Thursday, December 27, 2007




... propaganda as usual ...
... do you really believe the story of little red hood and the wolf ? ...


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# posted by intcoex : 3:17 PM




Egypt Planning Pyramid Copyright

Egypt aims to copyright a number of its ancient monuments. Should luxury resorts like Las Vegas beware the curse of the pharaohs?

Wondering if a built-to-scale Sphinx will perfect your outdoor lawn arrangement? Pondering a replica of Tutankhamen's final resting place out past your patio? Think again.

... hey, that is an idea ...
... they should also patent the numeral digits :) ...
... that would be fun ...
... I'm waiting for somebody writing an operating system ...
... using roman numerals ...
... M$ can license the latest technology ...
... and the use of the gregorian and julian calendar ...
... from the vatican and the heirs of the roman empire ...
... LOLOLOL ...


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# posted by intcoex : 5:45 AM

Saturday, December 22, 2007




Rifiuti, se Napoli copiasse Venezia
In laguna realizzato un grande impianto modello, al Sud è sempre emergenza



# posted by intcoex : 3:24 AM

Wednesday, December 19, 2007




La pronuncia su un caso di licenziamento di un'impiegata
Il capo può spiare le e-mail dei dipendenti
La Cassazione: il datore di lavoro che conosce le password
in virtù delle norme aziendali non è punibile

... ultime novita' ...
... pereppepeppepe' ...
... il capo destinato a divenire un esperto di cifra ...
... tutti i capi avranno presto una nuova sezione di "decodificatori" ...
... se non altro aumenteranno i livelli di occupazione ...



# posted by intcoex : 4:06 PM

Monday, December 17, 2007




... seems to be the last of the evils ...
... even if the logic of building nuclear plants in unstable regions ...
... still sounds unreasonable ...
... however, the western lobby building in war zones like south korea and pakistan ...
... makes hard now to dispute other countries rights doing so ...
... the best would have been to go look for a way to dismantle all nuclear power plants ...
... worldwide ...
... but I guess there have not been enough accidents ...
... to make the public opinion worldwide revolt against nuclear energy ...
... wait for the effects of murphys laws ...
... and things may change ...



# posted by intcoex : 3:26 PM

Sunday, December 16, 2007




This crisis is no longer a simple problem of liquidity
Anatole Kaletsky: Economic view

Last week’s effort by the world’s central banks to relieve the global credit crunch with a cash injection failed to impress the markets. But the move is bound to win round the sceptics within the next few months. The decision is likely to be just the precursor to much more important, but controversial, operations to ensure the “solvency” of the international financial system.

... good luck ...



# posted by intcoex : 11:16 PM

Wednesday, December 12, 2007




... desupport the crooks ...
... buy sparc ...



# posted by intcoex : 11:10 PM




... I guess no more CCTV on the computer :( ...
... the country of freedom, my donkey ...


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# posted by intcoex : 10:47 PM




"Doing this many years after they have originally been detained on other grounds unavoidably results in something which international law categorizes as arbitrary detention," Scheinin said.

He also described as "very problematic" the question of the independence of the military tribunals and the use of evidence obtained by coercion.

Of the hearing he observed, Scheinin said "the military judge really did his best in difficult circumstances to strive for a fair trial, but within impossible conditions."

In addition to observing the legal hearings, U.S. officials had invited Scheinin to visit the actual detention facilities. Scheinin said he declined that offer because he was not guaranteed unmonitored access to the detainees.



# posted by intcoex : 10:00 PM




The Draft IPR Enforcement Directive — A Threat to Competition and to Liberty

... un fallimento ...
... si spera che la stampa europea scopra presto ...
... chi prende soldi a bruxelles per sabotare la comunita' europea ...
... perche' questa legislazione danneggia l'europa ...
... per questa volta sono io che penso come belzebu' ...
... "a pensar male e' brutto, ma ci si azzecca sempre" ...



# posted by intcoex : 8:51 PM




... buona fortuna, Ingegnere ...
... speriamo vada meglio dello sciopero dei camionisti ...



# posted by intcoex : 4:36 AM

Tuesday, December 11, 2007




American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan staged a rally Saturday afternoon in Austin, Texas in support of Republican initiated Proposition 2, a ballot initiative to amend the Texas Constitution, upon which Texans will vote in Tuesday's election.

The Texas Republican Party platform promised to enact the constitutional amendment supported by the KKK.

Proposition 2 was introduced and passed by the Republican Texas legislature, signed by Republican Governor Rick Perry, promoted by Republican Party financed advertising and op-ed pieces written by Texas Republican Party Chairwoman Tina Benkiser.

At a June, 2005 signing ceremony for the legislation placing Proposition 2 on the Texas ballot, Rod Parsley, of the Center for Moral Clarity in Ohio said, "It seems to me that people of the great state of Texas will be silent no more... Folks in this room understand, God is still watching."


... He's a drug store truck drivin' man (the byrds) ...
... We're on a mission from God (the blues brothers) ...
... Von seinen Fans wird Diego Maradona als Heiliger, zuweilen sogar als Gott verehrt. So wurde in Rosario (Argentinien) die Iglesia Maradoniana (Kirche des Maradona) gegründet ...


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# posted by intcoex : 4:31 PM




He often speaks of his ...... opposition to "socialized medicine." He also claims to be the "Ronald Reagan conservative" the GOP is looking for, which suggests his Robin Hood image could go the way of school lunch vegetables once he hits the oval office

... woe, what progress we are making ...
... from the oil bandits to the god bandits ...
... :( ...


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# posted by intcoex : 4:03 PM

Sunday, December 09, 2007




US credibility damaged by CIA tape affair: lawmakers
by Dan De Luce Sun Dec 9, 5:38 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers on Sunday blasted the CIA for destroying interrogation tapes of terror suspects, saying it would damage America's standing and feed suspicions about possible torture.
ADVERTISEMENT

A day after the Justice Department said it had opened a preliminary inquiry into the affair along with the CIA's internal watchdog, presidential hopefuls and lawmakers from both parties condemned the disposal of the videotapes.

"What this does in a larger sense is it harms the credibility and the moral standing of America in the world again," said Senator John McCain, a Republican contender for the White House who was abused as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"There will be skepticism and cynicism all over the world about how we treat prisoners and whether we practice torture or not," McCain told Fox television.



-as usual, the first case is the case, the others are irrelevant, or at least not as important
-america has to determine if and how wants to honor to the geneva convention has ratified, or if wants to witdraw from its ratification, and state this loud and clear, so the whole world knows what is the position of this country on such issues
-the first case, was abu ghraib, where the world famous pictures did the damage referred to, one or one hundred cases won't change history, history has been already made, history does not go back on time, a couple of new tapes are quite insignificant.
-Also, two years seems a heck of a lot of time, if this things were so important why they were not subpoenad within a month or two ?.
-Reading mind of politicians, on what to keep or dump does not seem a great criteria for national document filing, and the other side of the story is that generally central agencies worldwide pile up so much junk they can swim in it, so periodically something has to go, to make room for more important stuff.
-Unless the solution becomes building a zillion of yucca mountain or area 51 to store "everything" for each of the central agencies, the arguing looks just like another search for scapegoats outside DC.

... amen ...



# posted by intcoex : 8:28 PM




Economists who have studied the software industry concluded that the value of a software business is about equal to the total costs of its customers switching out to the competition; both are equal to the net present value of future payments from the customers to the software vendor. This means that an incumbent in a maturing market, such as Microsoft with its Office product, can grow faster than the market only if it can find ways to lock in its customers more tightly. There are some ifs and buts that hedge this theory around, but the basic idea is well known to software industry executives. This explains Bill G's comment that `We came at this thinking about music, but then we realized that e-mail and documents were far more interesting domains'.

7. Where did the technical ideas come from?

The TC concept of booting a machine into a known state is implicit in early PCs where the BIOS was in ROM and there was no hard drive in which a virus could hide. The idea of a trusted bootstrap mechanism for modern machines seems to have first appeared in a paper by Bill Arbaugh, Dave Farber and Jonathan Smith, ``A Secure and Reliable Bootstrap Architecture'', in the proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (1997) pp 65-71. It led to a US patent: ``Secure and Reliable Bootstrap Architecture'', U.S. Patent No. 6,185,678, February 6th, 2001. Bill's thinking developed from work he did while working for the NSA on code signing in 1994, and originally applied to rebooting ATM switches across a network. The Microsoft folk have also applied for patent protection on the operating system aspects. (The patent texts are here and here.)

There may be quite a lot of prior art. Markus Kuhn wrote about the TrustNo1 Processor years ago, and the basic idea behind a trustworthy operating system - a `reference monitor' that supervises a computer's access control functions - goes back at least to a paper written by James Anderson for the USAF in 1972. It has been a feature of US military secure systems thinking since then.

8. How is this related to the Pentium 3 serial number?

Intel started an earlier program in the mid-1990s that would have put the functionality of the Fritz chip inside the main PC processor, or the cache controller chip, by 2000. The Pentium serial number was a first step on the way. The adverse public reaction seems to have caused them to pause, set up a consortium with Microsoft and others, and seek safety in numbers. The consortium they set up, the Trusted Computer Platform Alliance (TCPA), was eventually incorporated and changed its name to TCG.

9. Why call the monitor chip a `Fritz' chip?

It was named in honour of Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, who worked tirelessly in Congress to make TC a mandatory part of all consumer electronics. (Hollings' bill failed; he lost his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Trasportation, and he's retiring in 2004. But the Empire will be back. For example, Microsoft is spending a fortune in Brussels promoting a draft Directive on IP enforcement which is seriously bad stuff.)

10. OK, so TC stops kids ripping off music and will help companies keep data confidential. It may help the Mafia too, unless the FBI get a back door, which I assume they will. But apart from pirates, industrial spies and activists, who has a problem with it?

A lot of companies stand to lose out directly, such as information security vendors. When it first launched TC as Palladium, Microsoft claimed that Palladium would stop spam, viruses and just about every other bad thing in cyberspace - if so, then the antivirus companies, the spammers, the spam-filter vendors, the firewall firms and the intrusion detection folk could all have their lunch stolen. That's now been toned down, but Bill Gates admits that Microsoft will pursue the computer security market aggressively: "Because it's a growth area, we're not being that coy with them about what we intend to do."

Meanwhile, the concerns about the effects on competition and innovation continue to grow. The problems for innovation are well explained in a recent New York Times column by the distinguished economist Hal Varian.

But there are much deeper problems. The fundamental issue is that whoever controls the TC infrastructure will acquire a huge amount of power. Having this single point of control is like making everyone use the same bank, or the same accountant, or the same lawyer. There are many ways in which this power could be abused.

-There are 3 points to object here:
--the TCB is not removable and the remote keys of the TCP are in too many hands
--people chat a lot when given money
--technology is reversible when hardware is available and labor is cheap

-The result will be:
--viruses will be able to "revoke" compliant applications six months later
--criminals and terrorists will be able to "revoke" their traces easier
--the FBI may have to fight a new crime of "revocation extorsion"
--anybody on his right mind will switch out the architectures that enforce such junk
--old say, "if it was built by humans, it can be broken by humans" (I add, if they have all the pieces :)

Most of the times, no security is preferrable to a faulty false security
It would be funny if some joker "revoked" micro$oft, LOL
This is a solution for "national vulnerability" instead than the opposite


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# posted by intcoex : 7:28 PM




IBM just launched the dual-core 64-bit POWER6 processor running at 4.7 GHz, which doubles the speed of the previous generation POWER5 while using nearly the same amount of electricity to run and cool it.

... hey, look, when they make the 16GHZ dual core pentium ...
... then you can run M$ 2009 at that speed ...
... LOLOLOL ...



# posted by intcoex : 1:13 AM




Not content with aiming for top results however, another group of researchers is using EAs to produce designs that dodge patents on rival inventions. Koza took a 1-metre-tall, Wi-Fi antenna made by Cisco and attempted to create another that did a better job without infringing Cisco's patent. He used an EA that bred antennas by comparing offspring with how the Cisco patent works and weeding out ones that worked similarly. "Our genetic program engineered around the existing patent and created a novel design that didn't infringe it," says Koza. Not only would this allow a company to save money on licensing fees, the new design was also itself patentable.

... patents ?, good luck ...


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# posted by intcoex : 1:08 AM




For power, the UXV Combatant could be able to use "full integrated electrical propulsion with twin propeller shafts/motors supplied by gas turbine and diesel alternators. Alternatively, cruising power can be supplied by two shafts/motors and diesel alternators with boost power from one gas turbine driving two water jets."

Great. I don't have a clue about what they are talking about, but I'm ordering my nuclear shelter. Now. [BAE Systems]

... LOLOLOL ...



# posted by intcoex : 12:57 AM

Friday, December 07, 2007





NO OOXML
printer-friendly version
IT Security & Stability

Software patents would allow large companies to monopolize certain segments of the software market. They would no longer have to compete with open source and SMEs on security, stability and performance.

It's mistaken to prioritize abstract software concepts over their actual implementation. Great software requires a superior design and a high-quality implementation. The greatest conceptual idea is worthless unless it is executed thoroughly. None of us would want to live in a house that has a revolutionary architecture if the front door doesn't lock safely, water comes in through the roof, and power fails all the time.

Software patents generally don't stand for great ideas anyway, but let's assume for a moment that they did. Even then it would be undesirable to monopolize those ideas because it means that the first to patent an idea can exclude the competition. The patent holder can execute the idea in a flawed way and still be the only one that offers any implementation of that idea at all. That exclusive implementation may be slow, unstable and insecure, and still there would not be a direct alternative for up to 20 years unless the patent holder were to allow it.

"The complementary protection of software by copyright law and patent law, in conjunction with the development methods of most software companies and ineffective liability regulations, promotes the development and mass distribution of insecure software."
Robert A. Gehring, Technical University at Berlin
There is some controversy as to whether open-source software is inherently more secure and more stable than other software. However, it's simply a fact that security and stability considerations are key reasons why open source is chosen for certain applications. That puts enormous competitive pressure on Microsoft and other vendors. If we ever want those monthly announcements of the latest security holes in Windows, Internet Explorer and Outlook to stop, then we have to ensure a competitive marketplace.

Software patents make it risky to publicize source code. Whether a source code is made available under a free software license like the GPL or under any other license, it certainly contributes to IT security if the source code of a software can be inspected. That gives everyone with the necessary knowledge and a sufficiently strong interest the chance to search for any security issues. However, patent profiteers and malicious competitors find it much easier to identify and prove patent "infringements" on that basis. If a patent is related to something very visible, like a progress bar or a virtual shopping trolley, then a "violation" may be easily identifiable from the outside. With patents that relate to internal functions (such as memory management), it is either much harder to prove a patent infringement without the source code, or it may even be practically impossible.

Click here to read why software patents are a threat to the freedom of information



# posted by intcoex : 8:48 PM




NO OOXML
printer-friendly version
No Software Patents!

Under the influence of the patent system and big industry lobbyists, the European Union is on the verge of making a huge mistake: to pass a law that would legalize software patents.

If that happens, you will pay dearly. Europe's software industry will fall victim to unscrupulous extortioners. A cartel of large corporations will crush smaller competitors. Consequently, we will all pay more money for less good and less secure software. You personally, your household, your company, your government, all of us.

You'll know when you get the bill. When someone breaks into your computer, reads your E-mails, and steals the password of your bank account. When your computer crashes every day. When spam doesn't stop. When prices go up and companies shut down. When people lose their jobs.

Click here for a quick explanation of why software patents have the aforementioned effects

"Chances are that patents on software, common practice in the US and on the brink of being legalised in Europe, in fact stifle innovation. Europe could still alter course."
Deutsche Bank Research

Without software patents, Europe could save costs, foster innovation, enhance security, and create jobs. Thanks to Linux and other open-source software, Europe has the chance to gain independence from Microsoft and other large American companies. However, if the EU allows software patents, then that's the beginning of the end for Linux. Not only for Linux. It's just a prominent example.

On this website, you can learn quickly what the problem is all about. You'll read what we can still do to prevent politicians from shooting Europe in its own foot. Let's fight for what's right, or else our prosperity, and some of our freedoms, will be in jeopardy.



# posted by intcoex : 8:42 PM

Wednesday, December 05, 2007




"What's the difference between an open source zealot and a 747?"

Hum, I don't know what this guy means. Have not been in aviation for over a decade, but to the best of my recollection, the 747, expecially the ones with Rolls Royce engines, had excellent records of safety. If anybody knows otherwise, please let me know.
(see also http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb)

Also, IMHO, probably open source zealots are doing a useful free social work to educate the public over the fact that there are functional alternatives to the Windoze monopoly, and they do all this for free, c'est tres grisant, don't you think ?. I still prefer open source zealots than kristian zealots here in amerika. The former seem to be more mentally balanced, less fanatic and seem to carry less hate.

In the merit of the discussion on operating systems, I kind like use a bit of anything and everything, however to eliminate the waste of time, I have confined most of M$ products inside virtual machines, with disabled network access. Well, I hope all of you Windoze fans may have the best of luck and live interesting times, but in case you may hear MS code made it into critical controls of aircrafts, I would suggest you to take a bus, for your own sake.

... cheers ...


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# posted by intcoex : 10:46 PM




An IRS review also would ensure privacy, Owens wrote. All IRS reviews are confidential, and Dollar has said he worries that a Senate probe might air sensitive information about salaries, among other things.

... there are the kristians ...
... i guess saint francis or the christ himself would not have such a problem ...
... LOLOLOL ...



# posted by intcoex : 7:59 PM

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