Comment Re:1984 (Score 3, Informative) 140
-Red
-Red
You might also look at selecting a story or two from Gibson's Burning Chrome, but as I don't have a copy handy at the moment, I can't make a hard recommendation.
Another consideration might be George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. READ this one before you assign it, as it touches on some racy subject matter.
Finally, consider Daniel Keys Moran's The Long Run. Not as well known as the others, but a great read.
Hope this helps....
-Red
Oracle is really an excellent product for a database in which there will be DBA maintenance. If there aren't DBAs Oracle's complexity becomes a minus not a plus.
I could not have said it better. To get your money out of Oracle, you must have a seasoned, professional DBA, usually two or more (production / development). Further, Oracle really takes advantage of higher end hardware, and that takes a different kind of dba experience and expertise to optimize. You're probably on it for a good reason, particularly if on higher end Sun hardware.
Oracle bought Sun for a reason, they could not afford for the platform to go away.
Hope this helps.....
-Red
Sequestration exists, I didn't bring politics into the discussion, you did. I just pointed out that it's gonna impact the attendance of feds at ALL cons, including DEFCON, until it gets sorted.
As far as student loan rates, and tuition rates while we're at it, fuck you. I have TWO in college right now, so am acutely aware of the pain.
No, I didn't cry about it, I'm just gonna shoulder the load and get on with life. Let me know when you've been paying taxes for 40 years, we'll talk again.
-Red
For your team to purposely pull your talk from DefCon because they have asked that the feds not attend this year is absolutely silly. If your purpose is openness and community, it seems rather fishy that the organizers simply asking that the 'Feds' don't attend (i.e. the guys trying to track hackers) would incite you to pull your talk. I think it is completely disingenuous to say that this is not a political move because the community will still be there - you just aren't targeting the community anymore with your talks and your target audience may not be present...at least that's the way you make it seem.
Seems to me that their motivation is pretty much the same as Moss's *the Dark Tangent" in "uninviting" the feds in the first place.
Publicity.
Looks to me like it's working.
Here's a reality check: Most feds don't come to DEFCON, they come to BlackHat, and stay through (part of) the weekend for the con because:
Now let's kick in a little reality: Sequestration has hit the feds a LOT harder than most people realize, with furloughs, draconian travel restrictions including forbidding weekend travel, attending conferences, etc. The feds that DT uninvited were probably not going to be there anyway, and my guess is he's trying to stir up some shit and boost non-fed attendance.
The feds that will be there are either the ones who are genuinely interested in the community, coming back to see old friends, attending more than likely on their own dime, or, those on a mission.
Neither class of fed is going to pay attention to the un-invitation.
Just my 2% of $monetary_unit. I don't know shit, I've only been going to the con for 13 years.
-Red
- Formal Logic (might have to look in the Philosophy department for that one, it was dual credit for us)
- Structured Programming
- Number Theory
- Mathematical Modeling
Lots of the rest of it was fun, but I haven't really used much of the college level math since then. The geometry and trigonometry I had in high school have served me much better.
Hope this helps.... Red
What he said, MH is the tool for this task. I have mail going back to early 90s, each message in a separate text file, sorted into directories by year. Once you're archiving in this format, you can then index the files for more rapid searches, or, if you're old school, just grep around when you're looking for something.
Best thing is, once you have them organized this way, you're done, and can burn backups of the archive (by year) directories to CD or other long term storage, and not have to worry about loosing anything.
One warning: beware filesystem limitations on number of files in a directory. If you convert a HUGE amount of mail at one time and dump it into one dir, you may end up with a problem, so RTFM (read the friendly man pages) and plan ahead accordingly. You may need for example to split a year into quarters if that years mail exceeds a limit (not that I've run into that problem....)
BTW, the O'Reilly book is a must. Grab the pdf, but get a paper copy if you can as it's quite hefty.
Hope this helps.....
Red
Terrorists typically have no specific nationality, do NOT wear uniforms, and are not necessarily readily identifiable as such, or as to their origin or objective.
Rogue States simply by definition do not follow the rules, and believe it or not, in conventional warfare, there are internationally recognized laws of war, Geneva conventions, etc. Not only do these guys not play by the rules, they have also been known to sponsor terrorists, and hackers.
The proposal might help if signatory nation states ever openly "went at it". It won't help in the case of covert attacks because of the problem you and others point out of attribution, and won't help at all with the players I describe above.
They'll simply ignore it.
Red
Then, mentor the young pup. Treat him like your son or daughter. Teach him everything. You can't teach experience though, so you're ahead no matter what. During this time, evaluate the person's capabilities, including the capability to listen and learn. Think of this as having an intern on somebody else's dollar.
If it all goes south and you lose your customer, you might be able to pull him with you (assuming he's worthy).
THEN you're in a nice bargaining position.
Red
There is inherent danger in taking on a criminal element, cyber or otherwise, either as a reporter or a member of the law enforcement community. They are criminals, and do not adhere to the norms (laws and ethics) of society. Brian has chosen his path of reporting on and exposing these miscreants in a public forum, and to not hide his identity, knowing full well the risks of repercussions. He was so aware of the specific threat of being SWATted that he approached his local Law Enforcement authorities in advance of this attack to educate them and alert them to the possibility that he might be targeted. No, he didn't "deserve" what happened, and I would never imply that he did.
There is some safety in publicity; obviously, in this case, it was insufficient. DDOSing your web site in retaliation is one thing. THIS attack crossed the line. THAT's what "poking the wrong bear" means.
Red
First (cheapest) option is to look for triple-flange earplugs. Look at a sporting goods store in the firearms department.
If that doesn't work for you, look into getting custom molded plugs made. I have a set from my time as a competitive shooter, and when they are in, and correctly seated, I cannot hear ANYTHING, even though I can feel the noise in many cases. For voices and random dorm noise, that should be sufficient.
Another option is a set of noise canceling headphones. Just don't feed them any input and they will still reduce ambient noise. I would recommend you borrow a set from a friend before investing, as the best are "over the ear" types, and they tend to create a sensation of pressure in your ears. Some folks find that uncomfortable.
Hope this helps......
Red (retired Field Artillery Officer)
The key is, the store is his home. His people (the owners) come to visit him and spend time with him there every day. He gets lots of visitors who he can greet (customers).
End of the business day, his people leave him a small amount of food, plenty of fresh water, and a nice place to sleep, as well as run of the store.
Post signs. Dawgs protect their territory, which is why it needs to be HIS store (his home), not a bring to work dawg.
Caveat Emptor: check with the liability insurance carrier up front.
Red
If you're operating on a more basic level, clone the crufty code, put the cruft in comments explaining CLEARLY why you cut it out.
When you fix or replace what you cloned, comment there as to exactly what you think was wrong or broken, and how you fixed it.
One thing that is certain, with production code, you will NOT be the last person to work on it. Pay it forward with good practice.
Red
Anything free is worth what you pay for it.