Starfleet Update
Don't know how long it will be there, but here is a link to a photo of the laser weapon used to shoot down an artillery shell in flight. I mentioned it in this post earlier.
Doesn't look like it would fit too well, might be a little too large other than mounting it in the shuttle's bay. It would take too long to deploy and leave the shuttle too vulnerable to attack. We're going to have to build something much bigger.
Monday, November 11, 2002
Sunday, November 10, 2002
Getting Axed From Your IT Career
In my work as an Independent IT Consultant, I often find myself at people's homes working on systems that access business' networks remotely. These systems are the 'weak-point' in a secure network, for if they are compromised they provide a direct ingress into a companies network.
I left the world of working for someone else, as I tired of the politics and the pointy-haired bosses that seem to infest all companies whether public or private. Job security is non-existant in this day and age, and the advantage of working for yourself is that you'll never have the heart-break of losing your job due to downsizing. However, as this article states, you still can get 'axed'.
So be careful the next time you are asked by a friend to work on their system if they ask. You might end up with some unplanned surgery.
In my work as an Independent IT Consultant, I often find myself at people's homes working on systems that access business' networks remotely. These systems are the 'weak-point' in a secure network, for if they are compromised they provide a direct ingress into a companies network.
I left the world of working for someone else, as I tired of the politics and the pointy-haired bosses that seem to infest all companies whether public or private. Job security is non-existant in this day and age, and the advantage of working for yourself is that you'll never have the heart-break of losing your job due to downsizing. However, as this article states, you still can get 'axed'.
So be careful the next time you are asked by a friend to work on their system if they ask. You might end up with some unplanned surgery.
Friday, November 08, 2002
The eGreat Wall of China
The People's Republic of China has always been interested in restricting its citizens access to the Internet. Apparently they have been employing U.S. Corporation's technology in doing so as this article states.
Another case of "What do you do?".
China has been granted favored trading status by the U.S. Government and admitted into the World Trade Organization. They are simply buying technology from U.S. Corporations that can be used to meet their own internal needs, as repugnant as a free society might find them. As long as U.S. Corporations don't export 'secret' technology, they are simply obeying the law and attempting to make inroads to a new market. After all, this is the whole purpose behind a corporation, to make money for its shareholders. As much as some of you want to believe that Corporations have to act in any other manner, this is simply not the case. The way to control a Corporations actions is either through the public witholding funds and refusing to buy the companies products or stock, or through legislation.
I prefer the former solution. I have observed that public pressure is far more effective than adding to the plethora of bureaucratic rules and regulations that are almost always inefficiently enforced. However, this situation begs for legislative action. Should we allow corporations to export this sort of technology to the PRC that will allow them to more efficiently repress free expression in their country.
However, where do you draw the line? What technology or products do you "ban"? Where do you draw the line and who decides where that line is? I am a firm believer in the "Slippery Slope" effect. Once you start down a path that involves Governmental intervention, it soon grows beyond its original scope and new restrictions creep into the system. Once entrenched, they are almost impossible to remove and soon are used not for their original purpose, but to forward someone's political agenda.
It would be interesting if Corporations also added the ability for the censoring/spying functions to be "turned off" remotely. However if this were discovered, they wouldn't be able to sell their products anywhere as there would be no trust in the items to be free from outside control.
I'm glad I don't have to make these decisions. However, I do not like American companies selling this sort of technology to the PRC, and if given the chance I would let involved corporations know about it.
The People's Republic of China has always been interested in restricting its citizens access to the Internet. Apparently they have been employing U.S. Corporation's technology in doing so as this article states.
Another case of "What do you do?".
China has been granted favored trading status by the U.S. Government and admitted into the World Trade Organization. They are simply buying technology from U.S. Corporations that can be used to meet their own internal needs, as repugnant as a free society might find them. As long as U.S. Corporations don't export 'secret' technology, they are simply obeying the law and attempting to make inroads to a new market. After all, this is the whole purpose behind a corporation, to make money for its shareholders. As much as some of you want to believe that Corporations have to act in any other manner, this is simply not the case. The way to control a Corporations actions is either through the public witholding funds and refusing to buy the companies products or stock, or through legislation.
I prefer the former solution. I have observed that public pressure is far more effective than adding to the plethora of bureaucratic rules and regulations that are almost always inefficiently enforced. However, this situation begs for legislative action. Should we allow corporations to export this sort of technology to the PRC that will allow them to more efficiently repress free expression in their country.
However, where do you draw the line? What technology or products do you "ban"? Where do you draw the line and who decides where that line is? I am a firm believer in the "Slippery Slope" effect. Once you start down a path that involves Governmental intervention, it soon grows beyond its original scope and new restrictions creep into the system. Once entrenched, they are almost impossible to remove and soon are used not for their original purpose, but to forward someone's political agenda.
It would be interesting if Corporations also added the ability for the censoring/spying functions to be "turned off" remotely. However if this were discovered, they wouldn't be able to sell their products anywhere as there would be no trust in the items to be free from outside control.
I'm glad I don't have to make these decisions. However, I do not like American companies selling this sort of technology to the PRC, and if given the chance I would let involved corporations know about it.
Quantum Drive
Quantum Computing has been a topic of recent interest. There are many articles that describe this next level of computing power that I think will make AI possible. This article describes a new method of encrypting data using Quantum Mechanics that will make it just about impossible to crack the encryption (unless you steal the 'secret key'). However, their methods and claims are self-defeating.
And I'll tell you why...
(I'm stealing this analogy from another source, and I can't remember who did it, so if you find it let me know who originally did it.)
Right now, imagine that you are standing in front of a skyscraper that is 100 stories tall with 1000 offices per story. In one of the offices is a briefcase that you need to acquire. As it is now, you have to search each office one-by-one until you find the briefcase you are looking for. It would take a long time, wouldn't it?
That's how computers work today. When you are looking for a certain piece of data, it has to search through each possible location of that data one-by-one. Computers are just fast enough to make it seem quite speedy.
Now imaging you are still in front of that skyscraper, only now you have developed magical powers and you can instantly clone yourself 99,999 times and therefore be able to search all the offices simultaneously.
That's how Quantum Computing works. You can in effect, find the data instantly, no matter where it is. Same thing goes to doing computations by Quantum Computing.
So what? What does that have to do with all this?
Think about it, we're now using Quantum Mechanics to almost instantly encrypt data so that its impossible to calculate all of the possible keys and apply them to try to 'decrypt' the data stream ('decode' is the wrong term, but that's another story). With Quantum Computing, you will be able to calculate all the possible keys almost as quickly, thus rendering all encryption useless.
Quantum Computing has been a topic of recent interest. There are many articles that describe this next level of computing power that I think will make AI possible. This article describes a new method of encrypting data using Quantum Mechanics that will make it just about impossible to crack the encryption (unless you steal the 'secret key'). However, their methods and claims are self-defeating.
And I'll tell you why...
(I'm stealing this analogy from another source, and I can't remember who did it, so if you find it let me know who originally did it.)
Right now, imagine that you are standing in front of a skyscraper that is 100 stories tall with 1000 offices per story. In one of the offices is a briefcase that you need to acquire. As it is now, you have to search each office one-by-one until you find the briefcase you are looking for. It would take a long time, wouldn't it?
That's how computers work today. When you are looking for a certain piece of data, it has to search through each possible location of that data one-by-one. Computers are just fast enough to make it seem quite speedy.
Now imaging you are still in front of that skyscraper, only now you have developed magical powers and you can instantly clone yourself 99,999 times and therefore be able to search all the offices simultaneously.
That's how Quantum Computing works. You can in effect, find the data instantly, no matter where it is. Same thing goes to doing computations by Quantum Computing.
So what? What does that have to do with all this?
Think about it, we're now using Quantum Mechanics to almost instantly encrypt data so that its impossible to calculate all of the possible keys and apply them to try to 'decrypt' the data stream ('decode' is the wrong term, but that's another story). With Quantum Computing, you will be able to calculate all the possible keys almost as quickly, thus rendering all encryption useless.
Thursday, November 07, 2002
Better Home Protection Than a Dog?
Besides a shotgun, the best thing for home defense is a large dog with a loud, deep bark (If you can tolerate the downside to owning such an animal). Maybe this device could be a good substitute when armed with the proper sound file and a big enough speaker system.
Besides a shotgun, the best thing for home defense is a large dog with a loud, deep bark (If you can tolerate the downside to owning such an animal). Maybe this device could be a good substitute when armed with the proper sound file and a big enough speaker system.
Cube Farm Snooping
Another article from the same site as the below two articles. Anyway, seems that the proliferation of wireless devices can get you in trouble, or 'expose' your thoughts to a co-worker without you knowing it.
While it would be very unusual for an RF signal from one of these keyboards to make it 150 meters (about 500 feet for those of you who can't do metric), it wouldn't be for those stuck in a cube farm. So take care what you type at work if you have one of those devices.
Another article from the same site as the below two articles. Anyway, seems that the proliferation of wireless devices can get you in trouble, or 'expose' your thoughts to a co-worker without you knowing it.
While it would be very unusual for an RF signal from one of these keyboards to make it 150 meters (about 500 feet for those of you who can't do metric), it wouldn't be for those stuck in a cube farm. So take care what you type at work if you have one of those devices.
Moving the Internet back to 50's Playboy
Silly article found out and about that says that we need more 'softcore' pr0n (That's '1337 for "porn") on the Internet.
The usual "Since it's going to happen anyway, we might as well control the exposure" argument that is simply 'giving-up' before you fight (France anyone?). But interesting nonetheless.
Silly article found out and about that says that we need more 'softcore' pr0n (That's '1337 for "porn") on the Internet.
The usual "Since it's going to happen anyway, we might as well control the exposure" argument that is simply 'giving-up' before you fight (France anyone?). But interesting nonetheless.
Another Reason Gun Control Doesn't Work
I should have forwarded this over to James' site for him to post about. Seems a London Squirrel is terrorizing people in the area. Its latest victim was a toddler. If the kids parents had a concealed weapon, they wouldn't be hunting the squirrel.
I wonder what they are using to 'hunt' it with since firearms are banned.
Reminds me of back in the day when I was on the force, and we had a law on the books (since repealed) that stated that it was against the law to "chase, harrass, or otherwise harm a squirrel" in the parks around town. It was a 3rd degree misdemeanor, punishable with jail time if the magistrate was so inclined. I always said I was going to collar someone for violating this section of the code, but they repealed it before I had the chance.
I should have forwarded this over to James' site for him to post about. Seems a London Squirrel is terrorizing people in the area. Its latest victim was a toddler. If the kids parents had a concealed weapon, they wouldn't be hunting the squirrel.
I wonder what they are using to 'hunt' it with since firearms are banned.
Reminds me of back in the day when I was on the force, and we had a law on the books (since repealed) that stated that it was against the law to "chase, harrass, or otherwise harm a squirrel" in the parks around town. It was a 3rd degree misdemeanor, punishable with jail time if the magistrate was so inclined. I always said I was going to collar someone for violating this section of the code, but they repealed it before I had the chance.
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Let's Mount This On The Shuttle
Technology continues it sprint forward. Found an article where the US Military has destroyed artillery rounds with a high powered laser. We just need to mount some of these on the space shuttle and we'll have the beginnings of Star Fleet. This is just the kind of breakthrough we need to help us move towards a missile defense system. We aren't going to be able to keep countries from builing ICBMs forever, so we need something to make them obsolete.
Technology continues it sprint forward. Found an article where the US Military has destroyed artillery rounds with a high powered laser. We just need to mount some of these on the space shuttle and we'll have the beginnings of Star Fleet. This is just the kind of breakthrough we need to help us move towards a missile defense system. We aren't going to be able to keep countries from builing ICBMs forever, so we need something to make them obsolete.
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Securing Your e-Borders
Very interesting day today. I attended a local convention, ITEC. It's a small sparsely attended IT vendor-ama. However, you can usually find some neat new hardware to look at. Unfortunately, there was very little of that this time - just the normal trinkets. Services however, were being pushed big-time. Especially in the Computer Security arena. Who knew a few things would drop in my lap right along those lines.
James sent me a link to an article written on October 28 about the Chinese trying to 'hack' into networks aboard our Naval vessels. The article doesn't go into many details, but it appears that a link was e-mailed to someone on a ship, and clicking on the link took them to a website that played the Marine Corps Hymn. Either there was some malicious code that tried to take advantage of a known vulnerability to surripticiously install a 'trojan horse', or a link to download one.
It failed, and System Admins were alerted. It was probably because it wasn't the right bait. The Chinese might think Military men want programs that related to patriotism, but I bet if it was porn, they would have been successful.
While reading the story, something at the site caught my attention. I did some experiments and discovered I was correct. I followed a link and discovered a SEVERE security hole that could be exploited to allow someone to wreak havoc on a website. It all had to do with poor programming practices.
I sent off a note to the site admins to let them know they needed to correct the problem. This exact problem is what is discussed in the article the is directly below the story I linked to above. NASA is having a problem patching their systems, and it means that other government agencies aren't any better off. However, this vulnerability was not a defect in the Operating System, it was a careless programming defect.
Hopefully they won't have the same thing happen to them that did to Blogger.
Very interesting day today. I attended a local convention, ITEC. It's a small sparsely attended IT vendor-ama. However, you can usually find some neat new hardware to look at. Unfortunately, there was very little of that this time - just the normal trinkets. Services however, were being pushed big-time. Especially in the Computer Security arena. Who knew a few things would drop in my lap right along those lines.
James sent me a link to an article written on October 28 about the Chinese trying to 'hack' into networks aboard our Naval vessels. The article doesn't go into many details, but it appears that a link was e-mailed to someone on a ship, and clicking on the link took them to a website that played the Marine Corps Hymn. Either there was some malicious code that tried to take advantage of a known vulnerability to surripticiously install a 'trojan horse', or a link to download one.
It failed, and System Admins were alerted. It was probably because it wasn't the right bait. The Chinese might think Military men want programs that related to patriotism, but I bet if it was porn, they would have been successful.
While reading the story, something at the site caught my attention. I did some experiments and discovered I was correct. I followed a link and discovered a SEVERE security hole that could be exploited to allow someone to wreak havoc on a website. It all had to do with poor programming practices.
I sent off a note to the site admins to let them know they needed to correct the problem. This exact problem is what is discussed in the article the is directly below the story I linked to above. NASA is having a problem patching their systems, and it means that other government agencies aren't any better off. However, this vulnerability was not a defect in the Operating System, it was a careless programming defect.
Hopefully they won't have the same thing happen to them that did to Blogger.
Monday, October 28, 2002
I Am Musically Challenged
Not that I can't appreciate good music, I just can't create it in any shape or form. However, I was pointed to a neat music site that even someone like me can have fun with. Give it a try.
Not that I can't appreciate good music, I just can't create it in any shape or form. However, I was pointed to a neat music site that even someone like me can have fun with. Give it a try.
I Keep My Extras In My Posterior
I was watching TLC's "Urban Legends" Show and one of the questions they asked was "Do Humans only use 10% of our brains?" Of course I had heard that, and even had read it in Sci-Fi books as a basis for some people being able to use "more" of their brain capacity and thus gaining powers like Telepathy, Telekinesis, and other 'Mind Powers'.
As this article and others state, we pretty much use 100% of our brains.
I guess I can quit trying to exercise mine. Here I thought I could turn the 90% 'fat' into some mental muscle.
I was watching TLC's "Urban Legends" Show and one of the questions they asked was "Do Humans only use 10% of our brains?" Of course I had heard that, and even had read it in Sci-Fi books as a basis for some people being able to use "more" of their brain capacity and thus gaining powers like Telepathy, Telekinesis, and other 'Mind Powers'.
As this article and others state, we pretty much use 100% of our brains.
I guess I can quit trying to exercise mine. Here I thought I could turn the 90% 'fat' into some mental muscle.
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
OH PUH-LEEZE
This will be the first time with more than one entry per day, but I couldn't pass this by.
Now they are worried about computerized voting machines being "hacked".
Of course, "hacking" is a subjective term - often misused, as the case here. But lets go along with their little fantasy.
Let's assume that the Democratic Party finds some people with brains to run the elections in those Florida counties that had all those voting problems in the last two elections. They setup these computerized voting booths, that are for some reason attached to the public Internet. Why they would be instead of on an isolated private network, I don't know. The idea that our "hackers" have about 14 hours (7AM to 9PM - 'court' ordered extended voting hours, like in St. Louis) to learn a whole new system, find all its weaknesses, break into the systems and change the data, erase logs, and disconnect before anyone discovered them is truly fiction. Even though I would like to try to break into a system in less than 60 seconds and write a worm that does all this while getting a hummer from a babe who performed fellatio "full-service" (I'll pass on the gun to the head) like in 'Swordfish' - it ain't gonna happen.
Besides, how many people could possibly successfully pull off the above scenario compared to the number of people (no matter their technology skill level) who could pilfer a stack of butterfly ballots, punch some holes in them, and drop them in the ballot box when no one is looking? You tell me which fraud is easier.
As far as a missing 'paper trail' goes, haven't these people heard of PRINTERS?
This will be the first time with more than one entry per day, but I couldn't pass this by.
Now they are worried about computerized voting machines being "hacked".
Of course, "hacking" is a subjective term - often misused, as the case here. But lets go along with their little fantasy.
Let's assume that the Democratic Party finds some people with brains to run the elections in those Florida counties that had all those voting problems in the last two elections. They setup these computerized voting booths, that are for some reason attached to the public Internet. Why they would be instead of on an isolated private network, I don't know. The idea that our "hackers" have about 14 hours (7AM to 9PM - 'court' ordered extended voting hours, like in St. Louis) to learn a whole new system, find all its weaknesses, break into the systems and change the data, erase logs, and disconnect before anyone discovered them is truly fiction. Even though I would like to try to break into a system in less than 60 seconds and write a worm that does all this while getting a hummer from a babe who performed fellatio "full-service" (I'll pass on the gun to the head) like in 'Swordfish' - it ain't gonna happen.
Besides, how many people could possibly successfully pull off the above scenario compared to the number of people (no matter their technology skill level) who could pilfer a stack of butterfly ballots, punch some holes in them, and drop them in the ballot box when no one is looking? You tell me which fraud is easier.
As far as a missing 'paper trail' goes, haven't these people heard of PRINTERS?
I want my PADD
The PADD (I forget what the acronym stands for) are those thin, handheld devices that are used as input devices and computers on Star Trek TNG and later (no, not tricorders). With this invention they move a step closer to reality. In fact, they'll probably be a considerably thinner.
Imagining two sheets of thin hinged glass being my computer staggers the mind. All of the 'projected' images on suspended glass screens in Sci-Fi movies/shows can be reality. It will be much easier to carry around a PC with you no matter where you go, or to extend several small pieces networked together to create a wearable computer.
With this technology, that commercial where you see the guy with the 'half-glasses' computer interface shouting "BUY! BUY! SELL! SELL!" while pidgeons scurry away from him becomes possible. I love it. I truly am looking forward to the next 20 years to see where we are. I bet I can get a full body replacement by then and essentially live forever.
Don't know if I'd really want to do that though.
The PADD (I forget what the acronym stands for) are those thin, handheld devices that are used as input devices and computers on Star Trek TNG and later (no, not tricorders). With this invention they move a step closer to reality. In fact, they'll probably be a considerably thinner.
Imagining two sheets of thin hinged glass being my computer staggers the mind. All of the 'projected' images on suspended glass screens in Sci-Fi movies/shows can be reality. It will be much easier to carry around a PC with you no matter where you go, or to extend several small pieces networked together to create a wearable computer.
With this technology, that commercial where you see the guy with the 'half-glasses' computer interface shouting "BUY! BUY! SELL! SELL!" while pidgeons scurry away from him becomes possible. I love it. I truly am looking forward to the next 20 years to see where we are. I bet I can get a full body replacement by then and essentially live forever.
Don't know if I'd really want to do that though.
Bet You Didn't Even Notice
The "root" if the Internet was attacked today. This story gives you the high-level as non-techie-as-possible explanation of what happened. If you notice, there are basically 13 servers that let all of us get from one site to another on the Internet. As the article states, Richard Clarke (no relation to Dick), warned long ago that an attack on the root DNS servers or "Top Level Domain" (TLD) servers would be devastating.
And it would.
And it wouldn't be hard.
These are the type of cyberattacks that are easy to accomplish (and have happened before) that could cripple things for quite a while.
The article doesn't explain what the TLD servers do, or why this would be bad, so I'll attempt to explain it in layman's terms.
The 'root' servers help convert the first level of DNS names to an IP address.
Huh? You say.
OK - Let me explain. This blog, http://jackburton.blogspot.com is hosted on a server with an IP address of 64.41.146.221 - How would you like to try to remember to type that number instead of jackburton.blogspot.com, or even if you bookmarked it with the number, imagine trying to send your link to other people. What if they had a bookmark with the same name already? Like Worthless Blog = 64.41.146.221 or something like that. Compound that with the fact that due to virtual hosting, you can have thousands of websites hosted on a single server with a single IP address. If you don't have DNS resolution, you don't get to any of the sites on that server. DNS (Domain Name Service) provides 'real' names to the IP addresses. The rub is, DNS names are read from Right-to-Left. (OK - all of you Islamic Conspiracy Theorists get to work now on this.)
So, when your computer asks for the IP address of jackburton.blogspot.com the DNS servers it has been assigned starts with the .com - Which is controlled by one of the 'root' servers. Therefore your computer asks the .com root server for the IP addresses of the DNS servers that control the blogspot.com domain. If the root server never answers, you never get there.
Now, when the root server is working, you get back the IP addresses of the DNS servers that are the Authority for the blogspot.com domain. Your computer then asks those servers for the IP address of the host by the name 'jackburton' - and the blogspot.com domain DNS servers reply with the correct IP address, 64.41.146.221 - Your computer then makes an HTTP GET command to http://jackburton.blogspot.com at 64.41.146.221 - which the webserver then translates to the correct virtual website and returns to you the correct data which your Web Browser re-assembles into what you see here. E-mail works the same way. Only E-mail talks through SMTP or POP3 or IMAP instead of HTTP.
Now, I have simplified a bit, your computer actually asks its assigned DNS servers to do all the work. When they get the final IP address, they send it back to your computer.
Still cornfused? Think of it like mailing a letter. If I was sending a letter to Jack Burton, 123 Anywhere Street, Anytown, AS (Any State), 12345 USA - I would address my letter like this:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
Anytown AS 12345
USA
Now, the equivalent for DNS would be:
jackburton
blogspot
.com
OK - We're missing one line, but it's the same thing. In fact drop the country designation off of the first example (because many of us don't use it because we rarely send international mail):
So we have:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
Anytown AS 12345
OK - Now imagine dropping off the 'Anytown AS 12345' from your letter. You'd have:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
What City? What State? What Country? It would never get there. It would sit in the dead letter office unless someone mailed it in the same zipcode as the destination and some mail carrier recognized it. The exact same thing would happed to all network packets not using the direct IP address of a server. The packets would not get there, and the internet would be for all intents and purposes, dead. Only sites and e-mail servers that controlled single domains would be accessible, and those only by IP address. Someone could set up a public WINS server or DNS server that everyone would have to use (so it better be a damn powerful server), and then the attackers would just flood the new public server with so much traffic that it would be useless as well.
Sorry about rambling, but with as dependent as we all are upon e-mail for business these days, it would have a huge impact on the economies of the world.
Got any questions? Drop me a line....
The "root" if the Internet was attacked today. This story gives you the high-level as non-techie-as-possible explanation of what happened. If you notice, there are basically 13 servers that let all of us get from one site to another on the Internet. As the article states, Richard Clarke (no relation to Dick), warned long ago that an attack on the root DNS servers or "Top Level Domain" (TLD) servers would be devastating.
And it would.
And it wouldn't be hard.
These are the type of cyberattacks that are easy to accomplish (and have happened before) that could cripple things for quite a while.
The article doesn't explain what the TLD servers do, or why this would be bad, so I'll attempt to explain it in layman's terms.
The 'root' servers help convert the first level of DNS names to an IP address.
Huh? You say.
OK - Let me explain. This blog, http://jackburton.blogspot.com is hosted on a server with an IP address of 64.41.146.221 - How would you like to try to remember to type that number instead of jackburton.blogspot.com, or even if you bookmarked it with the number, imagine trying to send your link to other people. What if they had a bookmark with the same name already? Like Worthless Blog = 64.41.146.221 or something like that. Compound that with the fact that due to virtual hosting, you can have thousands of websites hosted on a single server with a single IP address. If you don't have DNS resolution, you don't get to any of the sites on that server. DNS (Domain Name Service) provides 'real' names to the IP addresses. The rub is, DNS names are read from Right-to-Left. (OK - all of you Islamic Conspiracy Theorists get to work now on this.)
So, when your computer asks for the IP address of jackburton.blogspot.com the DNS servers it has been assigned starts with the .com - Which is controlled by one of the 'root' servers. Therefore your computer asks the .com root server for the IP addresses of the DNS servers that control the blogspot.com domain. If the root server never answers, you never get there.
Now, when the root server is working, you get back the IP addresses of the DNS servers that are the Authority for the blogspot.com domain. Your computer then asks those servers for the IP address of the host by the name 'jackburton' - and the blogspot.com domain DNS servers reply with the correct IP address, 64.41.146.221 - Your computer then makes an HTTP GET command to http://jackburton.blogspot.com at 64.41.146.221 - which the webserver then translates to the correct virtual website and returns to you the correct data which your Web Browser re-assembles into what you see here. E-mail works the same way. Only E-mail talks through SMTP or POP3 or IMAP instead of HTTP.
Now, I have simplified a bit, your computer actually asks its assigned DNS servers to do all the work. When they get the final IP address, they send it back to your computer.
Still cornfused? Think of it like mailing a letter. If I was sending a letter to Jack Burton, 123 Anywhere Street, Anytown, AS (Any State), 12345 USA - I would address my letter like this:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
Anytown AS 12345
USA
Now, the equivalent for DNS would be:
jackburton
blogspot
.com
OK - We're missing one line, but it's the same thing. In fact drop the country designation off of the first example (because many of us don't use it because we rarely send international mail):
So we have:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
Anytown AS 12345
OK - Now imagine dropping off the 'Anytown AS 12345' from your letter. You'd have:
Jack Burton
123 Anywhere Street
What City? What State? What Country? It would never get there. It would sit in the dead letter office unless someone mailed it in the same zipcode as the destination and some mail carrier recognized it. The exact same thing would happed to all network packets not using the direct IP address of a server. The packets would not get there, and the internet would be for all intents and purposes, dead. Only sites and e-mail servers that controlled single domains would be accessible, and those only by IP address. Someone could set up a public WINS server or DNS server that everyone would have to use (so it better be a damn powerful server), and then the attackers would just flood the new public server with so much traffic that it would be useless as well.
Sorry about rambling, but with as dependent as we all are upon e-mail for business these days, it would have a huge impact on the economies of the world.
Got any questions? Drop me a line....
Monday, October 21, 2002
More Good News
I asked for it, and I got it. James sent me some good news for my blog. I was thinking more of good economic news, but I didn't specify. It doesn't matter anyway with the market up now several days in a row, even with some mixed bad indicators (damn those indicators) shows that maybe there is a little logic creeping into investment decisions. But I digress. Here are links to James' good news (and his comments):
The space shuttle Atlantis has safely returned to earth. Another successful mission!
The Russians, after an exploding rocket killed one of their ground crew, has successfully launched an orbital observatory to study black holes.
Something that may be a big boon to your business, new home builders are looking in to hooking everything with a pulse to the Internet.
Medical researchers have come up with a drug that might control premature ejaculation. Not that (ahem) I need that or anything. And there's no info on how the disgruntled wives that buy the drug will convince their husbands to take it.
My comments: Uh-huh - Suuuuure James - we know you don't need them - You've probably built up some thick calluses from those coated magazine pages - built in dapoxetine, eh?
A new dialysis machine might just save 2,000 lives a year.
He sent another reference to "The zoo in Kabul, Agfghanistan has been restocked by the kindness of a zoo in China." - but the link was the same as the dialysis machine one above. The 'a' 'f' 'g' and 'h' keys, and Control-C and Control-V are all left-handed keystrokes. James, your right hand is strong enough, time to work on your left. (See the link on dapoxetine above).
Thanks for the news!
I asked for it, and I got it. James sent me some good news for my blog. I was thinking more of good economic news, but I didn't specify. It doesn't matter anyway with the market up now several days in a row, even with some mixed bad indicators (damn those indicators) shows that maybe there is a little logic creeping into investment decisions. But I digress. Here are links to James' good news (and his comments):
The space shuttle Atlantis has safely returned to earth. Another successful mission!
The Russians, after an exploding rocket killed one of their ground crew, has successfully launched an orbital observatory to study black holes.
Something that may be a big boon to your business, new home builders are looking in to hooking everything with a pulse to the Internet.
Medical researchers have come up with a drug that might control premature ejaculation. Not that (ahem) I need that or anything. And there's no info on how the disgruntled wives that buy the drug will convince their husbands to take it.
My comments: Uh-huh - Suuuuure James - we know you don't need them - You've probably built up some thick calluses from those coated magazine pages - built in dapoxetine, eh?
A new dialysis machine might just save 2,000 lives a year.
He sent another reference to "The zoo in Kabul, Agfghanistan has been restocked by the kindness of a zoo in China." - but the link was the same as the dialysis machine one above. The 'a' 'f' 'g' and 'h' keys, and Control-C and Control-V are all left-handed keystrokes. James, your right hand is strong enough, time to work on your left. (See the link on dapoxetine above).
Thanks for the news!
Friday, October 11, 2002
Don't Touch Him, He Might Have a Virus
No, not some communicable disease, but a computer virus. Technology is wonderful, everytime we come up with something new it destroys the basis for much of the sci-fi that is out there. If you have read any of William Gibson's work of the Cyberpunk genre, you know about his futuristic vision of "hackers" eventually having cybernetic implants that will allow them to directly connect their brain to computer systems. Well this advancement changes all that. You don't need any external implant with conductors, simply using what we've had for thousands of years will allow us to interface with each other or with other systems.
Imagine a computer virus run rampant with this sort of technology. "Wearable" Computers are becoming more fact that fiction, and soon you'll be tightly integrated with them. Current viruses (virii?) nowdays do little more than send themselves out to other people, and try to infect them. However, will the Trojan Horse programs of the future be able to take over people's minds? Hmmm....sounds like an idea for a novel.
No, not some communicable disease, but a computer virus. Technology is wonderful, everytime we come up with something new it destroys the basis for much of the sci-fi that is out there. If you have read any of William Gibson's work of the Cyberpunk genre, you know about his futuristic vision of "hackers" eventually having cybernetic implants that will allow them to directly connect their brain to computer systems. Well this advancement changes all that. You don't need any external implant with conductors, simply using what we've had for thousands of years will allow us to interface with each other or with other systems.
Imagine a computer virus run rampant with this sort of technology. "Wearable" Computers are becoming more fact that fiction, and soon you'll be tightly integrated with them. Current viruses (virii?) nowdays do little more than send themselves out to other people, and try to infect them. However, will the Trojan Horse programs of the future be able to take over people's minds? Hmmm....sounds like an idea for a novel.
Friday, October 04, 2002
Sick of Bad News
Seems like the media is all about putting out nothing but bad news. The good news around never gets any headlines. The reaction to the economy is so emotions based that if good news were reported more often, the economy and stock market could possibly cure themselves. So I am going to start a list to only good news. If you have any good news stories, e-mail a link to me at this address.
Good news in the recent past:
Chrysler Adds 1,000 Jobs
Technology Company Addamark gets $7 million in Investments
Arkansas State Goverment Adds Jobs to High Unemployment Area
Flooring Company Adds Jobs (Webmaster of this site should be fired for bad links though)
Telecommunications Company Adds Jobs
Florida adds jobs in many areas
Blue Cross Adds Jobs
Toyota Adds 700 Jobs
That's it for now, I'm sure there are more. Send them in. The cynics among you that will say this is just a 'drop in the bucket' need not apply. Go read or watch the mainstream news for bad news....
Seems like the media is all about putting out nothing but bad news. The good news around never gets any headlines. The reaction to the economy is so emotions based that if good news were reported more often, the economy and stock market could possibly cure themselves. So I am going to start a list to only good news. If you have any good news stories, e-mail a link to me at this address.
Good news in the recent past:
Chrysler Adds 1,000 Jobs
Technology Company Addamark gets $7 million in Investments
Arkansas State Goverment Adds Jobs to High Unemployment Area
Flooring Company Adds Jobs (Webmaster of this site should be fired for bad links though)
Telecommunications Company Adds Jobs
Florida adds jobs in many areas
Blue Cross Adds Jobs
Toyota Adds 700 Jobs
That's it for now, I'm sure there are more. Send them in. The cynics among you that will say this is just a 'drop in the bucket' need not apply. Go read or watch the mainstream news for bad news....
Thursday, October 03, 2002
Unbelievable
How? I just don't understand. I really don't. Someone please explain it to me. This article says it all. How in the hell are people this stupid? I can't believe it. After all of the publicity in other cases like this, how can it happen?
Some of you will try to wax eloquent about how its societies fault, that we don't take care of single mothers. That's way, way, way beyond the simple fact that this is just totally unacceptable. The article tries to spin it in a way that makes you feel sorry for the mother, and this will destroy her. Well it probably will, and it should. Dammit, I'm sick and tired of people making excuses for people who do these sort of things. A child is dead because the mother made a completely negligent and irresponsible decision.
Grrrrrr.....
How? I just don't understand. I really don't. Someone please explain it to me. This article says it all. How in the hell are people this stupid? I can't believe it. After all of the publicity in other cases like this, how can it happen?
Some of you will try to wax eloquent about how its societies fault, that we don't take care of single mothers. That's way, way, way beyond the simple fact that this is just totally unacceptable. The article tries to spin it in a way that makes you feel sorry for the mother, and this will destroy her. Well it probably will, and it should. Dammit, I'm sick and tired of people making excuses for people who do these sort of things. A child is dead because the mother made a completely negligent and irresponsible decision.
Grrrrrr.....
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