Slashdot Mirror

If I've said it once.... I've said it a hundred times.

Our technology is evolving faster than our species.

• 
  Suicides of teen girls in the USA are up due to cell phones and social media.
  Cell phones are killing our necks.
  In addition to carrying a personal tracking device, governments are using and abusing any and all technology to spy on citizens
  The Sun could wipe out our power grid with a direct hit from a geomagnetic storm, and utilities aren't doing anything to mitigate the risks.
  5 Countries are destroying the ocean with plastics and covering the earth with asbestos.
  And let's not forget about the Doomsday clock and Nuclear Weapons. We still have a cold war posture that could end badly.
  We have governments with cheap gene editing tools CRISPR/CAS9 working to make designer pets that glow in the dark and super biological weapons
  Video Game Addiction is rampant
  The Internet is a Pandora's box of garbage and porn, bad behavior are shaping your minds through YouTube and other video streaming sites.
  The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There will be a tipping point and this will lead to global unrest.

We can truly say it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. If we could all just grow up and use our technology for good, but we can't. Just like light and dark, yin and yang, the good of technology is always accompanied by the evil dark side.

My prediction for 2018 is that AI and machine learning are going to be applied to hacking. AI's will be trained to write code to exploit all things and the exploits will be endless. Humans won't even be able to understand the exploit code as the AI software churns them out. Further I predict human cloning will happen this year and that China/Russia/North Korea will test some pretty nasty hacks on Americas Banks, Stock Market, Telecommunications, and/or gas/electric/water. I also predict that US drug usage will continue to increase (opioids, weed, alcohol) and the life expectancy will continue to decrease and suicide rates will continue to increase. I also predict that based on an increased energy in the atmosphere that storms will continue to grow in intensity. I also predict there will be a war in North Korea due to an error in a rocket test hitting a US ally. Further I predict Russia will take over another ex-Russian republic and China will continue to flex it's military muscle.

7 billion people on the planet. Technology everywhere, and we still can't figure out to behave and share.

I was watching TV with a little child and she was horrified by the war videos on the news and she asked me, "Why is there war? Why are they fighting?"

My answer, "Because, Sharing is hard."

To all reading this, in 2018 do a better job of sharing, loving your neighbor, and using less plastic.

Happy New Year!

The first story is longer than that .
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080202/NEWS/309668797 Arrested several times under several names, including Thomas Warz, Warziniak was busted by Grand Junction police Sept. 26, 2006, after shooting methamphetamine into his arm at a Grand Junction hotel. The lies started when officers tried to figure out who he was. “I asked Mickaa (Warziniak gave an officer the false name of “Joey Mickaa”) for his social security number, and he told me he was an illegal from Russia and that he did not know for sure how to say the numbers (in English),” an arrest affidavit reads. The skeptical officer noted his English was just fine moments earlier. Warziniak was jailed. In a deal with prosecutors resolving two cases, he pleaded guilty on Jan. 2, 2007, to a minor criminal impersonation charge related to another arrest. Warziniak was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Warziniak continued with tall tales about his past. According to a McClatchy-Tribune news service report on Warziniak’s story, probation officials concluded in a report before his sentencing hearing that he was probably mentally ill.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080202/NEWS/309668797

Speaks good English Warziniak used heroin for more than two decades.

Arrested several times under several names, including Thomas Warz, Warziniak was busted by Grand Junction police Sept. 26, 2006, after shooting methamphetamine into his arm at a Grand Junction hotel.

The lies started when officers tried to figure out who he was.

I asked Mickaa (Warziniak gave an officer the false name of Joey Mickaa) for his social security number, and he told me he was an illegal from Russia and that he did not know for sure how to say the numbers (in English), an arrest affidavit reads.

The skeptical officer noted his English was just fine moments earlier.

Warziniak was jailed.

In a deal with prosecutors resolving two cases, he pleaded guilty on Jan. 2, 2007, to a minor criminal impersonation charge related to another arrest. Warziniak was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Warziniak continued with tall tales about his past. According to a McClatchy-Tribune news service report on Warziniakâ(TM)s story, probation officials concluded in a report before his sentencing hearing that he was probably mentally ill.

Don't let the rest of the story get in your way.

They can't kill anyone or have anyone killed. They can't drive drunk.

They're working on it.

No, all they have is "bigger" toys, but the POWER that comes with riches is gone - reserved by governments only.

Unless you count their ability to "campaign finance" the legislation they want that benefits them and their business interests.

So yeah, there might be more zeroes at the end of the net worth of rich people than there were before, but considering that "poor" people and "middle class" people usually have shelter, television, transport (private or public), food, etc, it's actually the poor who are better off than ever before.

And more and more people have to work two or three jobs to keep those things, because the rich people are paying workers less and charging more for goods and services in order to keep adding those extra zeroes.

In China this would be pointless because why would the government care what their people thought?

The Chinese government cares a lot about what their people think, that's why they have a lot of censorship. The Chinese government is well aware of history and of what happened to previous Chinese governments. Piss off too many (e.g. the peasants) and you die.

FWIW, a lot of the Chinese people support their own government (just look at the patriots out in full force during the Olympics).

Why?
1) The censorship and brainwashing. Control what people see and that affects what they think, and that's how you keep them supporting you.
2) Because there have actually been significant positive changes. Railways and highways have been built, many of the poor have benefited from those. Sure there's lots of bad stuff happening, but they can just look at a lot of other countries and go "We're doing better" or "we're doing pretty good given the hand we've been dealt".
3) They can see that at least some parts of the Government are trying to improve things for China, and not just a corrupt few. They're in the process of building very many nuclear reactors so that they don't have to burn so much coal and have so much pollution.

As for accountability: a number of high ranking officials actually get executed for corruption or screwing up big time[1]. Sure maybe at the very top there are untouchables, but is it really so different in the US or other countries? And how high up is this US guy anyway: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20101104/NEWS/101109939/1078&ParentProfile=1062
They're possibly even slightly afraid of the people, they abolished the agricultural tax: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/06/content_422126.htm
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/1274.html

It's not that rosy, there are lots of problems and it could fall apart: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-01/21/content_19282590.htm
That "houses are way too expensive" problem does exist in many other countries too though.

You can see that many of the Chinese leaders are trying though. Wish my Government (in Malaysia) was even trying to improve the country- so far they've been doing a lot of stupid/bad things. The guy at the top says lots of nice stuff, but so far it's just been talk, whereas his underlings say and do pretty bad stuff.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070900689_pf.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10535226
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-87512.html

If you are rich, you get away with stuff. It is the American way.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20101104/NEWS/101109939/1078&ParentProfile=1062

Yeah, since manslaughter doesn't get you more than two years these days. And a hit and run might not even be something a DA wants to pursue vigorously.

The charges in this case went beyond denial of service and were prosecuted under federal law.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern, Cybercrime Coordinator for the Cleveland U.S. Attorney's Office, following an investigation by the Akron Office of the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the University of Akron Police Department. Former Student Gets 30 Months in Prison for DDoSing Conservative Figures and Using Botnets, 30-Month Sentence For Bot Nets Used To Obtain Information From Other Computer Systems

In the American federal system, crimes of violence are almost always prosecuted under state law. If you have any complaints about sentencing, take them to your state assemblyman or senator.

The consequences for conviction on a charge of vehicular homicide vary wildly from state to state.

In Iowa, there is no probation and the mandatory sentence is twenty five years. In Tennessee the average jail time is 29 days. Vehicular Manslaughter

Failing to pursue the felony charge can make very big headlines in unexpected places: Morgan Stanley financial adviser escapes felony charges for hit-and-run 'because it could jeopardies his job', Alleged hit-and-run driver may not face felony

If it were a NON-POLITICAL DOS/bot attack, would anyone on Slashdot give a rat's ass if he went down for MORE than thirty months?

Yeah, since manslaughter doesn't get you more than two years these days.* And a hit and run might not even be something a DA wants to pursue vigorously. **

But you wanna see the system freak out? Show the people with money and clout that the system has holes, that there are people who can do things with technology that they don't understand.

OK, it's really not just a tech thing. Both our statutory punishments and our sentencing is messed up in this country. Unfortunately, it's in no small part because we're quite simply very very stupid about the issue politically: we like to vote for people who are "tough on crime," so I don't expect a lot of change.

* May not apply if you're not a police officer.
** May not apply if you're not wealthy.

Sad but true: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070709/NEWS/70709026

Worse, this is in a very wealthy, presumably well-educated county who of all demographics should know better.