Archive for the ‘LINKS’ Category.

What do over 2,600 climate scientists have in common?

Dean’s World: What do over 2,600 climate scientists have in common?

2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and other environmental scientists (so far) have signed a petition saying that global warming hysteria is pseudoscientific baloney. They’ve been joined by an additional 5,017 chemists, biochemists, biologists, and other life scientists, and over 10,000 other scientists, attached to major universities and research organizations around the world. Yet if you went by what “environmental” activist groups like Greenpeace, Sierra Club, or the so-called “Environmental News Network” tell you, you’d think this petition, and others like it, never existed.

The Oregon Petition reads, in its entirety, as follows…

We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

The petition was put together by Dr. Frederick Seitz, the former President of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Thousands of qualified scientists have signed it, and more are signing all the time. If you’re a qualified scientist or meteorologist who’d like to sign the petition yourself, or want to see a list of all the signers, click here to go to the web site run by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which is sponsoring the initiative.

The Oregon Petition is not the only such petition signed by scientists, either. Over 4,000 scientists from 106 countries, including 72 Nobel Prize winners, have signed the Heidelberg Appeal. This petition, issued in response to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro back in 1992, warns against “the emergence of an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress and impedes economic and social development.” They further warn “the authorities in charge of our planet’s destiny against decisions which are supported by pseudoscientific arguments or false and nonrelevant data.”

Bottom-Heavy Email

Tim Bray: Bottom-Heavy Email
‘We all got a note from Paul the CFO, who’s a bright and reasonable kind of person, telling us we should put one of those privacy disclaimers at the bottom of outgoing emails. This struck me as a ridiculous idea, so I pushed back a bit, and learned why these things exist. … While I’m not a lawyer, this seemed pretty shaky to me. I mean, if I send you something secret and you screw up and pass it on to the wrong person, and damage ensues, I may well decide to sue your ass even if you do have some boilerplate legalese at the bottom of your email. … “But, the insurance company requires that we do this in order for them to provide coverage.” I don’t have a come-back to that.’

Student’s Web site hacked by al-Qaida

FAST protocol

Space.com: Pushing the Speed Limit: For Researchers, the Internet Just Got Faster
“Unlike the single path TCP protocol, FAST uses 10 parallel routes for its delivery, allowing researchers to send massive amounts of data while still keeping the size of each information packet down to current standards. During a data transfer, FAST monitors network congestion and rapidly adjusts the amount of information being sent to ensure a prompt delivery. … In comparison tests using only one pathway to send data from the Sunnyvale facility to CERN, a distance of about 6,236 miles (10,037 kilometers), FAST was still more than three times as efficient as the standard TCP method.”

Habeas sues haiku abusers

The Register:Habeas sues haiku abusers
“The first suit, against Avalend and Intermark Media, alleges infringement of the Habeas trademark in attempts to get junk mail delivered. The second lawsuit, against Dale Heller, Stan Stuchinski (BigDogSecrets.com), Clickbank and Keynetics, covers a breach of contract claim against Heller, a Habeas licensee.”

Ten Security Checks for PHP

ONLamp.com: Ten Security Checks for PHP
[Part 1]
[Part 2]

Checkershadow Illusion

Grady Booch on future of software development

“the fatal flaw of web services”

Mark Baker: Why bad design always trumps hype; the fatal flaw of Web services [April 02, 2003]
“First, bad design cannot be masked. And second, that Web services’ lack of use of a coordination language is an example of bad design.”

Buffer Overflow Solutions in OpenBSD

OpenBSD: Buffer Overflow “Solutions” – KernelTrap
Theo de Raadt: “In the last while, a couple of people in OpenBSD have been putting
some buffer overflow “solutions” into our source tree; under my
continual prodding. I thought I would summarize some of these and how
they fit together, since what I have seen written up so far has been
wildly inaccurate. (Bad reporter, no cookie).

These are, in short form:

1) PROT_* purity
2) W^X
3) .rodata
4) propolice”

[See also grsecurity
and
Immunix
which includes StackGuard.]