While I'm well aware of this practice (employed in the past in telecommunications and network security with public sector contracts, now active duty in the U.S. Navy), that's not what I meant. Customs agents are apparently allowed to confiscate your equipment if they believe you're hiding data on it via encryption or other means. How long until some "cyber enforcement" arm decides they have the right to deny encrypted network traffic that they aren't permitted to decipher via a shared key or some similar mechanism (think back to the concept of the Clipper chip).
Hiding and encrypting your data is a good idea in general, even when not crossing the border. Here's the problem, though... how long until the mere presence of any encryption software whatsoever is taken as open permission to confiscate your gear until you feel like giving them the passphases they want? Who says you'll ever get it back at all, or won't wind up on a watch list? Aggresive legal measures need to be taken now to stop this crap.
To me, the most idiotic part is the fact that anyone sufficiently sophisticated to harbor a lot of illegal information, or information deemed dangerous to national security, would most likely be smart enough to send it over the net to its intended destination via an encrypted link. Oh, wait... does that mean the government will start considering data streams entering our country as liable to unquestioned search? Think about it.
Outstanding points. Unfortunately, our children are routinely taught in grade school that rights are somthing *given* to us by goverment officials. Even the average teenager (at least many I've spoken to) seem to think it's well within the government's power to take away your rights whenever it's "justified." They also seem to run with the general opinion that bad things won't happen to them; things like illegal searches only happen to "real criminals." Scary stuff.
No, you won't be done with this problem at all. You're still complicit in the stomping of the privacy rights of U.S. citizens. It will get worse, I assure you.
I'm not saying encryption is a bad practice (hell, my workstation's partititions are *all* encrypted). I'm simply saying that finding a way around the system isn't a suitable replacement for long term efforts to fight it.
Kansas or not, I'm pretty certain you didn't bother to read the article. From the material presented, this is a pretty obvious case of abuse of power. I'm posting from the States, but I'm certainly not ill-informed on these matters.
From the second paragraph of TFA:
Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics. Please read the source material and comment afterward. If your opinion differs, please provide relevant citations supporting your position.
There was a time in this country when abuse of public power was a hanging offense. While I'm generally against the death penalty for civilians, I might make an exception for those who grossly abuse the public trust.
I fully concur. I was born in 1981. I received plenty of warnings to avoid smoking, and chose to smoke against sound advice. Fourteen years later (27 years old now), I'm still smoking. This is nobody's fault but my own. I fully acknowledge my personal responsibility in the matter.
The "funny" part is the fact that I'm supposedly gifted with above average intelligence. I've never struggled academically, and have routinely exceeded my peers in academically geared endeavors (both before the naval service and since enlistment). I also outrun most eighteen year olds, but that's a consequence of running 20-30 miles per week (active duty Navy, with an interest in road races). An outside observer might be led to believe that "I'm too smart to smoke", but that's apparently not the case.
In my rather educated opinion, things like lawsuites against tobacco companies are pure bullshit, and I fully support insurance industry trends toward charging higher premiums for smokers. There are rumors that Tricare (the primary military health care provider in the States) is planning to charge a $60.00/month fee to smokers within five years. Fine with me. Either I'll wise up and quit or I'll pay the price. Others shouldn't have suffer for my poor decision.
The issue with MARTA is probably more political than technological. They've been in Atlanta news on more than a few occassions with stories of internal corruption and graft; it would seem that their "leadership" is (historically, at least) more interested in lining their pockets and those of their friends with state money than improving the city's transportation system.
I make the bold assertion that accurate real-time tracking and management of MARTA buses would be heavily resisted by the management authorities responsible for such decisions. I'd love to be wrong on this; anyone from Atlanta care to comment?
You have to understand that traditional metrics of intelligence don't apply to troll populations; they rely on "cumulative intelligence" instead of individual or averaged values. The fact that the average troll's intelligence is in the single digits is offset by their sheer numbers; some have speculated that the rise of SkyNet may actually be precipitated by the combined intellectual contribution of 1.57 billion troll-moderated Slashdot posts.
Thank you for an insightful reply! I really can't take issue with anything you've said here; it all sounds like good sense to me. Congratulations on quitting, I still haven't (14 years of smoking and counting, but I only blame myself).
A lot of people talk about the rise of telecommuting as homes are increasingly connected to the Internet via high speed links. Although workplaces in the U.S. are by-and-large mandated to be smoke free, smokers do tend to congregate around entrances to buildings and such. Perhaps companies could enact policies that would require smoking employees to telecommute, along with higher insurance premiums. As for positions that can't be effectively filled via telecommuting? I guess only non-smokers would be eligible. It's not a complete answer, but one that might defray the negative influence of smoking on other employees. Just some thoughts.
How about sensing when buses aren't meeting their route schedule requirements and using this data to improve the public transit system? A somewhat "direct" application to be sure, but one that's sorely in needed in places like metro Atlanta that depend on MARTA for mass transit. I can't even begin to estimate how many times buses have either been substantially late, not shown up at all, or passed right by a stop with waiting passengers. It actually prompted me to buy a car years ago.
That's really great to hear; glad you're seeing success with your model:). This is a good example of properly targeting your visitors; a lot of webmasters seem to wonder why their site is blanketed with ads but still generates almost no revenue. Good work!
I recently got paid for my time developing a product, negotiated an open license for it, and retained copyright to the code. I think if more programmers were simple aware of these options, and knew how to show their customers the benefits of such arrangements, we'd have a lot adoption of this practice.
Are you a programmer, or is there someone in your organization who is? Support doesn't necessarily mean your boss has to call some other company. You could learn the desired products well enough to provide basic support yourself (assuming your boss will pay you for the time spent doing so).
If your boss isn't interested in paying someone internally to learn the products well enough to support them, he/she probably isn't really interested in spending money outside the organization either, no matter what the license on the product might be.
With software support, you pay up front for the software, or pay for support after the sale, or both. Even in cases where you get support included with the package, you've gotta ask what level that support is. If your boss wants to be able to pick up a phone and "get answers the same day" it's gonna cost. If he wants solutions (i.e. fixes) the same day (or ever in many cases), that's gonna cost a lot more. No matter how you slice it, money will be spent.
For many applications, I'm convinced it makes a lot of sense to go with an open source solution that has a very active development community. Couple that with someone in your organization who understands the product, and reasonable support can be had for a lot less money than comparable commercial solutions.
Allow me to say it yet again. If you're depending on something like advertising revenue alone to support your free product, you'd better make sure it's licensed appropriately and you understand your target audience. For software projects, it frequently makes a lot more sense to charge for support and feature enhancement. It frequently makes sense to give the software itself away under an OSI license (the approach I usually take).
This means you're placing the value on your time. If people want installation help, custom configuration, or even hosting services for your application/software suite, you charge them. Ongoing maintenance? Charge them. Everything doesn't have to be free, something people seem to frequently forget.
You've got it all wrong. God talked to some dudes a long time ago, and the GP read about it in a rather famous work of religious literature. No pills necessary.
Actually, I just rethought my position a bit. What is fundamentally wrong with hiring policies that prohibit smoking? Again, I'm a smoker, and I really can't see much wrong with the idea.
You can't compare this to genetic discrimination. People have no say in what genes they're born with, but they most certainly have a say in whether they choose to engage in behaviors that drive up healthcare costs.
Maybe the answer would be to charge higher insurance premiums for such behaviors, maybe it's something else. But it's definitely not on par with genetic discrimination.
Slashdot Mirror
Please cite a case where copyright law was used to prosecute someone for forwarding an email.
- 1 pint chocolate ice cream
- 5 scoops vanilla ice cream
- 1/2 cup light rum
- 2 tbs finely ground coffee
- Instant coffee crystals
Preparation:Mix everything except the instant coffee together in a blender. Serve topped with a sprinkle of coffee crystals.
I don't usuall post off-topic, but this one was too good to pass up. Courtesy of About.com.
While I'm well aware of this practice (employed in the past in telecommunications and network security with public sector contracts, now active duty in the U.S. Navy), that's not what I meant. Customs agents are apparently allowed to confiscate your equipment if they believe you're hiding data on it via encryption or other means. How long until some "cyber enforcement" arm decides they have the right to deny encrypted network traffic that they aren't permitted to decipher via a shared key or some similar mechanism (think back to the concept of the Clipper chip).
Hiding and encrypting your data is a good idea in general, even when not crossing the border. Here's the problem, though... how long until the mere presence of any encryption software whatsoever is taken as open permission to confiscate your gear until you feel like giving them the passphases they want? Who says you'll ever get it back at all, or won't wind up on a watch list? Aggresive legal measures need to be taken now to stop this crap.
To me, the most idiotic part is the fact that anyone sufficiently sophisticated to harbor a lot of illegal information, or information deemed dangerous to national security, would most likely be smart enough to send it over the net to its intended destination via an encrypted link. Oh, wait... does that mean the government will start considering data streams entering our country as liable to unquestioned search? Think about it.
Outstanding points. Unfortunately, our children are routinely taught in grade school that rights are somthing *given* to us by goverment officials. Even the average teenager (at least many I've spoken to) seem to think it's well within the government's power to take away your rights whenever it's "justified." They also seem to run with the general opinion that bad things won't happen to them; things like illegal searches only happen to "real criminals." Scary stuff.
No, you won't be done with this problem at all. You're still complicit in the stomping of the privacy rights of U.S. citizens. It will get worse, I assure you.
I'm not saying encryption is a bad practice (hell, my workstation's partititions are *all* encrypted). I'm simply saying that finding a way around the system isn't a suitable replacement for long term efforts to fight it.
Right... I'm sure all this information is completely imaginary in nature: Halabja poison gas attack. Educate thyself.
I think the subject of this article would be better served with "legal size" paper.
Digital watermarks are one possibility. Not that I support such systems, but they're probably on the way.
Digital watermarking. Not that I support such systems, but there's a potential answer to your question.
A couple of these links are several months old; this has been brewing for awhile, and action needs to be taken now to stop it.
From the second paragraph of TFA: Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics. Please read the source material and comment afterward. If your opinion differs, please provide relevant citations supporting your position.
There was a time in this country when abuse of public power was a hanging offense. While I'm generally against the death penalty for civilians, I might make an exception for those who grossly abuse the public trust.
I fully concur. I was born in 1981. I received plenty of warnings to avoid smoking, and chose to smoke against sound advice. Fourteen years later (27 years old now), I'm still smoking. This is nobody's fault but my own. I fully acknowledge my personal responsibility in the matter.
The "funny" part is the fact that I'm supposedly gifted with above average intelligence. I've never struggled academically, and have routinely exceeded my peers in academically geared endeavors (both before the naval service and since enlistment). I also outrun most eighteen year olds, but that's a consequence of running 20-30 miles per week (active duty Navy, with an interest in road races). An outside observer might be led to believe that "I'm too smart to smoke", but that's apparently not the case.
In my rather educated opinion, things like lawsuites against tobacco companies are pure bullshit, and I fully support insurance industry trends toward charging higher premiums for smokers. There are rumors that Tricare (the primary military health care provider in the States) is planning to charge a $60.00/month fee to smokers within five years. Fine with me. Either I'll wise up and quit or I'll pay the price. Others shouldn't have suffer for my poor decision.
The issue with MARTA is probably more political than technological. They've been in Atlanta news on more than a few occassions with stories of internal corruption and graft; it would seem that their "leadership" is (historically, at least) more interested in lining their pockets and those of their friends with state money than improving the city's transportation system.
I make the bold assertion that accurate real-time tracking and management of MARTA buses would be heavily resisted by the management authorities responsible for such decisions. I'd love to be wrong on this; anyone from Atlanta care to comment?
You have to understand that traditional metrics of intelligence don't apply to troll populations; they rely on "cumulative intelligence" instead of individual or averaged values. The fact that the average troll's intelligence is in the single digits is offset by their sheer numbers; some have speculated that the rise of SkyNet may actually be precipitated by the combined intellectual contribution of 1.57 billion troll-moderated Slashdot posts.
Thank you for an insightful reply! I really can't take issue with anything you've said here; it all sounds like good sense to me. Congratulations on quitting, I still haven't (14 years of smoking and counting, but I only blame myself).
A lot of people talk about the rise of telecommuting as homes are increasingly connected to the Internet via high speed links. Although workplaces in the U.S. are by-and-large mandated to be smoke free, smokers do tend to congregate around entrances to buildings and such. Perhaps companies could enact policies that would require smoking employees to telecommute, along with higher insurance premiums. As for positions that can't be effectively filled via telecommuting? I guess only non-smokers would be eligible. It's not a complete answer, but one that might defray the negative influence of smoking on other employees. Just some thoughts.
How about sensing when buses aren't meeting their route schedule requirements and using this data to improve the public transit system? A somewhat "direct" application to be sure, but one that's sorely in needed in places like metro Atlanta that depend on MARTA for mass transit. I can't even begin to estimate how many times buses have either been substantially late, not shown up at all, or passed right by a stop with waiting passengers. It actually prompted me to buy a car years ago.
Nonsense. Everyone knows you can view live ASCII video. Bash 4 life.
That's really great to hear; glad you're seeing success with your model :). This is a good example of properly targeting your visitors; a lot of webmasters seem to wonder why their site is blanketed with ads but still generates almost no revenue. Good work!
I recently got paid for my time developing a product, negotiated an open license for it, and retained copyright to the code. I think if more programmers were simple aware of these options, and knew how to show their customers the benefits of such arrangements, we'd have a lot adoption of this practice.
Are you a programmer, or is there someone in your organization who is? Support doesn't necessarily mean your boss has to call some other company. You could learn the desired products well enough to provide basic support yourself (assuming your boss will pay you for the time spent doing so).
If your boss isn't interested in paying someone internally to learn the products well enough to support them, he/she probably isn't really interested in spending money outside the organization either, no matter what the license on the product might be.
With software support, you pay up front for the software, or pay for support after the sale, or both. Even in cases where you get support included with the package, you've gotta ask what level that support is. If your boss wants to be able to pick up a phone and "get answers the same day" it's gonna cost. If he wants solutions (i.e. fixes) the same day (or ever in many cases), that's gonna cost a lot more. No matter how you slice it, money will be spent.
For many applications, I'm convinced it makes a lot of sense to go with an open source solution that has a very active development community. Couple that with someone in your organization who understands the product, and reasonable support can be had for a lot less money than comparable commercial solutions.
Allow me to say it yet again. If you're depending on something like advertising revenue alone to support your free product, you'd better make sure it's licensed appropriately and you understand your target audience. For software projects, it frequently makes a lot more sense to charge for support and feature enhancement. It frequently makes sense to give the software itself away under an OSI license (the approach I usually take).
This means you're placing the value on your time. If people want installation help, custom configuration, or even hosting services for your application/software suite, you charge them. Ongoing maintenance? Charge them. Everything doesn't have to be free, something people seem to frequently forget.
You've got it all wrong. God talked to some dudes a long time ago, and the GP read about it in a rather famous work of religious literature. No pills necessary.
Actually, I just rethought my position a bit. What is fundamentally wrong with hiring policies that prohibit smoking? Again, I'm a smoker, and I really can't see much wrong with the idea.
You can't compare this to genetic discrimination. People have no say in what genes they're born with, but they most certainly have a say in whether they choose to engage in behaviors that drive up healthcare costs.
Maybe the answer would be to charge higher insurance premiums for such behaviors, maybe it's something else. But it's definitely not on par with genetic discrimination.