SPD relies on administrative software based on Microsoft Business Solutions
It's not the first bad decision by the SPD
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Archive 11.10.2003 - 20.10.2003
Report: Online Banking Cracked
A general problem in networks: tools that allow session hijacking make it possible to position themselves between connections. The key point is that the connections are routed transparently through this program: the user doesn't notice it. This also works across switches - the corresponding programs steal the connection via ARP spoofing and then insert themselves in between. The only solution here is a consistent migration to protocols that work with mutual certificates and encryption - where both server and client ensure that they are communicating with the correct partner. But even here, attack vectors are still possible. Absolute security in networks where you have no control over the infrastructure does not exist.
By the way, the technology behind the attack is quite interesting: first, ARP spoofing is used to steal the connection. Then all connections are routed through the intermediate computer. In doing so, the computer presents itself to the server as the client, and vice versa. Encryption is therefore only useful if the protocol regularly performs checks using a shared secret and if the two partners identify themselves to each other using asymmetric methods. Still, the man-in-the-middle can often impersonate the other by using data from a transparently passed-through connection to replay it later (this can crack some encryption setups).
Ultimately, the problem can only be solved at the lowest level - securing connections at the lowest protocol level. Only when appropriate security mechanisms are in place at the IP level can we even hope to get this problem under control.
In the meantime, admins can provide some protection by using ARP watchers and monitoring programs to detect when such attacks occur. But this too is only a very shaky and unreliable tool, since the admin theoretically has to regularly review all protocols - and the signs are often only very minimal (such as the brief appearance of an unknown MAC address in the network).
At RP-Online: Multimedia I found the original article.
Federal Election: Westerwelle calls himself top candidate
The man is really not embarrassed by anything. As if he hadn't already made himself the class clown during the last fun election campaign
I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.
Do 28 Million US Citizens Suffer from Bloating?
Is Prozac the Cause of the Ozone Hole?
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
Porn providers protest against child protection on the web
Well, we could also introduce official registration for entering video rental stores and sex shops, which would be similar to the demanded stricter controls for internet sex offers.
Not that I particularly want to defend the porn industry - after all, it is one of the main causes of the spam problem (after all, this is an area where the click-through rate is significantly higher than in all other advertising sectors - men really do think more with their pants than with their brains), but the demands to tighten age controls are really absurd: who is going to go to their post office or T-Punkt and present their ID there for registration for an X-Check-ID? Sure, the postal workers don't know what that is anyway. Obviously.
The real problem behind this is something else entirely: the inability of authorities and similar institutions to understand that the internet is simply not a regional event. Stricter age control laws will be just as impossible to enforce across borders on the internet as the already planned opening hours for erotic content on the internet.
Youth protection is something that cannot be enforced through this type of prohibition - only through education and enlightenment. Because with the increasing interconnectedness of the world, there will always be content that is illegal in one country but available from other countries. Even absurd attempts like those of the Düsseldorf government president will change nothing about that.
Either we finally accept this content and its distribution as a social problem and address it at that level (through education and enlightenment already in schools), or we criminalize the entire internet and tinker around with pointless and ineffective filtering attempts, waste money on these absurd projects, hand the state far too powerful censorship tools and rights, and make ourselves look ridiculous internationally.
The latter is the path that politicians are currently taking in Banana Republic Germany - it's also much easier, besides you get the necessary censorship rights for free anyway. Then you can also use them right away for politically unpopular opinions.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Study: Every third school truant becomes criminal
It's certainly much easier to criminalize children right away than to actually deal with the causes of school truancy.
After all, performance pressure is being put on children much earlier these days. If you don't learn anything, you're nothing, you're just worthless. So what are children supposed to do when they have problems in school? Those who perhaps can't cope with all the pressure? Let's just throw every struggling student into a reform institution, because after all, they'll eventually skip school out of frustration and despair, and eventually they'll become criminals.
Our school system is as inhumane as our entire society. And in doing so, we're sacrificing children on the altar of our materialism. We'll probably only realize that our own future is being destroyed a few generations from now, when it's too late...
I found the original article at RP-Online: Science.
Copyright Against Critics
A nice demonstration of how absurd the DMCA is: a manufacturer of voting systems wants to hide behind it and cover up its errors and manipulation possibilities for the voting systems. In the long run, I'm sure society's higher interest in voting machines will prevail—I wouldn't even credit the USA with letting this slide. But it points to a general problem with all the copyright tightening, patent demands, and user restrictions that have been increasingly demanded recently: the end user not only receives fewer usage rights, they also receive fewer control options. And it's made far too easy for manufacturers to hide behind various laws and cover up shoddy work, deliberate manipulation, and misuse of market power. Another reason to preferably use open source systems for critical systems.
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
On the Beatification of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, alias Mother Teresa
|KK| An article about Mother Teresa and her role (or rather, lack thereof) in providing care for the needy and disaster victims in Calcutta and the great lie of her entire life.
In the end, only one conclusion remains here: the friendly smiling men and women of the church have only one interest: power. It's not about the welfare of people, it's not even about the welfare of their own followers, it's only about the power of the church. And Catholics will soon celebrate Mother Teresa's success in this field — the defense of the Catholic Church's power position — with her beatification.
That this constitutes idolatry according to their own teachings is apparently just as uninteresting as the fact that the public and their own people were lied to for decades.
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
PowerBook buyers complain about display defects
Ugh. But that's not nice. Apple really shouldn't be making such mistakes anymore - they've noticed often enough by now that they run into problems with too-short testing phases for their devices (I'm just thinking of the exploding lithium batteries in the Powerbook 5300 devices).
At heise online news you can find the original article.
SCO vs. Linux: War chest refilled
So the entire SCO anti-Linux campaign is now running on borrowed money. How stupid does a bank have to be to finance such nonsense? And how dumb does a company executive have to be to take such a ride? Linux will definitely outlast SCO - it's only a matter of time before SCO runs out of steam. There are no new products from SCO, no new system releases, and the alleged worldwide Unix market is simply not being contested with any SCO systems - it doesn't help that SCO still claims that Unix belongs to them (which by almost all relevant perspectives isn't true anyway, since they have neither the copyright nor the patents). But what fascinates me is the persistence with which they continue their kamikaze flight and the stupidity with which others climb aboard this kamikaze flight.
At heise online news there is the original article.
Cease and desist notices due to license plates in domain names
I think that's unfair: if someone starts such an absurd rip-off, they should at least be able to keep it going long enough for people to get properly worked up about the mess. Where will it end, Sodom and Gomorrah!
At heise online news there's the original article.
Atom API
What bothered me about Mark Pilgrim's article, I wrote here. There are several things in the article that don't match what I would expect from a professional explanation of the Atom API on http://xml.com/. It's a shame, but it will probably contribute more to further division than to mutual acceptance between the two API camps. At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.
BND employee arrested for espionage
Quite amusing when a spy gets arrested for espionage. But well, if he also transports the classified documents in the wrong direction ...
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
Bush recognizes parallels to 'Arnie'
Do they both have a pea-sized brain?
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
The Impressive Thing About Today ...
... was the inability of our Bundestag officials to conduct two votes without mixing up the ballot boxes.
First Look: Belkin Media Reader For iPod
Well - the thing is so big that they might as well have included the card reader with the drive in the first place. I mean, what's the point if the card reader is just as big as the iPod, and if the card reader needs extra batteries on top of that? Somehow not as great as it sounded. And the problems with the transfer didn't inspire confidence either - since when do you have to reformat a CF card if you deleted it while reading? Very dubious.
At iPoding there's the original article.
War on Terror Battle with Satan
And the UN gave such a madman a mandate?
At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.
Truck toll: Contract is being disclosed
Anything else would be unacceptable either.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Microsoft Receives Patent for Cookies
And once again, a patent that the world absolutely does not need.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Rollup package for Windows XP heralds new update policy from Microsoft
Cool. Security updates only once a month. That's how Windows security issues are addressed.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Prosecutor threatens net activist with occupational ban
This is taking on highly absurd proportions these days. This is abuse of power in its most literal sense. This has nothing to do with rule of law anymore, it's the worst kind of state arbitrariness. Usually something like this only appears in reports by Amnesty International or the UN about so-called banana republics. Well, it seems we're not far from that anymore. Torture was already described as a viable means (P405). Recommended is the documentation on http://odem.org/ - there's a bit more information about it there. At heise online news there's the original article.
Telekom complains about massive devaluation of telecommunications secrecy
I'll say just one thing: Bananenrepublik At heise online news you can find the original article.
Toll basket for the Bundestag
Hold on: the company has a contract with the federal government, but refuses to let parliamentarians (who are, after all, a not entirely insignificant part of the federal government that has the contract with Toll Collect) see the contract? Can it get more absurd? How much evidence does it take to show that more than just stupidity is at play here? And why doesn't the federal government, as the second party to the contract, simply make its copy available to Parliament? Given the sum of money involved, it surely can't be the case that the government is operating without public oversight by Parliament (and with an explicit refusal to allow such oversight!).
I found the original article at TAZ.
Phonak: Seville becomes Hamilton's right hand
That promises a lot for the next tour. After all, Hamilton was fourth in the tour despite injuries, and Sevilla is no slouch either.
At RADSPORT-NEWS.COM - Nachrichten-Gesamtübersicht you can find the original article.
Saban conducts string concert on N24
And in a flash, Rupert Murdoch could also secure broadcasting slots in Germany. Not exactly a pleasant thought. But probably almost predictable if you consider the connection between Saban and Murdoch (P1359). I found the original article at dotcomtod.
Vulnerabilities in Exchange Server
Interesting that Microsoft assumes that no one is crazy enough to connect an Exchange server directly to the Internet without a firewall - To protect against attacks from the Internet, port 25 should be blocked on the firewall
At heise online news there's the original article.
Stopping Spam
Paul Graham examines and evaluates all known methods of responding to spam. As an overview of possible (and also possible future) solutions and an initial assessment, it's quite useful.
The Resurrection of SimplyGNUstep - OSNews.com
SimplyGNUStep is now based on Debian Sarge (the upcoming Debian version). So it's simply just a collection of Debian packages with current GNUStep applications. The previous project of the same name aimed to be a full distribution, with its own directory structure, just like NextStep was organized. I find the current incarnation much more sensible though - having yet another package system and yet another distribution doesn't really make sense, especially when Debian already offers everything in very usable form...
Cease-and-desist senders and profiteers: Lawyers speak out
Lawyers discussing a possible reason why lawyers operate as scammers on the Internet. It is simply the way it is: when blow flies appear in small quantities, they are useful. When the quantities become too large, they become a nuisance.
At Telepolis News there is the original article.
Karlsruhe rejects lawsuit against table prayer in kindergarten
But banning headscarves, that's what Mr. Koch wants (and is allowed) to do ...
At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.
Mobbing due to unpopular website
Great - nonconforming opinions are apparently not even allowed to be held privately at Dresdner Bank. My expressions of opinion would probably also meet with disapproval at Dresdner Bank. Always stay nice and conformist with management, never speak up - that seems to be what is expected in times of high unemployment. Following any rules apparently doesn't apply to bank executives. They resort to the lowest drawer of mobbing and oppression. Our economy is built on such people. Doesn't that give us all courage? But what can one expect in terms of behavior from such a bank ... At Telepolis News there is the original article.
Open Letter to Martin Walser
I believe there's nothing more to add to that, except a hearty, approving yay. At INSTANT NIRVANA you can find the original article.
US Department of Justice Takes Action Against Greenpeace
Since we're talking about the misuse of the legal system for censoring unpopular opinions ... (a law from 1890?) At Telepolis News there's the original article.
US Marine restricts sonar use
Amazing.
At Spiegel Online: Wissenschaft there's the original article.
USA prevent resolution against Israel with veto
Class act. On one hand, the US government calls the UN obsolete, on the other hand they keep interfering constantly.
At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.
W3C adopts new web forms
My feelings about this are mixed. Of course, good standards are helpful - especially when they make the end device and browser more powerful in function, and new, efficient user interfaces can be implemented based on them.
On the other hand, however, the multitude of standards and sub-standards creates so much technical overhead that it becomes harder for ordinary people to get into it. And regardless of how we feel about the result of invalid and partly haphazardly cobbled together HTML dumps, it is precisely this easy access and the fairly tolerant implementation in browsers that allowed HTML and the web to take off in the first place.
It's much more accessible for a lot more people to produce this format - if necessary, you take another site, look at the source and do something similar. Many started that way, many don't get beyond copying - but that doesn't matter, they are present.
Sure, designers recoil in horror, HTML standard purists too, as do software developers. I myself get screaming fits when I look at certain output on the web. But the fact remains that with more complicated techniques, these people wouldn't be here at all.
Would the web be better because of that? Is it really sensible to shield yourself through technical barriers and make the web more elitist? Or is it precisely the haphazardly hacked and sometimes truly awful content that makes the web what it is: an almost popular medium?
The new W3C standards are becoming ever more technical, ever more complex. And in doing so, they raise the barrier to entry. Sure, HTML 4 still exists and will certainly be supported for a long time - but it will become, so to speak, the dumbed-down version. The professional will throw XHTML and XForms around, the amateur with shoddy HTML 4.
I don't know what would be more fun for me. But I'm afraid it would be the shoddy HTML 4...
At heise online news there's the original article.
How to Silence the ODEM Founder
A report about the prosecution's censorship attempts against Alvar Freude. A great way to deal with critics. I wonder if perhaps one authority (Stuttgart public prosecutor's office) is just trying to give support to another authority (Düsseldorf regional president's office)? It's also great that the legal system is being abused for this.
At Der Rollberg you can find the original article.
Andrew Grumet's Commentary on Comment Spam
Evidence of automated comment spam on Moveable Type weblogs. It makes sense for spammers to concentrate on weblog software with significant market share, since they can then push out spam automatically. The infrastructure for relatively automated discovery of Moveable Type weblogs is already in place.
It becomes problematic when this automation reaches the point where it doesn't matter to the spammers whether an individual weblog is indexed by Google or not — then they come with the big watering can, just like with email today. And in the long run, there will probably be no way around registration requirements for comments (or at least some form of checking for humanity on the other end).
Things get really tricky when trackbacks are spammed — because these are inherently designed for automated ping distribution, moderating that becomes difficult. Sure, you can use heuristics to decide whether a spammer is a spammer, but they will occasionally fail.
Unlike wikis, weblogs are particularly interesting for web spammers due to their high prevalence and extensive interconnection — and many protocols (trackback, pingback, comments) are very much designed for openness.
Germany is the export world champion again
Faces of the Economic Crisis.
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
E-Data strengthens process due to patent infringement
Another piece of evidence for a ridiculous patent that is hard to beat in terms of banality and wishy-washy claims. And companies want patent protection for this? For downloading music with transfer to CDs? For storing software on data carriers when purchasing the software? For on-demand storage of electronic books on e-readers when purchasing? Absurd.
Even though Microsoft is hit again here, patents in such a general and banal form are simply economically damaging. Actually, even the dimmest member of the European Parliament should understand that. Actually.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Cologne CDU admits to donation misconduct
It's become so commonplace by now that it's almost boring again. Frightening.
At WDR.de you can find the original article.
Reichmann in the Rockies
A report by Michael Reichmann on the Contax 645 combined with the Kodak 16 Megapixel digital back in use in the Rocky Mountains. And although he does not describe the combination as ideal at all (too many minor inconveniences in operation and interaction, plus power consumption), he is enthusiastic about the results and counts them among the best he has produced.
At PhotographyBLOG I found the original article.
Good Apple, Bad PC
Usually I find Jörg Schieb rather dull than entertaining, but his observation that the good guys in movies predominantly use Apple and the bad guys predominantly use Windows is simply true and correct. Just like in real life.
At WDR.de you can find the original article.
Loadbalancer in Python
A special feature of this load balancer (besides the fact that it's written completely in Python): it doesn't use multiple processes or threads, instead it uses asynchronous I/O. This allows many connections to be handled simultaneously in just one thread, which keeps the system load much lower than classical balancers that start a process or thread for each connection. It uses either Twisted or the asyncore module that comes with Python. And the whole thing is also blazingly fast - for example, the same approach is used in Medusa, a web server in Python that comes close to Apache's performance when serving static HTML pages. Here's the original article.
Twiki API
Wow. An API that allows you to edit a wiki via VoodooPad. I think I'll take a closer look at that, it could be interesting for PyDS. VoodooPad could then be used as a frontend, I would just need to make all important objects accessible via this API. And for Twiki there's already an API too. You've got to be able to do something with this kind of thing...
On the Re-Christianization of the West
No religious reference in the European Constitution!
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
Israel has equipped submarines originating from Germany with atomic bombs
Did anyone really seriously expect that the madness with nuclear weapons could actually come to an end?
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.