tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post6697432660164282266..comments2024-03-29T00:39:31.629-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Memory and the Forgiving Internet?David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30651439808358816182015-03-14T08:47:41.452-07:002015-03-14T08:47:41.452-07:00Hi John
The pollution benefits come from the fact...Hi John<br /><br />The pollution benefits come from the fact that different vehicles will be used<br />Because it's only being used for your commute - and you can get something different when you want it there is no reason for you to be in a two tonne family car capable of towing your boat.<br />Instead you will be commuting in a small one or two seater probably electric Duncan Cairncrossnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-26500079665817282982015-03-14T06:20:01.089-07:002015-03-14T06:20:01.089-07:00"...instead of owning a car, for example, you...<i>"...instead of owning a car, for example, you rent one only on the days you need, summoned with an Uber-like app perhaps. Despite the <b>benefits this shift may have for city congestion and air pollution (we'll only need a fraction of the current number of cars in the world we have now)</b>..."</i><br /><br />I think a lot of people are imagining this wrong. I think people are picturing this as getting cars off the road. But I think people would still drive (or ride) anywhere they wanted, and still make about as many trips, so there would still be about as many running cars out on the road. There just wouldn't be as many sitting in parking lots.<br /><br />So the pollution benefits would come from the productions side, not the operation side, and maybe a bit from some folks being more willing to share a ride in a car that isn't theirs and thus isn't likely to be embarrassingly messy or what have you. And maybe from excess parking space being converted to additional business space (bringing some of your potential destinations that much closer to you), or to small parks and green space.John's Secret Identity™https://www.blogger.com/profile/03415668996117415753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71328111478942166452015-03-13T22:07:20.116-07:002015-03-13T22:07:20.116-07:00Jumper,
Thank you for the chuckle. 8)
Geniuses. ...Jumper,<br /><br />Thank you for the chuckle. 8)<br /><br />Geniuses. Right. Savants maybe... 8)<br /><br />You CAN monitor all your own stuff, but by the time you learn now my team might want to hire you. IA/Security folks are in short supply right now. If you are female, so much the better since there is a chance you think different from the usual fools who mess with our lives.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-77540351360703987052015-03-13T17:58:17.864-07:002015-03-13T17:58:17.864-07:00Leonard Nimoy, Edgar Froese and now Terry Pratchet...Leonard Nimoy, Edgar Froese and now Terry Pratchett - this has been a very harsh winter! Worthy of a more eloquent writer than myself.Paul Shen-Brownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69846964375828194382015-03-13T17:44:41.328-07:002015-03-13T17:44:41.328-07:00It might help if OS developers had sense. I have n...It might help if OS developers had sense. I have no way to monitor my OWN packets in my OS. Just volume.<br />Also the communications are abysmal: I get alerts saying "analyzing for threats." It never occurs to whomever writes these things to include a subject noun. WHO is analyzing? My OS, my antivirus, or my browser?<br />Stupidity reigns. Just to rub salt in my wound, you know these guys think they're geniuses...Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80493662768935613802015-03-13T17:09:17.449-07:002015-03-13T17:09:17.449-07:00Squinting and imagining. Hmm. There are intelligen...Squinting and imagining. Hmm. There are intelligent monsters out there. Squinting makes it hard to see them. 8)<br /><br />What you folks might want to consider is the DoD has a serious interest in getting you all to protect yourselves properly. Lots of bad stuff we get hit with comes from compromised systems owned by US citizens. If you have a patriotic itch or kids of your own serving overseas, consider learning how to defend your home front.<br /><br />If you are inclined to lump the DoD in with the NSA, you aren’t thinking about the different missions we all serve. It does make some sense to split the NSA, but you don’t have to wait to find someone who seriously wants a home front that can’t be used against us.<br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48919673369375587682015-03-13T15:29:33.223-07:002015-03-13T15:29:33.223-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55662904303114087972015-03-13T15:29:21.062-07:002015-03-13T15:29:21.062-07:00"My bill ... just asks filmers to stand back ...<i>"My bill ... just asks filmers to stand back a little so as not to interfere with law enforcement," </i><br /><br />So if you are the one being stopped in a car, for example, you cannot film the interaction to protect yourself. <br /><br />The representative has also tried (and failed) to get a bill passed that would allow citizens to ignore laws based on their religious objections.<br /><br />Texas, leading the the country back to the 19th century.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72870403119060590472015-03-13T15:05:27.770-07:002015-03-13T15:05:27.770-07:00Texas bill would make recording police illegal: Ci...Texas bill would make recording police illegal: Citizens who are armed (with cameras) would not be permitted to record police activity within 100 feet of an officer on duty. The offense would be a misdemeanor. This bill would contradict the precedent set in 2011 by an appeals court, which found that citizens are allowed to record police.<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/bill-recording-police-illegal_n_6861444.htmlDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39216585766539332362015-03-13T14:46:51.966-07:002015-03-13T14:46:51.966-07:00I don't think a national "clean-up" ...I don't think a national "clean-up" day would be cost effective. I used to work in IT and I can't think of a way that a millions of dollars idea would help. Large businesses spend multiple millions of IT dollars trying to keep their networks clean.<br /><br />I would propose something a little more radical for "cleaning up" the internet. I would split off the NSA's evesdropping infrastructure into its own department, lets call it NSAlight. That department would be responsible for lightly policing the internet. They would not deal with end users but just networks operators and feds/police. If a business was getting attacked by a DDOS attack, the NSAlight would be able to see where the attacks were coming from. They wouldn't directly try to stop the attack. Instead they would try to prevent future ones by reporting the source IPs to their ISPs and also by working with network operators to configure networks to block inappropriate traffic from leaving/entering the operators network. The NSAlight could also apply NSA style filters to traffic data to look for known botnets (reported by antivirus companies?) and report the involved IPs to appropriate ISPs. I would consider them the Highway patrol of the internet.<br /><br />A nice side effect of splitting the snooping infrastructure out of the NSA is we could both apply stronger transparency requirements to it and also let other institutions (FBI, CIA, local police, etc...) request data as necessary with appropriately submitted warrants. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64986139256744949792015-03-13T13:10:10.918-07:002015-03-13T13:10:10.918-07:00@David - The US government has already been implic...@David - The US government has already been implicated in getting companies to create back doors to encryption. As the old adage goes: "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but just one day to lose it". US government involvement is now poisoned by this behavior. Consequence, consequences.<br /><br />Open source helps to be sure, as it is a transparency. But is that going to be good enough, and does transparency help or hinder net-net? I would prefer a organization that has real skin in the game to develop such code. Recall that real flu-vaccines are not made well today, and companies do not have any skin in that game due to the method of remuneration. A government lab might be best for real vaccines, especially as there is no advantage for the government to not make a good job of the production.<br /><br />Better to build a robust OS or web, rather than treat the symptoms of insecure ones. I would gladly buy a smartphone OS that was [nearly] invulnerable to malware at the cost of some functionality.<br /><br /> Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32439149602327727542015-03-13T12:15:11.994-07:002015-03-13T12:15:11.994-07:00Yipe, you guys just refuse to play along and squin...Yipe, you guys just refuse to play along and squint and imagine - what if the govt coordinated the biggest companies plus EFF and NGOs in this endeavor. At first you might get a negative sum mess. But since ALLL of them benefit if this works, there just might be people involved smart enough to do it... un? ... right?<br /><br />Then release open source for crit-feedback and error discovery.<br /><br />What I don't get is why the reflex is always not just to assume the worst, but to assume that the best .. or even the okay... is so intrinsically IMPOSSIBLE that there's no point even fantacizing how it might happen.<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-46123911755185219142015-03-13T10:53:49.262-07:002015-03-13T10:53:49.262-07:00With OS's I am reminded of Scotty's line i...With OS's I am reminded of Scotty's line in Star Trek III: <i>" The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. "</i><br /><br />With Java, the original plan was to make a secure sandbox. But it didn't take long before demand to control security allowed all sorts of attacks on the computer. Javascript's eval function is just a gaping hole for attacks. And on and on. We really need a secure OS for general purpose use and a way for the user to ensure that any applications cannot attack the computer in any way. Commercial OSs for consumer use have become bloated kluges with ways to "stop up the drain". I wouldn't any longer trust the US government to create such a secure OS, but perhaps a software firm could do so.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83243468319203349872015-03-13T10:09:02.528-07:002015-03-13T10:09:02.528-07:00I'm not so sure the price tag would come in ne...I'm not so sure the price tag would come in near $10M. I work for the US Navy as an IT/IA guy (contractor) and I can tell you it is very expensive to keep systems clean AND useful. We have obvious reasons for a lot of overhead costs the public wouldn't need, but the scanning, patching, and guideline tools are unavoidable.<br /><br />One of the reasons I own Apple products is I prefer to pay them to keep my personal systems updated. I remain aware of which extra applications I've installed and I check them periodically, but this logistical task is beyond what most people are trained to do for themselves. That means this public health measure must support scanning tools and be able to demand from software vendors a minimum of participation to properly describe how to detect their software, version numbers, and library dependencies. THAT is where the budget will balloon as I know of no good way to manage all that without hiring the human staff to do it.<br /><br />I agree that going after OS and major platform (flash, java, etc) vulnerabilities first is worth doing, but it won't stop there. Fortunately for this here libertarian, I won't object if the budget expands too much. This is certainly worth doing. Negative externalities must be mercilessly squished.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36437294545914319932015-03-13T09:40:38.882-07:002015-03-13T09:40:38.882-07:00Tony that was very nice.
BTW...
Disney is “bettin...Tony that was very nice.<br /><br />BTW...<br />Disney is “betting a billion dollars on a magical wrist band.” A new ticketing method that will let each member of your family get personalized treatment from the instant you enter the park, always welcomed into the correct line, walking out of stores with merchandise paid for without visiting a cashier, ordering food before arriving at a restaurant and sitting at any table, knowing the food will arrive….<br />http://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/<br /><br />…And if someone doesn’t add this to my predictions registry wiki, then wah!<br /> http://earthbydavidbrin.pbworks.com/<br /><br />Read this chapter from EXISTENCE… set at the Shanghai World of Disney and the Monkey King, in the year 2045. And tell me Disney shouldn’t at least give me a nice family pass. Only the date was wrong. Stuff catches up with science fiction faster and faster.<br />http://www.davidbrin.com/shelteroftradition.html David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74468305932178274352015-03-13T09:28:18.081-07:002015-03-13T09:28:18.081-07:00@Terry & Paul:
You forgot to mention how they...@Terry & Paul:<br /><br />You forgot to mention how they both gave the cat a pet before leaving. (You know neither of them could resist eliciting a final purr from the sleeping beast.) :)A.F. Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54618723682540629062015-03-13T07:04:27.178-07:002015-03-13T07:04:27.178-07:00@Tony Fisk
//* keep updating archived documents a...@Tony Fisk <br />//* keep updating archived documents as they are accessed.*//<br /><br />Sort of like the "Ramblers" of England who walk paths to keep them open and free?<br /><br />A database of urls with a "last visited" attribute could be the foundation of a game I suppose. Open the box (see the URL) win a prize?<br /><br />--<br /><br />@Jumper ...<br />//*You could monetize that gunshot app, Randall.*//<br /><br />"Win a free packet of Cheetoes if your data packet is used to solve a crime!"rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-12981351293727091132015-03-13T06:21:38.468-07:002015-03-13T06:21:38.468-07:00@Paul: an imagined alternate scene:
Sir Terry loo...@Paul: an imagined alternate scene:<br /><br />Sir Terry looked at the dark clad figure standing by his bed. "Oh, you're not who I was expecting." he said.<br /><br />The attractive young woman smiled sweetly in response. "I understand, but you know how it is: we're not on a turtle." <br /><br />She held out a hand "I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THE VOICE THOUGH. I CAN STILL DO THAT, IF YOU LIKE."<br /><br />Terry considered this. "That's very kind but, you know, if I'm to Rest In Peace there ought to be a little less shouting involved."<br /><br />With that, Terry took Death’s arm and followed her through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43062778473637531322015-03-13T05:08:29.795-07:002015-03-13T05:08:29.795-07:00Long term archives suffer from the modern curse of...Long term archives suffer from the modern curse of infrastructure: sexlessness.*<br /><br />While the stability of storage media is important, in some ways storage format is even more important. How do we read old documents written in 'closed' formats like Word 95, or WordPerfect? There are also vested interests preventing moves to more open formats (as was seen in the OOXML vs ODF debacle)<br /><br />There is an alternative approach, and that is to take (ahem!) a leaf out the vegetable world. Namely, the best way to preserve an heirloom plant is to grow it and harvest the seeds. Similarly, keep updating archived documents as they are accessed.<br /><br />That gives rise to a provocative thought: is a document that hasn't been read, or referred to, for a long time (say, a generation) still 'knowledge'? Would we be poorer if it were lost?<br /><br />*Sex sells, yes. But I think it's vastly over-hyped method. Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91622171349864150582015-03-13T04:24:57.004-07:002015-03-13T04:24:57.004-07:00Tony,
Him being a wizard, we at least know that D...Tony,<br /><br />Him being a wizard, we at least know that Death personally collected him.<br /><br />And, I would expect, POLITELY ASKED FOR AN AUTOGRAPH.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80810379701555945932015-03-12T19:34:00.369-07:002015-03-12T19:34:00.369-07:00The cost of this public health measure... maybe te...The cost of this public health measure... maybe ten million dollars... amortized among 100, million+ citizens... yep that is reeeelly gonna hurt the poor.<br /><br />And let's of course never mention the billions lost to cyber crime that would be prevented. What's all that compared to a cynical snark!David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24350289398046559372015-03-12T19:32:24.717-07:002015-03-12T19:32:24.717-07:00Alfred the perfect is the enemy of the good. If w...Alfred the perfect is the enemy of the good. If we can wipe out all the CURRENT bot-nets on American (and western and then world PCs, the network that the bot-net crooks use, to promulgate new versions, will be seriously impaired. All new versions would propagate with more difficulty and nowhere near as far.<br /><br />This is exactly equivalent to public health. I am not surprised that Mr. Burns doesn't see the parallel. His every paragraph was downright silly.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60761032281239902252015-03-12T18:01:24.204-07:002015-03-12T18:01:24.204-07:00There is a type of DVD called the mdisc that suppo...There is a type of DVD called the <a href="http://www.mdisc.com" rel="nofollow">mdisc</a> that supposedly will last for 1000 years. (They claim up to 16,000 years if stored under low temperature and humidity.)<br /><br />The blank mdiscs look almost black on against a solid surface, but are semi-transparent when held up to the light.<br /><br />Someone got the idea for them when he saw the dark stains on rocks that are common in the western United States. Some of those rock stains are apparently centuries old. Mdiscs require a stronger than average laser to record them, but they will playback on any DVD player.<br /><br />See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC</a><br /><br />My sister gave me a USB mdisc burner and ten blank mdiscs as a gift several months ago. I haven't used them yet. I will record some of them during the next few months, and I will report back in 3015 to let you know if they really lasted as long as advertised.<br /><br />Jerry Emanuelsonhttp://www.futurescience.com/je.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72426176107155045382015-03-12T17:55:34.044-07:002015-03-12T17:55:34.044-07:00A yearly flu shot probably isn't enough. The b...A yearly flu shot probably isn't enough. The bot herders learn quickly. If it's not every month, I wouldn't spend much effort trying to get it funded.<br /><br />If people knew what some of the bot-net owners did with the stolen/personal property, they would be horrified. There are some really evil things going on. It's not just stolen credit card numbers and the externality this imposes on our financial system. <br /><br />Imagine if you knew your machine had been used to strip someone of their identity, run up huge financial debts against them, and make that person spend the next few years trying to recover, would this bother you? Would it have to happen to you first for you to understand? Better than calling it a flu-shot, I think we should be using the word 'plague.'Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82095348546548058092015-03-12T15:51:43.931-07:002015-03-12T15:51:43.931-07:00"yearly "flu shot" against bot-nets..."yearly "flu shot" against bot-nets [...] left to the private sector far too long."<br /><br />As long as we're wishing, let the flu shot test for potential vulnerabilities and indicate how to close or mitigate them.<br /><br />How is the public sector better equipped to deal with this? Is your magic wand waving away the technical details, funding problems, the laziness of users, or what? Seems to me, users already have an incentive and good solutions exist, even free ones. <br /><br />But the solutions are not perfect and people are lazy. Many even drag their feet before applying free system updates, which is basic hygiene. <br /><br />The idea of shunning those who fail or default on a security test sounds tempting, but I suspect there are a lot of problems we're overlooking. For instance, will your flu shot know what to do with my highly customized linux install? My obscure legacy system? My internet-of-things toaster? How will it identify "me" so that I can't take the test from a dual boot partition, and later go back to running my infected system after passing the test?<br /><br />If you insist it must be funded by taxes (I'm sure all those poor people care deeply about our computer virus problems), at least consider running a contest or something to try to prevent the usual boondoggle. Maybe we should put some PR pressure on the sources of trouble, such as Microsoft, Apple and Adobe, to pitch in. Start a crowdfunded thing, where industry and government only pay out if/when the problem actually gets solved. Let people who actually have to use the thing decide who wins.<br />Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17330240621500931648noreply@blogger.com