3/2     I just bought a wireless access point for home(couldn't wait until
        the official 802.11a comes out) and for various WinXP reasons,
        128-bit WEP is not working on one of my machines, but the AP can
        filter by MAC address. Is MAC filtering sufficient wireless security?
        \_ No, it's trivially spoofable.  But, so is WEP.  -tom
        \_ Wireless = zero security.  If you want security you can't use
           wireless.
           \_ Using 802.11a should be fine.
              \_ there's already a break
        \_ If you want wireless security, you'll need to consider a layer3
           VPN between your stations and, say, a firewall, using something
           like KAME or Free S/WAN.  I don't know about Windows IPSEC
           implementation, but KAME tends to be pretty interoperable.  The
           scheme depends on you using a sensible authentication mechanism
           between stations, though.  -John
           \_ On campus they're doing AirBears with a Vernier captive portal,
              with authentication on the back end via a Radius server. -tom
              \_ This sounds like login-only protection.  Is there any
                 encryption going on after establishing a connection?
                 \_ Not at the network level, no.  You can, of course, use
                    end-to-end encrypted protocols like SSH.  -tom
                    \_ So a little sniffing and anyone can grab all those
                       clear text POP and telnet passwords floating around
                       campus and probably a whole bunch of other things?
                       \_ Yup.
                       \_ just like on the wired ethernet.  -tom
                          \_ Except physical access to a wired net is much
                             harder to get than to a wired net but you knew
                             that.  Why do bother?
                             \_ It is safe to say at this point that it is
                                easier to get physical access to the wired
                                net than the wireless net on campus.  There
                                are only 6 AirBears locations, while every
                                general-assignment classroom and most of the
                                libraries have open network ports.  -tom
           \_ Personally, I would keep a separate subnet for wireless and
              treat it as insecure, allowing only ssh connection.
              \_ AirBears uses VLANs, so the wireless net can only see other
                 wireless-net traffic.  But there's no firewalling.  -tom

3/1     Shadow Government in operation:
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22615-2002Mar1.html

        Somehow this shadow government business makes me want to buy
        guns, lots of guns.
        \_ is it still a "shadow government" if everyone knows about it?
        \_ Would you rather they had NO contingency plan?  If you want to
           go shoot someone, why do you need to wait for an excuse.
           \_ The contingency plan can easily get out of hand. What is to
              stop the shadow gov. from declaring martial law and abridging
              our rights under the constitution and the bill of rights?
              If the gun control idiots happen to prevail, we will have no
              way of fighting back either.
              If you think that martial law can't happen in the modern
              world, it happened less than 30 yrs ago in India.
              \_ Xfilers knew about this several years ago... it's called FEMA,
                 and they can declare martial law.  It's a conspiracy with
                 aliens.
                 \_motd formatting Nazi was here...
              \_ I'm opposed to gun control and a staunch conservative but
                 you're just sounding like a whacko.  What stops them from
                 declaring martial law?  How about the fact that there's
                 still a Federal Government stomping around and these people
                 all answer to it?  Did you even read the article?  Troll.
        \_ All Hail Caesar!
           \_ Et tu brute?
                \_ Although some would say the actual words were really
                   "And you, too, my son?" which means a lot more if you
                   understand the relationship between Julius and Brutus.

3/1     I just got my UCB rejection from my dear ol Alex Aiken. Did anyone
        else get a rejection/acceptance?
        \_ I got into EE @ UCLA!
           \_ UCLA is not a real school. :(
              \_ what's wrong with ucla?
                 \_ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/bcrank.htm
                    \_ These same stupid rankings say that Notre Dame is
                       a better school than Cal. --dim
                        \_ The undergrad rankings are pretty much bunk--
                           they're heavily weighted towards private schools,
                           because they measure things like endowment per
                           student and alumni giving per student.  But the
                           grad rankings are a lot closer to the way graduate
                           programs are actually rated.  Which is why Cal is
                           #1 overall in grad rankings.  -tom
                           \_ hey tom, i wasn't aware you went to grad school
                              at cal.  I wasn't aware you had an authority to
                              judge the cal grad (or even undergrad) learning
                              environment.  Maybe you should get enrolled 1st.
                              \_ Gee, is US News enrolled at Cal?  -tom
                              \_ tom would need to graduate before he enrolls.
                                 \_ He didn't graduate?
                    \_ Do you actually believe that U Mich, UIUC and
                       Georgia Tech are a better schools than Cal Tech?
                       They've got UT Austin (a joke school) above USC
                       (the home of the ISI) and Princeton.
                       They've also got LA (tied with SB) and below SD,
                       which is obviously wrong.
                       \_ Texas has a fantastic aerospace engineering program.
                          That is the only field in which I have run across
                          Texas undergrads and PhDs, though. All of them very
                          bright.  --dim
                          \_ With one exception, every CS/EE grad I've met
                             from UT Austin was exceptionally bad. These
                             people couldn't code a html web page, let alone
                             command: "I didn't know computers could do that."
                             understand theory and design.
                             One particularly exceptional MS CS grad from UT
                             Austin had this to say when shown the 'grep'
                             command on a sun: "I didn't know computers could
                             do that, regular computers [non-sun] can't do
                             that can they?" (He graduated circa 98-99)
                             Most of the others weren't much better (I've
                             worked with/interviewed dozens). The only
                             exception was a friend of mine who went back to
                             school after being a sysadmin for 8 years (2 yrs
                             at IBM, 6 at Nasa Ames).
                             I'm not sure about Aerospace, but thier MS CS/EE
                             program sucks (unless you want to learn vbscript
                             and m$ access)
                             \_ Maybe... can I get my MCSE?
           \_ hey I applied as well and haven't gotten a letter. When did you
              get your acceptance?
              \_ 2 weeks ago
              \_ I recieved my acceptance letter today.
                 \_ arrrrrrrrrrg I am crushed (still haven't gotten anything)
                    \_ YOU are crushed?  _YOU_ are crushed!?
                       \_ must be one of those who are easily crushed.
                    \_ I've only recieved la. I'm still waiting for
                       usc, cornell and sd. There is still plenty of
                       time. Start worrying after April 15 (except
                       for usc, they are sometime in june)
                \_ rejection from ucb and cmu this week
        \_ Zero rejections.  Zero applications.  Got job, own home.  Happy.

03/01   http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=7869
        News flash -- Daily Cal columnist sighted with at least one intact
        clue.
        \_ So is the news flash the idea that a DC writer is worried that he
           wont get free mp3s anymore?  This guy needs to get together with
           the conspiracy/gun-control theorist further down and do a takedown
           of the Shadow Government.  The First Wave must be exposed!

3/2     Whoa, sorry about all those zombies.  Stupid Perl script bug.
        Weird -- nobody who bitched on the MOTD actually thought to mail
        me...  - bronson

**/**   Restored.  Dont be stupid.  'rm' is not the smart way to clean the
        motd.  If you don't like it, don't read it.