In this case, it's specific against SSL. But in general, this is another form of differential crypt-analysis. Any credible encryption system takes steps to prevent this. (simply put, a single bit change in either key or plaintext should not have an easily predictable effect on the ciphertext.) As far as I know, no one has tried this method on other crypto methods.

Size alone is a very weak means of mapping content. Almost every modern web application has some variability in the output size at any given URL. Plus it's likely there will be many URLs generating the same size output.

Personally, I was gonna blame the Big Bang. If you're going to make an absurd connection, take. it. all. the. way.

In CA, I don't know -- it's an expensive place to live. The average (over the entire country) salary of a patrol officer is what, $30k??? (read: a whole LOT less than 200k, but a cop is the very definition of "high maintenance".)

Right. They first crawl the site to build a map of the encrypted pages. Then by looking at other encrypted streams, they can guess, with approx. 89% accuracy, what page it was. The overwhelming point here is that it is a complete and utter GUESS . Without decrypting the contents, they don't know for sure what it is. The issue for SSL is that it's not very good encryption if my https traffic for foo.html is sufficiently the same as another https session's traffic for foo.html -- i.e. it's failing the test of differential analysis.

NEGATIVE. The modem is not "line powered"...

in response to

your phone is powered the same way your modem is

The MODEM is not line powered. The M-O-D-E-M! Learn to read.

I'll pay on GOG.com rather than free with DRM.

"Down" means "not functional". When you pick up your phone, if you have dialtone, it's not "down". The fact that you cannot dial the people you want does not make it "down". For the record, my parent's house is 2.5mi from their CO, and it's another 8.8mi from the same CO to my aunt's house, and about 2mi to my sister's house. (as the crow flies, actually walking there is significantly further.)

Even if you maintain power for your router/ONT/etc., odds are very bad that the provider's infrastructure will match you. For example, how long do you think the 14 million Uverse cabinets littering sidewalks will last without grid power? They don't have generators with hundreds of gallons of fuel.

(also, "all circuits busy" happens on normal days too.)

I see. Telephones are connected to the CO wirelessly

Again, where the fuck did I say anything about POTS being wireless.

Where the fuck did I say anything about "wireless"? POTS (analog phone service) is run over a single pair of copper, either to a multiplexer ("SLC"), remote terminal ("RT"), or back to the central office ("CO"). That single pair carries both the signal and power. "your phone is powered the same way your modem is"... no, it is not... take your cable modem and attach only the coax cable: it doesn't power up and run. take your DSL modem and connect only the phone line: again, it does not power on and function.

Land lines did not "go down". Inter-switch capacity from your CO was insufficient for the number of calls being placed -- hence the "all circuits are busy" message. Try calling someone on the same switch; *ding* the call goes through. The only serious problem is the limited capacity to the 911 call center(s) -- most CO's have dedicated lines for 911.

NEGATIVE. The modem is not "line powered". All a POTS phone needs is to be connected to the PSTN; it gets it's power from the line fed from the CO (that has big batteries and a generator, and has "priority restoration" from the power company.)

Actually, that's a safety mechanism... computers can malfunction, and deploying the landing gear (or starting the APU) in space would be a catastrophe. Plus there's the shear mass of the interconnections necessary -- 5lbs is a lot of dead weight, which is why it stayed on the ISS.

The new Thief has a similar level: a haunted asylum. It has a shock scare early on (you will predict it, too obvious) and a few chills within but isn't nearly as scary as Shalebridge, not by a longshot.

Shalebridge still freaks me out.

I played through Dishonored several times because I was needing a stealth fix. The method of gameplay does affect the outcome but the number of those outcomes isn't huge (think Mass Effect 3's Pick-A-Colour ending). Dishonored was far too easy, I play on the hardest difficulty and ghosted it ending with a happy cutscene ending, hardest and killed everyone where plague rats ran amok and the end cutscene was rather grim and everything in between.

The Blink spell and Dark Vision spells made the game a walk in the park.

It's a very good game and does pay homage to the Thief series in a few parts. If you see it on sale, it's worth a buy if only for another type of stealthy-type game.

System Shock 2 is available on GOG.com for both PC and Mac. It is one of the finest FPS/sneak/RP games you will ever play. It is still is my #1 spot.

Because I am such a wonderful person, email me (address is visible above) with a random bunch of junk text then reply to this post with the same junk and I'll gift you the game. You can be playing it in an hour...