My apologies, Karen;  I was actually directing most of this to Imago.

(My comments about Arizona, photo radar, red-light cameras, and
California are all still directed toward you, but they open a
different topic which is outside the scope of this list.)

-Kyle H

2010/1/14 Kyle Hamilton <[email protected]>:
> This is completely off-topic at this point, and after this (unless someone 
> adds useful signal) I'm ignoring this thread.
>
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Karen Palen <[email protected]> wrote:
>> In fact it takes a certain amount of effort to change the default ID which 
>> is built into the viewer code. Effort that no malware writer will expend!
>
> ...until you issue a challenge like that. Further, the 'default ID' can be 
> changed *on the commandline*. Because of this, there's no requirement to 
> recompile/relink the viewer when you want to change that ID string, which 
> reduces (by several orders of magnitude) the amount of time necessary to 
> brute-force the string necessary. And, since you've essentially stated that 
> you want the "official" Linden viewer, all someone has to do is figure out 
> which version string(s) of the released viewer your grid will accept.
>
> If you want security through obscurity, that's wonderful... but when you make 
> it no longer obscure, it's no longer secure. You have definitely removed the 
> obscurity from your system through your announcement of your plans in this 
> thread.
>
> I have already stated the only even-remotely-secure way to do it, and even 
> that, if you want any kind of grid population at all, is going to require 
> some kind of automation. (That way is server/client mutual cryptographic 
> authentication, handled via TLS.) Personally, I'd rather each change to a 
> primitive be written to a log as a revertable changeset... but I'll let you 
> know when I figure out how to do that.
>
>> There are a great many crazy ideas that hide under the banner of "security".
>>
>> Here in Arizona we have a traffic camera scam which is being promoted as 
>> "safety". The huge amount of statistical evidence which proves this to be 
>> false is simply ignored.
>
> Traffic cameras have been held unconstitutional in the state of California. I 
> used to live in Arizona; I pity that you do.
>
> The problem that those traffic cameras were supposed to stop can be resolved, 
> much more effectively, by increasing the length of the yellow light to at 
> least 2 seconds. The bigger problem is that most city councils were convinced 
> that it could be a revenue-generation system, and thus most councils directed 
> that yellow lights be shortened, thus increasing the danger of entering an 
> intersection in the first two seconds after a green light.
>
>> Many people are receiving citations for speeding when in fact they are sick 
>> or travelling outside the US.
>
> ...which is why they've been held unconstitutional in CA. (As has 
> photo-radar, since the operator of the vehicle is the one responsible for the 
> violation -- not the owner or registered owner of the vehicle used for the 
> violation.)
>
>> Karen
>
> The point is to identify the end result of what you want, and you've 
> identified it as "I don't want anyone fucking with the prims on my grid 
> unless I grant them permission." You have generalized this to "I don't want 
> anyone I can't trust not to fuck with the prims on my grid to connect to my 
> grid," and are now trying to find a way to enforce that. We've all told you 
> *why* your approach is flawed. We've all told you *how* your approach is 
> flawed. We've even tried to provide you with *better directions* to find the 
> solution to your problem.
>
> All the while, you've been stubbornly refusing to accept any solution more 
> complex than the not-a-solution that you've come up with, and have been 
> vocally defending something that, to be effective, must be kept secret. 
> (Since it's no longer a secret, it no longer has any effectiveness. 
> Congratulations on shooting yourself in the foot.)
>
> -Kyle H
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