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The Almighty Buck

Journal: Parent-Child Conversation #3 1

Journal by chill

As a parent you discover there are a couple "big" conversations you have with your kids. They're big in that they really mark a major milestone in their growing up.

The birds & bees is one of them. (Sex, for those of you not used to 1950s euphemisms.) Death is another. For some, divorce can be a biggie.

I just had one with my daughter, aged 23. She has had the opportunity to live at home, comfortably, her entire life and not had to work. School, yes. Gainful employment, no.

Comment: Re:Sony is a Profit-Oriented Corporation (Score 2) 504

by chill (#39058201) Attached to: Sony Raises Price of Whitney Houston's Music 30 Minutes After Death

Not really.

Whitney had no talent other than her voice. She was a performer. What she wasn't was a music writer and publisher. Thus, the bulk of the money didn't go to her. Ticket sales, yes. Music sales -- radio play, album sales, etc. -- no.

She was deep in debt and living on loans from the music label. The people who will make the money were the writers/publishers of the songs Whitney performed.

For example "I Will Always Love You" was written and published by Dolly Parton. *SHE* stands to make a bunch more $$ from this, but Whitney's estate will still have to pay off the debts with the little that is due her from increased sales.

Things like t-shirts, posters, memorabilia, etc. will go to the estate directly but they still have the debt to pay off before the kids get it.

Comment: DDoS (Score 2) 16

by chill (#39046615) Attached to: NASDAQ and BATS DDoSed

The attack was directed against the web sites, not the trading machines. The original "notice" is here: http://pastebin.com/it77tAvs

This was a small bot net DDoS attack. Whether or not this could have been dealt with more efficiently by better routers/firewalls or HA configs, I don't know.

IMHO this is some script-kiddie types who are in it for the lulz. What it demonstrates is even the room-temperature IQ types can get a hold of some fairly potent DDoS tools. So, serious attention needs to be paid to upgrading their infrastructure and IT security in general.

It is a good time to be in the IT Security field, if you're looking for work.

Comment: Re:Pot calling kettle. (Score 3, Insightful) 333

by chill (#39019083) Attached to: Best Practice: Travel Light To China

Because once the cost is driven down so much by the commoditization of the hardware that it becomes ubiquitous, they will not stop at looking for marijuana crops.

The argument is called a slippery slope and perfectly valid. For popular media references see everything from The Simpsons to the Clint Eastwood classic Magnum Force.

The distinction isn't manned or unmanned surveillance, it is the frequency and pervasiveness.

[Note: The Magnum Force reference is to the slippery slope argument in general, not necessarily total surveillance in specific.]

Smart Camera Tells Tobacco from Marijuana->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A new smart camera technology not only takes a picture but also assays chemical composition, allowing photographers to tell whether that hand-rolled cigarette contains tobacco or marijuana. Designed to speed industrial inspection systems--such as detecting whether food is spoiled--the new smart camera includes spectral filters that make images of corn fields appear differently from hemp. Spectral cameras have been available for decades, but this microchip version should be cheap enough for almost any application--including law enforcement."
Link to Original Source
Censorship

Tor Tests Undetectably Encrypted Connections In Iran->

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Ahead of the anniversary of Iran’s revolution, the country’s government has locked down its already-censored Internet, blocking access to many services and in some cases cutting off all encrypted traffic on the Web of the kind used by secure email, social networking and banking sites. In response, the information-freedom-focused Tor Project is testing a new tool it's calling "obfsproxy" or obfuscated proxy, which aims to make SSL or TLS traffic appear to be unencrypted traffic like HTTP or instant messaging data. While the tool currently only disguises SSL as the SOCKS protocol, in future versions it will aim to disguise encrypted traffic as any protocol the user chooses. Tor executive director Andrew Lewman says the idea is to “make your Ferrari look like a Toyota by putting an actual Toyota shell over the Ferrari,”"
Link to Original Source
Censorship

Iran Blocking HTTPS Protocol-> 1

Submitted by IonOtter
IonOtter writes "Ars Technica tells us that the Iranian government is reportedly blocking access to websites that use the HTTPS security protocol, and preventing the use of software residents use to bypass the state-run firewall. From post on Hacker News today, apparently written by an Iranian resident:

Since Thursday Iranian government has shutted [sic] down the https protocol which has caused almost all google services (gmail, and google.com itself) to become inaccessible. Almost all websites that reply on Google APIs (like wolfram alpha) won't work. Accessing to any website that replies on https (just imaging how many websites use this protocol, from Arch Wiki to bank websites). Also accessing many proxies is also impossible.

Several Hacker News users confirmed the original post's statement that Iran is blocking encrypted Internet traffic. "I live in Iran. The fact about the shut down is correct," one person wrote. Another said "They drop all encrypted connections. This means no https, no IMAP over TLS and no SSH connections. (Im in Iran)."
Link to Original Source

Ain't no right way to do a wrong thing. -- The Mad Dogtender