Amazing how many take what you said out of context. As for the content, that is exactly what I was thinking. This isn't a fishing exposition, this is gathering evidence to demonstrate forethought of his actions, which is necessary for this type of investigation. Not only is it acceptable, but obviously necessary for them to be exercising due diligence in prosecuting the case, assuming they have any suspicion that the logs will provide ANY insight into his actions.
And besides, if you want to start writing your own browser to compete with the big guys, do you want to pay $6.5 million? Or even $1,000? This would effectively cut out grassroots development of anything that could compete with the big boys, wouldn't it? That alone is worth not having the "feature".
Unless you cheat (like Kirk), sometimes real life doesn't give you good choices. I personally think that this adds to the immersion quality of a game, making it a better escape. Bioshock and Fallout are two good examples of games that make you pay a price for your choices, without it being overbearing.
While California's budget is larger than most countries, it isn't a sovereign nation that has issued billions in treasury notes, etc. It does have the federal backing, even if the feds directly back them with cash instantly. Europe and the world could have said "piss off" to Greece (as an example) and just paid the price secondarily, but the U.S. can't do the same to California in the same way. Their economy is tied in with the other states much tighter than the E.U. states. Also, the feds *would* come in with some level of support, including paying unemployment to laid off state workers if the state couldn't and some other debts.
That said, it would be a huge problem for a short while, but in the end, it would be like any other bankruptcy in that the court would come in and insure the most important bills did get paid. We are talking about California being able to pay for 80% or so of their bills, not 0%. And if all else failed, legal or not, the feds would come in and "fix" enough problems so basic services would be provided. You couldn't do this in the E.U. because of the nature of the organization.
We are talking about a shortfall of $25 billion before any of these cuts. Hell, the feds have already cranked out $1000 billion in phoney money to keep the economy going after the banks went tits-up in 2008. The fed is $14000 billion in debt (yes, $14 trillion). California's shortfall is equal to.17857% (less than a quarter of 1 percent) of the total U.S. debt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt). Put another way, there are 9 people in the world with enough money to write a check for the full difference of 25 billion. If California cuts the deficit in half, then 42 people in the world could write the check (cite:http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank_2.html)
If they do go into default, it will be for less than 25 billion, likely half that. It will be inconvenient to lenders, and a bitch to the state employees, and make lots of headlines, but it won't be the end of times and will only be temporary, until they can declare bankruptcy and legally force unions to the table, and legally blow off some debts.
No, no, no, no, no....you misunderstand. They were HIRED. Yes, hired, because of their "potential" to add to the company. Of course, MS hasn't figured out what their job descriptions will be, but still. Being hired for a job you don't go to is completely different than "bought off". Completely different. Really.
Do you want to be the sheriff that didn't issue the Amber alert because you thought the child wasn't in imminent danger, or do you want to issue the alert "just to be safe"? I don't know the actual percentage of missing children cases that get bumped to Amber status, but I do know that most sheriff's are elected, and most elected officials want to cover their asses at all costs. Would be interesting to know actual percentages, however.
Politicians telling Scientists how to do science, what could possibly go wrong.
Sounds logical. Most congressmen are lawyers. Most lawyers know everything, ergo, the best people to design a craft for NASA that can be used for the next 20 years would be politicians that have to raise money and run for election every two years. Makes perfect sense.
Yes, instead we've replaced it with the 6 month cycle of ever increasing CPU transistor count, more memory, "smart" phones, LCD TV, hard drives, etc that are required to play these "digital" downloads. (CDs are digital too).
So let me get this right, you replaced your 6 month old computer...hell, let's say you replaced your 5 YEAR old computer, solely because it wouldn't play the "new music"? I'm pretty sure that any Pentium 4 CPU is already many times the power needed to play music. (I played music on a 486 w/4mb ram, and had power to spare). Even allowing for decoding MP3s, any Pentium 4 would still be overkill for the purpose.
Maybe, just maybe, people are upgrading their computers for reasons other than solely to play music.
I will see your drug analogy, and raise with an additional tidbit: The fact that you make something illegal not only makes it more enticing, but creates the demand for bypassing the blocks in place. Just as with drug smuggling, censorship creates a market for methods and software to bypass the blocking, and the net result is MORE tools available over time, making it easier to obtain illegal "products".
The US usually cannot give such an assurance, so extradition from the UK to US probably won't happen.
I don't think Sweden will extradite without the same assurance. And yes, the U.S. *can* give those assurances, if they so choose. The president can simply do it as an executive order, since his branch of govt is in charge of prosecuting criminal cases. The Congress can't override that even if they wanted to (Separation of Powers, see Constitution). They have done it before, and can prep and sign the paperwork in an hour.
More importantly, in spite of all the rhetoric, it is very doubtful that they would even try to seek the death penalty for the crime. There is only ONE instance in all of American history that a civilian was given capital punishment for espionage, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.
Additionally, the American public would be strongly against capital punishment in this case since he hasn't killed anyone. Capital punishment is only popular in the bible belt, where "an eye for an eye" is the theme. Since he didn't kill anyone, even advocates wouldn't support it.
Its only two fall guys, one of which is killed within a week of doing his act. And like I said....I'm not paranoid to think it is a common event, even if JFK conspiracy fans think so.
Now, CAN it be done? Oh hell yes. You can promise the first guy anything you want, you are going to off his ass anyway. You just have to make it convenient. Hell, even HE might have gotten away after killing Assange, and then went and "committed suicide", so you only need one patsy, and one experienced person to, well, commit suicide on the guy. "Eat these pills or I will blow your fucking head off" might be all it takes.
Is this the likely scenario. Of course not. Are there at least *some* people in our government who would approve of this kind of plan? I would bet so. What those people want more than anything is to make sure that someone doesn't leak what THEY are doing, particularly since part of what the spooks in our govt. do is very illegal, and could land them in jail.
Would a lifer spook have moral objections to killing two people (one a "traitor", the other an idiot) in order to protect himself, and his previous deeds that were "for the good of the nation: the ends justify the means"? What do you think? Again, not the most likely scenario, but I would bet a month's salary the idea has floated around a few heads in D.C.
Likewise, security cameras are generally useless... "the suspect appears to be a chinese male in his late teens or early twenties and appears to be... chinese."
They may all look alike to you, but I assure that they don't all look alike to other Chinese persons;)
I was thinking the same thing myself. Sure he pissed off the entire government but he's got so much press I doubt he can just be disappeared.
While I am not paranoid enough to think it will happen, you don't have to disappear someone. You just have a patsy kill him ("he was a mental patient, out of his mind"), then have someone else kill the patsy (a "information wants to be free" nut), so you can't question him. The second guy doesn't know that the first was hired to begin with, and no one knows who did the hiring to begin with. As long as the second guy remains silent, he is compensated (family gets regular $$, or whatever). He "somehow" dies of cancer (or suicide + botched investigation) onr or two years later. Not that different than what is claimed in some circles regarding JFK.
Not really. Just like the Playboy magazine it came from, people might SAY they read the articles, but they REALLY only go there for the pictures.
I might also add that this is the first time I have seen an article here actually slashdotted in a while (can't connect)....need someone to post an ascii version of the image.
Again, bypassed in less than one minute. Your system works only because you are voluntarily using it. If I was on your network, it would be trivial to bypass your "protections", as long as I have control over the computer that I am using. ISPs won't be able to force any of your browser level addons listed. All you have is firewall and blacklists left, which is a joke to work around. I could list all the ways to bypass these blocks, but it would be redundant for half the users here.
Even if you block every port except 80, and deny all protocols except TCP, it can be worked around in short order with just a little help on the outside, which would be flooding in.
If I point a gun to your head and tell you that I will kill you if you don't jump over the moon, that still doesn't mean you will jump over the moon. Bypassing any blocks by an ISP can easily be bypassed.
Using DNS to assign bad sites with fake IPs? Use a different DNS server, any DNS server outside your country. Takes about 1 minute to setup in Windows, or install your own DNS server on your desktop, which will take about 10 minutes. Blocking IP addresses wholesale? Use a proxy server. Slightly slower, but bypasses any block by the ISP in seconds. Deep packet inspection? Use https. The point is that anyone that even remotely wants to bypass the "security" setup by the ISP can, with very little effort. If you don't remove the source (and all mirrors) of content, it is virtually impossible to prevent access to it on the net. Even China can't, and heaven knows, they are trying.
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" - John Gilmore, Internet Pioneer
So the US would be fine with lots of fully armed chinese merchant ships in their ports and vice versa?
I would. The US has over 300 million guns in the hands of civilians, and more military firepower than any other country in the world. I'm pretty sure that a trio of 50mm rifles and a case of ammo is no threat. Oh, and no Chinese ship ever sails in waters known to have pirates, on the way to the US. The only pirate problem is around Somalia. No reason to even have the guns mounted and loaded unless you are around that area. Otherwise, they can be locked and stowed.
But if they bought the code, it doesn't matter. They can legally copy their own code all they want. You can legally fork any GPL'ed version all you want. You showing a half dozen lines that match, in a complete program, isn't earth shaking, and I just wish kdawson would have vetted this better.
As long as they did purchase all the code they are using, they are perfectly legal in this, whether you like it or not. Whether or not they reused code would be irrelevant, no matter how much you keep harping on the issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Amazing how many take what you said out of context. As for the content, that is exactly what I was thinking. This isn't a fishing exposition, this is gathering evidence to demonstrate forethought of his actions, which is necessary for this type of investigation. Not only is it acceptable, but obviously necessary for them to be exercising due diligence in prosecuting the case, assuming they have any suspicion that the logs will provide ANY insight into his actions.
And besides, if you want to start writing your own browser to compete with the big guys, do you want to pay $6.5 million? Or even $1,000? This would effectively cut out grassroots development of anything that could compete with the big boys, wouldn't it? That alone is worth not having the "feature".
Can't believe no one has mentioned the Kobayashi Maru.
Unless you cheat (like Kirk), sometimes real life doesn't give you good choices. I personally think that this adds to the immersion quality of a game, making it a better escape. Bioshock and Fallout are two good examples of games that make you pay a price for your choices, without it being overbearing.
While California's budget is larger than most countries, it isn't a sovereign nation that has issued billions in treasury notes, etc. It does have the federal backing, even if the feds directly back them with cash instantly. Europe and the world could have said "piss off" to Greece (as an example) and just paid the price secondarily, but the U.S. can't do the same to California in the same way. Their economy is tied in with the other states much tighter than the E.U. states. Also, the feds *would* come in with some level of support, including paying unemployment to laid off state workers if the state couldn't and some other debts.
That said, it would be a huge problem for a short while, but in the end, it would be like any other bankruptcy in that the court would come in and insure the most important bills did get paid. We are talking about California being able to pay for 80% or so of their bills, not 0%. And if all else failed, legal or not, the feds would come in and "fix" enough problems so basic services would be provided. You couldn't do this in the E.U. because of the nature of the organization.
We are talking about a shortfall of $25 billion before any of these cuts. Hell, the feds have already cranked out $1000 billion in phoney money to keep the economy going after the banks went tits-up in 2008. The fed is $14000 billion in debt (yes, $14 trillion). California's shortfall is equal to .17857% (less than a quarter of 1 percent) of the total U.S. debt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt). Put another way, there are 9 people in the world with enough money to write a check for the full difference of 25 billion. If California cuts the deficit in half, then 42 people in the world could write the check (cite:http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank_2.html)
If they do go into default, it will be for less than 25 billion, likely half that. It will be inconvenient to lenders, and a bitch to the state employees, and make lots of headlines, but it won't be the end of times and will only be temporary, until they can declare bankruptcy and legally force unions to the table, and legally blow off some debts.
No, no, no, no, no....you misunderstand. They were HIRED. Yes, hired, because of their "potential" to add to the company. Of course, MS hasn't figured out what their job descriptions will be, but still. Being hired for a job you don't go to is completely different than "bought off". Completely different. Really.
Do you want to be the sheriff that didn't issue the Amber alert because you thought the child wasn't in imminent danger, or do you want to issue the alert "just to be safe"? I don't know the actual percentage of missing children cases that get bumped to Amber status, but I do know that most sheriff's are elected, and most elected officials want to cover their asses at all costs. Would be interesting to know actual percentages, however.
Politicians telling Scientists how to do science, what could possibly go wrong.
Sounds logical. Most congressmen are lawyers. Most lawyers know everything, ergo, the best people to design a craft for NASA that can be used for the next 20 years would be politicians that have to raise money and run for election every two years. Makes perfect sense.
I don't know about autism, but I can think of at least one case where they seemed to cause stupidity. *
Actually, there have been studies that definitively show that there IS a connection between breast size and intelligence.
The larger the breasts of a woman are, the dumber the guys around her will act.
Yes, instead we've replaced it with the 6 month cycle of ever increasing CPU transistor count, more memory, "smart" phones, LCD TV, hard drives, etc that are required to play these "digital" downloads. (CDs are digital too).
So let me get this right, you replaced your 6 month old computer...hell, let's say you replaced your 5 YEAR old computer, solely because it wouldn't play the "new music"? I'm pretty sure that any Pentium 4 CPU is already many times the power needed to play music. (I played music on a 486 w/4mb ram, and had power to spare). Even allowing for decoding MP3s, any Pentium 4 would still be overkill for the purpose.
Maybe, just maybe, people are upgrading their computers for reasons other than solely to play music.
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." -- Ronald Reagan, 1981
We've know about this for decades. ;)
(and apologies for this accurate but out of context quote. I liked Reagan.)
I will see your drug analogy, and raise with an additional tidbit: The fact that you make something illegal not only makes it more enticing, but creates the demand for bypassing the blocks in place. Just as with drug smuggling, censorship creates a market for methods and software to bypass the blocking, and the net result is MORE tools available over time, making it easier to obtain illegal "products".
The US usually cannot give such an assurance, so extradition from the UK to US probably won't happen.
I don't think Sweden will extradite without the same assurance. And yes, the U.S. *can* give those assurances, if they so choose. The president can simply do it as an executive order, since his branch of govt is in charge of prosecuting criminal cases. The Congress can't override that even if they wanted to (Separation of Powers, see Constitution). They have done it before, and can prep and sign the paperwork in an hour.
More importantly, in spite of all the rhetoric, it is very doubtful that they would even try to seek the death penalty for the crime. There is only ONE instance in all of American history that a civilian was given capital punishment for espionage, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.
Additionally, the American public would be strongly against capital punishment in this case since he hasn't killed anyone. Capital punishment is only popular in the bible belt, where "an eye for an eye" is the theme. Since he didn't kill anyone, even advocates wouldn't support it.
Actually, you just broke Godwin. You won.
Its only two fall guys, one of which is killed within a week of doing his act. And like I said....I'm not paranoid to think it is a common event, even if JFK conspiracy fans think so.
Now, CAN it be done? Oh hell yes. You can promise the first guy anything you want, you are going to off his ass anyway. You just have to make it convenient. Hell, even HE might have gotten away after killing Assange, and then went and "committed suicide", so you only need one patsy, and one experienced person to, well, commit suicide on the guy. "Eat these pills or I will blow your fucking head off" might be all it takes.
Is this the likely scenario. Of course not. Are there at least *some* people in our government who would approve of this kind of plan? I would bet so. What those people want more than anything is to make sure that someone doesn't leak what THEY are doing, particularly since part of what the spooks in our govt. do is very illegal, and could land them in jail.
Would a lifer spook have moral objections to killing two people (one a "traitor", the other an idiot) in order to protect himself, and his previous deeds that were "for the good of the nation: the ends justify the means"? What do you think? Again, not the most likely scenario, but I would bet a month's salary the idea has floated around a few heads in D.C.
Likewise, security cameras are generally useless... "the suspect appears to be a chinese male in his late teens or early twenties and appears to be... chinese."
They may all look alike to you, but I assure that they don't all look alike to other Chinese persons ;)
I was thinking the same thing myself. Sure he pissed off the entire government but he's got so much press I doubt he can just be disappeared.
While I am not paranoid enough to think it will happen, you don't have to disappear someone. You just have a patsy kill him ("he was a mental patient, out of his mind"), then have someone else kill the patsy (a "information wants to be free" nut), so you can't question him. The second guy doesn't know that the first was hired to begin with, and no one knows who did the hiring to begin with. As long as the second guy remains silent, he is compensated (family gets regular $$, or whatever). He "somehow" dies of cancer (or suicide + botched investigation) onr or two years later. Not that different than what is claimed in some circles regarding JFK.
The second one is NOT hot. She is somewhat less insane than the first, however.
how to get people to read the article.
Not really. Just like the Playboy magazine it came from, people might SAY they read the articles, but they REALLY only go there for the pictures.
I might also add that this is the first time I have seen an article here actually slashdotted in a while (can't connect)....need someone to post an ascii version of the image.
Last time I checked, anyone in China can access anything they want with a little effort. The PENALTY is what stops most people, not the difficulty.
Again, bypassed in less than one minute. Your system works only because you are voluntarily using it. If I was on your network, it would be trivial to bypass your "protections", as long as I have control over the computer that I am using. ISPs won't be able to force any of your browser level addons listed. All you have is firewall and blacklists left, which is a joke to work around. I could list all the ways to bypass these blocks, but it would be redundant for half the users here.
Even if you block every port except 80, and deny all protocols except TCP, it can be worked around in short order with just a little help on the outside, which would be flooding in.
If I point a gun to your head and tell you that I will kill you if you don't jump over the moon, that still doesn't mean you will jump over the moon. Bypassing any blocks by an ISP can easily be bypassed.
Using DNS to assign bad sites with fake IPs? Use a different DNS server, any DNS server outside your country. Takes about 1 minute to setup in Windows, or install your own DNS server on your desktop, which will take about 10 minutes. Blocking IP addresses wholesale? Use a proxy server. Slightly slower, but bypasses any block by the ISP in seconds. Deep packet inspection? Use https. The point is that anyone that even remotely wants to bypass the "security" setup by the ISP can, with very little effort. If you don't remove the source (and all mirrors) of content, it is virtually impossible to prevent access to it on the net. Even China can't, and heaven knows, they are trying.
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" - John Gilmore, Internet Pioneer
I think it wouldn't have been too much to add this to the entry.
But unnecessary. Everyone on Slashdot would have read the entire article and found out anyway, right?
So the US would be fine with lots of fully armed chinese merchant ships in their ports and vice versa?
I would. The US has over 300 million guns in the hands of civilians, and more military firepower than any other country in the world. I'm pretty sure that a trio of 50mm rifles and a case of ammo is no threat. Oh, and no Chinese ship ever sails in waters known to have pirates, on the way to the US. The only pirate problem is around Somalia. No reason to even have the guns mounted and loaded unless you are around that area. Otherwise, they can be locked and stowed.
Yea, but I wanted to do it in a real programming language ;)
But if they bought the code, it doesn't matter. They can legally copy their own code all they want. You can legally fork any GPL'ed version all you want. You showing a half dozen lines that match, in a complete program, isn't earth shaking, and I just wish kdawson would have vetted this better.
As long as they did purchase all the code they are using, they are perfectly legal in this, whether you like it or not. Whether or not they reused code would be irrelevant, no matter how much you keep harping on the issue.