On 10/10/2011 06:06 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/10/2011 3:15, Invisible wrote:
>> Have you ever tried explaining all that over the phone to somebody who
>> can't even work a mouse properly yet?
>
> Yep.

...and you don't think a set of instructions of this level of technical 
complexity just *might* pose a little bit of a problem?

>> Of course, you would also need to poke a hole in the firewall for that to
>> work.
>
> No you don't.

So how do you connect to it if it's behind two hardware firewalls plus 
the Windows Firewall?

>> And make sure I edit whatever settings it is necessary to turn on
>> encryption.
>
> It's encrypted by default.

Excuse my scepticism. None of the other Windows protocols are encrypted 
by default, nor even provide the *option* of encryption...

>> And add a secure password. (The current admin password on the
>> machine is trivially breakable.)
>
> That's kind of stupid. You'd be better off with no admin password at all.

Well, yeah. Except that most things that ask you to log in as admin tend 
not to work if the password is blank. (No, I have no idea why.) Still, 
when it's impossible to log in at all unless you're in the building, it 
doesn't really /matter/ how weak your passwords are. But if you're going 
to open up access from the Internet, suddenly it really, really matters 
how weak your passwords are!

>> ...or I could set up a *real* VPN, which is *actually* secure...
>
> What's insecure about RDP, other than you don't actually believe it's
> encrypted and/or you don't understand encryption?

Microsoft didn't bother to include any security whatsoever in the file 
sharing protocol, the remote registry protocol, the printing protocol, 
the name registration protocol, and even the user authentication 
protocol is infamously weak. I'm just rather surprised that they 
actually bothered to put any security into RDP, rather than making you 
pay money for an extra security product.

I'd have more faith in something like TLS - a protocol actually designed 
by security experts, who's only purpose for existing is to provide security.

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On 10/6/2011 3:01 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> What worries me is the possibility of a theory not being taken seriously
>>> because nobody likes it, rather than because the theory doesn't work...
>>
>> That has happened before, and it will happen again.
>
> Any concrete examples?
>
> Every example I know of where a theory wasn't believed because it seemed
> too silly, eventually facts won out.

Creationists vs Evolution? Creationists won't take evolution seriously 
because they don't like it. Then they invade the educational system to 
get the theory of evolution removed from textbooks and the like.

Of course, that is a local phenomenon.

-- 
~Mike

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On 11/10/2011 04:38 PM, Mike Raiford wrote:
> On 10/6/2011 3:01 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>>> What worries me is the possibility of a theory not being taken
>>>> seriously
>>>> because nobody likes it, rather than because the theory doesn't work...
>>>
>>> That has happened before, and it will happen again.
>>
>> Any concrete examples?
>>
>> Every example I know of where a theory wasn't believed because it seemed
>> too silly, eventually facts won out.
>
> Creationists vs Evolution?

Not really, no.

The entire scientific community unanimously agrees that creationism is 
nonsense. It's the general public that fall for that one.

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On 10/11/2011 0:58, Invisible wrote:
> On 10/10/2011 05:56 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/10/2011 2:52, Invisible wrote:
>>> My favourite one is how inserting a CD is enough to completely lock up
>>> the
>>> entire Windows GUI. Or how if your DHCP server doesn't answer, Windows
>>> locks
>>> up until that times out. Or...
>>
>> Neither of these statements is true. Not sure what you're smoking there.
>> :-)
>
> Sure. I mean, I've been seeing this behaviour on a daily basis for over ten
> years now. Obviously I'm mistaken.

Just because your system is broken doesn't mean everyones' is.  Windows 
never "locked up" for me while looking for DHCP (it just gives a local 
address until the DHCP answers, and indeed the icon in the corner tells you 
how far along it has gotten). And the whole GUI doesn't lock up; at most, 
explorer waits for the CD to spin up.  Again, it's that overgeneralization. :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 10/11/2011 0:59, Invisible wrote:
> On 10/10/2011 05:57 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/10/2011 2:46, Invisible wrote:
>>> In my humble opinion, if you need to *search* for a file on your local
>>> system, you're doing something horribly wrong...
>>
>> Or you do real work with it. Or you're sitting at someone else's
>> computer. Or you collaborate with other people.
>
> How about, I don't know, organising stuff in a logical and consistent
> manner? You know, like how people do stuff in the physical world...

Sure. Where's the logical and consistent place to find the screw drivers in 
a hardware store? Where's the logical place to put coffee in relationship to 
breakfast cereal in the grocery store?

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 10/11/2011 1:02, Invisible wrote:
>>> Targeting a program at somebody other than who your eventual users are
>>> going to be? Yes, that would be... "poor design". :-)
>>
>> Having the eventual users completely change after you've finished
>> writing the code due to events completely outside the realm of said
>> code? No, not really poor design.
>
> Then perhaps that should be "poor management".

You're trolling here, right?

> a product that you already have lying around and try to sell it to a
> completely different audience...

You'll notice that Blender is free, right?

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 10/11/2011 1:05, Invisible wrote:
> On 10/10/2011 06:04 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 10/10/2011 3:11, Invisible wrote:
>>> RC4? Man, how ancient is that? You realise it was a weakness in RC4 that
>>> allowed WEP to be broken, right?
>>
>> No. It was sending the key with each packet of data that allowed WEP to
>> be broken.
>
> Technically, it was
> 1. Restarting the keystream for each packet.
> 2. Using related keys for each packet.

Well, yes. Don't do that with a stream cipher.

> Probably. (Personally, I don't like stream ciphers, but anyway...)

Except that you have to turn a block cipher into a stream cipher if you want 
to encrypt a stream.

>> RC4 hasn't been broken if you don't restart the stream for every packet.
>
> RC4 has weaknesses concerning related keys. Also, the first few KB of the
> keystream is quite weak. Also, the keystream has certain statistical
> weaknesses. Also...

Yep. I'm not saying it's the best protocol. I'm saying it hasn't been broken 
wide open as you seemed to be implying.  If you know of someone who can 
break RC4 when properly used, please point me to it. Otherwise, I suspect 
the link between your computer and whatever computer you're managing is not 
going to get broken because of weaknesses in the RC4.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 10/11/2011 1:29, Invisible wrote:
> So how do you connect to it if it's behind two hardware firewalls plus the
> Windows Firewall?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teredo_tunneling

> Excuse my scepticism. None of the other Windows protocols are encrypted by
> default, nor even provide the *option* of encryption...

Your incredulity fortunately does not eliminate the encryption.

>>> And add a secure password. (The current admin password on the
>>> machine is trivially breakable.)
>>
>> That's kind of stupid. You'd be better off with no admin password at all.
>
> Well, yeah. Except that most things that ask you to log in as admin tend not
> to work if the password is blank.

Ding ding ding! That's what I meant. ;-)

> (No, I have no idea why.)

Because it's insecure.

> Still, when it's
> impossible to log in at all unless you're in the building,

Since you weren't aware that Teredo goes thru NAT and firewalls, chances are 
it's not impossible to log in if you aren't in the building.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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>> a product that you already have lying around and try to sell it to a
>> completely different audience...
>
> You'll notice that Blender is free, right?

Sure. That doesn't mean it's well designed. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 11-10-2011 10:00, Invisible wrote:
>>> Also, it contains far less information than a STOP message does.
>>> Basically
>>> an error code (plus textual translation) and a memory address. Good luck
>>> working out, say, what was *at* that address or anything...
>>
>> That's why the power light flashes 3 times before the message comes up.
>> That's you're cue to hit DEL on the serial terminal plugged in to the
>> back to launch the kernel debugger.
>
> Uh, what's a serial terminal? Also, what's a kernel debugger?

you are showing your age.


-- 
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per 
citizen per day.

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