] A day after developers at America Online's Nullsoft unit
] quietly released file-sharing software, AOL pulled the
] link to the product from the subsidiary's Web site.
]
] The software, called Waste, lets groups set up private,
] secure file-sharing networks. The product became
] available on Nullsoft's Web site on Wednesday, just days
] shy of the four-year anniversary of being acquired by
] AOL. Waste is a software application that combines
] peer-to-peer file sharing with instant messaging, chat
] and file searches. Users can set up their own network of
] friends and share files between each other.

Deja-vu

AOL pulls Nullsoft file-sharing software | CNET News.com

] WASTE is a software product and protocol that enables
] secure distributed communication for small (on the order
] of 10-50 nodes) trusted groups of users.
]
] WASTE is designed to enable small companies and small
] teams within larger companies to easily communicate and
] collaborate in a secure and efficient fashion,
] independent of physical network topology.

] WASTE is licensed under the GPL.

] # Network architecture: WASTE uses a distributed
] architecture that allows for nodes to connect in a partial
] mesh type network. Nodes on the network can broadcast
] and route traffic. Nodes that are not publicly accessible
] or on slow links can choose not to route traffic. This
] network is built such that all services utilize the
] network, so firewall issues become moot. more information.
]
] # Security: WASTE uses link-level encryption to secure
] links, and public keys for authentication. RSA is used for
] session key exchange and authentication, and the links are
] encrypted using Blowfish in PCBC mode. The automatic key
] distribution security model is very primitive at the
] moment, and may not lend itself well to some social
] situations. more information.

Waste - Nullsoft strikes again

] I know this whole SCO/Linux thing can be very confusing,
] so I created this summary page to explain what's going
] on.
]
] To make it easier to understand, I put it in familiar
] terms.
]
]
] Cast:
]
] Daisy - Linux
]
] Roscoe P. Coltrane - SCO
]
] Boss Hogg - Microsoft
]
] Bo - Free Software Foundation
]
] Luke - Open Source Initiative
]
] Cooter - Bruce Perens
]
] Uncle Jesse - Novell

Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will.

We tested our predictions by measuring the spread of messages in an organization and also by numerical experiments that take into consideration the organizational distance among individuals.

This paper is sort of a follow-up to the Email as Spectroscopy paper. You can find a PowerPoint briefing on it at

http://www.hpl.hp.com/shl/papers/flow/justflow.ppt

Information Flow in Social Groups [PDF]

] David S. Miller also said:
]
] Don't expect specs or opensource drivers for any of
] these pieces of hardware until these vendors figure out a
] way to hide the frequency programming interface.
]
] Ie. these cards can be programmed to transmit at any
] frequency, and various government agencies don't like it
] when f.e. users can transmit on military frequencies and
] stuff like that.
]
] The only halfway plausible idea I've seen is to not
] document the frequency programming registers, and users
] get a "region" key file that has opaque register values
] to program into the appropriate registers. The file is
] per-region (one for US, Germany, etc.)and the wireless
] kernel driver reads in this file to do the frequency
] programming.
]
] So don't blame the vendors on this one, several of
] them would love to publish drivers public for their
] cards, but simply cannot with upsetting federal
] regulators.

The 802.11g card in my Powerbook is one of these chipsets. Its the only reason I have not done a Linux install on it yet. I need the wireless to use the net.

/me thinks about forcing Abaddon at gunpoint to code him a driver..

I'm sure I don't have to go into too much detail why this is interesting.. In short, it may be possible to code software using these cards that could be used by several systems to roughly triangulate the position of a specific cell phone, police car(s), etc.. Among other things..

Kernel Traffic #216 For 20 May | Some WLAN Chip Specs Secret To Protect Military Communications

Extremely cool to look at and play with.

I could have sworn I had recommended this before. Yes, the Touchgraph Google Browser is extrememly cool. I have been playing with Touchgraph..

TouchGraph GoogleBrowser V1.01

A fairly accurate timeline, er, from some points of view, of the progression that the internet has taken over time.

Enjoy!

Hiliarious!

The Lemon: History Of The Internet

] Microsoft Corp., which on Monday announced it was
] licensing the Unix source code and patent from the SCO
] Group, is remaining tight-lipped about its reasons for
] the move.

This keeps getting weirder and weirder...

Microsoft Mum on Unix Licensing Move

] Here's the idea: you promise a voter 50 euros (31 pounds)
] to cast their ballot for your candidate, send them into
] the booth with a 3G phone, they send a picture via the
] phone proving that they have voted as instructed and then
] they get the cash.

The T-Mobile Election Rigger

Decentralized anonymity systems tend to be unreliable, because users must choose paths through the network without knowing the entire state of the network. Reputation systems can improve reliability by predicting the state of the network. In this paper we focus on anonymous remailers and anonymous publishing, explain why the systems can benefit from reputation, and describe our experiences designing reputation systems for them while still ensuring anonymity. We find that in each example we first must redesign the underlying anonymity system to support verifiable transactions.

Reputation in P2P Anonymity Systems [PDF]