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Come to NYC! [..] NYC is the city for humans.

Really? Last I heard, NYC was becoming- like London- exorbitantly expensive for ordinary people, with the likes of Manhattan now effectively out of bounds to all but the super rich (#) who can buy property as an investment and don't actually need to bother living there, and anyone close to an average worker being driven to the outskirts with an extended commute time.

That doesn't sound much like a "city for humans" to me.

I don't think anyone needs to romanticise the state NYC was in during the 1970s when CBGB's rose to prominence, but when New York has become so gentrified that one of its most iconic and world-famous venues was driven out of business by rent increases to be replaced by a f*****g designer clothing outlet, then I think one can happily say that it's jumped the shark culturally. And even *that* was ten years ago; safe to say that it's probably more so now.

But then, if one isn't super-rich, why would you want to pay through the nose to live there anyway? Old, established New York establishments replaced with blandness like banks and branches of Subway- FFS, I live in a relatively unremarkable mid-sized Scottish city and we have several Subway outlets here where I can experience the same identikit overpriced mediocrity. In a city where you need to be very well-off to even consider buying a modest dwelling, it's fair to assume that the surroundings, culture and cost of living will increasingly revolve around the lifestyles of such people.

Maybe I'm wrong. NYC still looks great on postcards, and yeah, lots of impressive tall buildings, but beyond that? Comes across as very hollowed-out and one-dimensional.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but that's my impression of NYC life these days anyway.

(#) The average apartment price in Manhatten being now almost $2m. The *average* price. For a poxy little *apartment*.

The company's jet pack normally has a range of about one-quarter of a mile (and reaches heights of 100 feet) with a flying time of 32 seconds

It may not be ready for regular transportation use, but military may finally have, what they wanted for decades. And not just to run faster, but to be able to get over a river or a mine-field or some fortified perimeter quickly.

Sounds like you have been out of touch with the Russian military, as the description you give corresponds to the 1990s or early 00s. Russian military has been undergoing a massive structural reform during the past 10 years, and it has been acquiring and renewing its weapons systems at a very fast pace. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the upgrades, like last year Russian air force received about 200 new 4+ or 4++ generation fighter jets. Currently they're testing, a 5th generation fighter jet and a next generation tank and IFV platform. Yes, Russian navy is the most neglected of all Russian military branches. Russia being more of a land power, has historically spent less money on its ships. But even in the Navy, there is quite a bit of new things happening. For example, the Black Sea Fleet is in the middle of receiving six new diesel submarines, three frigates, a number of corvettes and other ships. It's not a lot, but once you compare this progress to the fact that Black Sea fleet has not received any ships in the previous 20 years, this progress is obvious.

Also observe Syria. Before Russian military got involved there, Assad's government was basically on its last ropes. After Russians came, Assad's forces with Russian help reconquered much of Aleppo, Hops, and Palmyra. The "moderate" rebels begged for cease fire, and Assad is now advancing west onto ISIS held territory.

Russia has made great strides in modernization, but the money is running out and they were getting all of their ship turbines from Ukraine. Ukraine really isn't in the mood to sell them any more so they have some setbacks there. The economy is still very poor so that is another big problem. It will continue to be poor as long as oil prices are low (Russia's pre-2015 budget was ~40% funded by oil or something like that). Now that most of the gulf states are fighting each other, secretly and not-so-secretly, oil is going to stay low for some time. The navy was the last service scheduled to modernized and things aren't looking so great now.

Sony also have a 680 x 400 screen which is .23" in diagonal. That comes in at "retina" level at under an inch.

The "Retina" display is a marketing gimmick and refers to the notion that at a certain resolution, when held at normal viewing distances, the human eye can't distinguish the pixels anymore. That limit is usually actually an optical limit, not a "retinal" limit.

Is it though? Do you really need a display where you are unable to determine the pixels?

You're right: you don't. Even a working 32x32 contact lens display would be incredibly useful. The problem is that any hardware producing images on the retina is orders of magnitude too big to go into a contact lens right now; it's not just the display hardware, it's the optics, power, and wiring.

Here is a discussion of some of the issues:

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

https://motherboard.vice.com/r...

Most threats will come from the network, which means malware attacks.

The fact that 'most threats will come from the network'; does not necessarily mean that this is always your highest risk.

That's why physical security is important, too. (See Qubes anti-evil-maid, USBVM, etc.)

Actually, I have yet to hear of any malware stealing GPG keys and doing anything meaningful with them.
So i'm going to say your suggested post-compromise abuse by malware is plausible but theoretical.

Not so theoretical...
https://motherboard.vice.com/r...
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2...

They even seem willing to steal a vendor's SIM keys in order to steal an individual's PGP key. You can say they don't seem to be doing anything with stolen keys, but decryption has no obvious effects.

They could also use stolen keys to launch _targetted_ attacks, such as signing backdoored code that is inserted into an update MITM fashion.

If it's a targeted attack, when malware would take specific actions to do with GPG, then why couldn't I target Qubes' hypervisor itself? Spawn some arbitrary code into the host node.... then seek out the disk image files, until I find ones that look like they have a bootsector, and infect those as well...

The point of Qubes is that its isolation mechanisms are simple and strong, and usual channels for vm breakouts are sealed off. The hypervisor in this case is baremetal Xen, at just over 1MB in size and is what runs Amazon EC2. Most hypervisors were designed for administrative convenience (and run on top of a traditional OS), whereas security has been a top priority with Xen. The exploits logged against it are a fraction of what Linux gets and even then they are overwhelmingly DoS. So 'just use a vm breakout attack' is kind of specious. If the community feels they need to strengthen security, they can focus on that tiny bit of code instead of having to wrestle with the unbelievable mess of kernel-based architecture.

McAfee is owned by Intel Corporation. Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini bought McAfee for $7.6 billion.

Quote from that New York Times story: "There are no immediate synergies that I can see," said Stacy A. Rasgon, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. "It is a strategic deal, and it is a pretty rich price for a strategic buy."

Ohhh. It's a "strategic deal". Oh, well then, that's okay? Why are writers with no interest or understanding of technology allowed to write stories about technology?

My best guess is that's why Otellini was fired.

Stories about John McAfee, who started the company:

1) Meet the harem of SEVEN women who lived with fugitive software tycoon John McAfee before he fled Belize

2) Bath Salts, Orgies, Murder, and Anti-Virus Software

3) U.S. antivirus legend John McAfee wanted for murder in Belize

McAfee is a "legend"? McAfee software was always undesirable, in my experience.

4) John McAfee: Addict, coder, runaway

Quote from that BBC story: "At the time of the raid, McAfee had begun an affair with a 16-year-old ex-prostitute he had met on Belize Independence Day."

She was an "ex-prostitute"? She was no longer a prostitute?

Another quote: "One night Emshwiller took McAfee's gun. She aimed it at his head, squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger. She missed." John McAfee's response: "All she did was burst my eardrum. I'm deaf in one ear now, but I don't have a bullet in my head. Forgiveness is one of the graces that we have as human beings. Can I be faulted for indulging in it?"

Not-prostitute Emshwiller is quoted as saying, " 'One time before, I held him in the corner and I put a knife at his throat," she says.'

Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini got Intel, a hardware company, involved in that by buying McAfee, a software company. Would you use Intel McAfee software? It seemed to me that buying McAfee damaged Intel's reputation, and continues to damage Intel's reputation.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

That doesn't support your assertion that whites feel oppressed by brown skinned people. You don't have a link, do you?

You want a link that shows white people feel like they're oppressed by black people?

Yup. It's what you claimed

Here, with plenty of links to particular surveys:

None of those surveys asked white people "do you feel oppressed by black people?", so no - they don't support your factually incorrect statement. Rather, the survey in question reveals that whites think that "there is as much discrimination against whites as there is against blacks". Direct quote out of your own linked survey, which you really should have read before posting.

http://www.vice.com/read/white...

You know very well that there isn't a citation in the world that's going to convince you. You're just going to respond, "But that doesn't show what you said!" to everything I post. Because that's how you do.

It literally doesn't back up what you said! If your links do not support your assertion, what do you expect me to say?

That doesn't support your assertion that whites feel oppressed by brown skinned people. You don't have a link, do you?

You want a link that shows white people feel like they're oppressed by black people? Here, with plenty of links to particular surveys:

http://www.vice.com/read/white...

You know very well that there isn't a citation in the world that's going to convince you. You're just going to respond, "But that doesn't show what you said!" to everything I post. Because that's how you do.

for a party that will pass unconstitutional laws requiring ID to vote on the mere thought that someone MIGHT commit voter fraud despite a lack of any evidence.

That made what happened in Nevada even more entertaining. It explains why the GOP might think there's rampant voter fraud...because they have the receipts to prove it.

https://news.vice.com/article/...

Texas? Are you refering to the state that has gone out of it''s way to hamper women's civil rights by enacting new barriers to abortion?

Or is it Texas - the state that has made it illegal for people who are legally women to use the women's washroom?

Or is it Texas - the state that just loves to hate on anyone not white?

Texax - where if you're not white and male, you're sh*t. No thanks.

Submissions should preferably link to primary sources instead of sites that just repackage the story from the original, i.e. just link to Motherboard's article to begin with and give them the clicks instead of Engadget.

Which is to say, here: http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

Does the third party have to reveal their source code? Can the FBI effectively hide behind their contract with the third party?

Look no further than this for clues.

It's obvious that this type of activity will be eventually vetted and weighed in the Supreme Court.

For years since the Snowden disclosures we have repeatedly heard from the government If you don't want to be tracked, turn off your phone".. And you have no expectation of privacy when using tools designed to protect your privacy.

So let's see here. "If you want privacy, don't work for civil-rights violating organizations". "You have no expectation of privacy if you work for the NSA, DHS, or are a congressman/woman who has voted to strip away our civil rights".

I won't shed half a tear if the shoe shifts to the other foot once in a while.

For years since the Snowden disclosures we have repeatedly heard from the government If you don't want to be tracked, turn off your phone".. And you have no expectation of privacy when using tools designed to protect your privacy.

So let's see here. "If you want privacy, don't work for civil-rights violating organizations". "You have no expectation of privacy if you work for the NSA, DHS, or are a congressman/woman who has voted to strip away our civil rights".

I won't shed half a tear if the shoe shifts to the other foot once in a while.

"The American People are sick and tired of hearing about [her] damn emails."

I'm not voting for her in the primaries, and she probably did fuck up w/operational security big-time. I don't think it was with malice-- I'm sure it is not anything beyond the usual hyprocritical fuckery from high up national security and diplomatic executives (didn't Clapper or someone just get their email hacked by a high schooler? guess so).

The real scandal in this arena is her simultaneous misinformed condemnation of Snowden, not this email "bombshell" three days before the first caucus. Seriously, who gives a shit? There are important issues like who does and doesn't get massive financial support from wall street to complain about.

True enough... but the folks I knew flying baloons there for cos-ray experiments were not nasa employees...

That's not quite as interesting as NASA employees in cosplay experiments.

And from the real source (vice):

On Wednesday, however, Snowden slid into my DMs with a response: "I can neither confirm nor deny it means exactly what you think it means."

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

That's like fourth hand reporting.

With the OS having root over any keystrokes before "encryption apps" and a company having designer links in CA.
Re: "ecrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or operating system vendor" would be covered by laws like the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)...
As for devices been super secure, recall the years of news about "Cops Say They Can Access Encrypted Emails (January 11, 2016 )
https://motherboard.vice.com/r...
Note the access news going back a few years...

Also recall the issue of why any backdoors are really bad for any nations telco system:
SISMI-Telecom scandal, an illegal domestic surveillance program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and the
Greek wiretapping case 2004–05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–05
Weaken any encryption and any staff, ex mil, ex staff, ex contractor, former telco or gov staff, other nations staff, anyone with skills or the cash can get the same deep access...

Also note the news from Australia about who gets that no court needed "law enforcement" role long term locally.
61 agencies apply for metadata access (18/01/2016)
https://delimiter.com.au/2016/...
"... a comprehensive list of agencies which had applied to receive accreditation as enforcement agencies under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, which will give them access to make metadata requests."

Facebook is going to die just like MySpace did. http://motherboard.vice.com/re... As the article states, teens don't use facebook all that much. I have 4 teenagers in my house, and they've all quit using it for Instagram, Tumbler, and Twitter. I think 2017 might be a bit premature, but I could certainly see it in steady decline by 2020. Their growth rate is getting close to zero, so I'd say they're about to hit their peak this year.

Re "a slogan for themselves":
"Why the US Launched a Spy Rocket With an Earth-Sucking Octopus On It" (December 7, 2013)
http://motherboard.vice.com/bl...
All part of the very long term collect it all domestic dragnet surveillance and the use of insignia badges with Latin phrases.

Schoelkopf [founding director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center] says his organization euthanized the dolphin and paid the state of New Jersey to perform the necropsy. The results of the necropsy were released to his organization, which expressly asked the state to not publicly reveal its findings. He said because of the controversial nature of dolphin euthanasia, the organization wanted to keep the findings private.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

That doesn't excuse the idiots responding for the state, but does clear up the dolphin question.

Ignoring the hypothetical scenarios, the question boils down to this: what do we actually gain from all the added complexity that this tech will add to the gun? Is the perceived increase in safety only nominal or is it substantial? Does DRM for a gun make the gun more or less useful? I'd say that that DRM for a gun always makes it less useful, EVEN if it stops a perp from stealing a gun and using it against the owner.

Perhaps we should just start calling a spade a spade here. It's not "smart gun technology", it's DRM for your gun.

Leave us not forget the "gun lobby", in the form of the NRA, won't even permit addition of taggants to gunpowder or other explosives, to allow identification. https://www.nraila.org/article...
Leave us not forget the "gun lobby", in the form of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (the NRA's less reasonable sibling, based most ironically in Newtown, CT) won't even permit microstamping technology to be mandated, wherein the brass casing gets imprinted with the serial number of the gun when fired, to enable tracing after a crime has been committed. Hard to figure exactly how that would make it harder for lawful people to acquire firearms, lead to government confiscating your guns, make using the gun in non-criminal situations more problematic, or even add much to the cost. The guy who has the patent has said anyone could use it free. Apparently it's just way beyond the bounds of current technology. Who knew? http://www.sfgate.com/news/art... Even though it turns out Tasers leave their IDs behind when they're used. (Who knew?) https://news.vice.com/article/... Even though it's been demonstrated. http://microstamp.blogspot.com...

Stop promoting Forbes on Slashdot please.

Here's some alternative links:

- http://www.redorbit.com/news/s...

- http://motherboard.vice.com/en...

- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

Yeah, otherwise known as a "software patent". It's worth clarifying what a software patent is not, the better to understand what it is and why it's so pernicious and why they're banned (yes, they are) in the EU and pretty much everywhere else in the world except AU. and JP.

Software patents are not patents on specific ways for causing a machine to perform a useful function. That type of IP is the IP we call "copyright". Copyright does prevent your code, your (virtual) machine, from being ripped off.

So with copyright you're not issued a patent on the concept of any wheel, you're issued a patent on your wheel's unique and specific implementation. If you stop and think about it, it's a really amazing how well copyright serves as the natural vehicle for IP in the computer industry. You cannot just steal another person's original work. Stealing includes *near copying with just a few things changed*. You have to find a relatively original way to achieve the same effect, but the *idea* of what you're doing is not patentable. Copyright naturally delivers all that to computer IP.

Software patents are patents on all ways to cause a machine to perform a generally describable function. It's not the specific implementation performing the useful function that is being protected- it's the ability to achieve the same ends in any way whatsoever.

So like the RIM patent debacle, this patent covers things unbelievably abstract and covers things like this:

http://torrentfreak.com/images...

For people who don't follow links, it's a picture of little labeled boxes representing computers, with arrows being drawn between the little boxes to signify what info gets passed between what computers and when. That's what they're patenting. That's what the patent in the 750 million dollar RIM/NTP case did- took THIS info out of a data base NOW and sent it to THAT computer who did THIS with that info.

That's right folks, we are patenting flowcharts. Read it and weep-

https://www.scribd.com/doc/294...

This is exactly why in the EU computer-related inventions must control some physical, industrial process and then only that physical industrial process is patented, not the code which drives it. Otherwise you're patenting processes defined by flowcharts. You're patenting results. You're patenting ideas.

We know for a fact we don't need these patents for software to progress and for companies to becomes powerful, even monopolistically so, since prior to 1987-1990 or so very few software patents were permitted. Yet we had the invention of EVERYTHING and we had gigantic corporations reaping huge profits also.

This is about regulatory capture and the corporate coffers it fills (with what would have otherwise been your money).

https://news.vice.com/article/...

http://www.businessinsider.com...

https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/... is a basic reference but hides how abusive the game companies are.

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09... is the most damning, but also check http://motherboard.vice.com/re... and the coercive monetisation part of http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs...

The "experiment" in Dauphin, Canada lasted 4 years and seems like it was terminated for political reasons, not because of failure. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

This was interesting: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2...

https://motherboard.vice.com/r...

"Forget documented a decline in doctor visits, an 8.5 percent reduction in the hospitalization rate, and more adolescents continuing into grade 12"

Usually, yes, but they've told the AMA to 'temporarily suspend' operations. The AMA thinks it's going to come to an agreement with the FAA in mid-January.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

Homework assignment - look up the deaths/KWH generated of different forms of power generation.
http://motherboard.vice.com/bl...

Fukushima was bad - and yes a few people died - more will later but nothing compared to other methods (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) how many die every year in the oil and coal business?

Those were old technology plants that didn't get updated like they did in the USA. There are newer safer technologies that are not going on line due to the insane regulations.

  By stopping nuclear plants - it has cost a lot of lives - dead in the middles east - cost of imported oil it would have replaced has been estimated to be similar to the national debt.

when Reagan proposed banning cop-killer bullets, he was supported by the NRA. Today? Don't make me laugh.

Ah, that old chestnut. They were a myth back then (teflon-coated, KTW, and so on) when Reagan jumped on that bandwagon, and they are a myth now with Biden pulling the same crap (end of third paragraph):

http://www.washingtontimes.com...

https://news.vice.com/article/...

The teflon on teflon-coated rounds has no measurable penetration enhancement on police and military body armor. The KTW bullets themselves had a design which improved penetration but the teflon was not the cause, and many types of ordinary jacketed handgun ammunition, including some 9mm types, are capable of defeating level 2 vests, and in some calibers can even breach level 3A vests. This new push against "armor piercing" rounds doesn't really cover actual armor piercing rounds, because, of course, that's not the actual goal now, just as it wasn't then. They've just trying to chip away at a fundamental right under the guise of "common sense" and "gun safety". Note (second link above) that there is already a legal definition of armor piercing ammunition.

I'm not sure why the NRA supported Reagan (given the known falsehoods about teflon-coated bullets at the time), but it probably was rooted in a combination of political concerns of the times together with a membership base which used to be far more concerned with hunting rights than 2nd Amendment rights. After NBC ran its segment on "cop-killer" bullets, there was a lot of uninformed hysteria, and willful misuse by gun control advocates. In recent years the NRA has started to finally get its head out of its ass - maybe they'll even overcome that bitter "Negotiating Rights Away" moniker.

- T

I'll start by saying I agree whole-heartedly with this sentiment and I do hope we see it someday. However, the economics of this don't yet make sense and it isn't the fault of the cable companies. DirectTV tried to do a la carte programming, but the concept was smashed when AT&T bought them. There's even been at least one study that tries to paint a grim picture.

If 1.36 million people actually watched ESPN while more than 100 million paid for it, that's basically the way insurance policies work. In order for $1 a channel to be feasible means getting rid of all the crap channels (the golf channel should have died long ago, along with all the televangelists) and improving efficiency in broadcasting.

We'll see which ones are able to adapt.

The PGP Keys Are Probably Backdated and Point to a Hoax http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

Related:

http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/firehose.p...

After Paris Attacks, Proposed French Law Would Block Tor and Forbid Free Wi-Fi

"After the recent Paris terror attacks, the French government is proposing to forbid and block the use of the Tor anonymity network, according to an internal document from the Ministry of Interior seen by French newspaper Le Monde.

That document lays out two proposed pieces of legislation, one around the state of emergency, and the other concerning counter-terrorism.

In the former, the French government is considering to "Forbid free and shared wi-fi connections" during a state of emergency. This comes from a police opinion included in the document: the reason being that it is apparently difficult to track individuals who use public wi-fi networks.

The latter piece of legislation, meanwhile, says the government is considering "to block or forbid communications of the Tor network." The legislation, according to Le Monde, could be presented as early as January 2016."

- http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

Did you RTFA? I'm not normally one to defend /. editors with their crappy proofing and duplicates, but in this case the click bait comes from outside /.

The original article and a few others:

• Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator [2015-11-23]
• Diamond nanothread rivals graphene as the next big wonder material Now scientists want to build a space elevator out of it. [2015-11-27]
• We may soon be riding up to space in style in elevators made of diamonds [2015-11-23]
• Our Future Space Elevator May Be Built of Diamond [2015-11-21]
• Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator [2015-11-19]
• Scientists Say We Could Build a Space Elevator Using Microscopic Diamond Chains [2015-11-19]

That is true, but stupid people often think that anyone wearing a turban is Islamic. Seriously.

As a side note, It's interesting to see that Gamergate's war against "corruption in the games media" now extends to fabricating evidence to slander their critics. I guess Gamergaters really are dedicated to showing us all who the truly dishonest people are...

Spot on analysis I think.

It is also an explanation for the terrorist acts of Daesh. They are extremely annoyed that many displaced Muslims would rather relocate to Europe rather than their appalling regime.
http://jihadology.net/2015/11/...

They think that by commiting terrorist acts in Europe they can make people believe that all Muslims have terrorist sympathies by leveraging our corrupt media who at the very least believe that selling more page views is their only job.
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/rea...

It is straightforward for Westerners to comprehend the behaviour of Daesh and to believe that defeating their military occupation of Iraq and Syria makes sense. Extending that believe to attacking our fellow Muslim citizens and refugees is unpatriotic because it is exactly what Daesh wants to reinforce the scenario you paint.

Engineers are perhaps more susceptible to the calls of propaganda for all the reasons that you cite. As a profession we should also recognise that our education might have been light on philosophy and psychology which would armour us against propaganda and manipulation.

As a society we recognise that there is an argument that some arguably disenfranchised groups should benefit from positive discrimination - Women, people of colour, disabled people. It is arguably an even stronger imperative to be inclusive towards people of a different culture who are being attacked by an extremist terroist movement who want us to turn against them so that they are easy recruitment fodder. I suggest that it would be good systems engineering to remember this when the usual supects press the emotion button and call for repression and exclusion.

Ugh... So, I used the mighty Google and found this:
http://motherboard.vice.com/bl...

It would appear that 17 out of some 250ish cases have been charged because of surveillance. I was kind of hoping for zero but it is what it is. Now, that's the NSA and not the CIA - I don't know about the CIA. I'd imagine similar results are possible.

Personally, as cold as this sounds, I'd rather they have been able to carry out their attacks then suffer the real attacks on my liberties. Yes, I'm aware that good people might die as a result. I accept that it may be myself or someone I care about. Yes, I'd rather keep my rights than live in fear. I know, I'm a cold bastard. *sighs* Yes, I'm selfish for wanting to keep my rights. I accept that.

Link from TFA to How the Baseless 'Terrorists Communicating Over Playstation 4' Rumor Got Started describing that there still is no evidence for this, also writing about some more ridiculous ideas of how some media thought they might have communicated, e.g. writing messages to each other by firing bullets on a wall in Call of Duty

It is interesting that Anonymous is taking this on at the same time that the group is moving their operations to the dark net.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

It all seems all too convenient to the larger narrative that is shaping up around the need to crack down on encryption, Tor and other privacy measures. Here we have Anonymous serving as a tool of the powers that be, driving the "bad guys" to encryption through their vigilantism.

In an effort to do something good, they are inadvertently making things worse.

The fact that anyone serious about their trade craft has already been using encryption and stenography and other means for concealing their communications is not going to affect the narrative fed to the masses by the mainstream media. All they are going to hear is "Terrorists are going dark via encryption." and "If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't need to be using encryption."

Does the manufacturer have the keys? That seems to be the case, ... and in ALL cases is in theory known to the drive manufacturer.

Have you got any evidence of this? It would be a major news if *every* HDD manufacturer was back-dooring their drives in this way. Although it certainly sometimes happens.

How is their random number generator?

Hardware RNGs are preferred to software CSPRNGs

we're working ourselves into exactly the population that Huxley describe

ectogenesis will be here in 20 years

There is clear evidence (both claimed by Snowden and confirmed by the NSA) that he did report his concerns to management only to be shot down, unfortunately that was the only path available to him at the time and so the inevitable happened. I for one am grateful that this information was leaked.

Bull Shit.

There is clear evidence that Snowden DID NOT report any concerns.

https://news.vice.com/article/...

The government published all the emails they could find and only one of them was a question, and it was about procedural questions having to do with a training class about the authorities the NSA works under.

It means that the FAA can't pull my "certificate" first and ask questions later while I go broke.

A pilot certificate is actually the least of your concerns.

What happens if the FAA fines you $500 per day until you comply with their orders?

Yes, the FAA can fine you, and when you refuse to pay it, you end up in administrative court where you aren't innocent until proven guilty, and your refusal ultimately ends up with the sheriff showing up.

Despite all that, once the FAA passes its new rules, it'll still be legal for me to fly my unregistered helis, still legal for me to buy or build new models without registering them, and still legal for me to fly them.

It can be really expensive to prove that your actions are legal, but you're welcome to try. Someone gets to be the test case.

At the end of the day, neither you nor I are the person who actually decides if it is legal or not, a judge is.

You're probably familiar with this case:

http://www.outsideonline.com/1...

Are you aware it was overturned?

http://www.npr.org/sections/th...

Here is the final outcome of that case:

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

---

Look, I'm not the FAA, I'm not here to tell you that you're right or wrong, I honestly don't care. What I am telling you is that your "tough guy attitude" doesn't work against an agency like the FAA who ultimately will get some type of drone regulations into place and if they decide to come after you, they'll almost always win.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

I don't know, it looks pretty rough. The first picture in TFA is from the junk dealer of the actual rover, I can tell from comparing pictures that they are the same design, but beyond that, I likely wouldn't know what the hell it is. This is good reason for the junk dealer to set it aside to try and figure it out though.

You would instantly recognize this? You really must be a space nerd... I feel definitely above the overall average when it comes to knowledge space tech in general, and I definitely wouldn't recognize most of the multitude of planetary rover prototypes from the 60s.

http://motherboard.vice.com/re... The junk yard had kept it because they somewhat knew what it was.

The fact that the FAA and DOT is trying to mandate and or implement this by mid-December, which would be about the fastest they've ever moved on any regulation ever, by far.

Well, they have been working on this for three years

and they've already blown past their deadline.

The majority of people I know, the old-core RC pilots build up their contraptions from components and paper or PDF plans.

You're not the reason this is happening, and you're not the people they're targeting. The majority of your old-school RC pilots are the ones who pay attention to the Academy of Model Aeronautics guidelines and whatnot, and generally know how not to be an idiot when flying. What the FAA is worried about is daddy dropping $60 for a Syma X5C to buy for junior's sixteenth birthday, and then junior flying it over the bleachers at the homecoming game and someone getting smacked in the head when he loses a blade by flying too close to a lamppost.

It's kind of like how in the early days of automobiles you could just build or drive one without any care at all, as long as you didn't do any damage, but then cars became more widely available and cheaper, and that brought more dangers. I mean, let's say the average is 5% of people doing something stupid, right? If only 100,000 people are flying that's only 5,000 people being stupid, but if 1,000,000 people are flying now it's 50,000, and it becomes more of a public safety issue.

Is it to make a point?

Sure, just like his life sentencing for drugs was to make a point. Like it or not, Ulbricht has become a symbol for much more powerful people.

"What you did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric" - Judge Katherine B. Forrest

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

Security forces retreated from the Malaab area of Ramadi at 1:30 p.m., abandoning about 60 military vehicles, including military-grade Humvees, said Col. Nasser al-Alwani of the Ramadi police force. About half of the abandoned vehicles were sent by the U.S.-backed government on Saturday to reinforce the neighborhood, he added.

https://news.vice.com/article/...

Police and soldiers stripped out of their uniforms and abandoned their equipment on the road as they fled.

http://www.rferl.org/content/i...

One day before the Iraqi soldier gave his account to RFE/RL on May 25, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Iraqi forces of showing "no will to fight" and having "failed to fight" in Ramadi despite "vastly outnumber[ing]" the enemy, retreating and leaving behind large numbers of U.S.-supplied vehicles, including tanks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

After the end of the war, both the CIA and the U.S. State Department were tasked with continuing to identify and collect arms that had flooded the country during the war, particularly shoulder-fired missiles taken from the arsenal of the Gaddafi regime,[32][33] as well as securing Libyan chemical weapons stockpiles, and helping to train Libya's new intelligence service.[29]

...

Multiple anonymous sources reported that the diplomatic mission in Benghazi was used by the CIA as a cover to smuggle weapons from Libya to anti-Assad rebels in Syria.[30]:56[34][36][37][38] Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cites an anonymous former senior Defense Department intelligence official, saying "The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms. It had no real political role." The attack allegedly brought an end to the purported U.S. involvement, but did not stop the smuggling according to Hersh's source.[39] In January 2014, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence cast doubt on this alleged U.S. involvement and reported that "All CIA activities in Benghazi were legal and authorized. On-the-record testimony establishes that the CIA was not sending weapons ... from Libya to Syria, or facilitating other organizations or states that were transferring weapons from Libya to Syria."[40]

Care to try again? The CIA was collecting arms, not distributing, unless you subscribe to the local Tin Foil Anonymous.