Re: Passwords: does size matter, what characters?
I use a technique for passwords that I have not seen anyone mention. I use the first letters of a phrase that is simple to remember (for me) that relates to the site. This makes a "word" that is not in any dictionary, and is typically long enough. The truly paranoid could put a digit or special symbol between the letters also. md -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
open source database visualization
Hey Everyone, Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can graph relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the way MS Access draws tables, or similar to Visio. I don't need the program to be able to read the contents of an existing database (though that may be nice). All I really need is something very simple that lets me create tables and specify key constraints. I'm running Windows, and while I have access to Linux boxes it would be a lot easier to have this on my desktop. Thanks! -chris ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 09:46 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote: > Hey Everyone, > > Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can graph > relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the way MS > Access draws tables, or similar to Visio. I haven't tried it out, but doesn't the new OpenOffice have a database interface built in that is intended to simulate Access with ODBC backends? -Neil ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 9:46 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote: > Hey Everyone, > > Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can graph > relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the way MS > Access draws tables, or similar to Visio. > > I don't need the program to be able to read the contents of an existing > database (though that may be nice). All I really need is something very > simple that lets me create tables and specify key constraints. > > I'm running Windows, and while I have access to Linux boxes it would be > a lot easier to have this on my desktop. I've used DB Designer 4. http://www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/ There are some screen shots on the web site. -- Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
Jerry Feldman wrote: On Tuesday 14 March 2006 9:46 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote: Hey Everyone, Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can graph relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the way MS Access draws tables, or similar to Visio. I don't need the program to be able to read the contents of an existing database (though that may be nice). All I really need is something very simple that lets me create tables and specify key constraints. I'm running Windows, and while I have access to Linux boxes it would be a lot easier to have this on my desktop. I've used DB Designer 4. http://www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/ There are some screen shots on the web site. Thanks for the feedback, DB Designer looks like a winner to me. It looks like it can even connect to remote databases and work with them live! Very cool. thanks again, -chris ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 10:30 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote: > Thanks for the feedback, DB Designer looks like a winner to me. It > looks like it can even connect to remote databases and work with them > live! Very cool. It's not perfect, but it did a good job for the project I was working on. -- Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On 3/14/06, Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Tuesday 14 March 2006 9:46 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote:> Hey Everyone,>> Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can graph> relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the way MS > Access draws tables, or similar to Visio.http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discussOne of my favs for this has been Dia. Pretty straight foward and similar to Visio.
Re: open source database visualization
VCG can be used to generate some fairly complex graphs. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 11:21 am, Star wrote: > On 3/14/06, Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tuesday 14 March 2006 9:46 am, Christopher Chisholm wrote: > > > Hey Everyone, > > > > > > Does anyone know of any open source or freeware project that can > > > graph relational databases? I'm thinking of something similar to the > > > way MS Access draws tables, or similar to Visio. > One of my favs for this has been Dia. Pretty straight foward and similar > to Visio. I just checked out their page, interesting program. DBDesigner4 is a database modeling program similar to Rational Rose. Dia, on the other hand, is a diagraming program similar to Visio. -- Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: open source database visualization
On Mar 14, 2006, at 10:30, Christopher Chisholm wrote: Thanks for the feedback, DB Designer looks like a winner to me. It looks like it can even connect to remote databases and work with them live! Very cool. Bugger - this looks really great, but when I went to check out the forum I got: Dear DBDesigner4 users, Due to several attacks against the DBDesigner4 forum it has now been closed down. We simply cannot understand the sick motivation of people to attack Open Source projects. So please understand that we will not provide any support from now on. We will continue to host the DBD4 download till the release of the MySQL Workbench, its successor application that will be an official MySQL product. Then this project will rest in peace. Best regards, fabFORCE.net team -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Anyone locally installing Asterisk based PBX systems?
On Mar 13, 2006, at 16:34, hewitt_tech wrote: I have a client who got a proposal for a PBX system and I suspect it might be more costly then necessary. They need something like 20+ phones in their new facility and I would like to have them have a counter bid. Is there a local company doing this kind of work? Also check with James Fogg at jdfogg.com - he's done a number of installs, including some large ones, and is a LUG member and has done presentations for a few of our LUG's. I'm doing my first one in a few weeks - this is fun stuff! -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Dia and pdf
Hey all, Anybody know an easy way to save Dia files as pdf's? -- Cole Tuininga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL
On Mar 13, 2006, at 18:20, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That's just it. It's NOT a valid way to reduce spam. Just like killing junkies is not a valid way to fight AIDS... The trouble is the valid ways to reduce spam (like DomainKeys and SPF records) are very very lightly deployed and the IETF is trying to see to it that even they don't get accepted. In the meantime any countermeasure is a hack. use, then you can run a mail server on an alternate port. Lots don't block 465 (ssmtp) or 587 (alternate smtp). In my case, since I can never remember Clever. I'll have to look into that. And then tell all the spamsters. :) Fortunately for us most submission ports require SMTP AUTH which is less useful for spammers. Maybe once all traffic is forced there we'll see Outlook worms spamming through valid accounts. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Dia and pdf
dia claims to be able to export in EPS format so it's possible that you could feed that to epstopdf, or maybe some combination of eps2eps and ps2pdf if that don't work. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Dia and pdf
I believe Adobe Photoshop can read eps files and also save to pdf, so that may work. -chris Michael ODonnell wrote: dia claims to be able to export in EPS format so it's possible that you could feed that to epstopdf, or maybe some combination of eps2eps and ps2pdf if that don't work. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Acceptance of OpenOffice.org (was Re: Gov't , economics and technology (was Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL))
On Mar 13, 2006, at 15:18, Christopher Schmidt wrote: So, although most of the computer related classes - Desktop Publishing, Word Processing, etc. - were taught on relatively modern machines running a recent windows version, the Computer Science courses were taught on the oldest computers in the school (for student use anyway). My high school taught Pascal on Z/80 machines running CPM when those were 'out of date'. I think they'd still be fine for learning Pascal. Heck, I learned assembly on a VIC 20 (3583 BYTES FREE) and the concepts are still the same today. I'm still not convinced children ought to jump straight into Java as their first language - it offers enough of a library that you tend to do more engineering and less CS (exponentiation built-in!). If anyone has influence in high schools I recommend the ACSL: http://www.acsl.org as a good opportunity for learning CS in high school. I went to a tiny high school in central NJ but we still managed to place in the top five nationally for several years. A good teacher is essential (thanks, Jack DeValue!). As for job postings requiring Microsoft Word and Excel - in 1990 they probably required WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3! -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Dia and pdf
On Mar 14, 2006, at 13:57, Cole Tuininga wrote: Anybody know an easy way to save Dia files as pdf's? I typically print to a PostScript file and run ps2pdf. For some reason Dia likes to print extra blank pages, though. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Dia and pdf
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 2:39 pm, Christopher Chisholm wrote: > I believe Adobe Photoshop can read eps files and also save to pdf, so > that may work. Apparently, DIA uses Pango, and there is a PangoPDF tool. http://pangopdf.sourceforge.net/ -- Jerry Feldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Acceptance of OpenOffice.org (was Re: Gov't , economics and technology (was Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL))
Bill McGonigle writes: > My high school taught Pascal on Z/80 machines running CPM when those > were 'out of date'. I think they'd still be fine for learning > Pascal. My high school math teacher took me aside on the first day of computer class and told me that he didn't know anything about computers and that he'd be depending on me a lot. After I got Pascal installed on all of the machines, it was a kind-of self-study in Pascal after that. Woo-hoo. > Heck, I learned assembly on a VIC 20 (3583 BYTES FREE) and the > concepts are still the same today. I actually learned assembly language from _Machine Language for Beginners_ and _Assembly Language for Kids_. My impetus for learning this stuff was that sprites were so damn slow in BASIC. > I'm still not convinced children > ought to jump straight into Java as their first language - it offers > enough of a library that you tend to do more engineering and less CS > (exponentiation built-in!). I'll leave it to others to opine which language is best to start with. There seem to be lots of opinions. But, one thing that I find to be really weird are CS programs that start with Java but never teach C! Ever! I have a good friend who went through a program like this. He is very very smart, but he doesn't know a lot about C. I find this to be very...weird. Then again, he knows a more about Java than I do. Oh well. --kevin -- Kevin's updated Elephant Memory Systems Tribute Site: http://home.comcast.net/~kevin_d_clark/ems/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
GNHLUG Nashua, Thr 16 Mar, Christopher Aillon on NetworkManager
Who : Christopher Aillon of Red Hat What : NetworkManager Where: Martha's Exchange Day : Thur 16 Mar (*THURSDAY*) Time : 6:00 PM for grub, 7:30 PM for presentation :: Overview All other programs on the system interact with NetworkManager over dbus, sending messages and receiving replies via the NetworkManager dbus API. This provides a flexible interface to user programs, without having to rely upon binary linking and deal with issues of binary compatibility. dbus provides security services and has been developed with a focus on security, and NetworkManager attempts builds on that base by isolating the network-controlling parts of the architecture from user-space programs, mainly through the facilities dbus provides. >>> RSVP to Jim Kuzdrall for dinner to assure adequate seating. <<< Driving directions: http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/PlaceMarthasExchange Thanks, Jim Kuzdrall [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-announce mailing list gnhlug-announce@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-announce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL
Bill McGonigle wrote: On Mar 13, 2006, at 18:20, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That's just it. It's NOT a valid way to reduce spam. Just like killing junkies is not a valid way to fight AIDS... The trouble is the valid ways to reduce spam (like DomainKeys and SPF records) are very very lightly deployed and the IETF is trying to see to it that even they don't get accepted. In the meantime any countermeasure is a hack. They're actually not ways to reduce spam. There are many, many analyses available on the web that show exactly how these two systems are not going to prevent spam. What they may reduce, but only if mail admins are serious about using "-all" (in the case of SPF), is Joe jobs, where someone "forges" mail from your domain. There's absolutely nothing to prevent spammers from using spf with a +all entry that allows any site to send email for that domain. Also, when AOL uses ?all, that's no help. For domain keys, a spammer can easily send the key out to his bots and have the mail user agent sign all outgoing messages. So, now, they're signed with a valid key for the sending domain What do the above buy you? Very little. You're still going to have to filter on IP addresses, sending domains, etc. Sure, you could block all "bad" keys and you could block all mail from sites with spf records that don't end in -all, but you'd be cutting off a good bit of ham that way, or you'd still be stuck with blacklists (for the bad keys). There are also a whole host of other issues involved in using domain keys and SPF, such as breakage of some very common email practices. They may be bad habits, but they're things that have been accepted and expected for years. You'll notice, if you look, that I have spf version 1 records for my domains. They end in -all. I set them up in a moment of weakness. However, when I set them up, I knew they were of limited use and I knew what problem spf was designed to solve, whether it's pushers knew it or not. What is actually needed is an entirely new email protocol that cannot be "abused" and doesn't cost too much on its users. "In the meantime any countermeasure is a hack." However, it ain't happenin' any time soon. I'm on another list called IM2000 where such issues are discussed ad nauseam. The consensus there is that an entierly new email architecture needs to be built, one that puts the cost of sending email on the sender, but getting people to switch to it"Aye, there's the rub." use, then you can run a mail server on an alternate port. Lots don't block 465 (ssmtp) or 587 (alternate smtp). In my case, since I can never remember Clever. I'll have to look into that. And then tell all the spamsters. :) Fortunately for us most submission ports require SMTP AUTH which is less useful for spammers. Maybe once all traffic is forced there we'll see Outlook worms spamming through valid accounts. Could be, but I've seen a lot of spam coming from poorly written web form processor programs lately. I've even been playing cat and mouse with one spammer who has been trying to abuse one of mine. I've got it locked up now where I know that even if he managed to get a mail through, I'm the only person in the world that will see it. He keeps trying, and it's not a completely automated script on one of his bots that he's running, 'cause its only four or five attempts in a row, a couple days a week, always with a bcc: to the same couple of aol accounts. He's trying to see what he needs to put in to get his messages through. I figure he'll give up in a few days when he finds someone's webform processor that he can exploit. Just wait until the virus writers discover this trick! I don't see any solution in the near term. I don't like some of the alternatives, either. If PKI becomes required for email, then it becomes much easier to track who is emailing whom. What little bit of libertarian that is still breathing within me, doesn't like that. I'm also thinking that I might as well get rid of the mail form and just put a mailto link on my site. It's actually safer, and my address is already in whois, anyway. Cheers, Jason ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL
From: Jason Stephenson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:00:00 -0500 > it that even they don't get accepted. In the meantime any > countermeasure is a hack. They're actually not ways to reduce spam. There are many, many analyses available on the web that show exactly how these two systems are not Just off the top of my head... * Mandating SMTP AUTH * Universal use of GnuPG + message signing * HashCash (or similar systems) http://www.hashcash.org/ In general, any spam-proof messaging system will follow these rules: (1) By default, do not accept any messages (2) Accept messages from authentic senders (3) Retract sender authority if/when it's used to send spam -- PGP Key fingerprint: 1CF8 80E6 A23C F1B3 38A7 3BFD 581C 9889 A39E A73D ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just off the top of my head... * Mandating SMTP AUTH * Universal use of GnuPG + message signing * HashCash (or similar systems) http://www.hashcash.org/ They're all hacks. The only *real* solution is something completely different. In general, any spam-proof messaging system will follow these rules: There's no such thing. Never will be. (1) By default, do not accept any messages You can do that now, with greylisting, which eliminates the majority of spam and viruses. Greylisting means returning a temporary failure the first time that a new sender tries to deliver an email to your server, or it could be configured on a user by user basis. Spam agents and viruses don't generally try again, so those messages are never delivered. Legitimate MTAs will try again, so legitimate mail will get through. However, this won't stop "spammers" that use real MTA software. (2) Accept messages from authentic senders Who determines authenticity? If it's just that there's a key pair on a server somewhere, then there's nothing to stop spammers and viruses from creating their own key pairs. There's nothing to stop them making new ones when the old ones are revoked, or have no trust. (And AFAIK, only the key owner can revoke their own ky. I can't revoke yours and you can't revoke mine.) (3) Retract sender authority if/when it's used to send spam You've got that now with black lists, and you'll still need black lists with PKI. If you only trust keys signed by people or organizations you know and trust, you'll never get mail from strangers, who may want to offer you a real job, etc. The real problem with anything designed to work with SMTP as it is, is that the cost of delivery and the cost of determining what's ham and what's spam is squarely on the recipient. It costs a spammer with an army of bots nothing to send out 1,000,000 emails. It costs the recipients of those emails in bandwidth, server resources, and even man hours to deal with the influx of spam. All of that adds up to money. If the spammer had to pay for the storage of their messages before delivery (or pickup, rather), then spam would disappear very quickly. This is, in fact, what the IM2000 proposals have been about, making the sender bear the cost without adding some ridiculous email tax or micropayment scheme. It is an extremely tough nut crack. Numerous proposals have been discussed, and there are many critiques of them on the web. (If you search for IM2000 discussion or proposal, I'm sure you'll find many of them.) Nothing that's been proposed so far seems adequate to me. Every proposal so far can be shot through with holes. I'm starting to think that it is the very open architecture of the Internet that is the real "problem." At its very base, the 'Net is designed to be open. The basic plumbing was designed at a time when there were only a few thousand nodes, and the admins all new each other, more or less. You could pretty much trust everyone else to behave more or less responsibly. Today, that architecture really makes it like a frontier environment. Each individual is pretty much on their own in protecting themselves form the hazards and predators of the environment. If you have an email server, you must run anti-virus and anti-spam software. If you don't, that's like a colonist in 1640 coming to the New World without a firearm. It's more or less the same for firewalls and whatever the latest whiz-bang security device is. It has gotten so that even on corporate, government and ngo LANs, you need firewalls on each machine to protect them from each other. It's also a human problem. Some people just are not ready for a frontier environment. If it were a real frontier, those people who keep opening the virus-laden attachments in their email would have been eaten by wolves by now. Ditto for those people who have fallen for phishing schemes, etc. That is the Internet equivalent of being eaten by wolves. Things are only going to get worse when IPv6 becomes mainstream and there are trillions of throw-away addresses. What are the alternatives? Something like AOL or Compuserve before they joined the rest of the 'Net? No. There was abuse there, too. I can't say for sure. However, I'm convinced that without completely redoing the network architecture so that it resembles a virtual police state (read: "prison or public high school"), then all bets are off. We're just going to have to deal with things as they are, unless someone has the cajones to pony up a better solution, and can convince 1,000,000,000+ people to switch to it all at the same time. Cheers, Jason ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL
From: Jason Stephenson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:53:29 -0500 > * Mandating SMTP AUTH > * Universal use of GnuPG + message signing > * HashCash (or similar systems) http://www.hashcash.org/ They're all hacks. The only *real* solution is something completely different. I admit hashcash may fall *halfway* under the category of "clever hack"... but the theory behind it makes some sense. (It's not a totally PEA-BRAINED like BLINDLY FILTERING EVERYTHING PORT 25) > > In general, any spam-proof messaging system will follow these rules: There's no such thing. Never will be. True. You'll never know if a trusted correspondent has gone Dark Side on you until you get that first message from them about natural beast enlargement. A "perfectly" spamless message system would imply an ability to know the result of an observation before that observation is made---which is something we'll never be able to do, given our current understanding of quantum physics. delivered. Legitimate MTAs will try again, so legitimate mail will get through. However, this won't stop "spammers" that use real MTA software. Also doesn't work against spoofing spammers. Greylisting is a hack. It's a standards-compatible and *good* hack, but a hack nonetheless. > (2) Accept messages from authentic senders Who determines authenticity? If it's just that there's a key pair on a Who determines what kind of mail you want to receive? YOU do! You've got that now with black lists, and you'll still need black lists No, blacklists are different. What I'm talking about would better be called "un-whitelisting"... essentially key revocation. When you receive spam from someone signed with key X, you revoke your trust in that key, and spam (besides that first, posteriori-observed message) won't get through. with PKI. If you only trust keys signed by people or organizations you know and trust, you'll never get mail from strangers, who may want to offer you a real job, etc. Not getting mail from strangers is *the point* of spam blocking. If you want anyone to be able to deliver an n-byte datagram to your mailbox, let everyone use the same key. Of course, if you do that, you *will* get mail from everyone... including spamsters. But (this is the important point) this is *only* because you allowed them. The real problem with anything designed to work with SMTP as it is, is that the cost of delivery and the cost of determining what's ham and what's spam is squarely on the recipient. It costs a spammer with an army of bots nothing to send out 1,000,000 emails. It costs the hashcash technology addresses this distribution-of-cost issue. It is an extremely tough nut crack. Numerous proposals have been discussed, and there are many critiques of them on the web. (If you search for IM2000 discussion or proposal, I'm sure you'll find many of them.) Nothing that's been proposed so far seems adequate to me. Every proposal so far can be shot through with holes. http://www.camram.org/ I'm starting to think that it is the very open architecture of the Internet that is the real "problem." At its very base, the 'Net is The Internet's openness is simultaneously its biggest weakness and its biggest strength. With all freedom comes an equal measure of responsibility. And direct consequence of ubiquitous freedom is the responsibility for self-defense. Crypto technology would be the information-age equivalent of the personal firearm in this picture. Each individual is pretty much on their own in protecting themselves form the hazards and predators of the environment. If you have an email No, no. Though the Internet has largely been overrun by foul-smelling, competitive, consume-only services, the FOSS movement is an excellent example of the Internet's cooperative power being used to protect people in the digital wild. It's also a human problem. Some people just are not ready for a frontier environment. If it were a real frontier, those people who keep opening If a person can't handle the responsibilities of using the Internet, tell them to get AOL. Things are only going to get worse when IPv6 becomes mainstream and there are trillions of throw-away addresses. You've got! to be kidding! IPv6 will be our liberation! v6 will enable us who KNOW to better work around the incompetence, hostility, and inflexibility of today's Net. What are the alternatives? Something like AOL or Compuserve before they joined the rest of the 'Net? No. There was abuse there, too. I think of AOL as like a condom for the Internet. comfort + safety = 0. has the cajones to pony up a better solution, and can convince 1,000,000,000+ people to switch to it all at the same time. One of the nice things about the hybrid CAMRAM approach is that increasing effectiveness during a period of incremental adoption is achiev
