ambiate

Joined 17 years ago

Karma
1,194
Submissions
370
Member since
Jan 22
jonathan dot drouillard at gmail

interests: bioinformatics, math, programming

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Recent submissions

Comment · 10 years ago
Comment · 10 years ago
CFAA is very broad. "intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains— C) information from any protected computer;"

A court could see "ambiate was authorized to use the work printer for printing -- ambiate hacked the printer to find out the fax machine number and sent a fax" in an absurd world.

This random internet person was never authorized to access this public router. Even if its set to a default username/password. That's the broadness the CFAA.

Just because you set your password to 'password99', doesn't mean you get more protections than the person who leaves their Cisco router set to 'cisco'.

Comment · 10 years ago
I love that the deer has figured out teleportation and the humans haven't figured out how to notice a deer.
Comment · 10 years ago
15 years ago, that standard set used to be wget something from packetstormsecurity.org. If no wget: curl it. If no curl: just lynx it. else: move on to the next vulnerable server. Script kiddies were quite lazy back then. I feel old at thirty.
Comment · 10 years ago
I plead the fifth. CFAA/RICO/Patriot Act.

My hint would be: before decentralized worms, there were IRC hubs. The 'owners' would typically use their native language for the various commands (I know English is used in more than the US, but..). Most of the time, they wouldn't even hide their host name on the IRC server.

I guess from a 'being legal' POV: anyone could infect themselves with the same root kit that's on a honeypot and find out quite a bit about the organizers.

Comment · 10 years ago
Its interesting how many HN users seem to be missing the point of a honeypot. He set this up deliberately to understand the frequency/types of attacks on a random machine on the internet.

From my past experience, most of those CN computers are actually US zero day'd/patched running root kits/worms. It just happens to be that CN computers are more likely to be unpatched/running ancient software.

Comment · 10 years ago
This is my dream job. Yet, offering a 65-75k salary for what is essentially a penta-glob of DBA/ops/programming/testing/manager positions is really weak.

Using most of the tools, its very akin to a scan the barcode at a cash register job and look at the results. It is when the scanner beeps in error, that the experience you pay for comes into play. Not to mention, the cost of living in Houston isn't exactly cheap.

Comment · 10 years ago
2016 Q3/Q4's new fancy toy may not be a RiftV2 and may have a minimum requirement of a Pascal GPU or Skylake/Broadwell-e CPU. Its just a really horrible time to buy computer hardware right now.
Comment · 10 years ago
If you're not an early adopter enthusiast: it may not be a great idea to purchase this right now. You will probably need a PC upgrade to match your new $675 toy. The new generation of Intel/Nvidia is right around the corner. Don't dig yourself into a hole where you buy current flagship and need to upgrade it 9 months down the road from now for Q4's toy.
Comment · 10 years ago
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

That is pretty damning on the amount of users with a 970/780ti/980/980ti/titan x. My 560ti plays most games at a decent resolution in mid-settings at 144hz. It is hard to validate a $400 replacement for non-time consuming entertainment.

Note: a 970 is in the top 6 -- http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Comment · 10 years ago
Here are my thoughts on the situation:

1) First generation devices are usually flops/riddled with bugs, but usually exploitable if you don't upgrade firmware/etc.

2) I would probably need to buy a 980TI ($600) or Titan X ($1k) to make up for my i7-2600k's failure. (I want a Titan X for deep convolution neural networks anyways).

3) Nvidia is on the verge of releasing their Pascal architecture. The Titan X was just recently released (Mar '15?). While it is a powerhouse, the pascal base Titan may come with 12-16GB of memory and a 10-20% speed increase.

4) Intel is near release on their broadwell-e platform which should be able to consume 40 pci-e lanes (like haswell-e). No word yet on if they plan on being able to use 40 pci-e lanes with skylake.

Summary: In 1 years time, there will be a base Pascal Titan that outperforms the Maxwell Titan X, a new ~$500 CPU that will be on par with the current $1000 CPU, and an assortment of VR options available. As much as it pains me, unless I see a Titan X for $600-800 on craigslist, I'm going to wait this one out.

Comment · 11 years ago
Big thanks to John Carmack (and team) for Quake1 modding and replying to my emails. It was a gateway drug.
Comment · 11 years ago
I sadly got bit today. I bought a Freedompop hotspot. After entering my billing information, and after the processing screen, a screen showed an offer for a $30 phone.

I intended to click Skip, but my mind clicked Accept this offer, because it was the primary button. Its a $30 loss, but inevitably, I will save hundreds with the hotspot.

After the accept this offer, there was no confirmation, just finished the processing screen with no way to cancel the order.

Comment · 11 years ago
The appliance industry has it figured out. The parts are so discrete and they control the finite supply. Not worth counterfeiting/cloning, because there are too many models/factors. In fact, they won't make replacement parts for pieces they know will last longer than the warranty.

Serviceman Jim can find a belt/board for your 1987 washing machine and have it delivered in 2 hours for $90.

Serviceman Jim says to scrap that 2015 washing machine and buy the 2016 model. The company knows about that recurring problem that every household with that model has, but they're not recalling it.

HVAC unit, fridges, dishwashers, washing machine, dryer, vacuums, etc. I recall there being small businesses with overflowing stock for repair parts for all of these items. Its so much easier to just throw away the item and replace it. Its the age of recyclable electronics, and I can't wait to get an 'iPhone7t multiplied.'

It just saddens me in the age of 'we need more STEM.'

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