Look at the areas that are actually populated. While Sweden as a whole averages 20.6 people per square kilometer, the more populous provinces go much higher - Uppland has 111.8/km^2, Sodermanland 146.1/km^2, and so on. That's a population density significantly higher than much of the US - roughly on par with New England.
Another important figure is percentage of population living in an urban area. The US is 82% urban, Sweden 85%. They're essentially similar to the US as far a population density works - they have large, minimally-inhabited areas (Alaska, Lapland), with much of the population concentrated in smaller geographical areas (the East and West coasts for America, the South for Sweden).
Which means the differences in wealth take that much more effect. Not to mention the differences in government and politics - I remind you that the Pirate Party is the third-largest party in Sweden, and most of the others see nothing wrong with people having a proper internet connection.
Precisely. It meant "the point where AMD goes from a desktop chip maker that also makes mobile chips, to a mobile chip maker that also makes desktop chips".
I keep a set of standard gaming dice at my desk in case I need quick random numbers. d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20. Also a coin, which I jokingly call a d2.
And also in case a spontaneous game of DnD erupts.
Yes, there's already 10+Gbps ethernet stuff. But that's honestly overkill for a lot of small/medium businesses' servers. Even 10Gbps is sort of overkill going to an Exchange server for 100 people. Few companies would pay extra to get 100GE to everything unless it actually benefits something.
Many companies, however, would pay a little extra to cut down on cable nests. Easier maintenance, easier expandability... those all serve business purposes. Bosses like to hear "this investment will cost $X, and save us $Y per year in reduced downtime as well as making us more agile at deploying new servers".
For Star* and SecuROM, they do have relatively significant notices that "this game has additional DRM". Not a huge "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU LIKE DRM", but it's there next to whether it has multiplayer and what languages it supports. They don't seem to do this for GFWL, probably because they don't consider that DRM. It's annoying, no argument there, but I've played several GFWL games without making a Live account.
If they tried to block "games aren't allowed to be unlocked at different times in different regions", all the publishers have to do is consider Steam the "last region" - not putting their games on Steam until it's made its worldwide launch. It's too simple to get around in a way that's bad for Steam.
And Valve isn't responsible for enforcing their ethical practices on others. I'm sure they're happy to take a cut of anyone's money.
One of my Minecraft levels used this. Each stop had a self-resetting rail loop, and there was a long rail with a constantly-moving cart. Trying to jump straight onto the moving cart often ended in bumping into and stopping the cart - and restarting the loop was problematic. So you would board a stationary cart, and wait for the main to come around. Once it did, they would match velocities, and you would easily hop over. Disembarking was the reverse - hop onto the secondary cart, then wait for it to reset and stop before exiting.
The starter loops had the side (actually, main) benefit of boosting the main cart's speed, due to a glitch that may or may not still be in the game. So it was essentially a perpetual motion device. Provided no animals or people got in the way, it would run forever.
Supercomputer workloads are significantly different than server workloads, as they typically focus on embarrassingly parallel problems and on throughput rather than latency.
You may as well be saying "why are so many desktops built on x86 chips? It seems like every day I read something on how ARM is better for smartphones".
I shudder to think of a world where "one and a half years" qualifies as "speedy". Or have we forgotten the Bill of Rights?
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
I know the government isn't the swiftest thing in the world, but I don't believe it's that slow. And I'm not sure courts martial qualify as "criminal" prosecutions. But I do know that if I were PFC Manning's lawyer, I'd definitely be bringing that up.
When there is a strong correlation between A and B, there are five options. First, A could be the cause of B. Second, B could be the cause of A. Third, there could be a third element, C, which is the cause of both A and B. Fourth, it may also be a case of both causing each other - a change in A causing a change in B, which in turn causes another change in A. Finally, it could be a mere coincidence.
That is what I meant by "hints that something is involved". When four of the five possibilities are some sort of cause and effect, it's pretty logical to look at a correlation and say "there is probably some sort of causation going on". Note the "probably" - it is not definite, and further analysis is required, but when you see a correlation, you don't think "oh, that's just a coincidence" unless there are serious logical errors.
Even the most absurd correlations often have some sort of causal link. For example, "With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates."
On the surface, that's absurd. But when you look deeper, there is, actually, some causal link.
Piracy is only economically viable when the targets provide more income than the expenses incurred in piracy. Fuel is, nowadays, the primary expense of naval vessels. When there was no fuel being used, piracy was rampant. It is only prevalent nowadays in narrow channels, where the fuel expended getting to the vessel is minimal. Further, burning fuel produces carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
Thus, global warming and the decrease in piracy were both caused by the transition from wind powered ships to those run by coal, wood or oil.
As I said, correlation does not imply causation, but it does hint very strongly that something is going on.
I prepended that hypothesis with "going off gut instinct" because I had no evidence, then outlined a method by which the hypothesis could be tested. Should it be tested and found false, I will naturally and logically reconsider based on the evidence. But, in a lack of direct evidence, all you can do is go off prior experience and logic, something colloquially known as "gut instinct".
Let's look at the fundamental facts here. Well, fact, since there's only one inarguable thing:
African-Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in tech-firm leadership.
That's a correlation - executives in the tech industry tend to be white males (who are significantly overrepresented). Asians and white females are more or less as common as expected. Probably a bit less, but not as significantly.
Now, as we all know, correlation does not imply causation. But it does hint pretty heavily that there is something involved. Since I don't have access to many studies, and can't do my own, all I can do is list every possibility I can imagine, and informally think about it.
Possibility 1: There is a specific bias in technology against blacks and latinos. I find that a bit hard to believe - the tech industry trends liberal, and I'm sure plenty of techies would rather have Geordi La Forge for a boss than Gates or Ellison. It's still a possibility, and I'm not saying no techies are racist, but overall, I don't think this is the best explanation.
Possibility 2: There is a specific bias among business executives against blacks and latinos. That I can definitely believe, but I don't have any statistics to support or refute it, and I'm not sure it would explain it fully.
Possibility 3: There is a specific bias amongst blacks and latinos against entering technology. I suspect this may be a contributing factor, perhaps even the main one. It's only anecdotal evidence, but when I was in high school, there were very few african-american students in the tech program, and no hispanics at all. The ones who were there were fine (one of them remains a good friend, and one of the brightest people I've met), but you'd see a lot more in the art or music programs.
Possibility 4: There is a specific bias amongst blacks and latinos against becoming business executives. This probably isn't a major factor, but it may be a small one. At the very least, racial minorities tend to be less wealthy, which would naturally make them less likely to become major business leaders.
Going off gut instinct, I would say it's a combination of business leaders being biased against blacks/latinos, and blacks/latinos not being encouraged by their parents to enter the tech field. That would be my hypothesis. The best way to check would be to look at the independent factors - you should see a bias against blacks/latinos at all levels of technology, and a bias against black/latino business leadership in other industries, but neither bias should be alone as significant as that seen in tech business leadership. I'd look myself, but I haven't even RTFA yet.
I am typing this on my laptop, which runs Windows Vista. I have a Windows XP machine in the other room, and frequently use Windows 7, XP, Server 2003 and Server 2008 at school.
I also run an OpenBSD desktop/server at home - it's both a Samba server and a passable desktop machine, at least for checking Slashdot and such. Likewise, at school I have several Linux servers (Arch and Fedora) in use. I've contemplated adding even more to the collection - is Solaris still free? Might be worth trying out, if only for the educational value.
And, to complete the collection, I have a Mac Pro sitting next to the BSD server, as well as my Android phone.
I could have posted this from any of those. In fact, I could have used several of them to post this - I could trivially VNC into the Mac, then SSH into the BSD box, set up X forwarding, and post this from there.
Plenty of things are keeping me *on* Windows - I do a lot of gaming, which is heavily Windows-exclusive, but there's also the fact that for a lot of things, Windows Just Works. But nothing is keeping me *exclusively* on Windows.
Likewise, various things are keeping me on my other machines. GarageBand for the Mac is important for me. OpenBSD is familiar (I learned it before I had Linux, so I tend to prefer it simply out of personal taste), and fun to tinker with (as well as an ultra-safe place to open and decontaminate any suspicious attachments and files).
But mostly, it's that operating systems have matured, and in doing so they've all borrowed features from one another (or had the features ported). I have Cygwin and Perl installed, so I have all the nifty command-line things Linux has, on Windows. And I have DOSBox installed on the BSD system (it's too weak to run Wine effectively), so I get a lot of the old games from Windows. Vista and 7 borrowed a lot of UI features from OS X, but the reverse is also true.
And, of course, every single one of them runs Firefox, whether it's 2.2 and 4.0 on the BSD box (I have an old installation around from a hard drive upgrade), 8.0 on the Mac and laptop, 4.x on the other Windows machine (I haven't used it much lately, TBH), and Fennec on the Droid. Since a ton of stuff nowadays IS web-based, that may be all I need.
The operating system is increasingly meaningless. I can run OpenOffice or LibreOffice on anything, I can run GIMP on anything, I can run Audacity on anything, I have GCC and Java and Perl on everything, and I can even run Steam on 75% of my computers. The biggest concern I have with switching between systems isn't "what programs can I run? what hardware can I use?", but "can I remember to use Command-C/Command-V instead of Control-C/Control-V?".
I don't recall opting in to that particular feature. I think it's actually an opt-out feature - I know it can be disabled, but (annoying as it sometimes is) I don't see why you would.
I use Steam. I'm anonymous save for my credit card info - had I cared, I could have paid via Paypal or one of the other methods (they actually have Steam ATMs in Russia - you can pay in cold hard cash), but just giving them the card directly was easier. I don't ever recall handing over my name or address, although I may have forgotten (aka [citation needed]). I'm comfortable with the level of privacy I have with Steam - you may not be, and that's fine.
The only emails I've ever gotten from Steam are the security "we've detected activity on a new computer, here's the verification code you need to authorize it". Since that's a security measure focused on my security, not theirs, I see no problem with it (and it can be disabled anyways). Think of it as DRM that gives you access to the kill switch as well.
Oh, and there is a backup copy system in Steam - Steam->Backup and Restore Games. If you really, really want, you can even host your own Steam Content Server (provided you meet certain hardware and business requirements).
There was much miscommunication last time - a Sony executive said the credit card info was unencrypted. Which immediately launched a massive wave of "WTF?" from everyone with even a passing knowledge of security.
There's also the fact that the intrusion targeted the Steam forums, which have distinct accounts from Steam itself. People probably use the same password on both (I think I might've), but it's still slightly better.
And you can't forget the main difference - people can still play their games. During the Sony hacks, people were locked out of online play for quite some time. And people (being stupid) care more about getting their CoD on than not getting their credit cards stolen.
Still not unforgivable, but the fact that Valve is immediately going "we fucked up, we're trying to fix it, here's exactly what's going on" rather than Sony's "We are aware of outages but won't even say that we got hacked for several days". Honesty counts for a lot.
That relies on them compromising a box first - which NAT won't protect you from, either.
The huge address space of IPv6 is just as much a security feature as NAT - ie. effectively none. You can crack a box behind NAT, you can crack a box in IPv6.
That relies on security through obscurity. If you rely on not being publicly visible, you're doing it wrong. Shut down or secure any unneeded port-bound services, and install a basic firewall on the router to only let the ports you need out (just port 80 may be enough).
Plus, just finding a device on IPv6 can be hard. Given a 64-byte ICMP packet and a gigabit ethernet connection, it would take just under 300,000 years to ping every potential host in a/64. You want security through obscurity? Set your DHCP server to spit out addresses from some random offset instead of from::1.
Check Proclamation 7463 (signed 2011-09-14, extended annually throughout Bush's and Obama's terms). There's also Executive Order 12947 (signed 1995-24-01 by Clinton), and two more signed in 1979-10-14 and 1995-03-15 that I couldn't (be assed to) find more specifics on.
We're under at least four "limited" states of emergency right now. With the exception of Israel (which has been under a state of emergency since 1948), we've been under an uninterrupted state of emergency longer than any other country.
I'm going to drop this WH petition here, since it's relevant. It's a small, simple request - simplify the tax code. For now, don't make substantial changes. Just get it from 500,000 lines to 50,000, without significantly changing the burden placed on each tax bracket. Simplify it enough that an actual citizen can pay his own taxes.
It really needs to be done to the entire United States Code, but you want to start small.
Slashdot Mirror
Look at the areas that are actually populated. While Sweden as a whole averages 20.6 people per square kilometer, the more populous provinces go much higher - Uppland has 111.8/km^2, Sodermanland 146.1/km^2, and so on. That's a population density significantly higher than much of the US - roughly on par with New England.
Another important figure is percentage of population living in an urban area. The US is 82% urban, Sweden 85%. They're essentially similar to the US as far a population density works - they have large, minimally-inhabited areas (Alaska, Lapland), with much of the population concentrated in smaller geographical areas (the East and West coasts for America, the South for Sweden).
Which means the differences in wealth take that much more effect. Not to mention the differences in government and politics - I remind you that the Pirate Party is the third-largest party in Sweden, and most of the others see nothing wrong with people having a proper internet connection.
Precisely. It meant "the point where AMD goes from a desktop chip maker that also makes mobile chips, to a mobile chip maker that also makes desktop chips".
I keep a set of standard gaming dice at my desk in case I need quick random numbers. d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20. Also a coin, which I jokingly call a d2.
And also in case a spontaneous game of DnD erupts.
Yes, there's already 10+Gbps ethernet stuff. But that's honestly overkill for a lot of small/medium businesses' servers. Even 10Gbps is sort of overkill going to an Exchange server for 100 people. Few companies would pay extra to get 100GE to everything unless it actually benefits something.
Many companies, however, would pay a little extra to cut down on cable nests. Easier maintenance, easier expandability... those all serve business purposes. Bosses like to hear "this investment will cost $X, and save us $Y per year in reduced downtime as well as making us more agile at deploying new servers".
For Star* and SecuROM, they do have relatively significant notices that "this game has additional DRM". Not a huge "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU LIKE DRM", but it's there next to whether it has multiplayer and what languages it supports. They don't seem to do this for GFWL, probably because they don't consider that DRM. It's annoying, no argument there, but I've played several GFWL games without making a Live account.
If they tried to block "games aren't allowed to be unlocked at different times in different regions", all the publishers have to do is consider Steam the "last region" - not putting their games on Steam until it's made its worldwide launch. It's too simple to get around in a way that's bad for Steam.
And Valve isn't responsible for enforcing their ethical practices on others. I'm sure they're happy to take a cut of anyone's money.
It has the region locks only because certain publishers insist on it. Valve doesn't use it on any of their own games.
The Euro issue I don't know about. Try emailing Gabe about it.
One of my Minecraft levels used this. Each stop had a self-resetting rail loop, and there was a long rail with a constantly-moving cart. Trying to jump straight onto the moving cart often ended in bumping into and stopping the cart - and restarting the loop was problematic. So you would board a stationary cart, and wait for the main to come around. Once it did, they would match velocities, and you would easily hop over. Disembarking was the reverse - hop onto the secondary cart, then wait for it to reset and stop before exiting.
The starter loops had the side (actually, main) benefit of boosting the main cart's speed, due to a glitch that may or may not still be in the game. So it was essentially a perpetual motion device. Provided no animals or people got in the way, it would run forever.
Supercomputer workloads are significantly different than server workloads, as they typically focus on embarrassingly parallel problems and on throughput rather than latency.
You may as well be saying "why are so many desktops built on x86 chips? It seems like every day I read something on how ARM is better for smartphones".
I shudder to think of a world where "one and a half years" qualifies as "speedy". Or have we forgotten the Bill of Rights?
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
I know the government isn't the swiftest thing in the world, but I don't believe it's that slow. And I'm not sure courts martial qualify as "criminal" prosecutions. But I do know that if I were PFC Manning's lawyer, I'd definitely be bringing that up.
Waitwaitwaitwaitwait
You read the article, but not the summary?
Everything I know about /. is now a lie.
"SLIPS" sounds boring. Plus, it's the wrong word type - it look like a verb, but it's trying to be a noun. Not going to take off.
I propose the name "lawyerite", after the second-slipperiest material known to mankind.
Let me phrase it this way:
There is a strong correlation between correlation and causation.
When there is a strong correlation between A and B, there are five options. First, A could be the cause of B. Second, B could be the cause of A. Third, there could be a third element, C, which is the cause of both A and B. Fourth, it may also be a case of both causing each other - a change in A causing a change in B, which in turn causes another change in A. Finally, it could be a mere coincidence.
That is what I meant by "hints that something is involved". When four of the five possibilities are some sort of cause and effect, it's pretty logical to look at a correlation and say "there is probably some sort of causation going on". Note the "probably" - it is not definite, and further analysis is required, but when you see a correlation, you don't think "oh, that's just a coincidence" unless there are serious logical errors.
Even the most absurd correlations often have some sort of causal link. For example, "With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates."
On the surface, that's absurd. But when you look deeper, there is, actually, some causal link.
Piracy is only economically viable when the targets provide more income than the expenses incurred in piracy. Fuel is, nowadays, the primary expense of naval vessels. When there was no fuel being used, piracy was rampant. It is only prevalent nowadays in narrow channels, where the fuel expended getting to the vessel is minimal. Further, burning fuel produces carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
Thus, global warming and the decrease in piracy were both caused by the transition from wind powered ships to those run by coal, wood or oil.
As I said, correlation does not imply causation, but it does hint very strongly that something is going on.
I prepended that hypothesis with "going off gut instinct" because I had no evidence, then outlined a method by which the hypothesis could be tested. Should it be tested and found false, I will naturally and logically reconsider based on the evidence. But, in a lack of direct evidence, all you can do is go off prior experience and logic, something colloquially known as "gut instinct".
Let's look at the fundamental facts here. Well, fact, since there's only one inarguable thing:
African-Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in tech-firm leadership.
That's a correlation - executives in the tech industry tend to be white males (who are significantly overrepresented). Asians and white females are more or less as common as expected. Probably a bit less, but not as significantly.
Now, as we all know, correlation does not imply causation. But it does hint pretty heavily that there is something involved. Since I don't have access to many studies, and can't do my own, all I can do is list every possibility I can imagine, and informally think about it.
Possibility 1: There is a specific bias in technology against blacks and latinos. I find that a bit hard to believe - the tech industry trends liberal, and I'm sure plenty of techies would rather have Geordi La Forge for a boss than Gates or Ellison. It's still a possibility, and I'm not saying no techies are racist, but overall, I don't think this is the best explanation.
Possibility 2: There is a specific bias among business executives against blacks and latinos. That I can definitely believe, but I don't have any statistics to support or refute it, and I'm not sure it would explain it fully.
Possibility 3: There is a specific bias amongst blacks and latinos against entering technology. I suspect this may be a contributing factor, perhaps even the main one. It's only anecdotal evidence, but when I was in high school, there were very few african-american students in the tech program, and no hispanics at all. The ones who were there were fine (one of them remains a good friend, and one of the brightest people I've met), but you'd see a lot more in the art or music programs.
Possibility 4: There is a specific bias amongst blacks and latinos against becoming business executives. This probably isn't a major factor, but it may be a small one. At the very least, racial minorities tend to be less wealthy, which would naturally make them less likely to become major business leaders.
Going off gut instinct, I would say it's a combination of business leaders being biased against blacks/latinos, and blacks/latinos not being encouraged by their parents to enter the tech field. That would be my hypothesis. The best way to check would be to look at the independent factors - you should see a bias against blacks/latinos at all levels of technology, and a bias against black/latino business leadership in other industries, but neither bias should be alone as significant as that seen in tech business leadership. I'd look myself, but I haven't even RTFA yet.
I am typing this on my laptop, which runs Windows Vista. I have a Windows XP machine in the other room, and frequently use Windows 7, XP, Server 2003 and Server 2008 at school.
I also run an OpenBSD desktop/server at home - it's both a Samba server and a passable desktop machine, at least for checking Slashdot and such. Likewise, at school I have several Linux servers (Arch and Fedora) in use. I've contemplated adding even more to the collection - is Solaris still free? Might be worth trying out, if only for the educational value.
And, to complete the collection, I have a Mac Pro sitting next to the BSD server, as well as my Android phone.
I could have posted this from any of those. In fact, I could have used several of them to post this - I could trivially VNC into the Mac, then SSH into the BSD box, set up X forwarding, and post this from there.
Plenty of things are keeping me *on* Windows - I do a lot of gaming, which is heavily Windows-exclusive, but there's also the fact that for a lot of things, Windows Just Works. But nothing is keeping me *exclusively* on Windows.
Likewise, various things are keeping me on my other machines. GarageBand for the Mac is important for me. OpenBSD is familiar (I learned it before I had Linux, so I tend to prefer it simply out of personal taste), and fun to tinker with (as well as an ultra-safe place to open and decontaminate any suspicious attachments and files).
But mostly, it's that operating systems have matured, and in doing so they've all borrowed features from one another (or had the features ported). I have Cygwin and Perl installed, so I have all the nifty command-line things Linux has, on Windows. And I have DOSBox installed on the BSD system (it's too weak to run Wine effectively), so I get a lot of the old games from Windows. Vista and 7 borrowed a lot of UI features from OS X, but the reverse is also true.
And, of course, every single one of them runs Firefox, whether it's 2.2 and 4.0 on the BSD box (I have an old installation around from a hard drive upgrade), 8.0 on the Mac and laptop, 4.x on the other Windows machine (I haven't used it much lately, TBH), and Fennec on the Droid. Since a ton of stuff nowadays IS web-based, that may be all I need.
The operating system is increasingly meaningless. I can run OpenOffice or LibreOffice on anything, I can run GIMP on anything, I can run Audacity on anything, I have GCC and Java and Perl on everything, and I can even run Steam on 75% of my computers. The biggest concern I have with switching between systems isn't "what programs can I run? what hardware can I use?", but "can I remember to use Command-C/Command-V instead of Control-C/Control-V?".
I don't recall opting in to that particular feature. I think it's actually an opt-out feature - I know it can be disabled, but (annoying as it sometimes is) I don't see why you would.
I use Steam. I'm anonymous save for my credit card info - had I cared, I could have paid via Paypal or one of the other methods (they actually have Steam ATMs in Russia - you can pay in cold hard cash), but just giving them the card directly was easier. I don't ever recall handing over my name or address, although I may have forgotten (aka [citation needed]). I'm comfortable with the level of privacy I have with Steam - you may not be, and that's fine.
The only emails I've ever gotten from Steam are the security "we've detected activity on a new computer, here's the verification code you need to authorize it". Since that's a security measure focused on my security, not theirs, I see no problem with it (and it can be disabled anyways). Think of it as DRM that gives you access to the kill switch as well.
Oh, and there is a backup copy system in Steam - Steam->Backup and Restore Games. If you really, really want, you can even host your own Steam Content Server (provided you meet certain hardware and business requirements).
Yes - but some Sony exec stated otherwise, which caused no end of confusion even after they corrected the statement.
There was much miscommunication last time - a Sony executive said the credit card info was unencrypted. Which immediately launched a massive wave of "WTF?" from everyone with even a passing knowledge of security.
There's also the fact that the intrusion targeted the Steam forums, which have distinct accounts from Steam itself. People probably use the same password on both (I think I might've), but it's still slightly better.
And you can't forget the main difference - people can still play their games. During the Sony hacks, people were locked out of online play for quite some time. And people (being stupid) care more about getting their CoD on than not getting their credit cards stolen.
Still not unforgivable, but the fact that Valve is immediately going "we fucked up, we're trying to fix it, here's exactly what's going on" rather than Sony's "We are aware of outages but won't even say that we got hacked for several days". Honesty counts for a lot.
That relies on them compromising a box first - which NAT won't protect you from, either.
The huge address space of IPv6 is just as much a security feature as NAT - ie. effectively none. You can crack a box behind NAT, you can crack a box in IPv6.
That relies on security through obscurity. If you rely on not being publicly visible, you're doing it wrong. Shut down or secure any unneeded port-bound services, and install a basic firewall on the router to only let the ports you need out (just port 80 may be enough).
Plus, just finding a device on IPv6 can be hard. Given a 64-byte ICMP packet and a gigabit ethernet connection, it would take just under 300,000 years to ping every potential host in a /64. You want security through obscurity? Set your DHCP server to spit out addresses from some random offset instead of from ::1.
Check Proclamation 7463 (signed 2011-09-14, extended annually throughout Bush's and Obama's terms). There's also Executive Order 12947 (signed 1995-24-01 by Clinton), and two more signed in 1979-10-14 and 1995-03-15 that I couldn't (be assed to) find more specifics on.
We're under at least four "limited" states of emergency right now. With the exception of Israel (which has been under a state of emergency since 1948), we've been under an uninterrupted state of emergency longer than any other country.
I'm going to drop this WH petition here, since it's relevant. It's a small, simple request - simplify the tax code. For now, don't make substantial changes. Just get it from 500,000 lines to 50,000, without significantly changing the burden placed on each tax bracket. Simplify it enough that an actual citizen can pay his own taxes.
It really needs to be done to the entire United States Code, but you want to start small.