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College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior
FutureDomain writes "The Boston College Campus Police have seized the electronics of a computer science student for allegedly sending an email outing another student. The probable cause? The search warrant application states that he is 'a computer science major' and he uses 'two different operating systems for hiding his illegal activity. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' The EFF is currently representing him."
This would be funny except it's scary instead . . .
Do rent-a-cops have any power to seize property, or is this just a case of theft?
First time I ever heard that. Does Boston College suddenly come out with their own Linux Distro?
Only outlaws will have Linux ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Judge: Would the prosecution give its opening statements in this case? ... and uh--who's that over there?--it's Clippy! ... this evil operating system is what hackers use. Maybe those hackers are the same ones that stole your credit card information? Maybe this operating system can only be understood by the criminally insane? I know I can't use it. It would be like me trying to read a book in German. You know who else spoke German? Hitler.
Prosecutor: Ladies & gentlemen of the jury, I have every intent to prove to you today that the defendant is not only guilty but that the warrant application that granted us the right to acquire evidence practically wrote itself! Now, I am going to outline the warning signs that were evident in the days leading up to this case. I want you to close your eyes for a second and imagine your warm and fuzzy graphical (that's geek speak for 'good') user interface of Windows XP--that all you good Christian patriots use. Ah, the field of green with a blue screen and your well known icons and start menu where everybody knows your name and system tray with your favorite purple gorilla and application bar
*pauses until he sees smiles cross the juries faces*
Prosecutor: Now, imagine that all that is taken away and you're left with the cold dark nothingness of space--like before God created the earth. The heavens and stars aren't even there. It's nothing! And there, blinking unendingly, with no remorse or care for anything good is an intimidating cursor after some letters and symbols that no American could decipher. And as you type things like "I want to order shoes on Amazon" it responds only with the cold harsh words of the devil telling you that ordering shoes on Amazon is not a valid command. And Clippy? Clippy is dead.
*takes a drink of water and smiles smugly as the jury begins to scowl*
Prosecutor: And this is what the defendant used to send that e-mail. This
Prosecutor: So you see, this warrant was basically granted from keystroke one after we found out that the defendant was using Linux--an operating system that encourages you to use a file sharing software to install it. The warrant is valid, I'm just asking you what else might have been done with Linux and its evil knowledge installed on that college student's head and computer. Your honor, I rest my case.
My work here is dung.
If linux terminals are outlawed, only outlaws will have linux terminals.
I mean those people who use keyboards instead of mice are apparently not the norm,
and therefore should be feared. Sheesh, the retard world we live in.
Apparently this "computer hacker" is also encoding his computer work in an obscure "binary code" of only 1's and 0's. It's obvious he has a lot to hide: his hard drive is filled with them!
Really? Come on now, I own a rifle, does that mean I shoot people? I have strong encryption on my hard drive, does that make me a terrorist?
In all honesty, my rifle, my 4096-bit encrypted hard drive, and the idea that I choose the best operating system or combination thereof that suits me as a consumer do nothing but support the idea that I am a law-abiding, dutiful citizen.
People fear what they don't understand.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
You can get in trouble for writing an email saying that someone is gay?
Don't forget that there's a judge that approved that warrant. He's just as much part of the problem.
Well, soon, we'll all be using an operating system on which somebody can watch every move of ours, so then everything will be OK. You shouldn't use Linux, it promotes antisocial and deviant behavior, like watching pornography, programming, and understanding what "zsh" is.
Boston College's Computer Science program announces that applications to the University are at an all time low.
Authorities plan to replace all campus computers with Etch-A-Sketches in order to attract a larger pool of applicants.
What the hell!? So this guy likes to work on PCs and has 2 of his own and then they [cops] see him with "unknown machines" and he's committing a crime...!? How lame and yet it's our tax money at work. Unforetunately, (if I'm not mistaken) most campus cops are 'state deputies'. I know this as I challenged one of them before for running a stop sign and getting a ticket for it. $15 for the fine but $18 for the processing. What a bunch of crap! It must have pissed him off enough for him to give me the ticket.
if he used the superior green-on-black coloring scheme. Using it shows a man with good taste and and high moral values.
2. This was from a search warrant application. Not every cop is computer literate. This is worthy of a few snickers, not a front pager.
since when is it illegal to call someone gay?
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
True enough.
I was walking through the basement of our student union building many years ago. The building was mostly closed - we were at a gaming con and minimal stuff was open. I noticed the door to the game room was ajar. I went in and started playing video games with a few of my friends.
Turns out I tripped a silent alarm. About 15 minutes in, campus police busted in and threw us up against the wall at gunpoint. No kidding, I had a gun pressed against the base of my skull.
All that for 3 geeks who were playing video games.
We talked a bit with the cops afterwards. They bragged about how they had us "under surveillance" for over five minutes without any of us noticing. I pointed out that if that were true, did any of them notice the fact that we were *leaving* money there rather than taking it? Blank stares.
So IMHO, they're worse than regular cops. They're bored out of their minds - and have real guns. They so desperately want some crime to deal with, but there just isn't much other than the odd frat house kegger that gets out of control or the occasional parking ticket. I'd be bored to near-insanity too.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
A- Calling someone gay? Is that a serious offense? Have the morons who issued this warrant ever talked to college aged guys?
B- Really? So- using anything that people who don't use computers aren't familiar with is considered suspicious? What the fuck? Are these the salem witch trials? Is he going to be burned for linuxcraft?
One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.
That could simply mean they saw him switching between X and a text console.
I hate how stupid the police can be.
Nick
Distributing linux distros via bit torrent is a crime!!!!
... the cops that caused a city wide panic because they misunderstood a few funny lighted signs?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
So.. campus cops can do whatever the hell they want then. Why is there even a story posted here?
would think. The warrant is junk, yes. But the kid, judging from what the warrant cites, was asking for it. Also, the cop seems to be a real cop.
...too bad this kid didn't go to Oregon State. You'd be hard-pressed to find a windows computer in any of the engineering/c.s. labs. he would have blended right in.
Installing linux on all of the campus' computers.
Epic. Just epic.
The dorm room search stemmed from an investigation into who sent an email to a Boston College mailing list alleging that another student was gay. Police say they know who sent the email and that the sender committed the crimes of "obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation" and obtaining "unauthorized access to a computer system." However, nothing presented by the investigating officer to obtain the warrant, including the allegation that the student sent the email to the mailing list, could constitute the cited criminal offenses.
First of all, I think outing someone is an abhorrent thing to do. It can psychologically destroy someone, and I'm all for punishing the outer. However, this is one of two things (provided Boston College doesn't handle this internally): a) libel or b) a civil suit for emotional damage. So what I'm missing is, how does one jump from a posting to a public mailing list to unauthorized access and computer fraud? And why would Boston College pursue legal recourse first instead of sanctioning him as a student?
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
Start with page 6 - if you want to get behind someone, this is not the person to do it. He's admitted to doing illegal activities in the past and his laundry list is quite long with multiple officers involved in the past and multiple witnesses being called to back up things up on different incidents.
Let's take a few sentences out of context and blow it up because its Linux. Gotta love an internet full of headline news...
I fully expect the cops to behave like everybody-is-guilty-of-something power mongering storm troopers. The asshat judge that signed off on the warrant OTOH, needs to go down.
Except that the "crime" here was sending an email. The additional complaints are really complainant's attempt to smear/punish the defendant.
Right here in River City!
With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Prompt!
The excerpts EFF have posted do not say "he has two operating systems, and that's evidence that he's up to no good." Instead, the warrant says
Paraphrased, that says that somebody directly told the police that they observed the suspect doing illegal activities, and that the dual OSes are an aspect of those activities. That's almost, although not exactly, the inverse of what the summary and most of the commenters assume. And if I was going to be up to something I shouldn't be doing on a computer, if I wasn't going to have a dedicated computer for it, then I might limit those activities to a separate OS with separate filesystems.
Finally, as another commenter noted, warrants have to state with some particularity the objects to be searched and seized. EFF isn't giving us enough context for this part of the warrant, but it could be that the warrant is talking about a computer with two OSes just so the officers know which computer to seize, the propriety of the seizure having been established elsewhere.
Not saying that this warrant was proper, that this guy did anything, etc., but I am saying that the problems most people are complaining about, and that EFF is implying, aren't necessarily there.
This whole story is stupid. What's going on is that the search warrant request says that a witness has said the suspect uses two operating systems in his computer as a means of hiding his illegal activities. That's not a claim that having two operating systems is in itself suspicious. It's just a claim that this particular suspect, in this particular case is using a second operating system to conceal something.
Context, folks, context.
Are you adequate?
...could send a Friend of the Court letter to the Judge advising him what idiots the security people are? It sounds like the student was an idiot too, but making his OS sound like some kind of devious evasion of authority is inane.
Assuming that the student is 100% guilty... how exactly is sending an e-mail calling someone "gay" a crime?
Because if the PC police had their way it would be a crime to utter any statement that has the slightest chance of offending anyone.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Google that, you'll find it is common practice in police departments to reject higher IQ candidates and dumb down the entrance exam requirements. It's a barely hidden scandal. You see a lot of dumb cops because there are a LOT of dumb cops, on purpose, by design. They want violence oriented, stupid, malleable, no questions asked goose stepping type "warfighter" order followers for their new world order agendas. Been obvious for around two decades and change now, since they went full speed ahead transforming local police departments into paramilitary goon squads. Not all of them, but sure as hell a shitload of them.
The irony of this is that they listed it as a B.C system, which fits, as Windows truely does feel as if it came from pre-AD...
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Whether Calixte's guilty or not (and whether or not he's committed any crime) the warrant wasn't requested because of a scary demon -- it was because there's a strong connection between Calixte and a (hate crime?) e-mail that was sent to the entire student body, and (possibly) because Calixte has apparently got a history of suspicious (criminal) activity previously:
On 1/27/09, "_____ advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte has changed grades for students by accessing the Boston College computer system." and on 1/28/09, "Mr. Calixte was also a suspect in a stolen Boston College laptop computer report I investigated previously."
After the outing e-mail, "Mr. Escalante told me ... this IP address ... indicat[ed] the sender was on BC campus and was using a wired connection in Gabelli residence hall." further, that Calixte registered the computer name and info of the computer that was using the connection at the time. Additionally, they got info from GMail and Yahoo regarding how the e-mail was sent, including a screenshot of another site that also happened to have misc. info connecting the site visitor with Calixte.
Basically, it's not Linux that got this kid in trouble, it's his own stupidity. And he's supposedly a smart CS student, to boot. Where were his 7 proxies? :p
present day... present time... hahahaha...
But does he use lin.... excuse me, there's a knock on the door. ^^^^^NO CARRIER
Nothing in the facts say the use of Linux, in and of itself, was suspicious. Rather, it appears someone told the police the student was committing crimes and was hiding the evidence by use of dual-booting into Linux.
This is bullshit FUD.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
The warrant lists many reasons (some bogus) why the warrant was to be issued.
Including changing grades for students, illegally copying movies, "fixing" computers
for other students so that the computer cannot be scanned for illegally obtained music, etc.
They seized everything that could be used to store digital information.
Without more details, I don't think everyone should be jumping to the conclusion that this guy is innocent, just because he was possibly using Linux and somebody didn't recognize it. There may in fact be some stupidity involved here with the complaint filed, but that doesn't mean the guy isn't still guilty of something.
That said, computer law in this country is so pathetic that the accusations don't really warrant the degree of search and seizure involved here from what I can figure of the situation.
While I agree that this is pretty asinine all around, I think the EFF is stretching a bit when they say that taking his cell phone and iPod wasn't warranted. An iPod is still a hard drive, and many cell phones are web-enabled now. While the search warrant never should have been issued in the first place, it would be foolish for the people executing it to not take devices that could have been used to send the email.
As an alumni of Boston College I can tell you that the BCPD are not what most people think of when they think of "Campus Police" - they are a bona fide division of the Newton Police Department (in which Boston College resides) and have all of the powers that a normal police officer does - on or off campus. Unfortunately, because of this private/public entanglement, I have seen the BCPD get away with *far more* than any police department would on other college campuses. I've seen people get burned on other campuses (Wesleyean, URI, UConn to name a few) , but nothing like what I have seen at BC. They are very aggressive and care little for your rights.
BC has a pretty Draconian administration - worse than any Jesuit school I have come across. They use the BCPD as a hanging threat - basically, you have to arbitrate any offense committed on campus according to BC's liking (aka, admitting your guilt) or else the case gets handed directly to the real, legal system with a fairly effortless transition, as their "Campus Police" really *are* police officers; their statements and actions transition to the Massachusetts court without a hiccup.
In other words, if you want to defend yourself, you have to go to court - any attempt to do so in the arbitration process is impossible. If you admit guilt, there are many cases where it is still considered a crime, and still gets put on your criminal record even after arbitration -although agreeing to resolve in arbitration absolves you of any sentencing because BC then decides what your punishment will be (which is of course the reason why the option is attractive). I have a friend of mine who tried to enter medical school and once was at a small party where people were smoking Marijuana. He was too afraid to defend himself in a court of law, so he admitted guilt, and in the end he had to explain his charge of possession of marijuana to every school he applied to (He got in eventually).
From what I understand, they also don't need a search warrant from BC for on-campus searches, because technically that space is privately owned by BC, not the college student, and the BCPD is always given tacit consent by the college. Computers and other containers are a different story however- I know a couple of people who got off the hook because the beer they had while they were underage was in their fridge (and hence a container, property of the student that would require a warrant in lieu of permission).
BC does more harm than good by playing Big Brother to all of the student body. BC even goes so far as to have "off-campus RA's", or RA's that "watch" specific buildings known to have lots of students - and they all have the BCPD on speed dial.
If it wasn't for the education, I would have transferred out after my freshman year. I hope this kid's lawyers are good.
Maybe these cops should confer with the guys who wrote that terrorist document in Virginia. The one that points out that Anonymous is organizing on slashdot.
Police reports are always funny because the cops love to toot their own horns. I remember when a buddy got arrested for carrying a bottle of whiskey when I was in high school (Beach week). This was what the police report stated. "The suspect was carrying a clear bottle with dark brown liquid. Through my expert police training I was able to deduce the liquid contained alcohol"
'I met with xxxxxxxxx to discuss these allegations further. At this time he advised me of the following. Mr. Calixte is a computer science major with is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers. He is also employed by Bostton College I.T department. xxxxxxxxx stated he was aware of Mr. Calixte's reputation as a "hacker" prior to him being assigned into his room'
That affidavit link was pretty good. The people who are claiming this is all because he called someone else gay or uses Linux should read it before pontificating. The student in question is accused of breaking into college systems to change grades and there is other evidence (DHCP logs) to suggest that he was behind these activities.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
If anyone bothers to actually read the entire information they would notice that the warrant lays out grounds to believe that the accused has accessed school computer systems for the purpose of ALTERING GRADES.
If that isn't "unauthorized" I'm not sure what is.
As for the other charge of fraud, it isn't simply a matter of posting an article somewhere and saying 'so and so is gay'. its impersonating someone else and creating a gay profile for the purpose of defamation (which would be an unfair advantage). If someone pretends to be you, and misrepresents themself as you for the purpose of defaming you. This is the kind of misrepresentation that can amount to fraud.
The hacking does not relate to the profile, but rather altering student grades in a teachers computer system.
Nothing in the warrant says that the crime is "outing a gay person".
The officer does seem to make too much out of the fact that the accused apparently can use linux on his machine. but after you remove the sensational parts of the warrant, there is still definitely an allegation of a bona fide crime.
its unfortunate that cops think that judges are too stupid to follow a logical line of reasoning without dressing it up. But what do you expect when judges are elected and only people with strictly average IQ's can get hired as police.
its entirely possible the cop was awestruck by linux, but it doesn't matter because altering grades is clearly the kind of thing almost everyone thinks of as unauthorized access.
No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
Some of the supposedly suspicious activities listed in support of the search warrant application include: the student being seen with "unknown laptop computers," which he "says" he was fixing for other students; the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer; and the student uses two different operating systems, including one that is not the "regular B.C. operating system" but instead has "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."
- back when I was studying CompSci at UofToronto we had computer labs full of Suns running Solaris, it was all different screen colors and people typed commands as well as clicking on stuff in windowing environments.
What the hell kind of colleges are they running now?
You can't handle the truth.
Did anyone actually read the search warrant? There's a LOT more in there than "using Linux".
Changing grades, hacking into unauthorized systems, non-trivial harassment...
This is one of the most misleading headlines I've seen in a long time.
Reminds me of some one I knew from college. He was running linux and had mixed up two IP addresses. Apparently most of the mail of the campus was running through his dorm computer. The dorm manager, the campus cops and the campus IT folks all got involved. It wasn't that violent though and I believe that he got his computer back shortly.
What was disturbing was that could have been cleared up by campus IT folks alone. They could have just locked down his port made a phone call and told him to his port wouldn't be unlocked until his machine was correctly configured.
Heck, knows what they'll be thinking of these dangerous netbooks running around.
"..the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' This kid is totally 1337, he's using DOS!
'(a) On two occasions web-based email accounts (gmail and yahoo mail) were used to send email to a mailing list at BC. The yahoo message included the IP address of the client used to send the message. This IP was 136.167.207.174 - indicating the sender was on the BC campus, and was using a wired connection in Gabelli residence hall'
I thought Calixte was a master hacker. Would any of you slashdot geniuses like to show him how to use a proxy.
Some of the info is superfluous, but the officer is only quoting what somebody else told him when he mentions "the regular BC operating system and the other [with a] black screen with white text".
The officer supports a lot of information with MAC addresses, University logs, comments from the University Director of IT, etc. One witness being technologically inept doesn't really matter. The officer, at least from my understanding of the affidavit, KNOWS what Ubuntu is. I suspect this witness' statement is there just to provide ancillary evidence that links the Ubuntu laptop as owned by the suspect being investigated.
I've seen a lot of stupid police actions, but this guy seems to be reasonably well-informed.
If I were in the position of a judge today, and I saw that warrant, I'd sign off on it. Please find & read the whole warrant.
*Once investigated by the campus police because I used the terminal on OS X, and the other student thought I hacked her laptop. Grrrrrrr.
SIG: HUP
Read the document.
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
There's probable-cause in there unrelated to linux and gay mailings.
. . . when ACs wrote someone's name on the bathroom wall. Come to think if it, where the <bleep> where the campus police then?
And besides, it's Massachusetts. Why would anyone there care if a person's gay or not?
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
"Did anyone actually read the search warrant? There's a LOT more in there than "using Linux". Changing grades, hacking into unauthorized systems, non-trivial harassment... This is one of the most misleading headlines I've seen in a long time
Of course, it must be true as it's in a warrant, just ask Julie Amero
You people have no sense of humor... mod up already :)
Eees a witch! Git 'em!
"The detective who filed the application had interviewed the suspect's roommate, who said that, among other things, he had "observed [the suspect hacking] into the B.C. grading system that is used by professors to change grades for student," that he suspected the suspect of damaging his brand new computer, and that the suspect had posted a fake web site profile of the roommate"
To let himself be observed 'hacking the grade system, and postign a fake blog entry o nthe same roommate. What evidence is there of illegal access to this 'grading system', apart from the word of a disgruntled roommate, who thinks Calixte called him gay, online?
the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer;
- clearly a terrorist.
and the student uses two different operating systems, including one that is not the "regular B.C. operating system" but instead has "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."
- DOS?
You can't handle the truth.
... including private railroad companies. They usually have the effective power of State Police in any state the railroad operates.
SIG: HUP
minus the cracked software, the other stuff is ludicrous.
The search warrant also specified that firewalls and printers could be seized...firewalls?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Thank god he didn't have a lite bright of a mooninite in addition to running a command prompt interface ... He could have destroyed us all.
That's right, seize all slashdot servers and try to find out who posted this.
black screen with GREEN characters flowing from top to bottom.
I hear they call it the Matrix OS.
Black screen with white fonts is NOT authorized.
I take it you are not familiar with the incidents you describe.
Here in reality, no, the campus cop murdered an unarmed homeless guy in cold blood for "acting crazy" (he actually WAS crazy, although completely non-violent, as it turns out) and gets to not only keep his badge, but continue violently harming innocents.
The most bleakly humorous part was how the cop came to his murder trial (acquitted of course) proudly displaying a copy of Machiavelli's "The Prince" and mugging with it for passersby.
"The Prince is above the Law, because the Prince is the Law" -- Nicolo Machiavelli
continue to happen. personally, i was suspended 3 days in highschool for having the audacity to remotely log into my home pc and download my homework under the guise of "hacking with unix."
ive been stopped in the laguardia intl. airport for booting a laptop that only posted a command prompt, ordered to produce "the start button" and when i couldnt i was detained for 20 minutes
for a nice chat with the TSA.
blame Hollywood. ever since hackers a command prompt is a sign of devious intent. all three matrixes implied it, johnny mnemonic, terminator 2, and the latest die hard to some extent all confirm
console=evil superhacker.
i guess on the bright side, im finally pretty cool now :)
Good people go to bed earlier.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/09/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-connecticut-judge-rules-that-police-can-bar-high-iq-scores.html
METRO NEWS BRIEFS: CONNECTICUT; Judge Rules That Police Can Bar High I.Q. Scores
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS311US311&q=police+high+iq+discrimination&btnG=Search
15,900 results
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Even if the case were to get thrown out... you can't go after the police, the school or the DA for something this stupid. You can only say "thank you". No recouping lost money, damages to hardware (since police routinely destroy things during "investigations"). He may however get a nice bill for "storage".
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
After reading that, it became clear to me, that the EFF are wrong in this case. There was much more evidence in there that any reasonable computer person would say, yes that's probable cause.
Don't Vote for Norm Dicks! http://www.nodicks2008.com Another nutless dirtbag that voted for the FISA bill!
AND he used ssh for remote logins. Burn him!
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
Are we really that surprised by this? This is Boston, place where Lite-Brites are instruments or terrorism!
Anybody want my mod points?
The fact that police could take all of his computer equipment if he broke the law using said equipment isn't news at all.
The only news here is that they took all of his computer equipment, cell phone, etc., with no probably cause other than the fact that he is skilled with computers, hardware, and various operating systems.
This sounds like something Barney Fife would do to get Aunt Bea into bed...
Really? Come on now, I own a rifle, does that mean I shoot people? I have strong encryption on my hard drive, does that make me a terrorist?
No, but having those things mean you have the ability to do things the government doesn't want you to do. The easiest way to prevent crime is to take away everyone's freedom.
Ah, don't you mean the easiest way to promote crime? Take away my freedoms to legally defend myself and my privacy, and you've only got the criminals left, who tend to give a rats ass about legalities.
They saw it in a movie. If they'd seen his screen saver he would have been arrested for Hacking the Gibson
I graduated in 2001, so this MAY have changed, but back then, the law was:
Campus Police have municipal powers in buildings owned by the college/university. So that covered the buildings, but not the public roads. To get around this, the CPs were deputized by the County they were in as Sheriff Deputies, which gave them legal authority throughout the county, with a tacit agreement with the normal police to only use it on the campus, or related buildings (basically the Fraternity houses were privately owned, this gave them responsibility). During the city harassment of MIT fraternities (a pledge at one died, the licensing board started threatening licenses of all the independent houses over minor infractions, pretty much continued until 9/11 when people forgot about it), the MIT CPs had a problem...
The had municipal authority in dorms... they had Sheriff powers in Cambridge Fraternities as Middlesex Sheriff Deputies. But they couldn't do anything in the Boston fraternities. After heavy lobbying, they also were deputized in Suffolk County, so they could patrol there. As fraternity risk manager, this was a GREAT thing, because while the city was harassing us, the school nominally supported us (they did a poor job, but tried), so we'd call the CPs at the first sign of trouble, and usually Boston PD wouldn't bother us because the CPs were on the scene.
The utter irony... neither Middlesex County nor Suffolk County really exist anymore... they counties exist as regional designation, there is no county-level government, everything is either unified with the city or administered by the state. So while they were deputized as Sheriff's deputies, I'm pretty sure we didn't have a Sheriff or a Sheriff's department... all of Suffolk County Sheriff Deputies appeared to be CPs of Boston schools.
Penetration Enhanced Network Interface Security.
Good. Because I know a joke when I see one, and that thing wasn't one, as sure as I am the captain of the Nebucad.... HEY! That fucker stole my ship!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I feel unsurprised and ashamed as a BC CS grad right now... Ironically, as a C.S. student at BC you HAVE to have a linux distro for all C code (faculty recommends Fedora).
An inventor is a man who asks 'Why?' of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.
Use of Linux is a red herring here. The suspect likely did some bad things. It's apparent from the warrant application that the applicant has limited personal experience investigating computer crime and limited technology knowledge, but he is being backed up by one or more people who do have the knowledge and don't have the ability or the duty to file the warrant application.
the real reason they have to dumb it down; yeah I have friends who are/were cops; is because of political correctness. Hell they had to reduce the physical requirements in some districts because the fatties sued.
The majority of cops (like 95% or more) are very good people. Just like any other industry you get a few bad apples who ruin it for everyone else. Just like any unionized shop they are practically forced to keep them. There are only so many desk jobs to go around to place truly bad ones in. You can get them if they do something truly illegal and get caught doing so. Still the reason why cop abuse stories hit the news so hard is because it isn't common place; well it might be more so in some areas but overall it isn't.
Don't go off thinking most of these are country bumpkins; don't confuse elected sheriffs with real cops either, some of those are real ego trippers.
The fact is most are just like the rest of your neighbors. The difference is they are in the public eye all the time. Many have college degrees, its required for advancement in some areas.
The standard people are applying here is the same thing the cops in the story are being doing... and who is being vilified for it?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
This guy is being hounded for exposing someone as gay. Some people think that's bad, and some people think it's a public service. The US is about evenly divided on this.
No way is it a criminal act, at least if the guy is in fact gay. Truth is an absolute defense to libel under US law.
Being a CS student myself, this case interested me enough to also have read the search warrant. I very much agree with the parent here in that that there was definitely enough evidence to seize the computer equipment. Among other things:
* Combinations of IP addresses, hostnames, and mac addresses (used in sending out the e-mails) all trace back to him
* This is not the first time he has been a suspect for certain crimes
* Is likely guilty on several counts of bootlegged software and other media, such as video
* He's been known to be (or accused of by at least one reliable witness), bragging about his "hacking" skills, of helping other students with illegal filesharing, etc.
From the original article:
Some of the supposedly suspicious activities listed in support of the search warrant application include: the student being seen with "unknown laptop computers," which he "says" he was fixing for other students; the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer...."
I particularly like the fact that having multiple log in accounts and multiple laptops is suspicious behavior. Damn those greedy capitalist pig-dog students who aren't content with one computer and one user Id.....
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
Only 'evil hackers' don't use windows. ( or OSX i suppose.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Linux is crime and danger, wrapped in CLI silence and darkness.
Dude, where's my packet?
The application for warrant is hilarious. Detective Christopher wants permission to seize any data storage devices, including CPUs and printers. I wonder what data he thinks is stored on the printer. Also, he "jail breaks" cell phones! OMFG he's a cell phone terrorist.
What this boils down to is a stupid cop who suspected this Calixte guy in a laptop burglary a while back, but couldn't find any evidence to back it up. Then the cop finds out that the guys roommate is pissed at the suspect because he put up a fake profile on a gay site, so he convinces the roommate to become a witness. My guess is the cop is really looking for the laptop from the earlier case, and he's just using this idiot/whiny-bitch roommate to get a warrant.
Why do you hope the student wins? He sounds like a dirtbag who steals computers and calls people gay because he thinks it's funny.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
You might blame Mr. Calixte, but I would probably blame Microsoft.
Also mentioned:
***Suddenly I am feeling like a criminal***
The warrant application also wanted to seize:
White text on a black screen? That IS a crime...
Although, it is a linux story, this could have just as easily been Windows and cmd.exe. This is ridiculously stupid.
What about Windows 2008?
Wait, how do they know he wasn't running MSDOS?
Surely if he was running a Microsoft OS then it couldn't be terrorism.
J
is like showing you're not conforming to the standard and that is scary.
they should take his fingerprints and everything. just to be sure.
end of sarcasm with a bit of truth in it
Privacy is terrorism.
In the warrant, it lists that he has the password for this persons computer because it was setup by the suspect when they were still friends. I should think most people that use a computer should be able to change the password, and I certainly would change the password on a computer that was setup by someone who is no longer my friend.
A ton of impossible to prove things were in the warrant, that had nothing to do with the original complaint. Sounds like a character bashing that should come back to the person who filed this as slander.
For many of them, including municipal police, no, I don't wonder at all.
Boston College isn't a municipal police force.
That aside, Boston Police offers a VERY healthy salary increase for each step up the ladder. It is extremely common for Boston Police officers to have at least a bachelors degree or higher because of it.
Please help metamoderate.
His assets weren't seized for the use of "scary voodoo operating systems". Oh, and for future reference, his name is Riccardo Calixte.
Application for the search warrant:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
Here's a summary.
I) Why do we want his stuff?
a) we think it's been used to commit a crime
b) we think it contains evidence of said crime
II) What do we want to take?
a) anything that can hold data (PCs, peripherals, phone, etc)
b) documentation that may contain his passwords (computer manuals, post-its)
c) evidence of ownership over systems used in offenses at the time of offenses
III) Where are we gonna find his stuff?
a) his room.
IV) Why do we think we need to take his stuff?
a) his roommate said that Riccardo hacked into the university computers to change peoples grades
b) Riccardo was suspected of stealing a computer from the university previously
c) the roommate's computer started acting funny after getting into arguments with Riccardo
d) e-mails were sent out to the whole university saying that the roommate was gay
e) network administrative staff said that according to their records, Riccardo did it
f) Network Admin says: those e-mails came from their dorm, from a computer with the same name as one registered by Riccardo. additionally, a profile was posted on a gay dating site, screenshotted, and included in the e-mail. the only computer to visit said site within 5 days of the incident was Riccardo's. he accessed the site frequently 2 days prior to the e-mail.
It continues with more info as to why the originating officer is a good candidate to evaluate this stuff.
I think that's enough probably cause to warrant further investigation; but that's just me. I would encourage you all to actually read the thing, not just take my word for it, but hopefully this will quell some of the "omgz he wuz arestid fur uzing l1nuxz!!1" comments.
Not too far from there lies Salem with their witch hunts way back when.
It makes me shiver in me timbers thinking of all those poor girls that came under the adjudicator's thumb.
Boston and the state itself should be ashamed for what their law enforcement is doing.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
... and using the police to do it! That is entirely what this story is about. Did anyone bother to go to EFF's Web site and examine the "Exhibit-A" PDF document from the case? It happens to be an actual copy of the Application for Search Warrant. You really should read it.
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
The most enlightening part is the "Basis of Probable Cause" section, which states that the origin of the entire thing was "domestic issues" between Calixte and his (redacted) roommate. It then goes on to detail multiple allegations made by said roommate about Calixte and his criminal expertise with computers. The twit even blamed his own computer crashes on Calixte!
There's nothing to see here, folks. It's just one person getting back at another for real or perceived injustices, and the all-too-eager police being used as pawns (which of course they always are in every situation).
The accuser was involved in a domestic dispute with the Mr. Calixte shortly before he made the accusations.
The accuser was deemed credible because he had worked with the police on other investigations.
The accuser claimed these crimes had been committed previously and over a period of time.
He only mentioned them after a domestic dispute, doing so might be reasonably labeled as retaliation or revenge. Which puts a big dent in credible.
In addition he can be considered a co-conspirator as he was aware of these ongoing crimes, committed in his presence, and chose not to report them. Another big dent in credible.
I would be interested in learning if there was any compensation for providing information to the police in this or any investigation. This would be to determine if the accuser had any incentives or assumption of incentives other than revenge or retaliation.
As to the Mr. Calixte expertize the warrant stated that he "is a computer science major who is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers."
Yet such an expert failed to understand that logs are kept, worked for the IT dept (logs can be scrubbed). Failed to take simple precautions using proxy servers available all over the world that can be used to remain anonymous for web browsing/work, for email, for any number of services etc.
Most amusing:
If Mr. Calixte created the gay website and the claim is not true then he's (being the roommate) reasonably and predictably going to be assumed to be gay as well. Note: I personally don't care if one or both roommates or even the detective is gay other than as it applies to this matter.
Last but not least. This was done by someone who is competent but in no way a "master of the trade". Since domestic disputes tend to build up over time, it's just as reasonable to assume the accuser, with the help and skills of another close friend, created this as a setup. Not difficult if Mr. Calixte left his laptop loose in the room when out for the evening or some such.
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
Actually, he might not even be using Linux. He could be using Windows and have a console screen up on his laptop where he's entering "command prompts". The complaint states merely he's got two screens. One is the typical desktop and another is black with white characters (which sounds like the default Windows console and not a typical Linux terminal).
I'm not sure exactly what is going on. All the materials so far are from his lawyers. Apparently a previously reliable informant made some claims about this particular student and that's what the warrant was based upon.
We'll have to see what the judge decides. Meanwhile, I'm going to lay off shell scripting for a while.
Have you forgotten?
NEVER FORGET!
that's why i just love paid software... not only it gives a wonderful working environment, it also provides me immunity from law. die all you linux enthusiasts...
I know there are idiots in the world. But none are finer than the Mass Holes.
Perhaps Mass Holes will grow up one day and become real people with brains. Yeah, right.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Thanks EFF for being a liar. The police have probably cause to seize the computers, not because they are black with white font (zOMG!) but because a reliable named witness told them the student was engaged in changing grades for other students.
From the warrant application: "[The witness] advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte has changed grades for other students by accessing the Boston College computer system.... It should be noted that [the witness] is not only a named witness to these allegations but also a reliable witness in another investigation which he brought to our attention.... [The witness] reported to me that he has observed Mr. Calixte hack into the B.C. grading system that is used by professors to change grades for students...."
Also, emails were sent out from an anonymous Yahoo! account claiming that the witness (who is roommates with the suspect) was gay. The IP address of the client sending the Yahoo! message corresponded to a computer whose MAC address was registered to a computer whose computer name had only been used on the computer of one student at B.C. -- the suspect.
Clearly, there's probable cause enough here for a search warrant.
Nothing to see here folks, move along.
But the misconception that free/open source operating systems are "Hacker Operating Systems" seems to be a common misconception among collegiate IT departments. Woodbury University's IT department would absolutely NOT let me bring my Linux ThinkPad to campus and connect to the WiFi, even though I was more than happy to give them the MAC address of my Orinoco card. "Come back with Windows and we'll talk" was their attitude. Luckily my aunt had an original clamshell iBook that was just sitting on a shelf, so I brought that there. Macs were also acceptable to WU IT so that solved my problem. Eventually I wound up with a Core 2 Duo (Merom) MacBook. Of course, I have the evil, daemonic TERMINAL WINDOW available to me on Mac OS X too...bwahahahahahaha! And my MacBook is Daemon Possessed! Ahahahahahahahah!!!!
OK, let's go do some crimes. Like, go get sushi and not pay...^_^
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
But the "black screen with white letters" almost had me in stitches!
Of course, what's NOT funny is that they make a mockery of the law doing nutso stuff like this. Kinda reminds me of "Operation Sun Devil" -- you know, the whole thing about Grups Cyberpunk being "a manual for Computer Crime!", and the 911 Administrative Manual being used as the excuse to seize many computers, kicking doors in and all, when the same was available via mail order for less than $20 from the same phone company that was pressing charges...
And you can sum it all up with one word:
STOOPID!
Now, the more pressing question is, of course, is what do we DO with all these idiots?
I can think of a few things...
--- Don't know what it is? Gotta be a bomb! That's Idiot Thinking for you!
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
To get a job in the "campus police".
You could make a movie.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
and if the guy he named is a fag.. no harm (ie. libel) done either..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Having been peripherally involved with a state investigative team I can tell you that beyond duplicating the hard drive and other devices with EnCase they really have no clue about computers.
The power to seize property in this manner should not be in the hands of people that describe a terminal emulator as "a black screen with a white font" If these people were powerless then it'd be funny. They aren't and it's not, it's scary in fact.
Assuming that the student is 100% guilty... how exactly is sending an e-mail calling someone "gay" a crime?
Because if the PC police had their way it would be a crime to utter any statement that has the slightest chance of offending anyone.
Except white, male Protestants.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Law and Order - Misguided Investigations Unit
My TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 Emulators then. That'll make me as bad as Saddam.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Because if the Linux police had their way it would be a crime to utter any statement that has the slightest chance of offending anyone. Fixed that for you.
"College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior
If you read the warrant request...
A student was falsely outed by a fake profile on adam2adam, a gay site.
Server logs show it was accessed by two web based email accounts.
Those accounts were traced by the network registration system to 137.167.207.174, a machine on 00:23:28:BE:24... a machine runing Linux.
On page 7, it states that only two machines in the entire hall of residence accessed the network using Linux.
So, yes, when you narrow down all possible suspects to just two people who both use Linux... and the machine is on an account registered to one of them... Using Linux, in that specific case, really is exceptionally suspicious behavior.
It's a cheap headline grabber to imply, "Dumb cops think Linux is weird and so criminal!" In reality, it's a computer forensics specialist writing an incredibly clearly, methodical listing, tracking down a harassment issue to a Linux machine, registered under the suspect's name.
Sorry dude, you were a raging douchebag who falsely outed someone because you two had an argument and you're a lousy enough hacker that your anonymous web based mail accounts led them straight to the specific machine you did it on. Screaming OMG, COPS HATE LINUX doesn't make it any less true.
Don't F* with someone who lives with you if they know you're engaging in illegal activities.
"I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookiee win." - C3PO
I thought about adding that in but figured it would all but ensure a -1 troll mod.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
A vastly more logical conclusion would be that you are given to "hasty generalization".
There's a formal list of logical errors people are prone to, and that's one of them. Wikipedia
can enlighten you further if you care to learn.
Upon second glance, I see you're also guilty of "argmentum ad hominem", or name-calling.
Making up lies about other people can get complicated, so to lessen the mental burden some
liars simply tell complete truths about themselves, in the guise of an accusation of others.
I know this sounds like a trite oversimplification, but it is quite common. Recognizing it
allows you to learn more about the false accuser than he has any idea he is revealing.
This may or may not apply to you; if the shoe fits, wear it.
Hide all sigs: Click HELP+Prefs (top), VIEWING (last on right), DISABLE SIGS (3rd on left) and SAVE (hidden at bottom).
I used to think nothing of Boston College other than "hot chicks" (and occasionally "Jesuit?" are they jesus-freaks?). Now, I also think "whoa, hot-chicks, possible jesus-freaks AND their PD has less than zero understanding of technology". If it were central Alabama, I'd be less alarmed, but in Boston this is nuts...
However none of those are criminal offences, so the warrant should not have been issued
null
Cops are so cute when they fuck up tech terms.
Table-ized A.I.
I think you're gay.
I'm doomed.
TFA was about a person calling another person homosexual, hence the remark "You're gay, I'm doomed" was fully on-topic. Redundant probably, but fully on-topic. Political correctness has struck again, zOMG he mentioned the g-word, let's mod him down!!1!
Fully on-topic, I tell you.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
No Law Enforcement Officer has EVER gone to Stockholm to collect a prize for Law Enforcement.
Green-on-black means you are an anonymous coward.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I wonder how much is that the sort of person who wants to be a cop is basically a bully, and how much is an effect on the human psyche caused by the nature of being a cop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Zimbardo managed to turn a bunch of hippies into thugs if anything worse than run-of-the mill cops.
The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
I gotta put my oar in. My uncle (dead for some years by now) was a cop. He was a smart one - his bosses didn't like him much, because he was, like my dad and me, prone to insubordination, but they couldn't argue with his solve rate. He made captain-equivalent in our provincial detective department before he opted for a lower-stress job and transferred to his home town's fraud investigations dept.
Anyhow, I remember him talking about stuff - in his cups, of course, otherwise he was just making stupid jokes with me and my friends - and the obvious thing coming out was: You have to pretend to be stupid. Never let on what you think is going on, never tell anybody everything you know. That is inviting trouble. If the bad guy thinks you're stupid, he's more likely to talk out of turn. And if you tell your partner everything you know (or more likely think you know), you're going to bias him, so you usually just share the relevant facts.
Furthermore, there is this fictional stereotype of a highly intelligent arch criminal, whom the ultra-smart cop foils by deductive logic and clever banter (plus these days, the ultra-high-tech lab that sees things that aren't there). The reality is, that most criminals are stupid and commit stupid crimes. Most of the time it doesn't take a very smart cop to bust those slimebuckets.
Oh, but then there is a problem with the cop version of researcher bias. I was suckered into a scam by two "friends", who were, it turned out, planning to make me take the fall for that (a corporate law thing; I had a position where responsibility for everything was implicit). When the sh!t hit the fan, the cops had been interviewing those two guys first (they were the primary actors) when they invited me for an interview. I'm honest to the point of stupidity, so I told them exactly what happened. Their response was to lock me up for the night to see if that would soften me up. They had formed a picture in their mind about what had happened, and they held to it. Even when it turned out, that the other guys had been pulling off scams like that left and right, and I had no history apart from one frivolous complaint.
Every problem has a solution that is simple, easy and wrong. Selling our Liberty for a little Security is a much too de
...Boston cops, reacting in a pants-wetting manner to the witchcraft of technology...hmmm.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Maybe it was MSDOS.
Would that make Microsoft officially Evil ?
If it has tires or tits, it will give you problems.
The first rule of disk encryption: there is no disk encryption
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
Hurricane, if you really believe such antics can get you anywhere why don't you try it in places like Kishinev nowadays? You'll be very surprised how little effect such games can have with a determined police.
Yes, I got it that you were referring to an American police officer. Well, let's think of another scenario: they think you're a terrorist. Or a terrorist nerd, helping with Flight Sim. Or something along this line. It could be plausible for them to insist against your little game, isn't it?
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
What part of illegal do you not understand?
if i was a prosecutor I would run away from this one as fast as i can. Hell if I was the cops I would have never even responded. WHY?
we have only the statement of one individual that any illegal activity has occurred. Said individual is known to have an issue with defendant. ANY AND ALL EVIDENCE COLLECTED HAS BEEN EASILY ACCESSED BY THAT INDIVIDUAL.
So... police are seizing computers running Linux as a potential criminal offense. This is Microsoft's erotic dream come true!
IANAL:
However:
I think this guy is fuxed if they find ANYTHING significant on the sezied media that confirms the witness statements, re his involvement in unauthorized access.
The only hope the EFF has is somehow showing that all of the witnesses have it out for this guy because of some social tiff and getting the warrant tossed due to conspiracy to defame.... then again that DHCP record is pretty damning assuming he has a bootable system on his equipment with that specific host-name....
If he gets off of this hook.... he's either gonna be one of those scared straight dudes, or he's gonna get much worse...
HMMV
This just goes to show how little people know about Linux....and its movement.
For someone to think that "suspicious activity" constitutes using Linux,
that is just too precious to let slip....I hope they throw the book at these morons!
Because we all know how reliable MAC address/DHCP logs are....
*eye roll*
With the first link, the chain is forged.
They could upgrade the suspect to level 3 if they have enough metal...
Hi!
Combination of libertarianism and advanced technology, which drastically affects the libertarian viewpoint (for instance, I would welcome doubling or tripling our tax burden (yes I understand that tripling for some would go over 100% and that's not what I meant) if the increase would go towards helping keep people alive until the singularity occurs, after which we will all live as long as we choose rather than dying by various accidents.
(And I also realize the above raises many questions, of which I've considered the answers, such as "where to put them?" -- until the singularity: in a facility like Alcor if they're completely terminal and organs are about to fail; after the singularity: after we have one space elevator, we'll have many in short order, and so "the moon" or "the asteroids" leading ultimately to a Dyson Sphere around the sun (with solar collectors on the inside, batteries on the outside) in order to better ration the energy leaking from the sun -- anyway I could go on but that's not really what you're asking.)
Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose; what good is understanding without acting on that understanding? And once you've taken action, you're in the process of controlling. So, "Science controls nature" is accurate; through understanding, we obtain better control.
Religion is solely about describing something fantastic to another human in order to make that human behave in a certain way. You're thinking about spirituality, which is more reflective and about interpretation; religion does not want you to interpret at all, religion wants to dictate to you how to interpret. Bill Maher's "Religulous" was excellent, it has a line about "we keep none of the ideas we had from the Bronze Age, except the creation myth." So, "Religion controls humans" was me choosing my words carefully.
I make no mention of God or Gods, because I mostly lack (sharable) evidence of them. I have my own private thoughts and fantasies, some of which I've devised experiments for, which we currently lack the technology to carry out. And I practice Jin Shin Jyutsu; for me, the energy feels like electricity (others feel it as a hot/cold, or a resistance like magnetic, or a pressure -- which I think is really cool, it's not a "sixth" sense, it's a sense that you have already sensed, just being used in a markedly different way; first time I felt the energy it was in my face, my lips and chin; with more practice, I was able to feel it in my fingers). I mention JSJ and energy healing because I feel there's a strong link between The Protector and that phenomenon, and many of the experiments are along those lines, with more sensitive detectors than we currently have.
My view of God? That's much larger, but succinctly: brains work on the quantum level as well as the electrical, chemical, and mechanical. One quantum effect is entanglement, which can allow communication at a distance. Therefore I believe that telepathy is possible, and we have anecdotal evidence through the ages of mothers knowing when children are in danger, and twins tend to know when the other is being traumatized, as well as the experiment mentioned in the movie London, about the mother animal (possum?) which researchers separated from its kids, and as they killed each kid they saw a reaction in the mother... Anyway, my view is that we humans created The Protector through quantum processes, and we power it while we're sleeping, so that it will protect us. Just like the energy is produced/enhanced through deep breathing, which says to me that there's something in the atmosphere that's powering it, so that more rapidly cycling the atmosphere through our lungs produces the healing (and tingling, for me) effect, so my answer to statements like "energy permeates the universe!" is "How can we be sure? Have astronauts practiced JSJ? And even if they have, was it due to the atmosphere that they carried with them in the capsule?"
So to say "God permeates the universe" shows a similar disco
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Now we know the reason why Linux wasnt created in the great US of A.
If Linus had been american he would be on the 10 most wanted list.
Eh, Im sure he is tho, a different one tho, not the kind police look at.
I really hope he sues the bejeezus out of the university police. Just as the police would tell us, ignorance is no excuse. Lrn2compute.
You're right. He suspected his roommate because his Windows machine started crashing! :-)
In Georgia, there is a third category of defamation law:
Defamacasts. These are broadcasts of a defamatory nature which don't fit squarely into slander or libel law.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
ignorance...
Saludos, Anibal Ojeda http://anibalnet.nl
Socratic way: Decide who you think is guilty and selectively look for the evidence which supports that position. Is that the Socratic Method you mean? because this is all I have ever seen police do by way of investigation.
Those may be your definitions of religion and spirituality respectively but that doesn't make them true. Most religions are actually interpretative or have been dominantly interpretative at some point in history. People like to view religion as some static set of rules but it is not. What you seem to be describing is fundamentalism vs mysticism, which is a battle that has been waged within monotheistic religions since their inception.
I am personally a fan of Bill Maher and his documentary but I disagree with him and his methods if his ultimate goal is to show all religion is stupid, which seems to be his goal. What he is really attacking for the entire movie is fundamentalism but he calls it "religion". This is disengenuous because some religions have no belief in God and some have no strict doctrines either and cannot be disqualified by his "tests". I agree that fundametalism is dangerous in any religion but it has no bearing on the efficacy or the harmfulness of religion in general.
Time makes more converts than reason
The EFF article seems FUDdy, I'll warrant (pun intended).
EXHIBIT-A.pdf is well worth the read. Check the Basis of Probable Cause especially. Item b) establishes some usernames/aliases that Calixte is supposed to use, which comes back into play in item e) and f) where the relevant DHCP and DNS log entries are posted. The hostnames, IP address, Operating System (unfortunately ubuntu 8.04 it seems) and DNS activity logs all point to Calixte. It's not like this was warrant was cooked up ad hoc.
Item b) does say that he jailbreaks cellphones... dunno what's supposed to be wrong with that. It may be a breach of contract if you bought your iphone through AT&T somehow, but how is it illegal?
It seems from the warrant, though that the person accusing Riccardo Calixte is the same person who he "outed." Even if that person had been a useful source of information before, wouldn't that cast some doubt on his veracity? That he crashed Mr. Redacted's computer, and cracked the school's grading system? I only saw the accusations of these, not the evidence. "Implicating himself" in illegal activities might be just empty bragging.
In particular, the accusation that Calixte crashed Mr. Redacted's computer: is the fact that several experts couldn't fix his computer on his machine supposed to indicate Calixte's devious hackeriness? Is there supposed to be a second user account? A back door? If he simply knows the password, why couldn't "several experts" help Mr. Redacted change it?
The warrant was probably justified, in my own unqualified opinion, but I'm skeptical of some of the charges.
I am poking fun at Mass Holes. But I have good reason too.
Quite a few of them have been a thorn in my side in the past. Busybodies; unable to mind their own business. I had to sue a couple of Mass Holes just for that reason -- and won.
Not everyone in Mass is a Mass Hole, but then Mass seems to have a ready supply of them.
This is not meant to be a scientific assessment, but an opinion based on personal observation and experience.
And yes, I commit the "sin" of ad-hominem, but it's all in good fun.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
I think that your definition of God might need work. I don't mean "gods", because for that you are just referring to some superpowerful being. Arguably, any wicked person might qualify, especially when they run into an anthill and start stomping ants. Compared to the ants, they are a superpowerful being.
But for a being to be God, the God would have to have all power. Because the God had to have all power, the God would also have to keep that power for all eternity. In fact, because of quantum mechanical interference, that God would have to keep that power for all eternity in both directions. So, de-facto, that God would have to be the creator and system maintainer of the universe.
Now, you said that you have not had any sharable evidence of God. Okay, based on everything else you said, I believe that. But that would be because you have not met that God on His terms. I have, and I have. I can definitely say that that God matches the God of the Christian Bible. Whether any one group of Christians has a masterlock on truth, I couldn't say. Considering that people are so limited, I'd be inclined towards doubt on that one. But in my experience plus in basic Christian theology (indeed, it is in the Bible), this God is a God that actively holds all the universe in existance, and therefore has a very intimate relationship with *everything*, whether it has a relationship with Him or not. In other words, this God who created the stars and the galaxies is not to big to notice the butterfly and the ant and the louse. Nor is He to big to take notice of me -- or of you.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I must say your assertion is well written and thought out, though where you state 'to big' should be written 'too big' (I do not say this to detract from your comment in any way, just being a grammar nazi, as is my nature; I, too, can state that I know God in a very real sense).
Well, considering science through the ages, as we've learned more we've refined our experiments and our body of knowledge. I consider religion to be exactly the same in this respect, except that it tends to "move slower" because it is ultimately based on fantasy, and once you've turned your mind to fantasy, "you will believe anything stated from a high enough authority, or repeated enough". (Not you you, the general you.)
Except, I haven't seen religions evolving a whole lot, in my lifetime. Sure, they've started to tackle evolution (I really liked the one I heard back in the early 80s, "God created Man through evolution" but apparently that didn't take hold), but just as the Federal (US) government cannot easily say "hey, we're sorry about the whole making pot illegal thing to prop up the paper industry, our bad, it's now legal", similarly religious authorities cannot easily say "we have re-measured and now understand that this God is local to this solar system, in fact is local to this planet, and we can therefore no longer state that the universe was created by this God".
It's my understanding (knowledge, not belief) that there is an "atmospheric level of energy" that we can take advantage of by breathing more rapidly than normal (deeper, or faster, or a combination). Therefore I know that local conditions have something special to them, which the vacuum of space does not necessarily have (I don't know that it doesn't, I just haven't experimented up there, now that I know how to feel the energy moving).
I do not understand what "meet God in His terms" means, and I am not intentionally trolling by stating this -- I'm not mocking, I just don't know what that means or how to do it (i.e., was it physical? Mental? Chemical? Sleep deprivation, or movement deprivation? Some combination? Etc).
Once we have nanotechnology (and/or the singularity, which I tend to lump together; we may achieve one before the other, but they will occur near the same point in history), we'll be able to enhance our vision so we see the full electro-magnetic spectrum, and our hearing so we hear all possible sounds, etc. We'll be able to speed our brains up so we can communicate faster. Perhaps at that point we'll be "closer" to the type of communication that God can achieve, and will be able to communicate directly with the Protector. And possibly create newer, better Protectors, just as our prosthetic technology is beginning to surpass our original body structures.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
To meet God on His terms, you have to read what His terms are, in the Bible. Then you have to meet those terms. Then, when you pray, your prayers will be answered. Your concept of increasing our spectrum of visibility would only work for communicating with a superpowerful being, not with One who created all, and maintains all. Such a one would exist over and above any spectrums, and would communicate only as He desired. But on the other hand, such a one would have no trouble communicating with *any* part of His creation. Thus, there is no real need for evolution of religion, for the humans back then are essentially the same as the humans now. No further technology is needed. Religion isn't fantasy. Those two are very separate. Religion is the application of reason to the experienced world (this part is no different than, say, chemistry) based on the given that the fulfilled prophecy is an indication of a better connection with reality. Physics, on the other hand, uses the repeatable experiment as its indicator. Soft sciences such as sociology use the statistical experiment as their indicator, because working with humans is too complex to design a repeatable experiment. If you are working with a single being, then even that doesn't work -- thus the indicator used by religion. All three use the assumption that there is a single reality, though Physics does question even that, but loses its grounding in reason as it does so.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
...we might all be using Haiku? Or did you mean Dragonfly BSD? Or maybe FreeRTOS? Um, um, um, help me out here, guys! Ok, ok, Plan9! Nope... ExoPC? Nope... MULTICS! Nope... VxWorks! Nope... OS/X? Oracle's Solaris? OSF/1? OpenVMS? Trusted IRIX? Genesis? Damn, I'm out of ideas. You'll have to tell me.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I'll consider myself lightened then!
So where might you hail from, flajann?
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I'll consider myself lightened then!
So where might you hail from, flajann?
Just across the border in Southern New Hampshire.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
They all laughed at me for using a purple background with yellow text and comic sans font in my terminal. The only thing I can be accused of is being too cute