On Sat, May 25, 2002 at 10:20:57PM +1000, James Cameron wrote:
> On Sat, May 25, 2002 at 03:46:50AM -0500, Bob Tanner wrote:
> > What prevents a man-in-the-middle attack?
> Well, I thought the local IP address used to be used as part of the
> negotiation ... but portswap through firewall must bypass that now,
> because a client cannot know what it's external NAT IP would be.

A few times (several years ago...) I've wondered about a sort of 1:2
proxy, where one server was connected (through the proxy) to two
clients. Some of the packets/responses would be routed only to one,
and some would be routed to both. One blessed client that sits in the
background somewhere, and one non-blessed that people would actually
use. I stopped bothering at the point that I didn't think it was
worth my while... :-)

> Borg capability in Netrek is constrained to;
> - predicting probable location of cloakers, by data analysis,
> - automatic firing of weapons or activation of defensive measures,
> - information processing, e.g. carrier highlighting.

Shield 'phasing' (i.e. on/off very fast) allows for additional server
updates to perform hull repair, while very effectively blocking the
damage of torpedoes from the hull. Repair 'phasing' does similar as
well (toggle repair and maxwarp to provide the appearance of a jittery
constant speed, but allowing additional fuel recharge / damage repair
bonus). Torpedoes deployed can be selectively detonated. Detonation of
other torpedoes can be calculated to produce minimal damage, and
minimal activation cost (i.e. SB can save on WTEMP), tractor beams can
be very quickly applied to several people at once (knock 4 people off
a planet in one update without moving the mouse, distracting you from
aiming torps + phaser).

But... most borgs do suck... :-)

mark

P.S. I haven't forgotten about the robot war - just work has interfered.
     Something about Nortel Networks stock being worth significantly
     less than it should be...

-- 
mark at mielke.cc/markm at ncf.ca/markm at nortelnetworks.com __________________________
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                       and in the darkness bind them...

                           http://mark.mielke.cc/