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"[Bill Maher's statements are] reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."
-- Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary, September 26, 2001

"To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists - for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil. "
-- John Ashcroft, Attorney General, December 6, 2001

In fact, Slashdot does censor material -- proactively, by choosing at most 1% of the submissions it receives for article status. Free Republic allows all registered users to post articles to its site; "censorship" occurs later if a browsing moderator chooses to remove an existing thread. I have yet to see a "How the CIA planned the terrorist attacks" thread on Slashdot, and in fact /. barely covered the war on Afghanistan at all, much to the joy of some. Censorship is burned into the DNA here; it comes more awkwardly and controversially to a site like Free Republic. (The Ether Zone article's author, Fahey, used to post as TBF on Free Republic but was banned.)

If the owner of a site decides he doesn't want to use his money to pay for serving and storing anti-Semitic and anti-American diatribes, he should be able to do so. I don't think many here would disagree with this.

the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition or by "deranged anarchists"

tcd004

The Geneva Convention

The Nuremburg Charter.

Before you think anything about Sept. 11th being something entirely new and especially evil, requiring less due process than in the past, read the Nuremburg Charter. If presumption of innocence is ok for Nazis, it's hard to see when it shouldn't apply.

Also, keep in mind that all this "anti-terrorism" talk uses Bin Laden as their reason for enacting the laws, but the laws are not confined to the acts of Sept 11th, or even confined to "violent" terrorism. There has been much effort to make sure that illegal political acts that don't involve violence fall under the category of "terrorism". Even before Sept 11th, anti-terrorism laws were used to infiltrate and disrupt non-violent activist groups and labor unions.

If a farm owner accuses non-citizen farm workers of illegal acts during a union organizing drive or strike, what is to stop these "anti-terrorism" laws and military tribunals from being used? Again, even before Sept 11th, many newspapers have referred to both violent and non-violent protestors in the U.S. as "terrorists", in many cases equating civil-disobedience (illegal acts intended to achieve a political agenda) with assassinations and mass murder.

And this is nothing new. Dissidents are often called terrorists by repressive governments. Never mind the fundamental differences between the people that destroyed the WTC and people like Martin Luther King.

Sounds like you need to go out and play more often.

Btw, the best troll ever.

Troll, how I loathe thy name. Hallowed be thou in spirit, for thine is the kingdom of Helen.

Best troll ever: here.

It's here.

The funny thing, is it's based on Enron's model.

-

At first glance, one might attribute that statement to a computer-illiterate senator or to an incompetent journalist. You may be surprised, then, to find that this quote was from Ken Thompson in 1995. Yes, one of our own - a creator of the UNIX system and the command line we use every single day - condemned the antisocial activities of malicious computer users. Which leads me to ask: why aren't we listening, and where is our moral compass?

A few years ago, it was all the media's fault: the media gave much attention to antisocial criminals who happened to use computers. Nowadays, computer crime is rarely front-page news, especially in light of the recent terrorist attacks caused by the usual suspects. So what kind of notoriety, then, are these criminally insane geeks seeking? The fact of the matter is that the open source community here on Slashdot is not only tolerating illicit behavior; it is encouraging it. We are partially responsible for every Brian West, Eric Corley, Dmitri Skylarov, Ted Felten, Randal Schwartz,, and DrinkOrDie member. We are harboring criminals because we are glorifying their acts and lauding them for "civil disobedience." We are not unlike the Arabs who cheered as they watched the Twin Towers collapse on their (banned) TV sets. And like those ungrateful Arabs, we owe our prosperity to the American government and the capitalist society that so many users here seem to despise. We have become our own enemy.

We, as a community, need to stop tolerating this behavior. Instead of encouraging people like Jon Johansen by sending money to the EFF to help them keep these ingrates' lilly white asses out of jail, we need to send a strong message that computer crime is not consistent with our ethical standards. We need to lead by example - log off of Gnutella, start paying for software (even Windows), stop cracking your DVDs and eBooks "for fun," and start acting like an upstanding citizen. It is only then that the powers that be will start taking us seriously and repeal the DMCA/SSSCA/PATRIOT legislation, and start giving us our rights back. It is crystal clear that we will not get our rights back a moment before we get out of the business of producing criminals, and the first step is to stop empathizing with them.

freebsd guy

I Wish I had written it. Enjoy!

As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I'm a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA.

Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children's education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we'd bought, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: "Peter is a computer hacker!"

As you can imagine, I was amazed. A computer hacker in my own house! I began to monitor my son's habits, to make certain that Cindy wasn't just telling stories, as she is prone to doing at times.

After a few days of investigation, and some research into computer hacking, I confronted Peter with the evidence. I'm afraid to say, this was the only time I have ever been truly disappointed in one of my children. We raised them to be honest and to have integrity, and Peter betrayed the principles we tried to encourage in him, when he refused point blank to admit to his activities. His denials continued for hours, and in the end, I was left with no choice but to ban him from using the computer until he is old enough to be responsible for his actions.

After going through this ordeal with my own family, I was left pondering how I could best help others in similar situations. I'd gained a lot of knowledge over those few days regarding hackers. It's only right that I provide that information to other parents, in the hope that they will be able to tell if their children are being drawn into the world of hacking. Perhaps other parents will be able to steer their sons back onto the straight and narrow before extreme measures need to be employed.

To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son's misbehaviour before a spanking becomes necessary.

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

Most American families use trusted and responsible Internet Service Providers, such as AOL. These providers have a strict "No Hacking" policy, and take careful measures to ensure that your internet experience is enjoyable, educational and above all legal. If your child is becoming a hacker, one of his first steps will be to request a change to a more hacker friendly provider.

I would advise all parents to refuse this request. One of the reasons your son is interested in switching providers is to get away from AOL's child safety filter. This filter is vital to any parent who wants his son to enjoy the internet without the endangering him through exposure to "adult" content. It is best to stick with the protection AOL provides, rather than using a home-based solution. If your son is becoming a hacker, he will be able to circumvent any home-based measures with surprising ease, using information gleaned from various hacker sites.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some hacker software. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under "Install/Remove Programs" in your control panel. Popular hacker software includes "Comet Cursor", "Bonzi Buddy" and "Flash".

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to "download" one of the hacker applications. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer's manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

4. Does your child read hacking manuals?

If you pay close attention to your son's reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up and perfume is well aware of the effect that improper influences can have on inexperienced minds.

There are, unfortunately, many hacking manuals available in bookshops today. A few titles to be on the lookout for are: "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson; "Neuromancer" by William Gibson; "Programming with Perl" by Timothy O'Reilly; "Geeks" by Jon Katz; "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling; "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland; "Hackers" by Steven Levy; and "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond.

If you find any of these hacking manuals in your child's possession, confiscate them immediately. You should also petition local booksellers to remove these titles from their shelves. You may meet with some resistance at first, but even booksellers have to bow to community pressure.

5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your son spends more than thirty minutes each day on the computer, he may be using it to DOS other peoples sites. DOSing involves gaining access to the "command prompt" on other people's machines, and using it to tie up vital internet services. This can take up to eight hours. If your son is doing this, he is breaking the law, and you should stop him immediately. The safest policy is to limit your children's access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day.

6. Does your son use Quake?

Quake is an online virtual reality used by hackers. It is a popular meeting place and training ground, where they discuss hacking and train in the use of various firearms. Many hackers develop anti-social tendencies due to the use of this virtual world, and it may cause erratic behaviour at home and at school.

If your son is using Quake, you should make hime understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the firearms in your house are carefully locked away, and have trigger locks installed. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school.

7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

As a child enters the electronic world of hacking, he may become disaffected with the real world. He may lose the ability to control his actions, or judge the rightness or wrongness of a course of behaviour. This will manifest itself soonest in the way he treats others. Those whom he disagrees with will be met with scorn, bitterness, and even foul language. He may utter threats of violence of a real or electronic nature.

Even when confronted, your son will probably find it difficult to talk about this problem to you. He will probably claim that there is no problem, and that you are imagining things. He may tell you that it is you who has the problem, and you should "back off" and "stop smothering him." Do not allow yourself to be deceived. You are the only chance your son has, even if he doesn't understand the situation he is in. Keep trying to get through to him, no matter how much he retreats into himself.

8. Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.

Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional.

If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?

If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a hacker on your hands. Hackers tend to dress in bright, day-glo colors. They may wear baggy pants, bright colored shirts and spiky hair dyed in bright colors to match their clothes. They may take to carrying "glow-sticks" and some wear pacifiers around their necks. (I have no idea why they do this) There are many such hackers in schools today, and your son may have started to associate with them. If you notice that your son's group of friends includes people dressed like this, it is time to think about a severe curfew, to protect him from dangerous influences.

10. Is your son struggling academically?

If your son is failing courses in school, or performing poorly on sports teams, he may be involved in a hacking group, such as the infamous "Otaku" hacker association. Excessive time spent on the computer, communicating with his fellow hackers may cause temporary damage to the eyes and brain, from the electromagnetic radiation. This will cause his marks to slip dramatically, particularly in difficult subjects such as Math, and Chemistry. In extreme cases, over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia, meningitis and other psychological diseases. Also, the reduction in exercise may cause him to lose muscle mass, and even to start gaining weight. For the sake of your child's mental and physical health, you must put a stop to his hacking, and limit his computer time drastically.

I encourage all parents to read through this guide carefully. Your child's future may depend upon it. Hacking is an illegal and dangerous activity, that may land your child in prison, and tear your family apart. It cannot be taken too seriously.

I Wish I had written it. Enjoy!

As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I'm a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA.

Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children's education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we'd bought, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: "Peter is a computer hacker!"

As you can imagine, I was amazed. A computer hacker in my own house! I began to monitor my son's habits, to make certain that Cindy wasn't just telling stories, as she is prone to doing at times.

After a few days of investigation, and some research into computer hacking, I confronted Peter with the evidence. I'm afraid to say, this was the only time I have ever been truly disappointed in one of my children. We raised them to be honest and to have integrity, and Peter betrayed the principles we tried to encourage in him, when he refused point blank to admit to his activities. His denials continued for hours, and in the end, I was left with no choice but to ban him from using the computer until he is old enough to be responsible for his actions.

After going through this ordeal with my own family, I was left pondering how I could best help others in similar situations. I'd gained a lot of knowledge over those few days regarding hackers. It's only right that I provide that information to other parents, in the hope that they will be able to tell if their children are being drawn into the world of hacking. Perhaps other parents will be able to steer their sons back onto the straight and narrow before extreme measures need to be employed.

To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son's misbehaviour before a spanking becomes necessary.

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

Most American families use trusted and responsible Internet Service Providers, such as AOL. These providers have a strict "No Hacking" policy, and take careful measures to ensure that your internet experience is enjoyable, educational and above all legal. If your child is becoming a hacker, one of his first steps will be to request a change to a more hacker friendly provider.

I would advise all parents to refuse this request. One of the reasons your son is interested in switching providers is to get away from AOL's child safety filter. This filter is vital to any parent who wants his son to enjoy the internet without the endangering him through exposure to "adult" content. It is best to stick with the protection AOL provides, rather than using a home-based solution. If your son is becoming a hacker, he will be able to circumvent any home-based measures with surprising ease, using information gleaned from various hacker sites.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some hacker software. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under "Install/Remove Programs" in your control panel. Popular hacker software includes "Comet Cursor", "Bonzi Buddy" and "Flash".

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to "download" one of the hacker applications. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer's manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

4. Does your child read hacking manuals?

If you pay close attention to your son's reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up and perfume is well aware of the effect that improper influences can have on inexperienced minds.

There are, unfortunately, many hacking manuals available in bookshops today. A few titles to be on the lookout for are: "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson; "Neuromancer" by William Gibson; "Programming with Perl" by Timothy O'Reilly; "Geeks" by Jon Katz; "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling; "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland; "Hackers" by Steven Levy; and "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond.

If you find any of these hacking manuals in your child's possession, confiscate them immediately. You should also petition local booksellers to remove these titles from their shelves. You may meet with some resistance at first, but even booksellers have to bow to community pressure.

5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your son spends more than thirty minutes each day on the computer, he may be using it to DOS other peoples sites. DOSing involves gaining access to the "command prompt" on other people's machines, and using it to tie up vital internet services. This can take up to eight hours. If your son is doing this, he is breaking the law, and you should stop him immediately. The safest policy is to limit your children's access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day.

6. Does your son use Quake?

Quake is an online virtual reality used by hackers. It is a popular meeting place and training ground, where they discuss hacking and train in the use of various firearms. Many hackers develop anti-social tendencies due to the use of this virtual world, and it may cause erratic behaviour at home and at school.

If your son is using Quake, you should make hime understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the firearms in your house are carefully locked away, and have trigger locks installed. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school.

7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

As a child enters the electronic world of hacking, he may become disaffected with the real world. He may lose the ability to control his actions, or judge the rightness or wrongness of a course of behaviour. This will manifest itself soonest in the way he treats others. Those whom he disagrees with will be met with scorn, bitterness, and even foul language. He may utter threats of violence of a real or electronic nature.

Even when confronted, your son will probably find it difficult to talk about this problem to you. He will probably claim that there is no problem, and that you are imagining things. He may tell you that it is you who has the problem, and you should "back off" and "stop smothering him." Do not allow yourself to be deceived. You are the only chance your son has, even if he doesn't understand the situation he is in. Keep trying to get through to him, no matter how much he retreats into himself.

8. Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.

Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional.

If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?

If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a hacker on your hands. Hackers tend to dress in bright, day-glo colors. They may wear baggy pants, bright colored shirts and spiky hair dyed in bright colors to match their clothes. They may take to carrying "glow-sticks" and some wear pacifiers around their necks. (I have no idea why they do this) There are many such hackers in schools today, and your son may have started to associate with them. If you notice that your son's group of friends includes people dressed like this, it is time to think about a severe curfew, to protect him from dangerous influences.

10. Is your son struggling academically?

If your son is failing courses in school, or performing poorly on sports teams, he may be involved in a hacking group, such as the infamous "Otaku" hacker association. Excessive time spent on the computer, communicating with his fellow hackers may cause temporary damage to the eyes and brain, from the electromagnetic radiation. This will cause his marks to slip dramatically, particularly in difficult subjects such as Math, and Chemistry. In extreme cases, over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia, meningitis and other psychological diseases. Also, the reduction in exercise may cause him to lose muscle mass, and even to start gaining weight. For the sake of your child's mental and physical health, you must put a stop to his hacking, and limit his computer time drastically.

I encourage all parents to read through this guide carefully. Your child's future may depend upon it. Hacking is an illegal and dangerous activity, that may land your child in prison, and tear your family apart. It cannot be taken too seriously.

Not quite. The director of the CIA is a presidentially appointed position that undergoes a similar ratification process as cabenet appointments and abassadors. The CIA director is in theory ultimitely responsible for all actions of the CIA.

Aaaaargh! You are an utter and complete moron. I will use as many of your words as possible and you should read this slowly so you understand.

The USTR is a presidentially appointed position that undergoes a similar ratification process as cabenet(sic) appointements(sic) and ambassadors. The USTR is in theory ultimately responsible for all actions of the USTR office (including the WTO representatives).

Ah, but in the U.S., I can look at contraversial religious websites, websites that criticize Islam (and my own religion) , porn [do you really need a link?], and pretty much anything I want. Even when someone says I can't look at some information, I can look at it, and they can take me to court, and see if a judge thinks their concerns are more important then free speech.

I'm getting sick of these sophmoric statements of "the U.S. is just as bad as [x]", where x is the criminal of the day. Part of my discomfort is because I recently had the same frame of mind, and I hate seeing others make the same mistakes.

Why would we know of U.S. warcrimes in Afghanistan? The Taliban kicked all the foriegn journalists out. Sure, we don't see all the evidence against Bin Laden, but few dispute that his organization trained Islamic radicals, and was probably behind other terrorist acts as well as Sep. 11. I would be angry if we were putting him on trial without enumerating evidence, but first we need to imprison him based on the evidence we have.

Yeah, the U.S. government used propaganda and spin control and even lies, just like every other government on earth. But we also have a free and active press, which is always trying to catch the government lying. Sure, the big media is all corporate controlled and puts the rich white man spin on everything, but there's plenty of other news outlets, and almost every large city I've been in has a newspaper whose sole reason for existance seems to be to criticize the big media paper in town. Afghanistan? No free press. Saudi Arabia? No real free press.

This is a country where three little letters seperate propaganda from porn from anti-propaganda, and there's nothing George W., Time Warner/AOL, or Microsoft can do to stop it. And when they try, we can eventually beat 'em in court.

• The House of Representatives
  
• Thomas at the Library of Congress
  
• The US Postal Service
  
• The Securities and Exchange Commission
  
• The Federal Trade Commission
  
• (FWIW: i.e. not much) The Internal Revenue Service This is one of the poorer examples, but at least you can download forms in PDF.
  
• The White House
  
• The US Dept of Justice Not as useful as the others...
  

but as a taxpayer fed up with seeing my dollars flushed down NASAs ever increasing budget black hole

I agree that the "domain land grab" was very silly. It was all about greed and promised very little in return for the $50,000+ that some companies and individuals paid for their domains.

However, I am compelled to point out that the "mindshare" for which these organizations compete is real. Consider the example of whitehouse.gov vs whitehouse.com. The latter definitely exploited the mindshare of the former in order to grab a larger audience.

Even SlashDot has a piece of your mind.

After this conflict, will we see that Bin Laden speech in full?

I believe your "constitution" thing gives you citizens of the United States the ability to speak. Well, since when was Osama a citizen of the US? Why should the US let him speak?

And another thing, does the ability to speak also include the right to have your rant broadcasted worldwide on the media? If you're so exciteable sticking up for Osama to have the right to be broadcasted, why don't you also get hot under the collar when an AC posts a troll? Come on, why aren't you screaming that CNN is stomping AC's right to have their troll broadcast?

Because of two things: 1 - you think the US has to provide free speech to everybody. Well dude, there is more than one country in the world! So what if the US stomps free speech? They can just move somewhere (like Canada, or Afghanistan) to get away from you and your government you love so much but don't seem to be able to vote in correctly. 2 - because not everything has value. Osama ranting has minimal value. Natalie Portman's hot grits has little value.

And also I believe you don't understand what the story about the media being cautioned against playing the video was. Here, have a read.

Here's what scares the crap out of me:

Instead, Gilmore told the House Science committee, the commission will recommend that a "cyber court" be created with extraordinary powers to authorize electronic surveillance and secret searches of suspected hackers' homes and offices.

Extraordinary Powers!!! Ack! I think the whole Office of Homeland Security. is malformed idea.

It doesn't fit well within the govt. already existing structure, it duplicates many efforts, and it has yet to be determined exactly how & why it will function.

Secret courts... anything secret in the Govt. scares the crap out of me... and not only that:

Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan) suggested additional punitive measures. "I think hackers should also be considered terrorists and sentences that hackers get should be in line with terrorist sentences," Ehlers said.

First there was the blurring and redifinition of the word 'hacker' to become the word 'cracker', and now hackers ARE being called terrorists!

Beware Linux hackers... you are terrorists!

According to http://ifmp.nasa.gov/codeb/budget2002/03_multiyear _budget.pdf, the proposed 2002 NASA budget is $5.584 billion. According to http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/usbudget/blueprint/ budx.html, the total outlays for the 2002 US Budget is $1.969 trillion. According to my math, that's less than 0.3%. And then, the shuttle budget is of course less than half the total NASA budget...

Need I remind you of the domains www.whitehouse.gov and www.whitehouse.com?

I worked for Viisage Technology for a couple of years, and they use a system in the building where two cameras scan for faces in the hallway (as you're approaching to enter) and if a face found matches one in the employee database, it unlocks the door.

It was sophisticated enough to identify me as me even when I was wearing my eyeglasses, and later, when I grew a goatee type beard and moustache. No ID code to enter, no badge to carry. If you didn't match anyone in the database, it would summon security and leave the doors locked.

Having run their Technical Support Department for 2 years, I can tell you that the products not only work, but work very well. They use the facial recognition in Massachusetts at the Department of Transitional Assistance (Welfare) offices to identify those people obtaining multiple ID's under assumed names to weed out Welfare fraud.

The kind of access system they have in their entry could be used in an airport entry to identify a suspected terrorist trying to move about the country and alert security. It's pretty close to an Orwelian concept, except this type of monitoring would definately have oversight by a committee or White House office to prevent civil rights abuses.

I personally am against the idea on principle, but sometimes one principle takes precedence over another.

Actually, he wasn't the one who came up with the assinine idea that there are only two possible viewpoints. George W. Bush said in his Sep 20 2001 speech that "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Giulani used to be a prosecutor. And not just any prosecutor; he's the one who took down the New York Mafia, something people thought was impossible. That's exactly the kind of job stopping terrorism will be like - taking apart a big, secretive illegal organization. He's done it before. Ashcroft hasn't. Giulani is effective at being tough on crime, something very, very few politicians can show a track record on.

Giulani can manage tough organizations. Compared to running the NYC government, the Justice Department will be easy. He's a problem-solver. Ashcroft is an ideologue.

Giulani is popular with both voters and Congress. Ashcroft lost an election to a dead guy. The Senate was reluctant to confirm Ashcroft as AG, and with good reason. Nobody will miss Ashcroft. Bush will look good if he makes this change.

The AG serves at the pleasure of the President; Bush can replace Ashcroft any time he wants. So that's the real solution. Push on Bush to dump Ashcroft and put Giulani in.

(...) Please don't make this sound like we're all under martial law or
are on the brink of it. That's over-reacting.

We've strayed quite a bit off-topic here, but I sincerely and deeply hope
that you are right, that I am over-reacting. A few news items have
placed doubts in my mind, however. George W. Bush has
declared a National Emergency, which I believe opens the door for suspension of our civil rights. Now
I realize that national emergencies have been declared by just about every
president in the last forty years, for various purposes, but usually the
purpose and objective is very clearly stated, while this declaration is very
vague and open-ended. Are we under martial law? Could somebody
please explain the precise implications of this national emergency?
And then there was
this article by CBS News Legal Consultant Andrew Cohen, where he tells us that he expects
that the 1878 Posse Comitatus will soon be repealed or substantially altered.
This is the law that prevents the military from serving as a police
force in this country. Even during WWII it was not found to be necessary
to rescind this law, and for good reason.

I really do fear we may be on the brink of martial law in this country,
or something very close to it, and I think we need to let our politicans
know that this is unacceptable.

The full text of the President's speech is here.

2) Web users don't grok it. Let's face it, most Web users think AOL is the Web. They don't know about .gov or .org, they don't even know .mil exists, and if you throw a .ru or a .uk at them, they can't cope.

I bet these are the same people think that www.whitehouse.com is the correct page for the real White House in Washington D.C. instead of www.whitehouse.gov.

2) Web users don't grok it. Let's face it, most Web users think AOL is the Web. They don't know about .gov or .org, they don't even know .mil exists, and if you throw a .ru or a .uk at them, they can't cope.

I bet these are the same people think that www.whitehouse.com is the correct page for the real White House in Washington D.C. instead of www.whitehouse.gov.

I immediatly thought of all the communications freedoms that would disappear.

We now see carnivore chomping down, proposed crypto backdoors, universal evasedrop warrents and other direct freedoms disappear. We are also seeing that the CIA propose re-entering the "dirty game". This attack has done more than physical damage on the USA.

I just checked the whitehouse website but they don't have any information up yet

Yea, you didn't know? Here's a picture of the lil bugger.

Haven't they already got a protptype working in this home?

Uh, no. Take a look here [usdoj.gov] and you'll see that the Attorney General [usdoj.gov] is the head of the DOJ. The President appoints the AG, but the AG does not report directly to the President.

Uh, No! The AG is chief of the DoJ, an Executive Department. The President is the Chief Executive. The buck stops on GWB's desk, whether he wants it to or not, whether he called the shot or not.

Bush may not have ordered the DoJ to do anything one way or another on this or any other case. It's still his DoJ. They made the decision he wanted them to make, or they are a 'rogue' department. Which is it?

Unless you're suggesting GWB is merely a puppet of other masters, in which case you'll get no argument from me.

EC

Please. Unless you're purporting a huge consipiracy theory, could you explain to me how our government would trust Microsoft to create a secure environment? Keep in mind that it was our government's web site that was recently targeted by a worm that fed off of a security breach in a MS product.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Windows NT4 that was not approved by use in our government's military because it was not secure enough?

Hailstorm and .NET may be just peachy, but don't count on our government to give it some sort of stamp of approval. Not for a long, long time.

By the way, I've been an MCSE for two years and typically enjoy MS products. These crazy theories just drive me nuts.

--SC

Dead right. It would be interesteing to see if any of these fine young people ever read any of those documents. Or this bunch of gansters. And I would be extremely surprised if this promising young man ever managed to read it through.

Most of these guys went to law school, but I suspect they used more time on "networking" than their curricilum.

Have you been into the moderator's crack again?

I think that I remember reading something like this on a couple of other websites... There was a study done about people cybersquatting and being misdirected to sites that they really did NOT want to go to... Like the old whitehouse.com trick... Let me see if I can find it...

i'd "rm -rf" my machine if Slashdot was not US centric, computer centric and linux centric. WHEN ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO REALISE THERE'S MORE TO THE WORLD THAN JUST THESE????

yes, i really want the bum bum!
said the little gnome
i'll make it 2 and 50 cents
if that is what you want!

then i'll do it little gnome!
said jenna to the gnome
and pulled her panties to her knees
and turned herself around

so there it is you little gnome
said jenna 'tween her legs
you've got the bum bum
now pay up

the gnome tipped off his pointy hat
and pulled 2.50 out.
now give it here i want it now!
said jenna to the gnome

jenna had no pockets left
to put the gnomey cash
so up her bum it had to go

he pushed on jenna's bum bum
as hard as a gnome could
but quarters were just to big
to fit inside her bum bum

gnome took off his pointy hat
to scratch his head in thought
when he had a great idea
of how to pay her up

he took his big and pointy hat
and put it in her bum
and pushed her bum bum open wide
to fit his coins inside

he pulled his pointy hat back out
and put it on his head
he put his money inside her bum bum
all the way up to her tum tum

said jenna to the little gnome
your hat smells like my bum!
gnome turned around to reply
but instead said only this:

hey! the goatse guy!

Its saddening to say this:
The machine in question is merely a poor attempt to replicate the Marketing Department of a certain monopoly to make people think Bushie is a smart cookie. Marketing attempting to make people think this company's sotware is the only smart way to do business. If you hadn't noticed he similarites think about it, it's frightening.

However, just because the pages imply that it is the Government doesn't mean it actually *is* the government.
If We the people would wake up & read the foundations of our government we would realize *WE* are the government & if we don't like what's going on we are obligated to *change* what we don't like.
Too many laws are on the books, so it's back to basics for me.

But I digress...

They got lucky when the hacker messed up (he used a hard IP instead of domain name). What did they do in response?

What did the whitehouse.gov admins do once they realized that they were a clear target? Write angry but useless letters to microsoft? Call Bill Gates and piss and moan?

NO! they took a PRO-ACTIVE reaction to a threat of clear and eminent danger to information distribution and installed Linux.

www.whitehouse.gov is there a lesson there?

> Next thing you'll be telling me is that this is all "ironic."
No: I guess one of your guys would call it fascism.
FBI has the same right to monitor Chinese military radio as I (who am not a USA citizen) have the rights to monitor your ???whatever???'s private phone calls. If I can, and they don't catch me, it's OK.

Dear Spencley,

Your CV is impressive, and you've demonstrated to us your vast knowledge in cryptography technology.

Would you like to come over here for a brief talk on cryptography? People like you are harder to find nowaday.

We'll continue to invite more and more experts like you to give talk in US. I'm sure you'll find your company here.

Yours truely,
Agent Smith
State Jail Division

CC: Adobe, DMCA, Microsoft

P.S. Would you send us more detail information of you to our invitation mailbox for an early issue of your warrant?

all he/she really had to do was post a story to slashdot with a link in it.

The USA's yearly budget dwarves even the national debt.

where the fun really starts: DOS the withehouse [sic]

Actually I think it would be fun to Linux the whitehouse.

Whoops, too late: The site www.whitehouse.gov is running unknown on Linux.

OK, I'll stop now.

Of course, reading all of that has ruined me in that I now tend to write really long sentences, though I haven't yet achieved the one feat that I have only seen from Machiavelli and Dave Barry, which is, of course, the 1.5 page sentence, in which the author creates an extraordinarily long sentence, containing much information, all the while being grammatically correct, and conveying one basic idea in a surprisingly clear manner, such that the reader, after having read it, actually goes back to see where said sentence began, and reads it again, just to make sure that the sentence is, indeed, that long.

the master at this was this guy, who wrote one sentence (either in "the sound and the fury" or "light in august" or maybe "absalom, absalom!", i forget) that spans ~3 pages or so. Every lit. major tries to do this at least once, but all of them fail in the one pre-requisite, i.e., being William Faulkner. (Although David Foster Wallace has come close.)

anyway, after reading the article, wouldn't it make more sense to assume that the smart kids (e.g. ones who would find "news for nerds" insteresting) would be indoors playing games and not outdoors? all games give different types of education, i'm pretty sure that if you spent 60 hours playing Mario Bros. or something you would probably get dumber instead.

-d.
--
Slashdot: When News Breaks, We Give You The Pieces

Sad that gold has turned away from being the world's foremost item of currency into a ping-pong ball for physics experiments.

Let's see, at US$270.30/troy ounce (London PM fix), works out to US$8.69/gram.

So how many gold atoms were subjected to this horribly painful experiment? I don't know, the articles didn't say. But then the Ministry of Forests doesn't release numbers of spotted owls either. But I digress...

There are 6.02*10^23 gold atoms in a gram (it is monovalent usually in an isometric crystal as a native mineral). Let us assume that two hundred innocent gold atoms were subjected to this "experiment". That works out to 3.32*10^-22 grams of gold! (Or in other numbers, that is 3.32*10^-28 TONNES!). At the present gold price, that works out to US$0.0289*10^-19 !!! Wasted, I say!

Are all you US taxpayers as horrified at the expenditure of your tax dollars on this experiment? Here is what you do:

Fire up your web browser and point it to the white house web site

send them a message expressing your outrage. I suggest the following:
GET /default.ida?NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

That should get our message out there. Save the Gold!

-AD

Cnet now says 100,000 servers infected.

At my company (small midwest ISP), I could feel the effects at around 10am CDT. A couple servers run by customers were infected and were sending out a *constant* stream of requests to random servers trying to infect others.

Oof.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FIND GET YOUR Tee Ball at the White House INFORMATION BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

Hrm... Between coorporate greed and religious fanaticism things look pretty bleak...

People keep comparing western ideas to eastern ideas, old religions to new religions, and etcetera. This isn't about any of that. This is simply banning access to information to maintain power. No corruptive power can maintain its position while allowing a free flowing exchange of ideas. It cannot happen. Not here, not there, not anywhere.

--

clumsy-o.af
tree-and-le.af
archers-of-lo.af

And while you're at it, write to Laura Bush. I'd bet the First Lady has some influence in Washington. As a former librarian, I'm sure she's going to be pretty sympathetic to the needs of our nations libraries.

I am slowly converting my house to be 100% PV. Cost does not even enter my mind, and there are a lot of others who feel the same way.

Yes, I consider myself to be "green". No, I am not a tree hugging hippy. However, I am getting tired of polluting and reqiring mega-corp to furnish me with whatever it is I need.

Fuel cells require some sort of fuel for them to work - in the case of most of the ones I have seen for home use, that fuel is natural gas. That is all fine and good, but that means I have to pay a utility to get it to me. Last winter natural gas prices shot through the roof here in Missouri.

PV, on the other hand, does not require that. You set it up, do some regular maintenance on it, and for at least the next 30 years those panels are going to be generating power. There are quite a few of the very first panels still pumping out the electrons.

Sure, it is going to take me a hell of a long time to pay off any panels I buy. I don't care. However, when the local grid goes down, who's house it still going to have power? Better still, after some sort of a natural disaster, who is going to still have power when the natural gas lines go kablooie?

PV is getting cheaper and cheaper all the time. The people who are doing all the PV FUD are the politicians who have all the oil company bribes in their back pockets.