Messages

126

Living Room / (Video) Stalked by an a-capella group

« on: July 15, 2007, 02:49 PM »

Never spar in New York City's Central Park.
You might get stalked by an a-capella group from UC Berkeley demanding you to fight harder

http://www.brainblog...diaview/239/Acapella

127

Living Room / Offering free/open wireless in Germany? You're guilty! Bye Bye Fon

« on: July 12, 2007, 04:30 PM »

If you're running a free, open, wireless hotspot in Germany and someone (mis)uses your internet connection for, say, piracy, you're responsible.

In Germany you're responsible for...
    * ... what people post on your forum or blog
    * ... the content of external websites you link to (even tho they are not your websites)
    * ... every crime committed using your free wifi hotspot

http://nrrd.de/dasbuch/hadez/offering_free_open_wireless_germany_youre_guilty_bye_bye_fon

.

128

General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« on: July 12, 2007, 02:22 PM »

while speech recognition may work (reasonably) well for 'normal' documents i see no future for it in the programming world
one reason is the nature of most programming languages (maybe except for cobol or stuff like that)
those are the reasons:

* programming languages make use of a lot of special characters
* if the language is case sensitive, good luck
* speech recognition uses quite some heuristics based on 'normal' language

thus, programming languages don't work well.
what i could imagine seeing tho would be macro-based voice recognition, which would need a special support packages for each programming language.
one would define standard blocks (for loops, class templates, switch-case, if-then-else, or more abstract templates) and name them eg. "new for-loop from 0 to 20" and it'll spit out "for(int i=0; i<20; ++i) { }"
this combined with classic keyboard input might have a future.

basically, replace everything you can't do by keyboard shortcuts (aka, you'd have to use your mouse) with a voice macro.
for everything else... no way

129

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« on: July 11, 2007, 08:31 PM »

Does this new Law affect Austria, too? 

-IQLover (July 11, 2007, 03:10 PM)

i don't see why
it's a german law.
last time you had to have worries like that was in the 1930's and 40's ;-)
but hey! if it keeps going like that...
... maybe we'll get v2.0 of that too....

130

Living Room / (Video) The VERY first IT professional...

« on: July 11, 2007, 02:58 PM »

... or how I feel when I have to tell ignorant users how to do simple tasks.
This video is just awesome Worth wasting 2.5 minutes on

The very first IT professional.

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=epJtqYAZCgQ

131

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« on: July 07, 2007, 07:38 AM »

do they really know any thing about "hacker tools"? a web browser can be used to do a lot of damage..

-mitzevo (July 07, 2007, 12:33 AM)

sorry to break it to you
but NO, they know SHIT about "what a browser is" let alone "hacker tools"
it's also linked in the blogpost but let me link it here again:

kid reporters interview German politicians (German language)
Here's a small best off:

Kid: Do you own a computer?
Politician: Yes I do, but I hardly use it, it mostly "disagrees" with me.
Politician: No.
Politician: Yes, and I also use the internet. But only if I have specific questions for which I then seek answers online.

Kid: Could you name a couple of webbrowsers?
Politician: uhhm, wait, what are "browsers" again?

Kid: Do you have your own homepage?
Politician: Yes, I do have my own homepage,.... BUT I hardly know how to use it myself, I have people doing that for me.

132

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« on: July 06, 2007, 09:01 AM »

yes joto! exactly
SS-chaeuble has to go. actually he should have already been gone for 2 years now.
police state countdown: 2 minutes to 12. (that's my optimistic guess)

133

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for every

« on: July 06, 2007, 08:39 AM »

It means we're fucked.

The government propaganda tells us it wont harm the IT sector at all, since this law will only be used on "the bad guys" (fuzzy FUD definition as always).
So it's an opt-out law, my most loved system of suppression.
Make everything illegal and let the courts decide who's bad and who's not.

134

Living Room / OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« on: July 06, 2007, 08:28 AM »

German government just passed a law today that makes OWNING any such "hacker tool" which aim is to "commit a crime" illegal.
I just can't take it anymore.

Read up here to get a feeling how "being German" is getting worse and worse by the minute:

[...]
If you own any hacker tool which "aim is to commit a crime"...

    * nmap
    * metasploit
    * any penetration testing tool in general
    * port scanners
    * network analyzers? (hopefully not those too)

... you're signing up for one year in jail or a hefty fine.
That reads OWNING, not using, it's just OWNING.
[...]

Long version here:
http://nrrd.de/dasbuch/hadez/now_theyve_done_it_just_owning_hacker_tools_illegal_germany

Please speard the word and DIGG IT http://digg.com/poli...rmany_jail_time_fine
It's no fun anymore. We're getting screwed big time.

135

Living Room / Re: Anyone planning on buying an iPhone?

« on: July 01, 2007, 08:43 AM »

Can you change the battery?

-Carol Haynes (July 01, 2007, 06:27 AM)

i stumbled onto a page yesterday (can't seem to find it in my history anymore  with all the iphone noise..) where they took the phone apart..
and no, you can't change the battery, the battery makes up a good 50% of the case interior and to get where it was they had to pry the case open.

136

Living Room / Re: Anyone planning on buying an iPhone?

« on: July 01, 2007, 06:18 AM »

short answer: no
long answer: no, never ever

137

Living Room / Re: Bitwise gems - fast integer math

« on: June 28, 2007, 09:39 AM »

"This is about 600% faster." - I love people making bold claims without making any reference to which platform they tested it on :] (ah, following the link they mention AS3 - flash actionscript?)
[...]
Keep in mind that decent compilers know a bunch of these tricks already, which is good reason you wouldn't do ">> 2" to divide by four in C.

-f0dder (June 28, 2007, 05:32 AM)

hehe yes! exactly
the only reason why some of those bitwise ops are that much faster has to be a bad intermediate compiler / interpreter.
after all you want the script to start running, not compile for 5 minutes.
nevertheless, this list shows how to do some nice operations in bitwise and being who i am (someone who enjoys obfuscated c and perl and fancy/different ways to approach simple tasks) i appreciate websites like this one just for the fact that they list the operations ;-)
it's like a work of art
or maybe i already studied too much comp sci :x

I'd highly recommend everyone learning why those gems work. It would teach you a lot about how computers represent numbers and that could lead you to understand when and where those trick are really applicable.

-Eóin (June 28, 2007, 07:03 AM)

true indeed

138

Living Room / Bitwise gems - fast integer math

« on: June 28, 2007, 03:42 AM »

Fast modulo operation using bitwise AND

If the divisor is a power of 2, the modulo (%) operation can be done with:
modulus = numerator & (divisor - 1);
This is about 600% faster.

[Select]

x = 131 % 4;

//equals:
x = 131 & (4 - 1);

Every programmer should know about the simple shift-left, shift-right for base2 multiplication and division (if you don't, you're missing something).
This page, however, lists a couple of real gems (as the title suggests) like the one quoted above.
Enjoy!

http://lab.polygonal.de/2007/05/10/bitwise-gems-fast-integer-math/

139

Living Room / Re: DMZ Linux Cursors For Windows

« on: June 23, 2007, 04:00 PM »

Thanks for your comment oh wise one. [ Invalid Attachment ]

-Nighted (June 23, 2007, 12:47 PM)

well, at the end of the day you distribute by posting it on a forum that is available to the public.
adding "please don't re-distribute" wont help. just saying.
it's not that i'd care

ps.
i like the ubutu cursors ;-)
the way cursor is pretty nice

140

Living Room / Re: DMZ Linux Cursors For Windows

« on: June 23, 2007, 04:37 AM »

TESTING ONLY: Please to not redistribute as I have not yet included all the proper credits.

-Nighted (June 22, 2007, 10:18 PM)

well, you shouldn't distribute it in the first place
if the cursors are gpl, then just include the gpl text as "LICENSE.TXT" into the rar, and maybe the installer if you have one.

141

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-05: Ten Great Ideas of GNU/Linux

« on: June 21, 2007, 10:57 AM »

ps. I hope you also do a "10 Horid Ideas of GNU/Linux" blog, if you can think of them -- I think it would help complete the picture.

-mouser (June 21, 2007, 09:42 AM)

haha, well, as always, there will be a lot of those
since very often the pro of one thing is the contra of another

i'm kinda interested in what you think are the 10 worst things tho ;-)
out of pure curiosity
i know there are plenty of things that suck
i still love it, even after 6+ years

142

Living Room / Re: what is the potential capacity of the internet?

« on: June 21, 2007, 04:38 AM »

if you're looking for a proper way to illustrate something, check the periodic table of visualization
http://www.visual-li.../periodic_table.html

143

Living Room / Re: what is the potential capacity of the internet?

« on: June 20, 2007, 06:04 AM »

haha, i'm glad there are still people who can deal with a bit of criticism
kudos to you nudone

the only occasion i state that the "net is full" is in this context:

somenoob: useless comment or statement
me: get off MY internet, there's not enough bandwidth for you

;-)

144

Living Room / Re: what is the potential capacity of the internet?

« on: June 20, 2007, 12:38 AM »

why do people always seek simple answers to complex problems?
the internet just ISN'T "one big fat pipe"
of course you _could_ argue that _if_ one would be able to use all the broadband interconnects and end user connections _at the same time_ you could reach some hypothetical bullshit number
but that would be like arguing that if you put all the lanes of all US highways next to each other over the distance of 1 mile you wouldn't have to worry about traffic jams anymore because there's so much road....

network != single connection

if you're really into that "duh. just keep it simple" stuff, go to your church of choice.
that's one other thing "intelligently designed" for people who like it simple

145

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you a hardcore software fanatic or a poseur?

« on: June 18, 2007, 03:42 AM »

i don't know and i don't care
the definition of 'program' is vague to begin with

i can count what packages are installed tho

seidensha gjehle # emerge -pe world | grep '\[ebuild' | wc -l
1038
seidensha gjehle # emerge -pe system | grep '\[ebuild' | wc -l
363

makes a whopping 1371 packages.
almost all of them are compiled from source ;-)

any takers?

146

Living Room / Re: DC get together in Western Europe?! July 2007?

« on: June 17, 2007, 07:35 PM »

july is kinda bad, it's when i have to write this semester's finals
maybe next time ;-)

147

Living Room / Re: Is there a Safari for Windows?

« on: June 12, 2007, 04:18 AM »

Safari for Windows, 0day exploit in 2 hours
By Thor Larholm

Apple released version 3 of their popular Safari web browser today, with the added twist of offering both an OS X and a Windows version. Given that Apple has had a lousy track record with security on OS X, in addition to a hostile attitude towards security researchers, a lot of people are expecting to see quite a number of vulnerabilities targeted towards this new Windows browser.

I downloaded and installed Safari for Windows 2 hours ago, when I started writing this, and I now have a fully functional command execution vulnerability, triggered without user interaction simply by visiting a web site. I will not sell this one to ZDI or iDefense but instead release it here, as I have done lately with a number of 0day vulnerabilities. This place is where you get my latest research

ha-ha
so much for all the nice apple software that's oh-so much more secure ;-)

http://larholm.com/2...-exploit-in-2-hours/

148

General Software Discussion / Re: File Names : what should be avoided

« on: June 11, 2007, 05:44 PM »

How does one switch to unicode/utf8 in windows? Through the control panel "Regional and Language Options"?  Please forgive my ignorance...

-Armando (June 10, 2007, 07:15 PM)

well, can't help you with that ;-)
i only know there are language packs so you can display asian stuff, but that was quite a while ago that i used it
now being linux-only i just have to tell my kernel what to use and set my locale ;-)

149

General Software Discussion / Re: File Names : what should be avoided

« on: June 10, 2007, 07:05 PM »

some guidelines:
yes i would avoid using periods except to separate a file extension, as you will confuse programs that treat anything

-mouser (June 09, 2007, 05:15 PM)

every windows program i used (except for some crappy 8+3 16bit stuff back in the days
was able to handle multiple periods just perfectly fine
/([^\.]+)$/ FTW

and while i'm a friend of the "strict US ascii", "no spaces", "all lower case" i have recently switched to unicode/utf8 for all filesystem related stuff
it's kinda nice to be able to browse folders like this without problems:

150

Living Room / Re: Why do so many micropayment systems fail?

« on: June 05, 2007, 03:07 PM »

it has been stated before here i guess but nevertheless
"just because you can pay a small amount doesn't make users want your product"

eg. take the comic strip that was used as an example.
if you start something new that has already been done for free millions of times (web comics) the demand is low.
now if you want users to pay for it from the start, even if it is just 1ct...
if the user can get the satisfaction (reading a comic) elsewhere for less (free) they wont even start reading.
unless of course they want to (well known artist, great (free) story teasers, awesome artwork, whatever makes the producy unique and a must have)

if you have micro donation it implies that you can also get the product without paying up front.
so people use it and if the product is awesome enough for people to notice they might think: well, let's spare a buck for that poor coder.

it doesn't work the other way 'round unless people really, really, really, really want to have it.

in three words: "supply and demand"

micro payment doesn't fail because it's micro payment.
it fails because of other causes, one of the biggest IMHO is a gross misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the system itself.