2005-09-22 23:03:19.069782+00 by meuon 7 comments
The NSA is paranoid - a patent for spreading out shredded paper amoung multiple containers. and another patent for determining relative location to vetted locations by latency and ping time. - Might be to to add some random packet latency code into your firewalls. (just kidding).
[ related topics: Intellectual Property ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-22 23:48:21.773858+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
This reminds me of The Case of the 500 Mile Email.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-23 00:59:38.147319+00 by: meuon [edit history]
It's a cute story, but bogus. Yes, for arguments sake packets travel at lightspeed along a wire, but each router or switch induces latency based on many factors. www.flutterby.com is 16 hops from www.geeklabs.com with an average latency of 47ms.. and about 2 physical miles. 3 milliseconds is often 1 router. - and that's why Trey was looking for work and why few care about SAGE membership/certification.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-23 02:35:21.844983+00 by: Dan Lyke
Just did a few here (single times shown, overall times were similar):
PING www.flutterby.com (66.129.1.132): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 66.129.1.132: icmp_seq=0 ttl=235 time=89.032 ms
PING www.l.google.com (64.233.161.147): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 64.233.161.147: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=89.822 ms
Dan-Lykes-Computer-2:/fish/dev danlyke$ ping www.geeklabs.com
PING www.geeklabs.com (66.242.236.234): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 66.242.236.234: icmp_seq=0 ttl=51 time=75.432 ms
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-23 22:44:57.435873+00 by: petronius
I think we pay NSA to be paranoid. I'm sure they have an algorithm for reasaembling shredded paper for when they go dumpster diving at the Iranian UN mission, so their spread-o-matic shredder sounds like a good idea.
I am reminded of a cartoon from WW2: the private is handed a pile of secret documents by the general who orders. "Put these in alphabetical order and then burn them!"
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-25 18:39:00.57937+00 by: Larry Burton
Maybe I'm paranoid too but when I cut up expired credit cards I dispose of each part in a different trashcan that will be emptied at different times. I usually toss one of the middle pieces in a trashcan at a gas station.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-26 01:34:49.350045+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]
The relative location patent may have some serious prior art issues - ever read Cuckoo's Egg?
#Comment Re: made: 2005-09-26 20:05:39.999373+00 by: meuon
Cuckoo's Egg is a -classic- read, I need to pick up another copy.