Just as soon as the NSA willingly hands over any of that data, or solicits the input of another federal agency (let alone local or state police departments) without a written order from someone of authority, your argument may have merit.
I do not see this happening any time soon.
(Note: I have some familiarity with the cultural and procedural difficulties inherent in cooperation, even within a single organization.)
I often see this targeted specifically towards law enforcement drones. But what about MY drones? Facial recognition software isn't limited to them, and camera-toting low flying drones (or just cameras) are increasingly lower in price. (Example, the AR.Drone.)
If laws are needed to protect privacy, they need to be expanded beyond just law enforcement. I'm certain that Facebook, Amazon, Target, Google, etc, all have far more extensive databases that can (in conjunction with facial recognition software and a camera) not only track where you are (and verify with cell phone data) but what stores are between your destinations, in your vicinity, and target advertisements very specifically.
The government is not efficient enough, nor do they have the technical savvy, to use the vast majority of the data they collect. Even assuming that department A talks to agency C, or that they have remotely compatable databases/protocols.
Assuming that the add-on becomes a very popular item, and that many people begin using it... how long before we see the following:
1) Poisoned Notaries - hackers setting up their own notaries and somehow inserting them into the system?
2) ISPs getting annoyed with the extra traffic and throttling back? Or ISP-level security appliances becoming suspicious that one GET begets many more connections? (Granted, I think this would have to be a very very well liked add-on, with huge user numbers and very large amounts of certificate checking.)
3) "Transparent" MitM attacks... The man in the middle being transparent to the flow of the certificate, but intercepting other portions of the document? (IANAC, so I have no idea how difficult or complex that may be to implement; I imagine a bit more than normal, as it's not the current topic.)
Wait, so you're telling me that a third party can, without my consent and/or notification (implied or explicit), install and execute a program on my hardware? Isn't that what sends most virus writers to jail?
I'd want a lawyer to run over the BT access agreements with a fine tooth comb, and check this against any applicable privacy laws.
I'm not a mechanical engineer, but...... What would thermodynamics do with the efficiency of conversion of a system that does not use dynamic thermal changes to produce energy? Granted, it may have effects, but this system does not appear to be an "engine" in any traditional sense; closer to a photo voltaic cell than a mechanical system. Which, after all, is all that a steam turbine is.
First off, yes, snooping of this nature is wrong. However, the final summary sentence, "In short..., the entire incident shows exactly why citizens' privacy is critical in a country where citizens compete with one another for control of the government."...
Who's perspective? As a candidate, you're damned right I don't want you to know everything about me. That makes me less likely to be able to compete and win the leadership post I seek.
But as a VOTER and CITIZEN... HELL YES I want to know what these people have been doing. These are the people whose inconsequential decision on what to have for dinner while meeting with foreign dignitaries could start a war. (Probably not; they pay the staff well to make sure that doesn't happen. But it's in the realm of possibility that the President serving pork chops to the Ayatollah could have some bad results.) So what about fair competition; these are people I expect to make good decisions for all of the people they are leading. If you choose to live your life in public service, your life is going to be public. Don't whine and moan that you lost your very public job because some enterprising report found out you had an office broken into and evidence destroyed. And don't complain that people are invading your privacy; if you choose to seek public office, expect it and know that it will happen.
Look at it from the prospective consumer model. I'm looking to buy a car, I expect the dealer to be forthcoming about things that may impact the performance of that car. (For example, it was picked out of a flood, and the interior was replaced. In fact, aren't there laws about that kind of information?) Likewise, I'm investing my vote in a product; the leadership qualities and policies of a politician whom I'm about to hand the power to wage war, tax, and regulate. I, as a "consumer", want to know EVERY detail I can about the person so that I can make a better choice.
Granted, most of the voting public isn't remotely that responsible with their vote. And this only applies to people I am ceding my autonomy to; I don't care to know who's having sex with Paris Hilton this week.
Funny, I didn't realize that saving the books you enjoy, possibly over the course of, say, 25 years, was hoarding. You also assume that someone with that many books doesn't read them... perhaps you've never been a researching type of person, or one that simply enjoys reading over sitting mindless while staring at pretty pictures on a tube? Better yet, you think Web 2.0 and the "blogosphere" contains all the information you'll ever need, better than any grand master may be able to present?
Burn thyself, troll. Of the several hundred books I've carted with me through times good and bad (including one stretch homeless; they were thankfully recovered from questionable storage) I have read them. Every. Single. One. More. Than. Three. Times. Minimum. Newer books, as I add, take a month or two to get there, but then I generally will re-read the entire series of books whenever a new one comes out. And then there's the research aspect, of having at hand the reference you need to complete your own writing.
Or is that wasteful, and hoarding, as well? Let me see... libraries are open, with a good funding program, from 0800-2130, between 3-6 days a week, depending on locality. Bookstores can be funny about letting you sit down, and just read; worse yet, try copying from a book into a notebook. In this enlightened time of IP rights, I'm sure that's no problem at all. And sadly, not all books are digitized and accessible from the Great Tubes of the Interweb. Meanwhile, when it's 4 minutes past 3am, and I *MUST* have the citation data for my reference in a paper that will be presented at 8am, I can look over my shoulder and SEE where my information is; without all that problem you get sometimes from librarians, governments, and other interest groups that think a book should be edited to match the present sensibilities.
And I hate to tell you, but it's not that easy, these days, to own more volumes than your local library, if you're talking specifics. At the college I attended to begin my undergraduate degree, the Science Fiction club had MORE FICTION VOLUMES than the college library. Perhaps, rather than give my books to people who may just shrug and discard it with the note "already have 4 copies", I could donate money or time to the library? Hmmmmmm....
In his landmark work to create the field of "Killology", Lt. Col Dave Grossman (ret) suggests that soldiers in every war have developed new and horrific names for their opponents. For example, Japanese soldiers in WWII became "Japs", "Nips", "Slanties"... in the Korean war, we have things like "Gooks"... in Vietnam, they were the "VC", "Charlie", and "Cong".
This effectively dehumanizes the opponents, and facilitates the ability of a soldier to rationalize the act of killing. "Well, he wasn't a real person... he was just some Kraut."
This effect seems to be present on the internet? Shocking. So then I can tell CmdrTaco that he's an "idiotic poop face that hates on CowboyNeal unfairly because of his moronic IQ and lousy personal hygiene" more easily through text than to his face? Where there is a small but perceptible chance he might do something to harm me? Distance and remoteness eases antisocial phobias and fears?
I'd also like to point people at the Slashdot report that 90% of people feel they know what "tone" of voice is used in textual communications, while the double blind study results indicate that of all people, the right "tone" of voice was detected at best 25% of the time.
So, distance makes it easier to communicate, the ability to divorce some screen name (like "ladiesman215") from a living human, and our confidence in our inability to understand the entire meaning of a text communication like email/IM/Forum posts may lead to an increase in flames AND trolls? Really. I think this needs more study. I'm not entirely convinced.
Then again, in the United States, etiquette and rules of polite behavior were declared passe sometime in the 60s and 70s, and really haven't been an issue since then. Do you think that could be a contributing factor?
Oh, and there are twice as many people in the world today than there were 20 years ago (if we're still following the same trend). Maybe all of that reproduction and increased crowding of demand for scarce resources could be souring our moods?
And if you disagree with me, you're a flaming troll. In all senses of the word. Cynical bastards.
PS - CmdrTaco, I'm just kidding. I'm sure your breath is as sweet as the vapors of a fresh baked baguette. PPS - The confirmation word is "incense"? Slashdot code can be psychic?
There are clinical studies, even some reported here on Slashdot, that shows that the presence of an electromagnetic field may have some effect. What exactly that effect is, of course, ranges from "zOMG I'll get Cancerz!!" to "zOMG It'll cure my Cancerz!!!" Working within 2' of at least four devices that spew both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, this research is vaguely important to me personally. No matter what the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration claims.
Too much of the good research gets lost in the never ending rainbow of multicolored poop (that's right, I said it. POOP!) being touted by the snake oil salesmen buying off IRBs. (I thought the I was for Institutional... y'know, like an Institution. Not "TABS" or some other company with a slick catch phrase. Although I think know I know a perfect company to launch. Anyone want to invest?) And then the information stream is so polluted, you can't possibly compare the good research because someone will inevitably bring up these crap studies to rebut, confuse, and destroy the focus of comparison. The fact that the FDA (and other governing bodies) know about these loopholes but cannot do anything about them is indicative of the state of the healthcare system globally.
It can probably be said, with a fair degree of accuracy (about 50%, which as good as it gets in this environment) that Electromagnetic fields can cause health effects. Good or bad is still debatable. Mostly bad, of course, if you are dependent on an implanted device that can be disrupted by EMFs. (This is why you shouldn't walk through a metal detector or have a hand held metal detector used on you at the airport if you have a pace-maker, defibrillator, etc, unless specifically cleared by your doctor. Even then, if they find out, they might get a little freaked out.)
Why is it that video poker machines in casinos are more stringently regulated than the code in "biofeedback" devices? C'mon now. If a heart monitor's code must meet ISO900x standards, and it doesn't do more than offer biofeedback, why can devices like the PAP-IME get away with being a transformer putting super-high voltage through a metal coil placed next to your skin? Does that mean I can cure my illness with a car battery, some copper tubing, and a transformer? (Which, btw, I've already applied for the patent on. So there.)
Actually, there is a site out there (my mind forgets the name, although the technique is easily researched using your favorite search engine) that maintains a hosts file which includes the DNS names of a great many of the advertising delivery servers (like ad1.doubliclick.com, and similar places) and then uses the HOSTS file to redirect all requests to 127.0.0.1. Unless you run Apache or IIS on your local machine, this works wonders.
In fact, the site that I first discovered this HOSTS file even includes directions on how to use it in a Windows environment. VERY underutilized, the windows HOSTS files. (Which remarkably look very similar, down to the "etc" in the file path, to the *nix system...)
Glancing at the logs of ISPs I have root at
And of course, these are all ISPs which you work for or are currently contracting with, of course. Hacking is illegal, mm'kay?;)
Actually, it's been revealed that the original reporting that started the "pins and razor blades in candy" hysteria in the 1982 was in fact a hoax. Further, the report found at Snopes, while not exactly "gospel", does indicate that the majority of these candy tampering stories are untrue EVEN though there are rare documented cases.
In my neighborhood in a somewhat modern small-city, I got 0 trick or treaters in 2 years straight. (More candy for me!) On the other hand, one of my co-workers in a rural area 30 miles away went through 17 bags of candy this last year. Most packaged candy (which is the most common kind handed out) is not going to be tampered with easily. (Unless you own a candy wrapping & sealing machine, and have access to the printed wrappers.)
And, being someone that stares at an X-ray machine screen for a living, I'm fairly certain detecting foreign objects in candy with the x-ray equipment most courthouses and police stations might use is, pardon the pun, no picnic.
Slashdot Mirror
Just as soon as the NSA willingly hands over any of that data, or solicits the input of another federal agency (let alone local or state police departments) without a written order from someone of authority, your argument may have merit.
I do not see this happening any time soon.
(Note: I have some familiarity with the cultural and procedural difficulties inherent in cooperation, even within a single organization.)
I often see this targeted specifically towards law enforcement drones. But what about MY drones? Facial recognition software isn't limited to them, and camera-toting low flying drones (or just cameras) are increasingly lower in price. (Example, the AR.Drone.)
If laws are needed to protect privacy, they need to be expanded beyond just law enforcement. I'm certain that Facebook, Amazon, Target, Google, etc, all have far more extensive databases that can (in conjunction with facial recognition software and a camera) not only track where you are (and verify with cell phone data) but what stores are between your destinations, in your vicinity, and target advertisements very specifically.
The government is not efficient enough, nor do they have the technical savvy, to use the vast majority of the data they collect. Even assuming that department A talks to agency C, or that they have remotely compatable databases/protocols.
Assuming that the add-on becomes a very popular item, and that many people begin using it... how long before we see the following: 1) Poisoned Notaries - hackers setting up their own notaries and somehow inserting them into the system? 2) ISPs getting annoyed with the extra traffic and throttling back? Or ISP-level security appliances becoming suspicious that one GET begets many more connections? (Granted, I think this would have to be a very very well liked add-on, with huge user numbers and very large amounts of certificate checking.) 3) "Transparent" MitM attacks... The man in the middle being transparent to the flow of the certificate, but intercepting other portions of the document? (IANAC, so I have no idea how difficult or complex that may be to implement; I imagine a bit more than normal, as it's not the current topic.)
...
Wait, so you're telling me that a third party can, without my consent and/or notification (implied or explicit), install and execute a program on my hardware? Isn't that what sends most virus writers to jail?
I'd want a lawyer to run over the BT access agreements with a fine tooth comb, and check this against any applicable privacy laws.
I'm not a mechanical engineer, but... ... What would thermodynamics do with the efficiency of conversion of a system that does not use dynamic thermal changes to produce energy? Granted, it may have effects, but this system does not appear to be an "engine" in any traditional sense; closer to a photo voltaic cell than a mechanical system. Which, after all, is all that a steam turbine is.
First off, yes, snooping of this nature is wrong. However, the final summary sentence, "In short..., the entire incident shows exactly why citizens' privacy is critical in a country where citizens compete with one another for control of the government."
Who's perspective? As a candidate, you're damned right I don't want you to know everything about me. That makes me less likely to be able to compete and win the leadership post I seek.
But as a VOTER and CITIZEN... HELL YES I want to know what these people have been doing. These are the people whose inconsequential decision on what to have for dinner while meeting with foreign dignitaries could start a war. (Probably not; they pay the staff well to make sure that doesn't happen. But it's in the realm of possibility that the President serving pork chops to the Ayatollah could have some bad results.) So what about fair competition; these are people I expect to make good decisions for all of the people they are leading. If you choose to live your life in public service, your life is going to be public. Don't whine and moan that you lost your very public job because some enterprising report found out you had an office broken into and evidence destroyed. And don't complain that people are invading your privacy; if you choose to seek public office, expect it and know that it will happen.
Look at it from the prospective consumer model. I'm looking to buy a car, I expect the dealer to be forthcoming about things that may impact the performance of that car. (For example, it was picked out of a flood, and the interior was replaced. In fact, aren't there laws about that kind of information?) Likewise, I'm investing my vote in a product; the leadership qualities and policies of a politician whom I'm about to hand the power to wage war, tax, and regulate. I, as a "consumer", want to know EVERY detail I can about the person so that I can make a better choice.
Granted, most of the voting public isn't remotely that responsible with their vote. And this only applies to people I am ceding my autonomy to; I don't care to know who's having sex with Paris Hilton this week.
Funny, I didn't realize that saving the books you enjoy, possibly over the course of, say, 25 years, was hoarding.
You also assume that someone with that many books doesn't read them... perhaps you've never been a researching type of person, or one that simply enjoys reading over sitting mindless while staring at pretty pictures on a tube?
Better yet, you think Web 2.0 and the "blogosphere" contains all the information you'll ever need, better than any grand master may be able to present?
Burn thyself, troll. Of the several hundred books I've carted with me through times good and bad (including one stretch homeless; they were thankfully recovered from questionable storage) I have read them. Every. Single. One. More. Than. Three. Times. Minimum. Newer books, as I add, take a month or two to get there, but then I generally will re-read the entire series of books whenever a new one comes out. And then there's the research aspect, of having at hand the reference you need to complete your own writing.
Or is that wasteful, and hoarding, as well? Let me see... libraries are open, with a good funding program, from 0800-2130, between 3-6 days a week, depending on locality. Bookstores can be funny about letting you sit down, and just read; worse yet, try copying from a book into a notebook. In this enlightened time of IP rights, I'm sure that's no problem at all. And sadly, not all books are digitized and accessible from the Great Tubes of the Interweb. Meanwhile, when it's 4 minutes past 3am, and I *MUST* have the citation data for my reference in a paper that will be presented at 8am, I can look over my shoulder and SEE where my information is; without all that problem you get sometimes from librarians, governments, and other interest groups that think a book should be edited to match the present sensibilities.
And I hate to tell you, but it's not that easy, these days, to own more volumes than your local library, if you're talking specifics. At the college I attended to begin my undergraduate degree, the Science Fiction club had MORE FICTION VOLUMES than the college library. Perhaps, rather than give my books to people who may just shrug and discard it with the note "already have 4 copies", I could donate money or time to the library? Hmmmmmm....
Now that MIGHT de-trollify your post.
In his landmark work to create the field of "Killology", Lt. Col Dave Grossman (ret) suggests that soldiers in every war have developed new and horrific names for their opponents. For example, Japanese soldiers in WWII became "Japs", "Nips", "Slanties"... in the Korean war, we have things like "Gooks"... in Vietnam, they were the "VC", "Charlie", and "Cong".
This effectively dehumanizes the opponents, and facilitates the ability of a soldier to rationalize the act of killing. "Well, he wasn't a real person... he was just some Kraut."
This effect seems to be present on the internet? Shocking. So then I can tell CmdrTaco that he's an "idiotic poop face that hates on CowboyNeal unfairly because of his moronic IQ and lousy personal hygiene" more easily through text than to his face? Where there is a small but perceptible chance he might do something to harm me? Distance and remoteness eases antisocial phobias and fears?
I'd also like to point people at the Slashdot report that 90% of people feel they know what "tone" of voice is used in textual communications, while the double blind study results indicate that of all people, the right "tone" of voice was detected at best 25% of the time.
So, distance makes it easier to communicate, the ability to divorce some screen name (like "ladiesman215") from a living human, and our confidence in our inability to understand the entire meaning of a text communication like email/IM/Forum posts may lead to an increase in flames AND trolls? Really. I think this needs more study. I'm not entirely convinced.
Then again, in the United States, etiquette and rules of polite behavior were declared passe sometime in the 60s and 70s, and really haven't been an issue since then. Do you think that could be a contributing factor?
Oh, and there are twice as many people in the world today than there were 20 years ago (if we're still following the same trend). Maybe all of that reproduction and increased crowding of demand for scarce resources could be souring our moods?
And if you disagree with me, you're a flaming troll. In all senses of the word. Cynical bastards.
PS - CmdrTaco, I'm just kidding. I'm sure your breath is as sweet as the vapors of a fresh baked baguette.
PPS - The confirmation word is "incense"? Slashdot code can be psychic?
Good, now that I have your attention...
There are clinical studies, even some reported here on Slashdot, that shows that the presence of an electromagnetic field may have some effect. What exactly that effect is, of course, ranges from "zOMG I'll get Cancerz!!" to "zOMG It'll cure my Cancerz!!!" Working within 2' of at least four devices that spew both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, this research is vaguely important to me personally. No matter what the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration claims.
Too much of the good research gets lost in the never ending rainbow of multicolored poop (that's right, I said it. POOP!) being touted by the snake oil salesmen buying off IRBs. (I thought the I was for Institutional... y'know, like an Institution. Not "TABS" or some other company with a slick catch phrase. Although I think know I know a perfect company to launch. Anyone want to invest?) And then the information stream is so polluted, you can't possibly compare the good research because someone will inevitably bring up these crap studies to rebut, confuse, and destroy the focus of comparison. The fact that the FDA (and other governing bodies) know about these loopholes but cannot do anything about them is indicative of the state of the healthcare system globally.
It can probably be said, with a fair degree of accuracy (about 50%, which as good as it gets in this environment) that Electromagnetic fields can cause health effects. Good or bad is still debatable. Mostly bad, of course, if you are dependent on an implanted device that can be disrupted by EMFs. (This is why you shouldn't walk through a metal detector or have a hand held metal detector used on you at the airport if you have a pace-maker, defibrillator, etc, unless specifically cleared by your doctor. Even then, if they find out, they might get a little freaked out.)
Why is it that video poker machines in casinos are more stringently regulated than the code in "biofeedback" devices? C'mon now. If a heart monitor's code must meet ISO900x standards, and it doesn't do more than offer biofeedback, why can devices like the PAP-IME get away with being a transformer putting super-high voltage through a metal coil placed next to your skin? Does that mean I can cure my illness with a car battery, some copper tubing, and a transformer? (Which, btw, I've already applied for the patent on. So there.)
Actually, there is a site out there (my mind forgets the name, although the technique is easily researched using your favorite search engine) that maintains a hosts file which includes the DNS names of a great many of the advertising delivery servers (like ad1.doubliclick.com, and similar places) and then uses the HOSTS file to redirect all requests to 127.0.0.1. Unless you run Apache or IIS on your local machine, this works wonders. In fact, the site that I first discovered this HOSTS file even includes directions on how to use it in a Windows environment. VERY underutilized, the windows HOSTS files. (Which remarkably look very similar, down to the "etc" in the file path, to the *nix system...) Glancing at the logs of ISPs I have root at And of course, these are all ISPs which you work for or are currently contracting with, of course. Hacking is illegal, mm'kay? ;)
Actually, it's been revealed that the original reporting that started the "pins and razor blades in candy" hysteria in the 1982 was in fact a hoax. Further, the report found at Snopes, while not exactly "gospel", does indicate that the majority of these candy tampering stories are untrue EVEN though there are rare documented cases. In my neighborhood in a somewhat modern small-city, I got 0 trick or treaters in 2 years straight. (More candy for me!) On the other hand, one of my co-workers in a rural area 30 miles away went through 17 bags of candy this last year. Most packaged candy (which is the most common kind handed out) is not going to be tampered with easily. (Unless you own a candy wrapping & sealing machine, and have access to the printed wrappers.) And, being someone that stares at an X-ray machine screen for a living, I'm fairly certain detecting foreign objects in candy with the x-ray equipment most courthouses and police stations might use is, pardon the pun, no picnic.