k wrote:

Decius wrote:

Acidus wrote:
Vista: You are coming to a sad realization, cancel or allow?
PC: ... ... allow.

Hi, I'm a Mac, and I don't have any security problems because I don't have any customers. No one bothers to write exploits for me. I'm so lonely... So lonely.... Stupid PCs...

[ This same old battle? Shame on you. Maybe we should start wrangling over linux distros now. ;) -k]

Shame on me?! They started it! I seriously don't think Apple should be taking shots at Vista security in their ads. The reason that Mac users don't experience security problems really is because their userbase is too small to be of interest to organized crime. Apple doesn't understand how to deal with these kinds of problems; their security engineering is terrible. Microsoft has invested a huge amount of resources into this and presently they are way, way more sophisticated at it. Its really amateurish for Apple to sit on the sidelines and throw stones. If you're curious about Apple security read this presentation.

RE: Mac Ads: Vista Security

Why does the Moon appear red during an eclipse? While the Moon remains completely within Earth’s shadow, some indirect sunlight still manages to reach and illuminate it. The small amount of light that does hit the Moon comes around the Earth after bending through the Earth's atmosphere. This light is deep red or orange for the same reason that sunsets are red. Rays of white sunlight passing through the atmosphere are subject to "scattering." Blue light sprays off in all directions (this is why the daytime sky glows blue), but the red light is relatively unaffected, so it continues through.

Don't forget about tommorow night's skyshow.

Lunar Eclipse Tommorow

DHS estimates that it will take only 44 minutes for a current driver's license holder to get a certified copy of their birth certificate, travel to the DMV and get a new license when it expires. No current driver's license holder will be allowed to renew a license by mail. They estimate the costs to states and individuals over 10 years will be $23 billion.

A couple years ago a friend of mine was arrested, taken to jail, because the name on his social security card did not exactly match the name on his driver's license. DHS had ordered that driver's license databases be correlated with Social Security and simply issued arrest warrants for anyone with a mismatch. Lots of married women got caught up in it. That was the start.

The annoying beaurocractic process mentioned above is the least of my worries in regard to REAL ID.

REAL ID will internationalize criminal records, all the way down to parking tickets. You get a speeding ticket in Holland and it goes against your licence in Georgia. Unpaid parking tickets in California will prevent you from driving in Hong Kong. You will not be able to escape the system...

Unless you want to forgo flying or entering federal buildings or collecting social security... Then if you live in one of the states that will issue drivers licences that are not connected with REAL ID you can get one and live off the grid. This puts conservatives in an interesting catch 22 situation. The reason these alternate drivers licenses exist is that if we're going to have illegal immigrants we'd prefer that they carry liability insurance. Many conservatives would prefer that we didn't have illegal immigrants. But other kinds of conservatives would prefer to have the option of living off the grid. You really have to make that choice right now. If you can live off the grid, so can others. If you need one of these things to drive, you won't be able to live off the grid and drive legally, buy beer or cigarettes, or carry insurance.

A National Healthcare plan might be the final nail the coffin here. It would be a federal program tied to these federal IDs. If you want to see a doctor under national healthcare, you won't be able to live off grid.

The use of these IDs will expand and expand. There really is little reason to have one federal ID and a separate passport, and there will be an interest, over time, in standardizing these on an international basis. The present plan does not require that the IDs be chipped. Thats fortunate, but probably temporary. They'll eventually get chipped.

20 or so years from now it will be possible to enforce things like age restrictions for social networking sites. In order to create an account you'll plug your national ID card into the slot on your laptop. You'll mostly do this because it will fill out all your biographical information for you. Its just more convenient that way. But it will also enable enforcement of restrictions and tracibility.

We don't really need all of this technology to engage in perfect law enforcement. There are other ways. The East Germans had perfect law enforcement. You don't have to have a 4th amendment and if you didn't you'd bust more criminals. At some point it would be nice if we stop and realize that the fact that technology makes something convenient doesn't make it a good idea. We're not going to.

The mainstream nanny state liberals and mainstream cultural conservatives control the government, because the government serves them. Other people don't want government. They do, and the government gives it to them, and it will keep giving it to them until this country is locked down tight as a drum. They'll stand on the other side of it and wonder why we're not particularly good at innovation anymore, but they'll never think that the root cause is the ID chip in their pockets.

REALID: Your Orwellian Nightmare has already begun

At the precinct, Previtera discovered that in addition to the initial misdemeanor, he’d been charged with two felonies: "false report of location of explosives" and a "hoax device."

"It can be implied, with fingers and wires — especially in a heightened state of alert, as we are," says Officer Michael McCarthy, Boston Police Department spokesman.

Crooked, crooked, crooked.

Boston has a history of abusing 'bomb hoax' charges for political reasons

Verbage snatched from IMDB:

* * *

Just saw this on Film Four tonight (UK TV chanel)... very interesting, but 50 minutes isn't even near long enough if you've read Paul Sammon's excellent "Future Noir: the Making of Blade Runner". Interviews with everybody involved except Harrison Ford and Sean Young of course, who hated each other's guts during the making of the film. We even see Philip K. Dick before he died - what a paranoid bloke he was! And even, for the first time ever, a look at the deleted scene where Deckard visits Holden in hospital. If you look you'll see the set for that scene was from Alien.

It's amazing visiting the buildings Ridley Scott used to make his future vision of Los Angeles. In the daytime they look NOTHING like Scott's sets, particularly the Bradbury Building in L.A., used for the final battle... when you see the before and after shots it really brings home what a genius of visual style Scott is.

Most shocking is that whilst all of the people have obviously aged in the last 20 years, Joe Turkel (Eldon Tyrell) hasn't aged a day! Hmmmm...

For anyone that hasn't read Paul Sammon's book, you'll be amazed at the problems encountered making this film, a true up-hill struggle. But Blade Runner still remains one of the best American movies of all time.

Ridley Scott admits this is one of his best films, and millions of cult fans worldwide agree. A true original...

On The Edge Of Blade Runner

HID Global did not threaten IOActive or Chris Paget, its Director of Research and Development, to stop its presentation at the Black Hat event being held in Washington, DC on Wednesday, February 28, 2007.

As with any company’s legal rights under patent laws, HID Global reminded IOActive about the intellectual property protection provided by these patents. HID Global has the right and responsibility to discourage the publication of any information regarding the improper use of HID’s intellectual property, including violations of HID’s intellectual property or inducing others to violate HID’s intellectual property.

Under no circumstance has HID asked IOActive or Mr. Paget to cancel their presentation. In fact, we were surprised by their decision to cancel the presentation and to attribute the cancellation to a threat from HID. This was not, and never was, HID’s position.

This is some serious weasel speak. IOActive has leaked HID's C&D:

We urge you to refrain from publishing any further information regarding the improper use of HID's intellectual property and hereby demand that you refrain from publishing any information at any public forum, including the upcoming Black Hat convention, that violates HID's intellectual property or induces others to do so.

You didn't remind, you demanded, and this vauge talk of inducement is highly suspect given that experiemental use exemption may apply to other experimenters. Technical presentations cannot violate patents.

HID Global statement on IOActive withdrawing their Black Hat presentation

"When you get this far away from a recession invariably forces build up for the next recession, and indeed we are beginning to see that sign," Greenspan said via satellite link to a business conference in Hong Kong. "For example in the U.S., profit margins ... have begun to stabilize, which is an early sign we are in the later stages of a cycle."

It seems like the boats have been rising a bit too fast in recent months. I don't know what has been driving it (I really haven't been paying all that much attention), but it felt too good to be true. No one likes a market crash but I can't say yesterday's events were totally suprising. I think people just got ahead of themselves. Greenspan seems to think they may have gotten further ahead than usual.

Greenspan Warns of Likely U.S. Recession: Financial News - Yahoo!Finance

HID knows this lawsuit increases the publicity about the issue. They want to. They want their customers to upgrade to the challenge response solution. It costs more money.

HID Shareholders: 2
The Progress of Science and the Useful Arts: -2
The integrity of our system of justice: -1000 or so, but hey, whose counting?

So, the deal is that by making the RFID reader while at work, he violated the patent. There is a common law exemption for experimental use, but it has been whittled down to almost nothing by the federal court system. The actual manufacturor can control or prevent any scientific inquiry into any patented device that occurs in any context from which the person engaged in the inquiry might benefit, such as when a University benefits from research by improving their reputation. So, basically, you can do research, but if you publish, you're fucked. This requires a legislative solution.

Under the common law "experimental use" defense, individuals who used a patented invention were free from infringement liability if the use was experimental.1 The experimental use defense originated in an 1813 Appeals Court opinion, Whittemore v. Cutter, 29 Fed. Cas. 1120 (C.C.D. Mass. 1813) (No. 17,600), in which Justice Storey stated that "It could never have been the intention of the legislature to punish a man who constructed such a machine merely for philosophical experiments, or for the purpose of ascertaining the sufficiency of the machine to produce its described effects." As used in the nineteenth century, "philosophical" use referred to scientific experimentation. In subsequent cases, courts distinguished between commercial versus non-commercial research for purposes of determining the type of experimental use entitled to exemption.

However, the recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Madey v. Duke University significantly narrowed the experimental use doctrine, and is likely to influence significantly the way in which academic scientific research is conducted. The court held that the "very narrow and strictly limited experimental use defense" can be exercised only if the use of the patented invention is "solely for amusement, to satisfy idle curiosity, or for strictly philosophical inquiry." Further, the defense does not apply if the use is "in furtherance of the alleged infringer’s legitimate business," regardless of the "profit or non-profit" status of the user.

Another important right that has been interpreted away.

Save-the-Date: Madey v. Duke University: Federal Circuit Sets Limitations on the Common Law Experimental Use Exemption

I can copy a proximity card at least as easily as I can take an impression of a key.

Read all about prox card cloning! Without a patent!

Proximity Cards