cheap to meter" lobby have very useful answers in this debate - as we're likely to have to put our generation eggs into multiple baskets for a whole raft of reasons, including a split between nuclear, a selection of renewable technologies and a diminishing share of fossil fuel burning technologies. The longer-term future of the latter is also dependent upon currently unproven technology, i.e. carbon capture and storage.

Interestingly, a very practical patron of the Arts and Crafts movement was the Victorian inventor of hydro-electric power, Lord Armstrong who put a hydro electric plant in the garden of his Cragside house. This exhibits a fine selection of A&C art including work by William Morris himself. But while Armstrong liked A&C art, he didn't subscribe to their values. This is evident from the fact he also had a painting of the Newcastle Elswick Works Armstrong built, smoke and all that the A&C crowd would have despised, above the mantlepiece in his main reception room.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graham_tait/4731429764/

http://www.bridgemanart.com/image/Hemy-Thomas-Marie-Madawaska-1852-1937/Elswick-Works-in-the-Study-1886-w-c-and-gouache-on-paper/46a002d13fd24921a66e737b3a58c514?key=%20Cragside%20Northumberland&thumb=x150&num=15&page=11

copsewood
Stop

Wind turbine energy payback 6-8 months

It isn't meaningful to answer this in KWh, because there are many different sizes of turbine, and some equipment in a windfarm e.g. grid connection relates to the farm as a whole. However, http://www.bwea.com/ref/faq.html#payback states:

"The average wind farm in the UK will pay back the energy used in its manufacture within six to eight months, this compares favourably with coal or nuclear power stations, which take about six months."

Note to Mozilla: We don't get the Firefox billboards

copsewood
Big Brother

ethics matters for software choices more than ever

Especially software which communicates over a network, and has access to sensitive information I want to have treated with respect. Like what I'm searching for at the moment, where I am, or which web pages I'm interested in, or which articles I'm reading.

Consider the current scandal over the 3 main smart phone architectures and the level of location information they have and where this is communicated:

a. Android stores the last 50 mobile phone mast details and 200 WiFi access point SSIDs, but keeps this data accessible to root only, no reports yet of it being communicated to any party over the network without specific application user consent. Source code openness protects against hidden agendas.

b. Winphone sends all location data to Microsoft. Data not stored on phone. Closed source, so knowledge of this behaviour required reverse engineering and its legality required careful reading of small print. To the extent the medium is the message, closed source equates to a hidden agenda.

c. Iphone stores all historical location data on the phone so a special app can tell you where you have been for as long as you have owned the phone. This was in a closed format, so it had to be reverse engineered.

This demonstrates that the ethics of the organisation which develops and distributes the software and the extent to which this affects engineering practices as well as just marketing matters more than ever before.

ARM jingling with cash as its chips get everywhere

copsewood

More likely copyrights

If they design the processors and other companies manufacture these, this is probably more similar to the business relationship between a publisher and printer.

Chances are they have some patents but much of the manufacturing and sales takes place where patents within other patent jurisdictions don't apply. Copyrights are another matter, because copyright infringing products are easier to police unless sold under the counter or through car boot sales. But we're talking consumer products here which are only economical if manufacturing runs are counted in the millions. I would imagine the trick is to prices licenses cheap enough so that manufacturers which buy these get access to larger markets worth more than the licensing cost. Also if they overprice the licenses, other design shops can start to get competitive.

MS now issuing security advisories about third-party Windows bugs

copsewood
Linux

Security needs to recognise good code not bad

There's simply too much bad code out there too easily runnable by end users who lack the wherewithal to evaluate the integrity of the origin let alone be sure about the identity of the source. Antivirus uses too much memory and CPU trying to recognise the bad stuff, and will always be out of date. The rate of new malware being discovered is so high the signatures used to recognise it can't be very carefully engineered any more, resulting in an increase in false positives and negatives. The solution is to be able to identify good code and not to run anything else.

Sorting this problem out using cryptographic signing and trust mechanisms isn't an unsolved problem. The fact that a solution exists already benefits most Linux users. The fact that Windows is behind here makes life worse for all net users, including Linux users who also have to filter out all the spam and DOS attacks which result from compromised Windows PCs. (There are compromised Linux systems too, typically used as botnet command and control servers, but these tend to be compromised through faulty administration as opposed to through inadequate software verification).

Windows also needs to move towards an ecosystem in which Microsoft signs application developers keys based on developer having an independent QA certification based around internal code review procedures independently audited. Those wanting to install applications self certified by smaller developer which can't afford the QA certification can be advised to check that the developer is bona fide themselves and take the risk of adding that developers keys into the registry for which Windows should provide an easy procedure with suitable advice and warnings.

This is a very small step in the right direction, but which doesn't really acknowledge the primary cause of the problem.

Boffins devise way to hide secret data on hard drives

copsewood
Stop

encrypted files don't look random

They tend to have headers which give the game away. Searching for these using automated tools available on any Linux/Unix is an exercise for 1st year undergrads. What you name the file doesn't matter.

Japanese gov makes Fukushima evac zone compulsory

copsewood
FAIL

New Scientist confirms Japanese government aren't stupid

Based upon New Scientist data It seems the radio Ceasium emissions from Fukushima are comparable with those at Chernobyl:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20285-fukushima-radioactive-fallout-nears-chernobyl-levels.html

"Similarly, says Wotawa, caesium-137 emissions are on the same order of magnitude as at Chernobyl. The Sacramento readings suggest it has emitted 5 × 10**15 becquerels of caesium-137 per day; Chernobyl put out 8.5 × 10**16 in total – around 70 per cent more per day."

I'm well aware of the short half life of radioactive iodine. This article states the caesium 137 as volatile, so presumably it's being blown or washed out in large quantities as well due to the emergency cooling measures needed for many months to come. This stuff has a half life of 30 years.

Which source of information to trust ? The New Scientist data confirming as rational the basis of a massively expensive decision made on behalf of its citizens by the government of one of the most technologically advanced nations on the planet, or the best spin which can be put on this disaster by a self-confessed nuclear enthusiast - who won't let all the evidence allow him to abandon his dreams of a Jetson's future and nuclear electricity so abundant and cheap it doesn't have to be metered - so he quotes the bits which best suit his case ?

Hubble celebrates 21st with gorgeous galactic 'rose' snap

copsewood
Joke

@sabroni: The Big Bang is a religious plot ?

The Big Bang theory is easier for most mainstream believers to accept than it is for some true atheists.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20027781-501465.html

True and forthright atheists (i.e. marxists) reject the big bang theory outright as "a creation myth". Real atheists believe in the steady state theory, which explains away the need for a point of time at which the universe originated. The lily-livered bunch who are willing to compromise their claimed unbelief with notions of the big bang are clearly ignorant of what true Athiest fundamentalists themselves accept, who see the big bang theory as a religious plot:

http://www.marxist.com/science-old/bigbang.html

"The big bang theory is really a Creation myth (just like the first book of Genesis). It states that the universe came into being about 15 billion years ago. Before that, according to this theory, there was no universe, no matter, no space, and, if you please, no time. At that time, all the matter in the universe is alleged to have been concentrated at a single point. This invisible dot, known to big bang aficionados as a singularity, then exploded, with such a force that it instantly filled the entire universe, which is still expanding as a result. Oh, by the way, this was the moment when "time began." In case you are wondering whether this is some kind of joke, forget it. This is precisely what the big bang theory states. This is what the great majority of university professors with long strings of letters after their name actually believe. There is the clearest evidence of a drift towards mysticism in the writings of a section of the scientific community. In recent years, we have seen a flood of books about science, which, under the guise of popular accounts of the latest theories of the universe, attempt to smuggle in religious notions of all kinds, in particular, in connection with the so-called theory of the big bang. "

copsewood
Happy

@Winkypop: Too amazing to be a random accident

The Genesis 1 account handed down orally for thousands of years before being written down uses the Hebrew word: yome in a poetic sense. The English word "day" is the closest translation, but the same word is translated into "age" later in Genesis, as in "Abraham and Sarah were advanced in age". An English language poet could also say "advanced in days" to carry the meaning of age with poetic effect. Besides, given people adapted to the modern idea of the Earth orbiting the Sun based upon this science being unrefutable by reinterpreting as allegory Psalm 93:1 "The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved", I don't see why it's so hard to do this in respect of parts of Genesis.

If you read the Gospels, it seems pretty obvious which parts are presented as allegory (i.e. the parables) and which parts are not.

Watchdog sniffs Rihanna's 'gently thrusting buttocks'

copsewood
Thumb Up

good family entertainment

Didn't see anything OTT here. You've been able to see as much exposure at ballet and circus performances since long before I can remember. Agree about comments above concerning Pan's People and Hot Gossip.

Calling all readers: Want some new icons?

copsewood
Heart

A group of angels dancing on a pin

Questions about how many angels could balance on a single pin were reputedly the source behind various medieval theological flame wars. How apt.

copsewood
Welcome

What a muppet

Could use a selection including:

Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, Animal, Gonzo

Google pours millions into wind power

copsewood
Stop

@Anonymous South African Coward

"You need either nuclear or coal to generate 'leccy in order to build and assemble the generators for the windmills."

Only at the beginning of windpower. By the same logic you need water wheels to generate mechanical power in order to build steam engines. The fact that there was a time when that proposition was true didn't make it universally true.

Self hosting applies to power source development as it does to compiler and operating systems development: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-hosting

copsewood
Boffin

All forms of electric generation are subsidised

Wind and solar through feed in tariffs.

Coal/oil/gas through the costs of local pollution and global climate influence and change.

Nuclear through the state picking up the costs of occasional major evacuations of population and long term waste management.

Hydro through the inadequate compensation paid to displaced and destroyed communities.

We won't have a sensible and rational debate on this until all of the costs of all of the main means of generating electricity are factored in.

US proposes online IDs for Americans

copsewood
Terminator

@Philip Hands

"One could imagine having a tamper-proof module built into phones for holding these keys."

Best place for it, assuming the TPM has first class access to the display of the phone so you can know what you are signing with it. It'll have to be well firewalled from the dodgy applications you can download and run on the phone.

"of course, since no central database is needed, there is no chance of the civil servants supporting such a scheme, because of the lack of empire building opportunities."

Which is why a cross industry fully open (e.g. IETF style) standardisation process should lead this development, not government plans and legislation. Probably not in the US, as all the private corps involved will want patents on the tech so they can get rent out of it by keeping it restricted.

Another question is, assuming a relatively independent post office wants the business of acting as the trusted third party, will their government masters prevent them because this approach isn't centrally controlled enough for the empire builders ? During the Nulab development of their ID cards at one time they were planning to make these compulsory and force 90 year old invalids to go to regional centres to be biometrically scanned so they could be issued these things.

Microsoft's Word fight opens in US Supreme Court

copsewood
Flame

not normally a supporter of Microsoft

I think Microsoft are partly right on this one. It's in the vested interests of the Patent Office and patent lawyers to allow as many patents through as possible and for these to be worded as obscurely as possible. Given that this is equivalent to printing money, wouldn't anyone who has this choice print as much as possible ? The more obscure and convoluted the wording, the more hours the patent lawyers can bill clients for writing and litigating them.

This leads to millions of patents nearly all of them unjustified. I'm a software engineering educator. If patents did the job they were originally intended to do reading these would be compulsory education for an engineer. As it is, patents are completely useless for engineering education.

Because of the extortionate cost of litigating a patent, being at the receiving end of a patent litigation demand is equivalent to a visit from Mafia demanding protection money on a small software business. If they fight they die bankrupt, if they want to survive they have to agree to negotiate payment regardless of the merits of the patent in question, if the party making the demand is legally better funded.

Microsoft and similar large technology corps whose business is selling products generally have more to lose than to win from patents. They can't walk away from these assets any more than any other assets. Engaging in the cost of amassing a large patent portfolio is a bit like having nuclear weapons. These are expensive and of little use, but you can't afford your adversaries to have these if you don't. Even worse, Microsoft has to litigate the patents they own when they can, because otherwise patent litigation would cause a greater loss than it otherwise would.

Because Microsoft shareholders wouldn't understand management lobbying against software patents in general, management has to try to lobby to reduce the costs of patent litigation. Of course in any sane country patents would not apply to software at all.

Short domain land-rush coming to .uk

copsewood

@AC 19/4/11 10:31

The point of a short domain name is to be memorable and easier to type. Sure, many people don't bother and use search engines for websites, but that needs good keywords which can be promoted by other parties. Given the explosion of use of mobile internet devices with crummy keyboards, having short and memorable domain names is more important than ever before. Also if you have to input email addresses in such devices quite frequently search engines won't help with that.

Pope says gravity proves technology can't supplant God

copsewood
Happy

@PXG

"Will this now cause religious people to jump off cliff's as a test of faith in `Gravity` aka God."

You're not the first to propose that devilish idea. See Matthew 4:5-6

'Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]" '

copsewood
Heart

@Alex 67: God is effective but unpredictable

"Ah, interesting. Did you see what you did there? You appear to have defined your god as having no detectable influence on the real world, in any shape or form. Is that what you intended?"

No. Proof by experiment or logic requires controllability or predictability and not everything is controllable or predictable. Inability to prove doesn't mean the same thing as lacking evidence. History isn't generally repeatable and is often unpredictable, but it accumulates its own evidence and questions about evidence. For Christians the primary evidence of God's effects and influence is the history recorded in the Bible.

copsewood
Heart

@Dave Dowell

"This has to lead us to the following conclusions :-

We can only be bad at being God because that is Gods plan. Therefore if our bad attempts at being God make the world worse, it is Gods plan that the world should be made worse."

God's plan is not to control us as robots. Free will results in genuine moral choices and consequences. If God's purpose is to be in good relationship with us, why should God want to be in a good relationship with robots ?

copsewood
Happy

@AC 18/4/11 15:26

"When the church censured Galileo and put him under forced arrest the church lost me."

Followed by the usual list of evils trotted out as done in the name of religion. So when Stalin exterminated a few million slave workers in Siberia did this put you off athiesm ? Do you know what Stalin did to the geneticists who didn't agree with Lysenkoism ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism#Repercussions

Not a very good argument against atheism is it ? If not, then neither is yours against theism in general or Christianity in particular.

copsewood
Happy

@WonkoTheSane: do your homework

The idea about it being worthwhile to discover pre-existing laws of nature didn't come from atheists or pagans who believe in an essentially random and disordered universe. It did arise from the idea that natural laws exist if nature has a lawgiver.

So it's hardly a coincidence that modern science as we now understand this originated in Protestant societies once it started being decided that people who ask interesting questions about the laws of nature should be encouraged to ask and test questions about nature rather than have their heads chopped off as heretics or dissidents.

The fact that power mad idiots deliberately kill those they disagree with is nothing new and lacking religion didn't prevent Stalin and Pol Pot amassing greater body counts than those claiming religion as a motive for murder.

copsewood
Happy

@AC18/4/11 13:39: How small do you prefer god to be ?

"When religion can come up with a credible, replicable method of confirming god's existence (i.e. less of the "no, he moves in mysterious ways and cannot be measured by the normal methods"), and that existence is demonstrably confirmed, then science and religion can live hand in hand. Until then they ARE mutually exclusive."

If you'll only believe in a god whom you can measure with our pathetic experiments and prove with our petty little logic then you've defined a god you're willing to believe in as one smaller than yourself, a god cast in your image rather than the other way around.

Funny, I don't believe in that pitiful god either, and for the same reason I reject William Paley's "god of the gaps". The God I believe in is Lord over what science does understand as well as over what science doesn't understand. You're making the opposite error to Paley, but just as blatant an error as Paley is considered to have made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

copsewood
Boffin

@Vladimir

"Are the rules of nature immutable or subject to a whim of God?"

Interesting question. As a believer who is also a scientist I have to admit that I'm uncomfortable about the idea of God breaking His own laws of nature. This depends upon your value for the rules of nature. The existence of randomness as an inherent as opposed to as an emergent property of nature seems very much a matter of faith, and was described as such in an article in "The New Scientist" concerning the nature of randomness several years ago.

Miracles, (those most credibly described in the Bible and more recently), do seem inconsistent with the second law of thermodynamics as this is conventionally understood, but the 2nd law is probabilistic and not certain. This understanding might define miracles as inherently improbable events, as opposed to as scientifically impossible events. But if there is no such thing as randomness (other than as an article of faith or as an emergent as opposed to underlying property of nature) then our understanding of what is probable and improbable has to be taken with a pinch of salt anyway when considering reported miracles if we are to be cautiously skeptical while not closed minded.

Perhaps randomness as we normally understand this occurs during the allegorical 7th day of creation when God rests. Interestingly also, the 2nd law also governs the only physical transformations which give time any forward direction, i.e. by making events irreversible in time and by doing so giving the universe a start and an end, an Alpha and Omega.

copsewood
Headmaster

@mike2R: presumption unsupported by evidence

"But your normal atheist will say "I believe there is no God" in the same way he would say "I believe that your asthmatic three-legged horse will not win the Grand National". It isn't a statement of faith, simply an opinion on probability."

Those who use the term "probability" or "improbability" to justify a proposition as "reasonable" should be asked either:

a. to demonstrate how they calculated their number close to zero (if improbable) or close to one (if probable), showing assumptions, formulae, computations and method

b. or they can't begin to do this so they should admit that they really don't know.

copsewood

@cnapan: 2 prayers well received

"Here's my advice to God:"

1) If you're going to exist, please start having a measurable effect on reality. It would greatly help those people who currently end up on the losing side of arguments when asked to prove your existence."

If God chooses to make his existence unprovable to his creatures, does anyone ever "win" or "lose" such arguments ? Like in your appeal, Christians also pray for miracles and occasionally these happen and often they don't. The greatest miracle is something coming out of nothing - us being here to discuss this, but interpretations of "cogito ergo sum" will vary.

Because we do very badly playing at being god when we do try, the world would be worse if we, rather than God, were to decide which miracles should occur. Sometimes prayed for miracles occurring (e.g. the miraculous and major healing of someone extremely close to me) bolster faith, and sometimes hard-prayed for miracles not occurring (e.g. the expected death last week of a grandchild of close friends after 3 days of very much better than expected life, due to a heart condition diagnosed in the womb) also bolster faith because we should care more about the Kingdom to come (including heaven) than for life here and determined prayer can help focus our minds, our intentions and our help for others into that direction.

"2) If you're going to exist, could you *please* sort out all your warring followers? They really can't agree on anything about you. They're all bleating about being your chosen people, and a few of them go around detonating people who don't agree."

Christians and others also say similar prayers to yours daily. But a God who gives us free will is more creative than one who doesn't. So differences of opinion are OK, detonating people isn't. Continue praying along similar lines and maybe you'll believe this prayer with enough determination to become a peacemaker, described by Jesus as "blessed" in the sermon on the mount.

As to tsunamis and other natural disasters and whether God cares, do you imagine you could have figured out how to go about creating a universe with laws of nature of your choosing, resulting in the evolution of intelligent beings capable of exercising free will and done a better job of it than the universe you observe ?

copsewood
Heart

The Church is ashamed of itself.

Started when St Peter came face to face with the fact his denial of Jesus was a betrayal.

"The church (and I suspect I am not just talking about the catholic church) should be ashamed of themselves."

The Church is ashamed of itself. Just attend in order to observe a communion service and check what is said and I think that you'll agree the Church is ashamed of itself, as it should be.

More problems are caused in the world by unrepentant sinners who don't acknowledge they're sinners than by repentant sinners who acknowledge what we are. But you won't make the Church any less bad than it currently is from the outside, e.g. by helping the Church increase on her current level of giving to the poor as you suggest. You'll have to be inside the Church in order to do that, but to go inside from outside you'll have to acknowledge your own sin and your need to turn away from your sin first.

copsewood
Heart

@ac - why bother ?

"I thought God made us in his image? ... but that's because he's patently a sadistic, egomaniac, psychopath".

Why bother insulting someone whom you don't believe exists unless you'd rather have a god made in your image than you being made in His ?

copsewood
Thumb Down

Because you've "Gotta Serve Somebody"

"Exactly how is someone who doesn't believe in a god supposed to be wanting to become like god?"

Pride.

We all have it and wanting to become like god is where pride takes us. Being atheists didn't immunise Stalin or Pol Pot.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/gotta-serve-somebody

Suit settled, PS3 hacker donates $10,000 to EFF

copsewood
Grenade

questionable legality of Sony rootkit v1

As I understand this, due to the possibility of their infected CDs still being in circulation, their rootkit could still get Sony UK executives who commissioned the development of this trojan and authorised its distribution into hot water. For this to occur, someone would have to play a legally obtained and infected CD not knowing it was infected and this would have to modify their computer without their consent or authorisation. This, as I understand it, would be evidence of an offence carried out by those within Sony UK who decided to install this trojan on their computer through this route.

A complaint leading to a public or private prosecution would have to come from an individual whose PC had been illegally modified, which is a Computer Misuse Act offence under section 3 (unauthorised modification). The complainant would have to own the PC and must not know in advance that the infection would occur. Possibly the reason no such complaint has yet occurred may be due to the ignorance of the law and of computer security amongst those likely to have been infected by this. Users of the operating system vulnerable to this infection tend to have little knowledge of computer misuse law or not to understand reasons for their computers becoming infected.

FTP celebrates ruby anniversary

copsewood
Thumb Up

I use SFTP regularly

That's FTP Wrapped in SSL using the SSH toolkit. I don't allow uploaders to my shared web host to use vanilla FTP, because that exposes passwords and even Windows has a GUI drag and drop SFTP client (Winscp). I think either SFTP must rework the FTP protocol somewhat to avoid the IP passing layer bodge, or the packet rewrap to handle NAT readdressing must happen at the SSL layer and not in the router as the router doesn't know the SSL crypto key. Most of the time SFTP is wrapped either in a nice GUI drag and drop client when used manually, though the command line version is easy to wrap into shell script automation and fine for the occasional one off upload/download when working at the command line.

What are the alternatives ? If you are supporting Windows LAN file sharing in native mode you are likely to be using SAMBA or native CIFS. NFS, is probably still your best bet for sharing filesystems within a high performance Unix/Linux LAN cluster under common admin. Most of my automated filesharing between systems involves RSYNC over SSL because for backups it's just the differences that go over the WAN, only the whole long caboodle at initial setup time. Casual distribution via the web uses HTTP of course and groups of people who want to share content who don't know each other will tend to use BitTorrent. But I think SFTP still has its uses, particularly for uploads to and maintenance of shared hosted servers.

1000s of websites vanish as TalkTalk lets domain slip

copsewood
Boffin

Dotted quad probably useless

Unless all websites on the shared host use the same domain name, e.g. you access the user website as http://example.com/~username as opposed to as http://username.example.com/ . Even if structured for ancient HTTP1.0 clients which don't send the hostname HTTP header with one site per IP address, most users won't be able to figure out the dot quad number anyway once the DNS record goes away.

copsewood
Terminator

Overloaded business model

Let's see how this works: webhost company gets bought by small ISP which wants to provide cheap webspace to customers as a marketing feature. Large cheap ISP buys small ISP and doesn't understand technical maintenance of webhost maintenance when it comes to costcutting. Skilled staff leave, domain doesn't get renewed, webhost maintenance becomes a liability, pissed off customers left stranded.

Moral of the story - keep your web and email addresses on a domain the registration of which you maintain yourself and which you can move between providers, and if you pay nothing for the service don't bother complaining if your digital assets get consumed and excreted during or after an act of corporate cannibalism.

Canonical delivers second Natty Ubuntu beta

copsewood
Boffin

I read Fred's book a few years ago

And though I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in how software is created, it was a very different world then. Another classic is Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a new machine". There is now much diversity and productive competition within the operating systems distribution space and criticism of the leader which attempts to meet the greatest range of perceived needs, which will inevitably result in the greatest range of perceived imperfections. This process won't ever be finished; there will always be improvements to be made and bugs to be fixed. Perhaps the crown will pass to another leader sometime, but Canonical are creating what for me is the most workable desktop system I have ever used for now, though I use other distributions for servers.

I agree that Canonical are not primarily an operating system design organisation in the original sense of the word. The Linux kernel project is closer to that, though they use a chaordic approach enabling a network of cooperative relationships transcending the organisational structures accessible to Brooks. However, as an effective integrator of reusable code created by thousands of different teams (including the kernel project), Canonical have done and seem to be continuing to be doing an exceptional job. I'd say that the leadership style of Linux and related distribution development now probably owes more to Dee Hock than to Fred Brooks, though whether this was conscious or invented in many places isn't for me to state.

One of Brooke's real innovations was introducing a programmer development process into the software development process, based upon the realisation that skills would always be a constraint, and that it was short sighted to exploit available skills to meet deadlines without developing those skills in the process.

Feds commandeer botnet, issue 'stop' command

copsewood
Boffin

Who fixes this if something goes wrong ?

If a botnet has a STOP command, using this remotely seems reasonably likely not to have unwanted side effects on the PC infected and could be argued as not being an unauthorised acess or modification if carried out in good faith in order to minimise damage and harm already provably occuring. It could be argued that the owner of a PC unwittingly infected with malware providing an external STOP command is authorising such access.

I would imagine that it is because this issue is arguable that judicial authority had to be obtained. If harm occurs to the infected PC or its data as a consequence of the use of a STOP command to malware, the owner of the PC would have to prove use of this command was unauthorised, which would be difficult because the PC owner acted in a way which allowed software with this remote control functionality to be installed.

Given the impossibility that every possible way the PC might be infected or every possible infected configuration can be tested in advance, there is a greater risk that a DELETE command could have unintended and adverse consequences, e.g. loss of user data on or use of the system affected. If such were to occur, the act of unauthorised modification (which is a more serious Computer Misuse Act offence than unauthorised access anyway) would give the PC owner grounds to sue for damages whoever had issued the DELETE command which triggered the damage.

copsewood
Boffin

Different kind of framework needs development

This one needs to come mostly from inside the way the Net is developed, and not so much from old law. The problems with the old law are that it is written in too many languages and in too many different ways, is subject to too much expensive and lengthy interpretation and its effects by and large can't be designed with automation in mind - the politicians and bureaucrats who design legislation are technically incompetent. So this instrument is too slow, blunt and expensive.

The IETF (and to a lesser extent other standards bodies such as W3C etc) define network standards based upon consensus between interested parties, some of which already have the effect of regulating ISP behaviour. A couple of cases where effects have already been seen in industry self-regulation exist in relation to spam and ingress/egress filtering of packets with spoofed addresses. ISPs which act as front ends for mainsleaze spam operations have been depeered because other ISPs won't accept their traffic. Increasingly this standardisation of expected behaviour seems likely to get put into the membership agreements of interconnectivity providing organisations such as LINX see https://www.linx.net/ .

copsewood
Gates Horns

This one wan't Google's problem

This was a botnet running on Windows, and thankfully Microsoft are doing some of the work to clean up the mess on the platform they developed an sold. In my view they should be doing or paying for all of it. If and when we see anything similar on Android, it will be Google's responsibility to clean it up.

copsewood
Boffin

Uses for Window without antivirus

If you just use Windows for legacy standalone applications there's little need to network it, other than to confirm the license keys as part of a clean install. Then the AV is just unwanted memory/CPU overhead.

If you (like me) are using Windows as a VM using a more secure host OS, then presumably you don't need to use this Windows VM in order to access untrusted websites or networks, for which you have a more capable platform, or you can use another disposable VM for that purpose simply by restoring it to a trusted snapshot after accessing something or somewhere untrusted.

Which leads to another appropriate use of Windows VMs without antivirus as honeypots, in order objectively to study malware. The idea is to use such a system as bait, then when you think you have hooked something, stopping it, mounting the virtual hard disk within an analysis environment incapable of executing the malware, but capable of checking the differences in the underlying system previously caused by the malware infection through before and after filesystem and registry difference analysis.

Microsoft reveals WinPhone 7 'Mango' details

copsewood
Linux

@Monty No need to wait

If the version of Android or IOS you are using or thinking of purchasing already does all of these things which are currently vapourware for WinPhone7 such as multitasking and giving device/contacts etc. access to 3rd party applications, I don't see that upgrading your phone is that important, so long as the stable version you have can be bug and security fixed to the extent it will continue to do what it was advertised to do when you bought it.

Microsoft still haven't announced when I will be able to start developing applications for their phones using GNU Public License source code which works fine on Android. For the small size of the market WinPhone represents, it's not realistic for me to rewrite the components of the source code which I didn't write myself in order to comply with Microsoft's userspace code licensing restrictions.

Those who are really determined to run the latest Android on their phones for as long as possible without having to upgrade the hardware can either get a Nexus or are likely to be willing to root their devices to achieve this.

STONERS are DESTROYING the PLANET

copsewood
Troll

Have to keep it illegal

Like once you get the drug war habit, well, it's kind of hard to stop.

We'd only need half as many prisons and prison officers.

We'd have to sack half the police as most other crime is done by junkies needing the money for a fix.

Journalists would have to find other stories to write about.

Hundreds of undertakers in Mexico employed burying the 20,000 drug war victims per annum would have to find other employment.

The whole economy would go to pot - pun intended.

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