I run full disk encryption using luks on linux. Full hard disk encryption with luks is easy to install during linux installation... just two extra steps from the install menu. I install my operating system onto an SD card (although USB would work too). In this way it is very easy for me to do full system backups that are also encrypted. And a full backup costs roughtly $20 as SD and USB is cheap. For mass storage, I mount either encrypted or unencrypted hard drives. Usually, I do not encrypted the mass storage devices, because this primarily contains pictures and video that do not have great value to theives and have little chance of being used for identity theft. For more private videos and pictures, I can always store these on an encrypted partition if desired.
By running my main system off of an SD card, a full backup is simple. I can simply plug in a fresh SD card and call my backup script which creates a new encrypted partition and copies all my data. Then if my computer is lost of stolen, I just plug it in and go. There is no down time of reinstalling a new operating system and transfering backups to update it. Plus since the backup is full encrypted itself, I have no concerns about someone stealing the backup either.
I find my current solution simple and cost effective.
I havent used spider oak, but i here it is a good solution. Also I think Lacie has a good remote storage solution where the data is encrypted in a way which prevents "them" (their system administors) from access ur data in an unencrypted format. Many people use dropbox without realizing that the encryption keys are stored by the service, meaning that your data can be decrypted and sent to 3rd parties without ur knowledge.
Anyhow... I just wanted to mention that encfs stores the passphrase protected master key along with the data directory in a file like.encfs.xml or similar name. This means that if anyone gets your encfs files the effort involved to decrypt your data is made much easier by brute force (depending on the strength of your passphrase selected). You can instruct encfs to keep this file in an alternate location, but this is not the default. This may not be a concern for you if spider oak really is not keeping any copy of the keys for your remotely stored data. But for those doing this on solutions like dropbox... your security is greatly reduced.
... the first thing you need to ask yourself, is WHY do I need to encrypt data?
1) Illegal stuff
2) Private stuff
3) Just because you can
ans to 1 is don't do it - you will be caught eventually
ans to 2 is why? private is private and provided you use proper security on access controls all is hunky dory
ans to 3) paranoia
Your burrying your head in the sand. Everybody should have concern about point #2 you listed. If you dont believe that you do any private stuff then you are not using online banking or sending email. As a minimum, these are things you should try to protect. 99% of your data from an unecrypted windows or linux system can easily be accessed. Your word processor documents and email messages and wifi passwords are accessible to anyone who steals your desktop or finds the laptop you lost. I have done this as an excercise. I am not a "hacker" and do not have desire to steal from others, but it is easy for me to get all this information from your system. So a hacker would easily know how to do it and then exploit that information to make life difficult or exensive for you.
So if you use a laptop and you do not use encryption... then it would be good for you to actually be a bit more paranoid then you current are.
At my place of business, I was able to easily show how both windows and linux emails and documents could be read off of anyones work computer. This was eye opening for our managers, because we dealt regularily with customers private information and shared private information between other business owners. Encryption is important in a business settings, but it is probably most important on portable devices like laptops, which are far more likely to be lost or stolen. Because I assure you it takes no effort at all to clearly see everything you ever put into it without having to break any user passwords.
With the RAID I have some security of the data in case of driver failure and I can just add more disks if I need more space.
I never understood why the RAID community rejects the RAID mirror option as a backup solution. I tested RAID mirror by installing a linux system onto two disk... then simply removed the 2nd disk and worked on a single disk RAID mirror minus the mirror. Later when I wanted to do a full backup... I just connected a 2nd disk of equal or greater size to say the USB port and requested RAID to use this as my mirror. I would first mount the 2nd disk as a LUKS device so the "backup" would be encrypted. Then I let RAID do its thing for the next couple hours, while the computer remained usable... although slowed slightly due to the mirroring occurring. Once complete... I just unplug the USB drive and it is effectively a full system backup. I tested this by booting from the mirror drive and it seemed all was fine. And the backup was ready for me to plug in a new drive to complete the mirror again and create new backups from this one. Seems like the simplest full backup system possible with absolutely no down time.
I am not a RAID expert tho... Im sure I will get slammed by RAID experts saying Im abusing what RAID is all about. All I know is that it works and provides full encrypted backup solutions with no down time.
I'm using LUKS encryption and LVM2 on my Linux Desktop and there are no problems.
I don't see the point to encrypt the system partition because there is no private data on it. I just encrypt my home partition..
You really should change to full disk encryption. There is all kinds of private data under other directories on linux. For example, all your wifi passwords are likely under the/etc directory. Not to mention the bounty of information stored in/var. If the machine you are trying to protect is a laptop, you should switch to full encryption of everything but/boot partition.
"Even at that, with automatic bad block reallocation, fixing it after the fact isn't good enough for the highest level security."
True. But the cost of the "highest" level, in convenience and reliability, is pretty high as well. Most people would do fine simply encrypting their data, and clearing their logs and unused drive space once in a while.
Wrong. Most people dont do the daily things they need to be doing for security until after they realize they have been comprimised or they lost their laptop or similar security breach. The simplest approach is the one you dont need to think about and requires the least number of steps from a user perspective. That is: full disk encryption.
I cringe at the mere thought of encrypting my whole main drive, OS and all. Bleaaggghhh! But if you don't, you have to clear your logs once in a while.
Maybe thats because your operating system doesnt make it easy for you to do. Ive been using full LUKS AES 512 encryption on linux for several years on multiple computers including work computers. I have never had an issue with Full encryption being an issue. Its way easier then having partial encryption such as encfs user account encryption... which has posed some issues for our admins during automated backup situations.
Full disk encryption is a much better solution because the user is not required to remember where encryption is applied when moving private resources around the system. Furthermore, there is no reason to worry about where applications may be temporarily storing data and logs outside your user control and knowledge. Its just way easier to know that when your computer is shut off, all the data and operating system and logs and applications and everything is equally protected by strong encryption.
The US gov does not except Euros or gold either. Are these also useless? I guess the number of things I cannot pay taxes with are infinite. May I should convert everything I own to the paper currency in which my country accepts tax payments.
Agreed. Whats next, Google starts answering to Chinas requests to identify certain gmail message users?
Lat time I checked Twitter wasnt forcing anyone to signup and get their messages. If you dont want random people sending u messages u dont like, dont sign up for twitter or subscribe to other twitter user feeds.
Maybe France should consider a country wide firewall, if they really want to control everything anyone posts online. Go ahead France... be like China
Isn't there some kind of braille encoding on US bills like on canadian money?
Not currently. They're starting to talk about it. Check again in five years.
Youre not Canadian. Because: YES, all the Canadian bills have braille on them and it has been this way for as long as I can remember. The real question is: isnt their braille on every bill from every country in the world? And if not.... what is wrong with your country?
Exactly. The article is about blacebos and yet it mentions some doctors prescibing real medication incorrectly. I dont see how the two are related.
In general, the placebo is a very effective treatment. We know this, because you will always hear "the drug had no more effect then a placebo". Which shows us that placebos have a positive impact on reported symptoms in just about every feild. The human mind is a powerful thing and providing a trigger for the patient to believe in positive outcomes is a good thing. In some cases, the symptoms may be purely pschological and the placebo could "cure" this. In other cases, the symptoms may not be clear enough to identify the undelying issue. In this case, a placebo may provide some mental releif to the patient, because apply real medication on an incorrect diagnosis can be far worse.
However, bundling doctors who carelessly prescribe antibiotics when they are inappropriate is not relevant to the discussion of placebos. Its just not the same thing.
I agree. It is more obvious with good headphones, since everything is more clear. I will hear a consistent repeating defect, which is more disturbing then using crappy ear buds which make everything worse, and the defect blend together. I would guess that many people who dont notice this simply dont use very good headphones.
The result false in favour of the reseller of a used books and gives them the right to resell the book to others on ebay or other channels even if the book was purchased abroad.
My reaction to this article is... "no kidding". DRM is about limiting channels of distribution. For the majority of media produced today no distribution company is required. DRM is a mechanism which limits distribution of media to approved channels. This funnels media consumption through major distributors who consistently take a larger chunk of profit from a business that is approaching zero cost. They will complain and complain about recouping costs, but in reality their own costs are vanishing as we are the ones who actually pay for the bandwidth to deliver the content to ourselves. Devices with hard coded DRM restricts alternate channels of receiving media content and these are the channels that usually respect the true price of production and distribution. And these alternate channels are the ones that actually provide the most profit return directly to the people involved in the labor of production. The current system benefits a few people very well and makes lots of money for them. Alternate channels spread the profit over a much larger set of workers and artists and make it difficult for a few people to collect the majority of the money.
In the future when major distributors finally die, we will see many more people making an actual living from their artistic efforts and far fewer superstars and mega corporations rolling in all the dough.
Avaya, for example, is known for suing service companies, accusing them of violating copyright for simply using a password to log in to their phone systems. That's right: typing in a password is considered "reproducing copyrighted material."
Maybe I should read the linked article... but this doesnt sound anything like copyright. You cant be sued by coca cola simply from writing the letters onto paper or even typing it into your word processor. If anything, a password might be considered a trade secret. And if the service companies signed an agreement not to reveal the secret but did so, then Avaya would probably have a valid point. In any case, if Avaya is suing people for copyright over password typing then it seems largely irrelevant... I mean anyone can sue anyone for anything really. But unless a court rules in favor it certainly doesnt matter.
Once again... sorry for not reading the article, but the whole discussion seems mute to me.
Yeah, my house doesn't look anything like that. I love how the guy just *assumes* that everyone is like him. "How many devices have you dropped?" seems a perfectly reasonable question, when in fact it betrays that he's one of those idiots who just likes buying crap.
Exactly. I cant believe it took this many posts for someone to say exactly what I was thinking. This article has no validity. He is simply stating his personal opinions on how he sees things. And then everyone who bothers to post a response already feels the way he does. Most people simply ignore his post because it doesnt apply and there is no evidence that what he claims is true in general. What a rediculous claim. Where is the real evidence? A photo of his "home" that was obviously staged to gather as many devices as possible?
Does anybody know of an open source full encrypted peer to peer VOIP solution?
I have been looking for some time for this. I know ZRTP is a valid protocol, but there does not appear to be any good software for this (that I can find). The only solutions I found would not work over the Internet due to excessive lag and dropped packets. Please let me know if you are using something that is good for fully encrypted computer to computer voice chats.
Please do not suggested encrypted Skype.
There is tor-browser for web pages. There is PGP for email. There is OTR for instant message chat. So where is the encrypted voice chat solutions?
The placebo effect is one of the greatest medicines known to mankind. In general it has a positive effect of improving symptoms for all sickness and diseases. The sugar pill is the most effective pill you can give when considered accross the full range of all known symptoms.
But the reverse is true to. A placebo can have a negative psychosomatic effect depending on how it is presented. The above article does not really tell us anything about whether wind farms are safe or not. It only shows us what we already know a placebos... that belief in the mind can effect how the body feels. It does not tell us whether or not wind farms are safe.
I dont think that a wind farm would cause health issues. If the noise is significant, then it very well could case symptoms. What I do know is that if you put a depressed person in front of a bright light and tell them it will make them feel better... it might make them feel better. Does that mean the depression is not a real medical condition?
Just because suggestions can make people feel better or worse does not tell us much about whether or not the symptoms are real or deserved to be ignored
I could easily do a study with food tasting. I tell half the people that most people do not like the taste. What sort of results do you think I would get?
Im sure there are other parties that "could" be sued. But really... the part came from Apple. Im sure individual components come from lots of companies. But it was apple that put it together and marketed as something that apparently it was not. Also, the buyer has no idea about the agreement between apple and its suppliers. Perhaps apple knew of the defective potential or it was disclosed by LG. In any case, seems like Apples internal quality assurance department were the one who didnt properly test the components.
What does this have to do with the number of pixels of the video format? Why even mention the words "HD"? Is this software unable to operate at higher compression formats or smaller aspect ratios?
Skype is an eavesdropping service. Im sure all users of it should know that. So what if the FSB can listen in. The bigger news is that Microsoft is tapping all your Skype calls... all the time. The encryption option has nothing to do with Microsofts ability to record everything. And why shouldnt they? Its a great way to build a valuable database of our most private moments. Skype is not regulated by telephone privacy protections laws the way a regular phone provider is. This is why some countries in the EU are trying to force Skype to register as a telephone service... to protect the people (somewhat). Clearly, if your using skype and assuming that there is any level of privacy like you get from regular telephones... you have not read the EULA and terms of service. Or not even bothered to read about the company on wikipedia.
Apparently, the issue mentioned in the article has been fixed. "Blockchain forking event is over, all is well."
But I have a general bitcoin question. Since total bitcoin production is limited, what happens to all the bitcoins that are lost or destroyed? I mean it the wallet master key is lost of destroyed, wont the bitcoins be permanently stuck in that wallet forever? Say your computer harddrive breaks down or your laptop is stolen or you just delete the key file, etc
I dont know if what your saying is true. But the bitcoin can be verified digitally. So counterfeiting is very difficult. The government will not insure your paper money against counterfeiting. And they do not provide tools for you to accurately detect and validate the cash money you accept. Instead they ofload the burden of protecting yourself to the individual and at the same time make it a law that you must accept it for all bebts and obligations. In this respect, paper currency is far more fragile then bitcoin.
Slashdot Mirror
I run full disk encryption using luks on linux. Full hard disk encryption with luks is easy to install during linux installation... just two extra steps from the install menu. I install my operating system onto an SD card (although USB would work too). In this way it is very easy for me to do full system backups that are also encrypted. And a full backup costs roughtly $20 as SD and USB is cheap. For mass storage, I mount either encrypted or unencrypted hard drives. Usually, I do not encrypted the mass storage devices, because this primarily contains pictures and video that do not have great value to theives and have little chance of being used for identity theft. For more private videos and pictures, I can always store these on an encrypted partition if desired.
By running my main system off of an SD card, a full backup is simple. I can simply plug in a fresh SD card and call my backup script which creates a new encrypted partition and copies all my data. Then if my computer is lost of stolen, I just plug it in and go. There is no down time of reinstalling a new operating system and transfering backups to update it. Plus since the backup is full encrypted itself, I have no concerns about someone stealing the backup either.
I find my current solution simple and cost effective.
I havent used spider oak, but i here it is a good solution. Also I think Lacie has a good remote storage solution where the data is encrypted in a way which prevents "them" (their system administors) from access ur data in an unencrypted format. Many people use dropbox without realizing that the encryption keys are stored by the service, meaning that your data can be decrypted and sent to 3rd parties without ur knowledge.
Anyhow... I just wanted to mention that encfs stores the passphrase protected master key along with the data directory in a file like .encfs.xml or similar name. This means that if anyone gets your encfs files the effort involved to decrypt your data is made much easier by brute force (depending on the strength of your passphrase selected). You can instruct encfs to keep this file in an alternate location, but this is not the default. This may not be a concern for you if spider oak really is not keeping any copy of the keys for your remotely stored data. But for those doing this on solutions like dropbox... your security is greatly reduced.
... the first thing you need to ask yourself, is WHY do I need to encrypt data?
1) Illegal stuff 2) Private stuff 3) Just because you can
ans to 1 is don't do it - you will be caught eventually ans to 2 is why? private is private and provided you use proper security on access controls all is hunky dory ans to 3) paranoia
Your burrying your head in the sand. Everybody should have concern about point #2 you listed. If you dont believe that you do any private stuff then you are not using online banking or sending email. As a minimum, these are things you should try to protect. 99% of your data from an unecrypted windows or linux system can easily be accessed. Your word processor documents and email messages and wifi passwords are accessible to anyone who steals your desktop or finds the laptop you lost. I have done this as an excercise. I am not a "hacker" and do not have desire to steal from others, but it is easy for me to get all this information from your system. So a hacker would easily know how to do it and then exploit that information to make life difficult or exensive for you.
So if you use a laptop and you do not use encryption... then it would be good for you to actually be a bit more paranoid then you current are.
At my place of business, I was able to easily show how both windows and linux emails and documents could be read off of anyones work computer. This was eye opening for our managers, because we dealt regularily with customers private information and shared private information between other business owners. Encryption is important in a business settings, but it is probably most important on portable devices like laptops, which are far more likely to be lost or stolen. Because I assure you it takes no effort at all to clearly see everything you ever put into it without having to break any user passwords.
With the RAID I have some security of the data in case of driver failure and I can just add more disks if I need more space.
I never understood why the RAID community rejects the RAID mirror option as a backup solution. I tested RAID mirror by installing a linux system onto two disk... then simply removed the 2nd disk and worked on a single disk RAID mirror minus the mirror. Later when I wanted to do a full backup... I just connected a 2nd disk of equal or greater size to say the USB port and requested RAID to use this as my mirror. I would first mount the 2nd disk as a LUKS device so the "backup" would be encrypted. Then I let RAID do its thing for the next couple hours, while the computer remained usable... although slowed slightly due to the mirroring occurring. Once complete... I just unplug the USB drive and it is effectively a full system backup. I tested this by booting from the mirror drive and it seemed all was fine. And the backup was ready for me to plug in a new drive to complete the mirror again and create new backups from this one. Seems like the simplest full backup system possible with absolutely no down time.
I am not a RAID expert tho... Im sure I will get slammed by RAID experts saying Im abusing what RAID is all about. All I know is that it works and provides full encrypted backup solutions with no down time.
I'm using LUKS encryption and LVM2 on my Linux Desktop and there are no problems.
I don't see the point to encrypt the system partition because there is no private data on it. I just encrypt my home partition..
You really should change to full disk encryption. There is all kinds of private data under other directories on linux. For example, all your wifi passwords are likely under the /etc directory. Not to mention the bounty of information stored in /var. If the machine you are trying to protect is a laptop, you should switch to full encryption of everything but /boot partition.
"Even at that, with automatic bad block reallocation, fixing it after the fact isn't good enough for the highest level security."
True. But the cost of the "highest" level, in convenience and reliability, is pretty high as well. Most people would do fine simply encrypting their data, and clearing their logs and unused drive space once in a while.
Wrong. Most people dont do the daily things they need to be doing for security until after they realize they have been comprimised or they lost their laptop or similar security breach. The simplest approach is the one you dont need to think about and requires the least number of steps from a user perspective. That is: full disk encryption.
I cringe at the mere thought of encrypting my whole main drive, OS and all. Bleaaggghhh! But if you don't, you have to clear your logs once in a while.
Maybe thats because your operating system doesnt make it easy for you to do. Ive been using full LUKS AES 512 encryption on linux for several years on multiple computers including work computers. I have never had an issue with Full encryption being an issue. Its way easier then having partial encryption such as encfs user account encryption... which has posed some issues for our admins during automated backup situations.
Full disk encryption is a much better solution because the user is not required to remember where encryption is applied when moving private resources around the system. Furthermore, there is no reason to worry about where applications may be temporarily storing data and logs outside your user control and knowledge. Its just way easier to know that when your computer is shut off, all the data and operating system and logs and applications and everything is equally protected by strong encryption.
The US gov does not except Euros or gold either. Are these also useless? I guess the number of things I cannot pay taxes with are infinite. May I should convert everything I own to the paper currency in which my country accepts tax payments.
BTC are basically just useful by a small number of people that aren't very good at math.
I probably shouldnt bother responding, but... what do math skills have to do with it?
Agreed. Whats next, Google starts answering to Chinas requests to identify certain gmail message users?
Lat time I checked Twitter wasnt forcing anyone to signup and get their messages. If you dont want random people sending u messages u dont like, dont sign up for twitter or subscribe to other twitter user feeds.
Maybe France should consider a country wide firewall, if they really want to control everything anyone posts online. Go ahead France... be like China
Isn't there some kind of braille encoding on US bills like on canadian money?
Not currently. They're starting to talk about it. Check again in five years.
Youre not Canadian. Because: YES, all the Canadian bills have braille on them and it has been this way for as long as I can remember. The real question is: isnt their braille on every bill from every country in the world? And if not.... what is wrong with your country?
Exactly. The article is about blacebos and yet it mentions some doctors prescibing real medication incorrectly. I dont see how the two are related.
In general, the placebo is a very effective treatment. We know this, because you will always hear "the drug had no more effect then a placebo". Which shows us that placebos have a positive impact on reported symptoms in just about every feild. The human mind is a powerful thing and providing a trigger for the patient to believe in positive outcomes is a good thing. In some cases, the symptoms may be purely pschological and the placebo could "cure" this. In other cases, the symptoms may not be clear enough to identify the undelying issue. In this case, a placebo may provide some mental releif to the patient, because apply real medication on an incorrect diagnosis can be far worse.
However, bundling doctors who carelessly prescribe antibiotics when they are inappropriate is not relevant to the discussion of placebos. Its just not the same thing.
I agree. It is more obvious with good headphones, since everything is more clear. I will hear a consistent repeating defect, which is more disturbing then using crappy ear buds which make everything worse, and the defect blend together. I would guess that many people who dont notice this simply dont use very good headphones.
The result false in favour of the reseller of a used books and gives them the right to resell the book to others on ebay or other channels even if the book was purchased abroad.
My reaction to this article is... "no kidding". DRM is about limiting channels of distribution. For the majority of media produced today no distribution company is required. DRM is a mechanism which limits distribution of media to approved channels. This funnels media consumption through major distributors who consistently take a larger chunk of profit from a business that is approaching zero cost. They will complain and complain about recouping costs, but in reality their own costs are vanishing as we are the ones who actually pay for the bandwidth to deliver the content to ourselves. Devices with hard coded DRM restricts alternate channels of receiving media content and these are the channels that usually respect the true price of production and distribution. And these alternate channels are the ones that actually provide the most profit return directly to the people involved in the labor of production. The current system benefits a few people very well and makes lots of money for them. Alternate channels spread the profit over a much larger set of workers and artists and make it difficult for a few people to collect the majority of the money.
In the future when major distributors finally die, we will see many more people making an actual living from their artistic efforts and far fewer superstars and mega corporations rolling in all the dough.
Please consider that no OS is secure.
Maybe ther is no "perfect security", but where is Microsoft $40,000 for each exploit?
Avaya, for example, is known for suing service companies, accusing them of violating copyright for simply using a password to log in to their phone systems. That's right: typing in a password is considered "reproducing copyrighted material."
Maybe I should read the linked article... but this doesnt sound anything like copyright. You cant be sued by coca cola simply from writing the letters onto paper or even typing it into your word processor. If anything, a password might be considered a trade secret. And if the service companies signed an agreement not to reveal the secret but did so, then Avaya would probably have a valid point. In any case, if Avaya is suing people for copyright over password typing then it seems largely irrelevant... I mean anyone can sue anyone for anything really. But unless a court rules in favor it certainly doesnt matter.
Once again... sorry for not reading the article, but the whole discussion seems mute to me.
Yeah, my house doesn't look anything like that. I love how the guy just *assumes* that everyone is like him. "How many devices have you dropped?" seems a perfectly reasonable question, when in fact it betrays that he's one of those idiots who just likes buying crap.
Exactly. I cant believe it took this many posts for someone to say exactly what I was thinking. This article has no validity. He is simply stating his personal opinions on how he sees things. And then everyone who bothers to post a response already feels the way he does. Most people simply ignore his post because it doesnt apply and there is no evidence that what he claims is true in general. What a rediculous claim. Where is the real evidence? A photo of his "home" that was obviously staged to gather as many devices as possible?
Does anybody know of an open source full encrypted peer to peer VOIP solution?
I have been looking for some time for this. I know ZRTP is a valid protocol, but there does not appear to be any good software for this (that I can find). The only solutions I found would not work over the Internet due to excessive lag and dropped packets. Please let me know if you are using something that is good for fully encrypted computer to computer voice chats.
Please do not suggested encrypted Skype.
There is tor-browser for web pages. There is PGP for email. There is OTR for instant message chat. So where is the encrypted voice chat solutions?
The placebo effect is one of the greatest medicines known to mankind. In general it has a positive effect of improving symptoms for all sickness and diseases. The sugar pill is the most effective pill you can give when considered accross the full range of all known symptoms.
But the reverse is true to. A placebo can have a negative psychosomatic effect depending on how it is presented. The above article does not really tell us anything about whether wind farms are safe or not. It only shows us what we already know a placebos... that belief in the mind can effect how the body feels. It does not tell us whether or not wind farms are safe.
I dont think that a wind farm would cause health issues. If the noise is significant, then it very well could case symptoms. What I do know is that if you put a depressed person in front of a bright light and tell them it will make them feel better... it might make them feel better. Does that mean the depression is not a real medical condition?
Just because suggestions can make people feel better or worse does not tell us much about whether or not the symptoms are real or deserved to be ignored
I could easily do a study with food tasting. I tell half the people that most people do not like the taste. What sort of results do you think I would get?
Im sure there are other parties that "could" be sued. But really... the part came from Apple. Im sure individual components come from lots of companies. But it was apple that put it together and marketed as something that apparently it was not. Also, the buyer has no idea about the agreement between apple and its suppliers. Perhaps apple knew of the defective potential or it was disclosed by LG. In any case, seems like Apples internal quality assurance department were the one who didnt properly test the components.
What does this have to do with the number of pixels of the video format? Why even mention the words "HD"? Is this software unable to operate at higher compression formats or smaller aspect ratios?
Skype is an eavesdropping service. Im sure all users of it should know that. So what if the FSB can listen in. The bigger news is that Microsoft is tapping all your Skype calls... all the time. The encryption option has nothing to do with Microsofts ability to record everything. And why shouldnt they? Its a great way to build a valuable database of our most private moments. Skype is not regulated by telephone privacy protections laws the way a regular phone provider is. This is why some countries in the EU are trying to force Skype to register as a telephone service... to protect the people (somewhat). Clearly, if your using skype and assuming that there is any level of privacy like you get from regular telephones... you have not read the EULA and terms of service. Or not even bothered to read about the company on wikipedia.
Apparently, the issue mentioned in the article has been fixed. "Blockchain forking event is over, all is well."
But I have a general bitcoin question. Since total bitcoin production is limited, what happens to all the bitcoins that are lost or destroyed? I mean it the wallet master key is lost of destroyed, wont the bitcoins be permanently stuck in that wallet forever? Say your computer harddrive breaks down or your laptop is stolen or you just delete the key file, etc
I dont know if what your saying is true. But the bitcoin can be verified digitally. So counterfeiting is very difficult. The government will not insure your paper money against counterfeiting. And they do not provide tools for you to accurately detect and validate the cash money you accept. Instead they ofload the burden of protecting yourself to the individual and at the same time make it a law that you must accept it for all bebts and obligations. In this respect, paper currency is far more fragile then bitcoin.