Slashdot Mirror
Feds Open 'Total' Tech Spy System
Diesel Dave writes "A Wired article reports: 'On Wednesday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will begin awarding contracts for the design and implementation of a Total Information Awareness (TIA) system...The Total Information Awareness program, with its ability to provide persistent storage of everything from credit card, to employment, to medical, to ISP records, is a recipe for civil liberties disaster unless there are provisions for citizens to find out who is looking at their records and to see and correct those records.' The foundation for the omnipotent National ID database has now been laid."
Every second of your life is being recorded. Your cooperation is appreciated in efforts to catch future terrorists.
Sometime I want to be heard with my name, other times I'm quite happy to be very anonymous...
Just think about it, do you really want those horny 16 yearolds at the checkout stand to know who you are while you're picking up the tampons for your wife?
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
Microsoft's passport system has been around for years.
"The Total Information Awareness program"
To me, that is Slashdot! I read it 20-50 times a day...
How much time before a company hires a hacker to get into the database and steal all this,a corporation's holy grail? I say a few weeks.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Oh, KARMA PLEASE.
Isn't the NSA already doing this? Isn't that what it's for?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. " -Ben Franklin
So DARPA is taking a page from Google's book. Does the winner get $10,000 in cash, a VIP visit to the Pentagon in Arlington, VA and the possibility of running their prize winning code on DARPA's supercomputers?
(see subject)
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
There are companies that already hold much of this data about purchases. A company called Catalina Marketing who makes those little printers that print coupons when you buy things at grocery stores, or pet stores or whatever, already keep track of all purchases, including credit card numbers, checking account numbers, types of items purchesed, frequency, geographic locations, etc. All that data is searchable via a CRM system. Wal-Mart also has that system. People just need to learn that there is no "reasonable expectation" of privacy in any place outside of your own home. Unencrypted email has never been secure, it wasn't designed to be, ISP records are just as open. There never has been "privacy," so I don't know what most of the advocates expect.
I've seen it in the 70's with the notion of a Corporate Data Base, in the 80's with Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems, and in the 90's with Data Warehouses. It's nice to think of a single source of information providing all the answers, but it inevitably turns out too expensive to build and impossible to keep current. I see no evidence that such a system would have prevented the attacks on 9/11. But some IT infrastructure companies are going to get rich on this boondoggle.
As a professor of mine in college once said; "Computers make great filing cabinets, but lousy guessers."
It's like Terminator and the Matrix put together... just an early alpha version.
Question everything that you've accepted without thinking.
If the /. community objects to this, the solution is clear... we mount an open source bid for the contract, which should (as the product will be free as in beer) be guaranteed to win the contract on price grounds.
:-)
Then we just 'do a mozilla' and keep adding wonderful new features but never actually deliver the damn thing
problem solved!
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
by Thomas Edison:
"Those who would trade essential liberty for temporary freedom deserve neither freedom nor liberty."
to move to that little island of the B.C. coast and live with da bears.
people who live in the "boonies" or homeless people. There are so many US citizens all over the world who have so many different levels of technology and social involvement that they will never be able to get everybody. It will be very easy to avoid getting in this system.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
What kind of an amoral bonehead loser would actualy go about and ACCEPT this type of a contract?
.
Ok ok ok ok ok, a bean counter I know I know, but somebody with a degree or some experience of some sort actualy has to implement it. . .
I say we find who ever is assigned to work on this project and explain things to them, and if that doesn't work, beat the living crud outa them. . . . yeesh!
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Intro: I saw "XXX" a couple of hours ago. I think it was intended solely as an action flick, but for a minute, let's pretend there's a message here. In this life we enjoy freedoms given to us by research and technological improvements, also a few of those freedoms are provided by the organization of government.
;-)
Many times we raise a red flag because of privacy issues, and I agree that the direction we (as a world) are progressing in is sad at times. However, let's put this in perspective for a moment. Regardless of your beliefs in a higher power or lower power, one thing is sure...does it really matter that the government knows what you are up to? Yes we live free lives and I know my concern is that perhaps, in the future I will want to do something underhanded and this system will prevent it...what fun would life be without the challenges? Our lives span only a minute on this world, live in your situation and make life a joy: you're the only one who can do that. You can make a case for any possibility, but does the existence of this database can't interfere with that!
By the way, do any of you really expect that the government will be able to implement this without people like us helping them? If you have a hand in it, you can control it
"Homeless people are not in our target market".
-- Terry
Remember folks, the only reason we don't live in an Orwellian nightmare world is actually because it isn't technologically feasible.
As soon as it's possible and practical, in the next few years, it will happen on a wide and broad scale. If it's unpopular, they'll simply not publicize its use. If a few innocents are harrased by it (activists, anarchists, pagans, atheists, and other similar unAmericans), you won't hear a word. If by some sheer coincidence it actually assists in finding a terrorist pre-crime, they still won't say a word.
And I'm sure they'll find a few other uses for it. I mean if you're commiting a crime, it's a crime, no matter what, so what's the problem?
(Hmm, Citizen #95235345 just bought a DVD-R unit and downloaded a copy of DeCSS. Set his Awareness Level to 15%, and send a copy of his Dossier to Media Control for further study. Excellent, we might yet meet our Enforcement quota this week!)
It really makes me feel fuzzy as hell when I think about where my hard-earned tax dollars are going to.
really fuzzy.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
open source is the answer?!?
sweet you want EVERYONE to have this? So lets say DARPA asks for a project to create a neutron bomb that fits in a beer (as in free) cup. Lets do it because we knoe we can do it right? Soem things are better off not done, Open source is not the answer, the real answer is just to say "No". Its like the D.A.R.E. program here in the U.S.A (drugs prevention program with kids). Just say no to allowing yourself to be turned into a celebrity. "Celebrity" you say? why yes. The only people who have such scrutiny are celebrity and polititians. And since I plan on having no fame (and realitively little money) why must I have to be put through the same scrutiny that they signed up for. The problem is that our polititains are used to no privicy and there for do not expect it. They don't see whats wrong with this stuff.
Spell Checked using CmdTaco's own personal Dictionary
It funny seeing how people react to the continuing encroachments on their freedom by their chosen government. This reminds me of an old Biblical story about King David ordering that a census be taken of the people (they were all willing participants). God got so pissed off at this blatant and fascist violation of freedom that he sent a nasty plague on them that killed close to 70,000 people. And David was a man after his own heart.
Moral: you already lost. If you have a social security number or driver license number or anything that allows the government to identify or control you, you are already living in a Big Brother society. Either you go along with it or you do something about it. Whichever you choose, you loose.
Sorry, but you are all like cattle, tagged with a number. You are not as free as you have been led to believe. No amount of prideful boasts about living in the freest country in the world will change that fact. You are a bunch of deluded slaves working for a central controlling government. And you are paying a lot more in taxes than you can imagine. It's sad.
what have you got to hide? People who are worried about these types of programs are usually perverts and criminals who have something to lose.
I'm not afraid. Are you?
... is a recipe for civil liberties disaster unless there are provisions for citizens to find out who is looking at their records and to see and correct those records.
Here in the UK we have the Data Protection Act, which all companies must adhere to if they store information about you on their computer systems. Amongst other requirements, it allows you (for a small fee) to obtain a copy of that information on request, and have it modified if it's not accurate. If this does go through, I would hope that the US provides something similar.
I went to the page the story links to, the anti-enumeration website.
I was expecting a well thought out reasoning why we should be avoiding enumeration, but instead what I saw was trife about how we're all going to hell if we have a numbering system.
oh dear, please, if someones going to post arguements against something, atleast base them in reality, rather then the rantings of a 2000 year old book.
how unfortunate.
There are government agencies, especially law enforcement, whose existence is threatened by this person. They have full access to the complete records of this persons life: medical problems, personal purchases, friends, lovers (including unmarried ones), etc. To silence this person, they will have the ability to make any embarrassing information public (none of which may even have been illegal). Even if the person has the strength of character to withstand this, the persons message will be lost under the media coverage of the scandalous aspects of this person's life: his pr0n preferences, former friends who turned out to be bad guys, extramarital affairs, etc.
This type of this has serious implications for free speech. Even if you are a nobody who will never have anything important to say and who has nothing to hide anyway, there are people to have something to say and have the right to keep the private aspects of their lives private while saying it.
tato (and tato only)
This post is strictly opinion, including the spelling.
After 50% of the population is behind bars for "crimes" we can then break out of prison, overthrow the goverment, deliberate for months and make the best goverment on paper that has ever existed, then wait for our great great grandchildren to ignore everything we've said, and let the cycle begin again.
*Hopeless-half-sarcastic-rant/cry for help*
No one should live in fear of their government.
Governments should live in fear of its people.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
do you really want those horny 16 yearolds at the checkout stand to know who you are while you're picking up the tampons for your wife?
Just give them a tired smile and express your profound relief over having a couple of days off from your exhausting studly duties.
Why do you care what a couple of pimply faced kids think, anyway?
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
Before the *DIS*information starts flying fast and furious (doh, wait, it already has!) I recommend everyone read BAA 02-08, the request for proposals for technology that will be transitioned into the TIA system. Here is the link:
http://www.darpa.mil/iao/BAA02-08.pdf
This BAA describes exactly what RESEARCH DARPA is looking to fund (emphasis on research: DARPA is NOT a procurement agency, and DARPA is NOT an operational agency). They are not buying off-the-shelf systems, and they are not setting up systems to spy on people. There is even a component to this BAA regarding privacy-protecting technologies.
It is worth noting that many of the problems for which this BAA is looking for national-security-style solutions are problems common to many organizations, as well as fundamental computer-science questions. Not the malevolent stuff that Wired and others would have you think.
I realize that this is somewhat of a politically hostile environment to mention this, but I think it is owed fair consideration.
The idea that the Feds knowing what you checkout at the library may one day result in your arrest seems to be the primary objection to TIA.
If you honestly believe that scenario to be plausible, then may I suggest that as well as combatting steps taken that would facilitate such the occurence of such a scenario, that you also look into our 200 year old contingency plan: the 2nd Amendment.
You should seriously check yourself into a mental institution and stay there until you are DEAD. Gun owners should be rounded up and BURNED.
No they didn't. However one can put much more "Total" in a totalitarian state with technology than without.
To deal with your other statements -- just because I have a SSN and a credit card doesn't mean the government can track all my purchases. Ever heard of cash? If you really don't want someone to know what you're buying, just use cash. Just because I have a driver's license doesn't mean the government is tracking me everywhere I go. Whatever you say, we still have many freedoms that no other country in the world has.
I do not read or respond to AC's. If you want a discussion, log in. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
Instead of shouting constantly "No!" to every system which in principle is meant to defend our lives, freedom, hence our very privacy as well,
we should instead demand thorough legislation so these databases would not be abused.
I think this protection of our privacy in anti-terrorism databases is worth an addition to our respective constitutions (indeed, it is not only the USA which is facing privacy dilemma - it is the entire free world!) of the caliber of an Amendement at least.
Do not forget, democracy is the best of all available political systems but it is also the most cowardous system when it comes to threats which would cost a lot of sacrifice to solve physically, as terrorism is.
The nice thing about Windows is: it does not just crash; it displays a nice little dialog box and let's you press 'OK'
Speaking of outsourcing, this kind of a plan gives ample opportunity for politicians, bureaucrats and police to outsource wrongdoing. Like we are now outsourcing torture to friendly Arab nations and outsourcing covert operations to Israeli and British intelligence. Mostly, they will outsource the abuses to off-shore dummy corporations funded through US intelligence, but domestic corporations that collect large amounts of data on US residents (note that it is now considered legit for phone companies to track and disclose everyone you dial unless you succeed in opting out, and no one knows what goes on inside lots of commercial software -- why does the MS Excel viewer make my internet connection so busy?)will likely get involved as well.
The best way to defeat this idea in the court of public opinion is to compare it with the fabled Mark of the Beast (666) from the book of Revelations.
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666" (Rev. 13:16-18).
Since the Religious Right is the Republicans bread and butter if they can be convinced that such a national database is a tool of Satan it will become too much of a hot potato for them to handle.
Lets see... what was the last major governemnt that:
Tracked information about all its citizens
Required you to carry federal identifiation whenever you left the house
Required "papers" for any sort of travel outside of your home town
And yet here in 2002, we as a nation seem to be jumping for joy that all these things are being talked about and implimented in our country. Yea, it's all supposedly for national defense, but Hitler started his reign by imposing all those rules and ideas for the good of the country. How far will we take it this time?
Why can't the Fed just look at the easy way out: stop imposing our will on other countries by military force. Just get out of the Middle East and let them fight it out amongst themselves. Problem solved.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
For anyone who hasn't realized it yet, we are currently in the golden age of information.
The ability of the common man to transfer data around the world is phenomenal right now. People can share media instantly. Transfer speeds are headed through the roof. More important though, is the fact that the governments of the world are not yet fully able to monitor and control this information. The internet is a wild and untamed beast that allows all sorts of politically 'sketchy' people to communicate. As soon as the goverments have build up the infrastructure to control the 'net, they will clamp everyone down. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'.
Enjoy the freedom while you have it. It may not be around much longer.
Reading modern philosophy is often a truly trying task. Most practitioners of this obscure art revel in jargon so abstruse it would embarrass a medieval alchemist. They use their own special and unique code to say everything about nothing, and often their code is so special and unique that not even they can decipher it after the fact in any kind of consistent manner. Yet within this murky fog of allusion and half-communication one will, every so often, come across a philosopher who writes in crisp, clear language. One who, on occasion, makes a point that slashes through the opacity of our otherwise clouded understanding like a high intensity beam of light and reveals an undeniable truth. Friedrich Nietzsche was such a philosopher.
True, the ultimate meaning of his writings as whole--if there really is one--still remains subject to much bickering and interpretation. Some see Nietzsche as an ur-Nazi, while others try to pass him off as a muscle-bound J.S. Mill. Doubtless, this debate will continue ad infinitum. My interest here is not so much in the whole of his writings as it is in his ability to annunciate particular and rather undeniable insights. By way of example I point to a passage Nietzsche wrote in a piece on Schopenhauer. Here, he observes that "Wherever there have been powerful societies, governments, religions, or public opinions--in short, wherever there was any kind of tyranny, it has hated the lonely philosopher..."
In this one sentence, Nietzsche has managed to pin in place for our examination the very heart of repression. Mere tools like fear, subsidies, or honors remain just that for any tyranny, mere tools. What actuates these tools, though, what drives them is the overpowering need of the tyrant to prevent men, particularly those with intelligence, from being alone with their thoughts. In fact, this notion of Nietzsche's is so crucial to the idea of tyranny that it plays a central role in three of the 20th century's greatest dystopian novels: 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451.
I turn first to George Orwell's 1984. The work has become the ne plus ultra of dystopian fiction, and considering its fine literary quality, this is no surprise. The catchphrase of this dark novel, "Big Brother is Watching You", exemplifies Nietzsche's observation. Omnipresent two-way TV monitors put teeth behind this dictum and make for a nietzschean nightmare at its worst. Orwell's antagonist, O'Brien, who speaks for the Party, expresses the logic behind this constant attention when he informs the hero of the novel, Winston Smith, that power is not only "...[p]ower over the body", but more importantly it is also power, "...above all, over the mind."
The train of events that first sets Winston against Big Brother catches perfectly the notion of the "lonely philosopher" Nietzsche tells us of. Finding himself unsatisfied with the world around him, he realizes that he knows things as they are are just not right. So he illicitly buys a diary and commits himself to writing down his thoughts. But the act of writing is more than just setting words to paper. It is a thinking-through, and when confronted with this task, Winston finds that the words he knows exist refuse to leave his mind and put themselves on the paper. So he must think, and think. In this quiet solitude Orwell has his protagonist reflect on all that is wrong: newspeak, the constant monitoring, the anti-sex leagues--Then it comes to him! Winston's reflection leads him to an intuitive break through, and he begins his diary by vindicating Nietzsche with the four fatal words every dictator fears: "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER."
Taking a different approach than Orwell, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World approaches dystopia from a more mocking and comedic perspective, yet it too uses Nietzshe's dictum as its centerpiece. Instead of TV monitors, Huxley's world is controlled through genetic manipulation, behavioral conditioning and drugs, lots and lots of drugs. This process has one great effect, namely, it deprives the mind of any stimulus it might receive from discomfort, that needling Orwell used in 1984 which tells a man things are not quite right. In addition to this, the citizens are continually entertained through a combination of mass media, garish nightclubs and easy sex. Regular relationships are discouraged and infantile behavior is glorified. Always busy, individual reflection of the sort Nietzsche exalts becomes impossible. The "World Controller" Mustapha Mond sums up his government's policy: "...people never are alone now...We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them ever to have it." Mond's people are happy, but only superficially. In exchange for this 'happiness' they sacrifice meaning, nobility and heroism. Worse, they remain utterly ignorant of such concepts, perfect nietzschean "Last Men", human beings who exist only for their own comfort.
The third dystopia is both the most far-fetched and the most relevant to our day-to-day lives. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of a fireman, Guy Montag, who rebels against a futuristic American dictatorship. Unlike fireman of today, who extinguish fires, Guy Montag ignites them; he burns books, which have become an illegal commodity. The fanciful scenarios Bradbury describes, where firemen rush off in the middle of the night to set some malefactor's library ablaze, strike the reader as being ridiculously impossible, but they aren't all that important, really. The firemen act more as a vehicle to make a couple of deeper points Bradbury wanted to make about the direction American society was taking.
The first point Bradbury discussed was political correctness, though he didn't--couldn't--call it that; in 1954 the term hadn't been invented. Still, Bradbury saw the direction multi-culturalism would take society. Again, the dystopia's antagonist, Montag's boss Captain Beatty, expresses the author's thoughts most clearly:
"You [Montag] must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred...Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book."
Of course, when it comes to specifics Bradbury was wrong about the cigarettes and White people, but the basis of his prediction remains sound, almost undeniable.
The second point Fahrenheit 451 makes answers directly to Nietzsche's observation: the lack of solitude. This time the explanation comes from an English professor who has long been out of work. He tells Montag their society suffers as it does because no one has any time to think:
"If you're not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can't think of anything else but the danger, then you're playing some game or sitting in some room where you can't argue with the four-wall televisor. Why?...It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn't time to protest 'What nonsense!'" [emphasis original]
I wrote earlier that Fahrenheit 451 is the most relevant dystopia to our times, and this passage captures exactly what I mean by that, even more so than Bradbury's foreseeing political correctness. After all, conflict between groups is an eternal facet of human existence; however, our technology is not. With the distractions offered society through cable TV, movie rentals and even the Internet--through which, ironically, you are reading this article--people are less and less given over to solitary contemplation, the kind of leisure required to push through difficult books and digest their meaning. Again, writing in 1954, Bradbury managed to grasp the consequences of these technologies long before they became the overwhelming realities they are today, and his prediction aligns perfectly with Nietzsche's understanding of how a tyranny can take hold.
Fiction is of little use, though, if it can't be applied to the world of fact, and the same can be said of the philosophy supporting that fiction. I've briefly discussed Bradbury's relevance, and others have explored the real world implications of Orwell's and Huxley's dark worlds in an endless series of books and articles. I feel no need to add to that burgeoning pile of paper, so instead I will concentrate on Nietzsche's point about solitude being the enemy of tyranny.
This theory of his has been thoroughly confirmed by most of the 20th-century's history. Look to the totalitarian states of the last century. Both nazism and communism utilized all sorts of clubs, unions and societies to keep their subjects both busy and engaged with others. Be it marching in a parade, collecting a harvest or participating in an education session, no one was given any solitude, and those who took it of their own accord stuck out so easily that monitoring them was relatively easy. We also see this loathing of solitude in the Islamic countries. Mass mosque attendance and strict observance of every man's orthodoxy have reduced the intellectual output of the Islamic world from being the envy of the globe to little more than joke, and a bad one at that. As Nietzsche noted, powerful religions are just as oppressive as powerful governments.
Yet before we Americans become too smug, we might want to examine ourselves. Obviously, we are nowhere near as bad off as the citizens under the old totalitarianism or contemporary Islam, but we do live in the shadow of a potential tyrant, our own particularly democratic tyrant: the mob. Under our regime, democratic politicians employ a rather insidious method to prevent men from sinking into solitude. They scare them, and keep them scared for as long as they can. Critic H.L. Mencken, himself a nietzschean, captured this process perfectly when he wrote, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary"
A man constantly spooked by threats of "dirty bombs", the "Greenhouse effect", or a war in the Levant over some worthless pile of rocks is a man who can't think; he can only react on an emotional level. He can't be alone with his thoughts because he's constantly in the company of angst. The Right and the Left both play this game with him. Indeed, they revel in it, seeming at times to cooperate with one another, where one plays bogeyman and the other savior, and then they switch.
The Right goes on and on about foreign threats that demand American intervention in just about every corner of the globe. When they're not busy trying to make every foreigner behave like a good American, they're trying to censor the Net (for the chillun', you see), or giving the FBI yet more power to poke into our private affairs, all for the sake of keeping us safe. Safe from who? Not from them, that's for sure.
But give the Right this much credit, they aim high. The Left does not. In this country leftists alternate between playing Chicken Little at one moment and Sally Struthers the next. That is, when they're not busy scaring everyone about some great global cataclysm that never really seems to materialize, they are trying to bring us to tears with fantastical stories about whole populations in the inner cities starving to death. Why it is we never run into these starving people--beyond the occasional bum reeking of last night's Mad Dog 20/20--we never find out.
Will this ever change? No, not likely. Most people are not only easily scared, they enjoy being scared. It gives them a thrill. It allows them to react from the gut and not the brain. The fear keeps them occupied, but only lightly so, for it requires no great effort of thought. When it comes to the masses, there is not a damned thing that can be done to change them.
However, that society cannot be changed does not mean we are with hope. The individual can still change, and whatever flaws our society has, it is still somewhat free (Give Mr. Bush some time though; he's working on it). Men can still withdraw into themselves and, in solitude, think, just think. Nietzsche himself, in that same article from which I drew my first quote, recommends this turn inward. "Read only your own life," he writes, "and from this understand the hieroglyphs of universal life!"
It's become somewhat trite to say this, but it remains true: the most difficult struggle any man faces is with himself. It's a struggle that never ends, but in its difficulty it offers endless fascination and education. Will this struggle, this fighting with oneself, effect a meaningful change in the world? No, definitely not, but then again, in the long run nothing else will either. Our universe is a cold one, and it is infinitely apathetic to the goings on of a few mites inhabiting this remote and insignificant ball of mud we call Earth. What we can get out of such reflection, though, is entertainment, truly engaging and challenging entertainment. It is certainly better than the insipid fare now offered by today's tyrants, whether they be democrats or the more honest variety one encounters overseas.
This excerpt taken from a paper written by Dijkstra in 1986 seems very appropriate:
"...society tolerates the computing profession because of its incompetance. It is our incopetence that makes us, though expensive, relatively harmless: were we as competent as we would like to be, we would offer the perfect implementation of the complete police state. We would be the darling of any dictatorship"
Food for thought.
This could be just what we need to convince the ignorant sheep out there that they need 4096 kilobit encryption. First place to start is E-Mail and instant messangers. Second place, whether it's legal or not, is the telephone system. That should put a spin on any TIA system. At least anyone that tries will be forced to concentrate effort on only pertinant information. When someone has to put down their donut and drive down to someone's house to spy on them, they can't be doing it to the entire world.
Hey, then we can block telemarketers and spammers because we won't have their key. Don't forget, you have to physically hand a key to someone in order for it to be truely secure, else you are trusting whoever you hand it to. This only needs to be done for personal calls/email. It isn't very likely that someone will use a business call against you.
Karma Clown
In the past it was possible to create an entirely new life. Criminals, debtors, or just people who wanted to start a new life could move to "The New World" or other countries and begin again. Now, your new home already has a pretty good idea who you are.
Until the age of direct deposit, it was possible to move somewhere new and get a job that you could be paid for the same day, paying cash for a room in some seedy hotel until you could get a better place. Now, it takes 2-3 weeks before you see your first paycheque, and most hotels require a credit card. Right away it is harder to move around, let alone reinvent yourself.
Let's look at the example of one famous head of state. He spent the first half of his life screwing around, doing drugs, getting arrested for drunk driving, and wasting Bush Sr.'s money. Suddenly he cleans up his act and buys a baseball team, becomes governor of Texas, and eventually President of the U.S. of A. Good for him.
Imagine this same kid 20 years from now. (Minus some of daddy's influence, perhaps.) Generally good kid gets into a bit of trouble when he/she is young, but cleans up and decides to get a job working for MS-AOL-Time-Warner-USA. (MATWU for short.) Person goes in for their interview, to face a series of questions, like a normal job interview. After doing quite well, the interviewer says this:
"You are very well suited for the job. I think you would make an excellent addition to the team. However your ethics do not fit with corporate guidelines. We notice that on your trip to Amsterdam you visited 3 hash bars in a 4 hour period, 1 strip club where you took part in two lap dances and consumed a good deal of alcohol. We also note that you visited Tokyo and stayed for 2 weeks at a VSP resort. Consorting with Vivendi-Sony-Panasonic, perhaps? I'm afraid we cannot hire you."
Who has never done anything they wouldn't want their prospective employer, prospective friends, prospective mate, or prospective client to know about?
What Future?
1. the use of ellipses in the middle of the teaser is deceptive. The passage after the ellipses beginning with "The Total Information Awareness program, with its ability to provide persistent storage.." up to the last sentence is not from Wired, but rather a quote from an EFF lawyer included in the piece by Wired.
2. While it's never wise to trust your privacy to anyone you don't know, much less the government, hysteria seems a but premature. This is clearly an R&D effort.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
That is beautiful work, AC. I should make that my sig.
Are you new to computers?
driver ;icense search
What's the best way to protect information?
Doesn't GNU FSF say it's decentralization of authority?
All this is really going to lead to is the temptation of abuse.....
Internal or ad-hoc identifiers are much worse than a public, well-designed system of national ID numbers. Among other things, if you don't know your secret government ID number or record locator, it's much harder for you to force the US government to comply with privacy regulations--even with a court ourder--they'll just claim that they "couldn't find the records" or that they "must have overlooked them" and get away with it even if found out. And if the government makes up their own internal system or uses social security numbers, you are much more likely to be the victim of identity theft or mistaken identity.
In order to protect our privacy, we need good privacy legislation that covers both government agencies and companies. And in order to protect our privacy, we need a well-designed system of national ID numbers--preferably numbers that are large and have a non-trivial internal checksum. Both of these would have to be decided at the ballot box.
The reason why this isn't going to happen is because the people in the US that are mainly concerned about privacy are also people with libertarian leanings. They just don't understand that the only way to protect privacy is through strong government regulations.
As I have said previously, the only problem with such a setup is imperfection. If the system were perfect, it would be excellent. But if it is imperfect, and beleived to be "reliable," then it shouldn't be in use.
Or at the very least, it should be treason for anyone but a sitting judge by writ to divulge the secrets of the database.
How else are you going to know what brand and size your wife should be wearing?
check the driver license site
Why does being an aethist mean you are unAmerican?
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
How does being an aethist make you unAmerican? I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on this.
More people have DIED over religious wars than any political war..
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
heh... hit the wrong link.. whoops.
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
666 was the number of someone who was alive when the Book of Revelations was written. Probably some unsympathetic Roman, maybe Nero. He's dead now, so don't worry about him. If you just write down the symbols that the Romans used for numbers, DCLXVI, you get 666. If that's too simple for you, If the letter A is defined to be equal to 36 (=66), B=37, C=38, and so on, then: The sum of the letters in the word SUPERSTITIOUS is 666.
I believe that Albertsons now uses that system as well.
mkdir /treblejunkie /receipts /treblejunkie /medicalrecords /treblejunkie /creditreports /treblejunkie /phonerecords /treblejunkie /parkingtickets /treblejunkie /relationships /treblejunkie /dicksize /treblejunkie /favoritefoods /treblejunkie
cp
cp
cp
cp
cp
cp
cp
(copying... copying... still copying....)
cp
There's how you do it. DARPA, please send me my check. You probably already know my address.
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
(nt)
Here's a lovely interview with Vice President Daddy Bush, circa 1987. He says Atheists aren't Americans, and he has more money than you, so he must be right, right?
Praise Jeebus!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sherman: What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are Atheists?
Bush: I guess I'm pretty weak in the Atheist community. Faith in god is important to me.
Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are Atheists?
Bush: No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
Sherman (somewhat taken aback): Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?
Bush: Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on Atheists.
Term limits on government offices serve to limit the abuse of power. This concept no longer goes far enough to properly limit abuses of power. Power is now not only held by individuals, but by systems. It is not only government systems, but also corporations and political parties. Changes must be made in our constitution to add checks and balances for these new centers of power made possible by advances in technology.
Technology has enabled these systems to become effective enough to suggest some form of "term limits" now need to be applied to these systems as well as holders of government offices. These limits will not necessarily take the same form as term limits for individuals, but they are needed.
The instant it ceases to be possible for the people governed by a government to institute a new government, that government is destined to become corrupt. Naturally, though, a government wants to preserve itself, like any entity. That is one of the reasons why eternal vigilance is required to uphold the rights of the people, vigilance of foreign and domestic threats of those rights, including our own government. The U.S. constitution was written to include the concept of an impermanent government, but with advances in technology, term limits on individual office holders are no longer enough protection to prevent abuses of power.
Government systems, political parties, and corporations seem to be growing beyond individual control. It is obvious that the rules under which our society functions are now inadequate for the systems now working within our society. It is time to amend the constitution to add checks and balances for the new places where power is being concentrated. If these changes cannot be made through constitutional means, then it is too late for the U.S. government to self-correct and there will be dark days ahead for the U.S.
If this turns out half as bad as it looks, I'm all for a new American Revolution. Worked in 1776, I think it'd work now if we actually educated the public about this bullshit.
Go ahead and arrest me, Ascroft, you totalitarian son of a bitch, you'll have to do me like you did Padilla; have the military hold me in a brig without bringing charges, 'cause I a'int done a damn thing wrong. Or maybe I should just start looking around for another country. This country is great, but I'm starting to wonder whether the public at large is populated by morons or people too scared to come out of their bunkers. Freedom is something you have to want and want bad. It's incredibly delicate, and we're seeing it torn apart before our eyes. 1984? I don't think so. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees. If America is populated by pussies, then just let me know and I'll find another place to live where they actually want their freedom. Sept 11 was an attack on our way of life. Judging by the way things have gone the last 11 months (patriot act, data mining, warrantless arrests, detention of American CITIZENS without a trial/lawyer/grand jury, etc) I'd say they kicked our asses. Cower in the dark if you like, but I will never call you a patriot. I was at the Statue of Liberty today, and it was still closed; you can't go inside. Why? The people of America are too scared to tell Bush to re-open it. What does it say when the people of this country are barred from entering our greatest symbol of freedom? What the hell does that say?
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
The purpose of this is political control, not counter terrorism. Please see this for mroe background and very interesting info on the IAO symbol:
. ht ml#79173969
http://www.cryptogon.com/2002_07_14_blogarchive
Note that Dijkstra died just a few days before this story broke -- coincidence?
For more discussion of the control of power, check out this comment:
The Need for Impermanent Government.
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have radio ID transponder!
g C: www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
l
: www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
And Total Information Awareness is related to a secret initiative to track all funnel-points on interstates and us borders for car tire ID transpnders RFid chips embedded in the tire.
Yup. My brother works on them.
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them!. A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essense is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gove has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires.
It is for QA and to prevent fraud, but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
Photos of chips before molded into tires:
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:TAQIKjBI01
(slashdot ruins links, so you will have to remove the ASCII space it insertess usually into the url above to get to the shocking info and photos on the enbedded LOGI 160 chips that the us gov scans when you cross mexican and canadian borders.)
You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is very secret.
Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.
http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.htm
but the fact is... YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE A RADIO TRANSPONDER not counting your digital cell phone which is routinely silently pulsed in CA bay area each rush hour morning unless turned off (consult Wired Magazine Expose article). Those data point pulses are used by NSA on occasions.
The us FBI with NRO/NSA blessings, has requested us gov make this tire scanning information as secret as the information regarding all us inkjet printers sold in usa in the last 3 years using "yellow" GUID barcode under dark ink regions to serialize printouts to thwart counterfeiting of 20 dollar bills. (30 to 40 percent of ALL California counterfeiting is done using cheap Epson inkjet printers, most purchased with credit cards foolishly). Luckily court dockets divulge the existense of the Epson serial numbers on your printouts... but nobody except a handful of people know about this Tire scanning upgrade to big brother's arsenal.
YOU MUST BUY NEUTRALIZED OR FOREIGN TIRES!!!!! Soon such tires will become illegal to import or manufacture, just as Gasoline must have "Taggants" added or gasoline is illegal, as are non-self-aging 9 mm bullets.
It is currently VERY illegal to buy or disable the "911 help" GPS emitter in digital cell phones in the US or ship a modified phone across state borders, but it is still legal to turn off your cell phone in your car while travelling. As you should. And you should be wary of your tires now too. : http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:TAQIKjBI01gC
Alternatively you could illegally build microwave jamming devices at : 13.56 MHz, + 1,356 MHz +- many freqs (TI-RFid) and a few others. but your brain would possibly cook over time, as it now known as of this year that the three harmonic resonances of water are not the only chemical actions harming human tissue at gigaherz frequencies.
RFIDs have been covertly used and sold by TI for over ten years are in many many products... and now your tires are being read by the us gov as you drive at speeds of up to 100 Mph on primary US interstate corridors. (Actually 160 km/h).
Those same US interstate corridors have radiation detectors too, but a small layer of stacks of interlocked graphite blocks those from detecting stealthy deliveries. Graphite blocks are IDEAL for shipping "dirty bomb" components, I believe.
Anyway, regarding tire readio transmitters: the sokymat LOGI 160, and sokymat LOGI 120) are just SOME of the transponders found in modern tires. The earliest tire radio spy chips had only 64 bit serial numbers but they have rapidly evolved post Sept 11 bombings: LOGI 160 LOGI 120 has 224 bit R/W memory (sokymat.ch) to be marked using external hand help injectors with "salt" info when the fbi tags your parked car.
Basically the FBI "marks your car" without touching it physically, thus eliminating a "warrant" to put a locater on your vehicle. Just as the FBI can listen to you while you are at home by LEGALLY bouncing an infrared beam off your vibrating window pane and modulating the signal, the US Gov can LEGALLY inject (program) a saltable read-write sokymat LOGI eeprom tire chip (and other brands of tire transponders)
Using these chips to track people while they drive is actually the idea of the us gov, and current chips CANNOT BE DISABLED or removed. They hope ALL tires will have these chips in 5 years and hope people have a very hard time finding non-chipped tires. Removing the chips is near impossible without destroying the tire as the chips were designed with that DARPA design goal.
They are hardened against removal or heat damage or easy eye detection and can be almost ANYWHERE in the new "big brother" tires. In fact in current models they are integrated early and deep into the substrate of the tire as per US FBI request.
And just as showerheads are now illegal to import into the USA from Canada or mexico, as are drums of Freon, and standard size toilets are illegal to import for home use, soon car tires without radio transponders will be illegal to bring across state borders.
Learn and read.
There is a wonderful comment about the abuse of power:
The Need for Impermanent Government.
However, if you take the time to include the tens of millions butchered by prominent atheist Josef Stalin, and the tens of millions butchered by prominent atheist Mao, it turns out that atheists are responsible for so much more wholesale slaughter in the world's history that it's not even worth comparing to anything or anyone else.
DFL
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
... is a recipe for civil liberties disaster unless there are provisions for citizens to find out who is looking at their records and to see and correct those records...
Provisions, schmovisions, there is nothing that can ever justify the existence of such a massive database. Get yer pasport while you can.
Slashdot sucks!
I'm out of mod points. Good thinking here, deserves notice.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
HMM, wonder what RF engineer builds microwave devices operating at the VHF/UHF bands
"player 4 hit player 1 with 0 stroms"
AIAG B-11 RADIO TIRE TRACKING ADC STANDARD IMPLEMENTED!
M C: www.aiag.org/publications/b11.html
Our freedom of travel are going away in 2003. Now there is an international STANDARD for all tire transponder RFID chips and in 2004 nearly ALL USA cars will have them. Refer to AIAG B-11 ADC, (B-11 is coincidentally Post Sept 11 fastrack initiative by US Gov to speed up tire chip standardization to one read-back standard for highway usage).
The AIAG is "The Automotive Industry Action Group"
The non proprietary (non-sokymat controlled) standard is the AIAG B-11 standard is the "Tire Label and Radio Frequency Identification" standard
"ADC" stands for "Automatic Data Collection"
The "AIDCW" is the US gov manipulated "Automatic Identification Data Collection Work Group"
The standard was started and finished rapidly in less than a year as a direct consequence of the Sep 11 attacks by Saudi nationals.
Use of the AIAG B-11 radio chips (RFIS serial number transponders) in the upgraded car tracking http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html is currenlty secret knowledge.
The AIAG is claiming the chips reduce car theft, assist in tracking defects, and assists error-proofing the tire assembly process. But the real secret is that these 5 cent devices are a us government backed initiative to track citizens travel without their consent or ability to disable the transponders in any way.
All tire manufacturers are forced to comply AIAG B-11 Radio Tire tracking standard by the 2004 model year.
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:-qJPsZjkMA
You may have a hard time disabling the eeprom portion of the "enhanced" chips. The B-11 v3.0 covers the minimum required features list
You can purchase a copy of the 3.0 tire chip standard for 10 dollars at that site, but it will not cover the writable-portion feature.
the decimal point on the right side number is a "european comma" and is a gigahertz value.
What we do have is way too much cosmetic stuff that pushes the right-wing control agenda. Many arrests, deportations, and secret detentions, but few trials. Talk of a war with Iraq without Congressional approval. More Government secrecy about stuff that has nothing to do with terrorism. Plans for a huge internal security agency, something the US didn't need in WWI or WWII. Talk of using the military for domestic law enforcement. Warships for the Coast Guard.
Note what we're not seeing - competence at the top. Retired FBI agents write books reporting that FBI HQ is packed with bozos. (The field end of the FBI is generally considered better than HQ.) But there hasn't been a purge at FBI HQ, despite several scandals. Ashcroft is at best a lightweight, but he's still running the Justice Department. The head of FEMA was Bush's campaign manager. Cheney is still in office, despite the Halliburton scandals. These guys are not the team we need to win.
Sorry to break it to ya, but this has recently been proven an incontrovertible fact. By far the majority seems to agree that the USA is "one nation under God" - or if they don't agree, they're too scared to say so. Therefore, if you're an atheist, you can't be part of the nation, so you're un-American.
BTW, I'm an atheist, and not an American, but I live in the USA. I was rather disappointed to see the selfish "my religion wins because there are more of us than you" attitude that prevailed in the recent "debate". Tolerance and equality is well and good as long as it doesn't interfere with the national superstition.
P.S. the original post was making the atheist=unamerican claim ironically, as others have pointed out.
It was Alexander Graham Bell.
... birth will solve THAT niggly problem - and it WILL be illegal NOT to have it implanted. When all the outlaws have (implanted)chips, none of the (intrusive) chips will be outlawed.
They don't allow MS to be the operating system its on. And the system is read only with no way at all in to the system. The prosecution of a programmer involved in putting a back door of any kind in the system. No BUFFER OVERFLOWS at all fhoddamit! |-\ Beat me! But I will never give up on my Country 'The United States Of America!" the best coutry in the world, not necessarily the purest people, but the best! Open Sourse Rulez!
Damn. That needs modded up, seriously. I'm ashamed to not have known about that paper before.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
Being un-American and American. Interesting concepts but are usually used in the wrong manner by people who just want to get their way. If god guided America he would be a Ferengi God, not a benevolent god. America contradicts itself so much. If they just followed the original amendments word for word. I mean they put the 1rst Amendment first because it is the MOST important.
/.ers should make our own party. Why not? Less corrupt. An occasional troll or two. I have seen less of them lately. We could turn this country around. It's not 1984 yet. There still is time.
Being un-American would be working against what this county is all about. I would never be thrown into our patriotism bull crap. Being un-American is being willing to give up liberties without a fight to insure the Majority's safety. THAT my friends is being un-American. Ever since we started this nation of ours we have had problems with contradicting ourselves. First with the slaves. They are only ½ a person. They don't get any of our rights. Majority rules is not how America was designed. It was designed to be Majority rule without infringement on Minority rights. And we have gone and done it over and over and over throughout our brief history. Home Land Security is un-American. Carnivore is un-American. WE ARE MOVING TWORDS THE WRONG DIRECTION PEOPLE! WE THE PEOPLE are letting the evil corrupt this government since day 1. Perhaps the founding fathers were right. We should leave the ruling of the government up to the intelligent. Obviously since we allowed the President to be elected by the people rather than the senate we have had disaster over and over again. We have a couple of good men. So did Rome's Emperors. Unfortunately we have had lots of Neros lately in all parts of the government. Men are not perfect, but we let the large group of people chose a dumb choice. Lets see... ballot... George Bush or Al Gore. Might as well read Jim Bob Joe as a candidate. The last 10 years have been a mess. It was no surprise to me that at 2002 we began a recession. I have been saying that we would enter a recession since 1993. I predicted it sooner though. And it was not caused by 9-11. It's like saying the Stock Market Crash caused the Great Depression. Things like this happen after large burst of growth. It is a natural occurrence of our economy caused by large amounts of greed. A miss management of money or total and complete greed, the kind of greed that you would sacrifice all your employees pay just to get another 5 Million this year. Our country has been misguided. I am not a politician. I would consider it an honor to be in the Senate. I would not like to take this course because not a lot of people actually listen and I'm not even 35. We let the scum of the earth rule our country. Why is this? We don't want the job. Let the people who want power have it. Somehow I think Douglass Adams was right about putting the Emperor of the Universe as a man who did not want the job. The good people don't want power. They want to make a difference. We as
Remember: Minority rule restricted by Minority rights.
==========
Sincerely,
Locke
...last I recall
Tia was a hot chick that Wayne schwinggged over...
now a hundred fantasies about her and a case of Heineken have gone to pot...
oh well, there goes the neighborhood and every citizens right to be afforded simple privacies...
~Ben Franklin would shed a tear and have a beer
Freemen own weapons. Slaves don't.
End of argument.
The collected laws, regulations, edicts, etc. would fill several shelf-feet. It is impossible to know what all the laws are, and thus whether we are in compliance.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers--and then you cash in on the guilt." -- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
That's what we're facing today--a crazy quilt of random, conflicting, arbitrary, subjective laws.
Total surveillance is unlikely to lead to total enforcement because that might stampede the sheep. Rather, it will be used to cull the rams from the flock.
Gordon.
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien
Kid (speaking into walkie-talkie): Cancel the operation! They have Tech Spy!
example.org - powered by Linux!
This is clearly a response to Sept 11th, and the fact that tht the intelligence community did not detect and stop this.
The obvious solution is to pursuade Microsoft (through the DOJ) to install mechanisms to match computers on the Internet to individuals by matching the MAC address of the PC to personal information such as a MS Passport Account.
Microsoft could change it's EULA so that Microsoft and the NSA have leagal root access to all Windows computers, and through the Windows Update service could also allow themselves the right to install at any time spyware that could monitor the activities of the system.
Routines could be installed to regularly update central records at Microsoft over the Internet, and Microsofts firewall product could be set to pass this information without alerting the end user. Other firewall products like zonealarm would report this activity but could be made not to work until it plays properly with NSA access.
To keep RIAA happy Windows Media Player could track and report back what music is being played.
Microsoft Exchange could be modified so that security services could access and monitor email remotely over the Internet.
So what would Microsoft get out of this?
The DOJ could suddenly go soft on the anti-trust case against Microsoft and could agree a settlement that would do nothing to stop Microsoft from stamping out competition. They could argue that the Sherman act requirement to disclose negotiations does not apply to discussions this late in the case and keep the deal secret.
The US government could provide top level Government diplomats and Embassadors to lobby any foriegn governments that may consider not using Microsoft Software for their government or schools, or even madating that all government software should be Open Source.
If the US government and Microsoft worked together on Windows, to make it the only OS that is used Worldwide then there would be a lot fewer problems for the security services wishing to track terrorists... Of course there might be more viruses, more reboots for patching, more patches, more US revenue from licenses.
Of course some of what I have writted is paranoia and speculation, but most of it has already hapenned!!!
You fail to make sense.
How is it that wanting freedom as it was defined by the people who wrote our founding laws (as opposed to freedom(tm), a concept that continually proves itself flexible to a number of different viewpoints, so long as there are contributions behind them), an indicator for "undergraduate liberal because my daddy is republican"? Please, explain how the founding fathers were hippies that screwed everyone in sight, ate other deadhead's acid, and evaded MSG security so that they could Get Another Miracle.
-j, a cranky product of a small, liberal arts college that cost too much.to preserve
I forget what 8 was for.
If you look at the record in terms of what information was missed by whom, when, and why, it's pretty evident that little or NONE of it had anything to do with a LACK of information. Most of it was plain old incompetence, or a failure to allocate necessary resource. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that no information "TIA" system is going to do anything to solve that problem.
WARNING: Reading the rest of this message is inflamatory, and contraindicated where a lack of education and the in-ability to grasp abstract concepts involving self-dissassociation and viewpoint expression without personalization may produce strong personal actions (flamming) from consumption of the memes within. If this is the case, then there's no reason for you not to go elsewhere. In short, I'm sharing. Have lotsa fun or click "next message".
Today I had the joy of dealing with a check-out clerk at Toys R Us. They wanted my phone number because I was paying with cash--an archaic "loose cannon" of consumerism.
I'm the kind of creepy evil bastard that makes women nervous, and children cling to their mommies ;and as such I glared at the clerkdroid from beneath hooded brows(much more acceptable than using his head as a redecorating tool) and asked if it was necessary in order to make a purchase. They said "no", and had that Call Security! look. Hey, I can see Radio Shack keeping a record (probably at the insistence of the government and for convienience when the law comes asking about switches, transmitters, etc)..for all the McGuyver's out there, the Shack is like a candy shop for mayhem, but Toys R Us...shessh. If I had the time to convert (gaming consoles, insertable anthropomorphic toys, and buttloads of chinese plastic) things into weapons of mass destruction I'd probably shop elsewhere--the Defense Department.
I'm just about to the point where everytime someone who doesn't need my information starts asking for it I'm going to shift into full-on asshole mode and start sounding off with clever stuff, like:
I look forward to the day when people will start jamming on merchants who can't function without harvesting the customerbase for data-mining, aggregate info peddling, and affiliate deep-tounge kissing across the backend in some bid for the orgiastic-synergistic-ogopolistic golden ring that will somehow give them the gawd's eye view of the feeding-frenzy, button-pushing results of marketing and distribution that may someday grant them the winning formulary of sales on the scale that Disney has somehow mastered for delivering nearly worthless media.Better yet, when I'm collecting whatever I'll end up getting for retirement, I'm going to be one evil, mean, and nasty bastard...I'll have the time and the will to picket stores that practice this crap, sit in on juries, and vote...at least until I die from something like diabetes, alzhimers, or cancer. Until that happens, I'll relish the looks of concern, terror, and outrage from so-called public-servants and the merchant-enforcement goons (police). Hell, I might even come to enjoy the sensation of tear-gas...can't smell much now, and it'll really pay off when they start screwing with the crowd--a whole crowd of angry cat-food eating bastards like myself (prescription drugs necessary to sustain life don't leave much room for real-food and when you can't smell, the taste of most things isn't too bad). The way I see it, there's going to be more old pissed off bastards in 15 to 30 years than there has ever been before, so they better get their priorites eet (stuff like mandatory death sentences for picketing, inciting people to action, and free-speech; esp. in the public interest!)soon, and remember the German occupation of France--all the information was already there for the occupation forces of Germany to easily and effectively disarm and contain the citizens. What a great time-saver that was!
Whew!...where the hell did that all come from...and did someone spike my corporate swill of choice of the moment(diet 12939 is only $.28 a litre right now--we got a great big cola-war, keeping me up through the night...yeah! caffiene's got me running to the lou all the time tonite--cola war...).
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
The Internet has become a tool for government to snoop on their people - 24/7.
The terrorism argument is a dummy - bull*.
Ask the Security Services in the UK and US to deny this:
Internet surveillance, using carnivore or back doors in encryption, will not stop terrorists communicating by other means e.g. face to face, personal courier or steganography.
Terrorists will have to do that, or they will get caught.
Perhaps using mobile when absolutely essential, saying - "Meet you in the pub Monday" (human bomb to target A), or Tuesday (target B) or Sunday (abort).
SURVEILANCE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STOP TERRORISTS - IT IS SPIN AND PROPAGANDA
This propaganda is for several reasons, including: making you feel safer - that the government are doing something and the more malicious motive of privacy invasion.
Government say about surveillance - "you've nothing to fear - if you are not breaking the law"
This argument is made to pressure people into acquiescence - else appear guilty of hiding something.
It does not address the real reason why they want this information - they want a surveillance society.
They wish to invade your basic human right to privacy.
This is like having somebody watching everything you do - all your thoughts, hopes and fears will be open to them.
All your finances for them to scrutinize - heaven help you if you cannot account for every cent when they check on your taxes.
Do not believe the lies of Government - even more money spent on these measures will not protect you from terrorists.
P.S. On the Domain Name System, Corporations steal words that belong to everybody - abridging what words you can use - violating the First Amendment.
The Corporations illegally abuse and expand their brand using domain names - above all smaller businesses who use similar words - violating Competition Law.
The authorities LIE - they know how to make trademark domains unique and totally distinctive, as the LAW requires trademarks to be. Please visit the World Intellectual Piracy Organization - not connected with United Nations WIPO.org !
http://netcrucible.com/blog/2002/07/21.html#a226
This guy is apparently ex-DOD and now works for Microsoft.
Did no-one else see the logo at DARPA's IAO website? Either the conspiracy is about to be exposed; or they're taking the piss ;)
"I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
so, like ... france (its fifth republic) is a tyrrany? damn ...
... it -has- been around for a long time, comparitively.
... we've not been around 7000 years yet. (just a reminder that this, too, is up for debate.)
there are lots of democracies/republics in this world. take a look at switzerland -- just how many national referendums can you claim we've had in the US? and i'd like to mention that in France, my vote for the president counts a whole lot more accurately than in the states (should i remind you of the florida incident?)
the US doesn't have the most fair government system
btw -- according to some
no really ... i mean, God can know each of us, know everything we do, but not the government? damn, what if i (an agnostic) want privacy from God? talk about dictatorial tyrrany ... i don't know what the PK is (assuming integer primary keys in the uber-universal database) to see my own records ... i can't correct any of them if i disagree with God's opinion of me -- and if He, the almighty, flags me as naughty and sends me to hell ... i can't even start a revolution! damn shame, that ...
The problem with this system is that it's one-way transparency. We are transparent to them (the people in power who will have access to this system), but they are not tranto us. If I can get a list of who has looked at my records, and then look at their records -- in the same level of detail that they gained about me -- then I won't have as much of a problem with it. Reciprocal transparency will make it more fair, and help alleviate abuses. If Senator Porkbarrel's office investigates me, and I can investigate them right back, then they might think twice about using it.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Mao and Stalin were not atheist, they were COMMUNIST.
Communism is a religion like any other (Christianity, Islam, etc)
They note 'bin laden' and just 'American Citizen'?
As the FBI agents crash the door, "Down on the
floor American Citizen; we have a warrant for
your arrest".
If there is a number and a time it can be traced,
and it WILL be. Sooner or later, someone is
going to have to justify what this costs, so
let's start looking for joe criminal, hmmm,
even joe maybe criminal... Sounds like a copyrighted tone on that cell
phone! Not just to you, but then back
to everyone else that called that number and
every number it called, and your ISP and their
system logs. Ashcroft's wet dream; in service
to corporate interests.
Our only hope is that these snoops keep running
Microsoft (There, worked in the obligatory bash)
I wonder if they will use the NSA's version of linux...?
Actually, I hope they dont, cuz we wont be able to break into it.
I'm not worried though, I'll bet pensions to doughnuts that the existing government network administrators will be underpaid morons, who can't wait to get a real job in the private sector making twice as much.
One does not have to believe in a god or gods to come to the conclusion (unlike Stalin/Mao) that it it 'inherently good' to be nice to people, and not wipe them out by the millions.
The scientific, objective facts of the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (look it up if you actually care, and aren't just being blindly anti-athiest) show that there *is* a solid, non-theistic basis for being kind to others. Think about it. I don't for a second believe that without a belief in some god, people have no choice but to become selfish, murdering psychopaths.
Having looked briefly at it, however, I don't believe that IPD is a sufficient response to what I have been arguing.
What I have been saying is that atheism cannot make truth claims or claims about ethics. It cannot do so because of what it claims about the nature of man. Essentially a man is a glorified electro-chemical machine, according to atheism: based, that is, upon atheism's ideas about human origins.
But if this is true, then it is no more possible for a man to say "it's good to help the little old lady across the street" than for a pot of boiling water to do so. Boiling water doesn't make ethical claims: to even suggest otherwise is absurd. But if man really is nothing more than a glorified batch of incredibly complex chemical/thermal/electrical reactions/interactions, then it is equally absurd to pretend that man can say any more at all about helping old ladies than that pot of water.
If I asked you to inquire of a hurricane whether it is ethical to destroy property and human lives, you would probably laugh in my face. But the atheist, who says that man is - similar to that hurricane - nothing but a batch of chemicals mixed up in intriguing and highly reactive ways, nevertheless expects me to listen to him when he starts chattering about what's "right" or "wrong". I'm sorry, but I fail to see why I shouldn't laugh in his face, IPD notwithstanding.
IPD depends first of all upon the interaction of rational agents - but atheism simply demolishes rationality because of what it says that man is.
This is why I say that atheism reduces ethics to personal preference: because a bag of chemicals doesn't "do" anything. It doesn't think. It doesn't evaluate. It doesn't judge. It's impersonal. Thus, whatever it does is just that, and nothing more. What it does is what it does. The atheist, as a bag of chemicals, can't condemn what atheist bag of chemicals Stalin or Mao does, because bags of chemicals don't have an ethical sense.
Hint: the fact that man really does have an ethical sense ought to be a sufficient clue to you that atheism is a load of nonsense.
DFL
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
All EU countries have a similar act.
Here's a bit of a suggestion/challenge for all the EU /.ers. Call up your local council and find out who the Data Protection Contact Officer is and their address. Then send them a letter stating that you want to make a Data Subject Access Request. A lot of councils will do this for free but some charge a tenner. They then have 40 days from the postmark of your letter (send it first class else they migh try to get an extension) to send you a copy of all information that they hold on you in both electronic and paper systems (used to be just electronic but paper got added in 1998).
You will probably be very suprised by the sheer volume, if you're not then they're probably holding something back as councils hold a lot of data on their citizens.
Stephen
"Don't write down to your readers, the only people less intelligent than you can't read" - Sign on Newspaper Office Wall
I believe those words were written to be interpreted in the era in which they were applicable - not in the era in which they were written. From this point of view, Roman numerals would be irreleveant, and ASCII (A=65,Z=90) would be much more appropriate (if we assume we truly are in the "end times"). Curious note: BILL GATES = 663 (+3 for the III = 666 -- his name is Bill Gates III).
Another curious note: suppose that retina scanning is the "mark on the forehead", and a fingerprint is the "mark on the right hand" (I know you don't "receive" either of those marks, but I am allowing for a less literal translation) I fully expect that these two boimetric identifiers will find wider usage as time progresses. Grocery stores in some locations are already using fingerprint scanners to identify people (described in a previous slashdot story).
Ask yourself - if a functioning ID system were in place, how much of a stretch is it before it is possible to control your ability to "buy or sell"? Granted, it would take a while to convince the general public, but in time, it can (and unfortunately, I believe will) be done. Perhaps they will say first, "we want to prevent terrorists from buying or selling", then "terrorists" changes to "criminals", and then "criminals" changes to "individuals that match criteria we select".
I also don't think the religious right will recognize the "mark" and defend against it. Perhaps I am pessimistic, but the Bible indicates that a great many will be deceived -- hardly possible if a majority recognize it for what it is. I believe those that truly recognize the "mark" will be a minority, and that you will recognize it not just because someone told you but because you came to that conclusion on your own.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but sometimes I like to think, "What if?".
"Want your bowl of chili and bread this week? Gotta get this tiny chip implanted in your Right Hand."
Yeah, you have morals and ethics and blah blah blah *now*, but when you haven't eaten in 4-7 days, you will do most anything to get food.
It will be sold to City Mayors as a "Great New Way to track our homeless and move them on to other cities!"
If we can't take democracy back to America, then lets just take the IT infrastruture back. Its ours, we built the damn thing. Power is only shaken by another expression of power. Stop lobbying. Shut the internet down for a day, and we'll say that we can do it again if they continue these initiatives. Same thing for DRM, if we can use the internet for what we've decided we want to do with it, lets just turn the damn thing off. We all know its a possibility.
it may as well be Uncle Sam, since they can show some restraint in what they do with the info. I read an article about an AS400 the Columbians were using. The data center was seized in a drug raid, and turned over to America. What they had was an extensive data-mining operation, and it was able to put together personal information on FBI agents, Government officials, judges, their families, where they live, etc. So you can bitch and whine about Big Brother, but at least you know what they are doing, and for the most part what they are going to do with it. But what about people like that, who have all your information, and unknown motives? Thats the more scary prospect, I think.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Presto, morals without a Divine Enforcer.
For my next trick, I'll prove how you can make crop circles without a UFO!
As for why you shoulden't laugh in people's faces, that's easy to prove. Try it as a regular policy, and it'll prove itself eventually. I suggest you get some life insurance to provide for your loved ones before you start, though. They'll miss your income when you're gone, but they probably won't miss your Mad logik skillz.
PS - The whole 'bag of chemicals' argument is so tired - It's not even an argument, or proof, it's an emotional appeal, a rephrasing of "What, you WANT to believe that you're not SPECIAL?"