You don't think that the second it's been done, that the government won't attempt to reverse engineer the "firmware update" thus enabling them to do it to anyone? Regardless of whether or not it is POSSIBLE to reverse engineer it, the government will try to.
Agreed! I'm no email expert, but I've OFTEN wondered why we can't use decent endpoint encryption rather than trying to encrypt the transport... since 99% of all emails I send and receive are to the people I already know... it wouldn't be that hard to exchange keys with them in person. For all others, I can still choose to read email that isn't encrypted, and I can choose to reply, but it would be much easier to know secure vs. insecure if my mail client simply says "you haven't exchanged keys with this recipient, therefore your communications are not secure". Sure this precludes using web based clients... but that's actually not a big deal to me since 99% of my email is read from two devices, a phone and my home computer. Key exchange between the two would be trivial.
I'm curious how the other side handles this... it can't JUST be Apple can it? I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but doesn't one of the Nexus devices have a fingerprint scanner on the back?
But need is need despite advertising... it sounds like you are suggesting a case where there are no alternatives. If I don't necessarily already have a preference, I frequently choose products that compete with the annoying advertiser. Maybe they get the message, maybe they don't, but I know I'm not supporting that kind of behavior.
Also, it is important to distinguish, I don't mind catchy or memorable ads. I do mind annoying and intrusive ads. I don't go out of my way to run ad blockers or anything like that, but my local news website recently pushed me over the limit, and I took measures to ensure I maintained my quality experience on their website.
I see this move as a short term fix... because in the end there are really only two types of viewers... the mindless drones that say "I think I want a Zima" (see Josie and the pussycats) and those who see that add and say: "that's stupid, I'm not buying that, stop being so annoying." Advertisers know that they can NEVER reach a certain segment of the population, so they cater their ads for the Zima crowd. This arms race of screaming louder and louder for attention, like the monster truck voice selling cars at the dealership, can only go so high... eventually even the Zima crowd will tire of it. In this battle, only one group can actually take their ball and go home: The viewers will eventually abandon the site and it will shrivel up and die.
So for those who are fed up, vote with your feet. Just walk away and let nature take it's course, but don't bitch about the loss of a free resource as it was always your choice to begin with.
To this point... I've also freaked out when a paper bag rolled in front of my car. And I don't drive over bags and boxes that simply "appear" to be strewn about by a storm... I've also seen Seran Wrap stretched across the road between two power poles (someone's idea of a prank, or perhaps trying to steal a car, but I took my keys with me when I got out to cut it down)... the car should dutifully stop whenever there is an unknown object in the road. I once heard a story (dunno if it's true) about a UPS driver that stopped at a cardboard box in the street, only to find a 2 year old boy playing inside. If he'd just assumed it was empty things would have been very bad. I've got faith that autonomous cars will eventually overcome all of this, but they definitely have a long road ahead of them.;)
I've already commented... so I can't mod you up... but +1 on this. Which by the way makes me think that perhaps I should suggest... I get not modding on a thread you've commented on... but the entire comments section? I think maybe you shouldn't be able to mod the tree you've commented in, but the rest of the comments are fair game... sometimes I want to mod someone UP, and still comment. But I guess I don't know the reasons behind why that rule exists, so maybe I'm off.
I think I may have posted AC only once, and it was out of curiosity if I would get notifications about ranking/responses. As such, I'm not a big fan of the AC feature... but I see how others like it, so I propose these two things I think I'd like to see:1 if you post AC, moderations to your AC comments should be applied to your Karma... You should be free to speak anonymously, but I should still be able to tell you your opinion is shit. And 2: a proper spam mod option, which should then be connected to a proper ML spam filtering system. It took WAY too long for the stupid "you're all cows" bullshit to end!
I doubt the media can make it any worse than the explanations already offered by the perpmo crowd. If they had an actual scientific understanding of what was happening and allowed their work to be peer reviewed, then they would be.... wait for it... scientists.
I'm simply explaining why giving it to them isn't as automatically "ineffective" as some people think.
I believe that it IS automatically ineffective. The government has yet to point to a single example of a major crime being disrupted through their spying programs, and I suspect it will continue to be that way in perpetuity. The reason is, when you are awash with data, getting even more data rarely helps. One must have a starting point. One must already have a suspect to consider. Once a suspect is identified, then the search through the data can be meaningful, but in every material case that people point to and say "see this is why we need access to their data" the truth is even more simple: the case was cracked by some other means. The other side of the coin is that millions of people will be ransomed and robbed online by untouchable criminals in countries with no extradition, and the government will be completely ineffective at stopping it. Look to the OPM breach to see how the government punishes those who hack and steal American data. Their advice to those affected by the breach is to never make a new friend, never trust a stranger. We have lost our humanity because our government is the lowest common denominator when it comes to proper information security.
I came here to post the same thing... except that instead of sub-space sci-fi... I was going with mother nature... like your compass spinning when standing at magnetic north, I suspect they will stumble upon a method of extracting a minute amount of energy from the environment, and due to their lack of scientific understanding they will attribute it to perpetual motion rather than simple energy balance accounting. Then some scientist will come along and explain it in a few minutes and the "inventor" will be all sad because science crapped on their idea.
The bottom line is they spend years tinkering with an idea, that a scientist armed with a little math and chemistry can debunk in a matter of minutes... leaving the rest of the time to do real science.
Agreed, but that is a delicate argument, since if a person is already a suspect, then a diary is fair game in a search warrant. However, if someone says "papers please..." and then thumbs through your diary, the search is illegal because they had no cause to search. It's important to point out the difference for those who see it more like a web-blog than a diary.
Two things: First, US law doesn't extend to other nations... so making encryption illegal here won't stop it from happening anywhere else. Bank fraud and ransom are already illegal in the US... does that stop Russian hackers? Nope. Chinese hackers? Nope.
Second, go read up on Watergate, and tell me you want the government to have the capability to look at the contents of any person's phone. I'm not concerned at all about someone reading my emails. They're pretty boring. I'm worried about the incumbent political party (Dems or Reps... doesn't matter which) ensuring that they STAY the incumbent party... once the democratic process has been subverted, we will never be able to return to it. People keep saying "but warrants" and I keep saying... warrants must be read and obeyed by people... there isn't some technical interlock that ACTUALLY prevents a law enforcement tech from using the back door... just look to newly coined terms like "loveint" to better understand the fallacy of trusting regular people with such power.
It's CRAZY to me to see how many people append "gate" to the end of their meaningless little scandals, because it cheapens the actual nefariousness of the actual Watergate scandal. Imagine where we would be today if they hadn't been caught?
No revolution: Those who can adapt will survive, and those who cannot will stop reproducing. We'll see a massive population decrease as we shift towards an "intelligence class" and a "subsitance class" who will not ever interact. Do you really think the people who create robots to replace workers won't think to create robots to defend their empires?
Slashdot Mirror
I came here to say this!!!! with a pedigree like:
These hackers attend Defcon in Las Vegas, and they are legends in their local hacking groups, such as HackMiami.
How could they fail?
You don't think that the second it's been done, that the government won't attempt to reverse engineer the "firmware update" thus enabling them to do it to anyone? Regardless of whether or not it is POSSIBLE to reverse engineer it, the government will try to.
Agreed! I'm no email expert, but I've OFTEN wondered why we can't use decent endpoint encryption rather than trying to encrypt the transport... since 99% of all emails I send and receive are to the people I already know... it wouldn't be that hard to exchange keys with them in person. For all others, I can still choose to read email that isn't encrypted, and I can choose to reply, but it would be much easier to know secure vs. insecure if my mail client simply says "you haven't exchanged keys with this recipient, therefore your communications are not secure". Sure this precludes using web based clients... but that's actually not a big deal to me since 99% of my email is read from two devices, a phone and my home computer. Key exchange between the two would be trivial.
I'm curious how the other side handles this... it can't JUST be Apple can it? I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but doesn't one of the Nexus devices have a fingerprint scanner on the back?
But need is need despite advertising... it sounds like you are suggesting a case where there are no alternatives. If I don't necessarily already have a preference, I frequently choose products that compete with the annoying advertiser. Maybe they get the message, maybe they don't, but I know I'm not supporting that kind of behavior.
Also, it is important to distinguish, I don't mind catchy or memorable ads. I do mind annoying and intrusive ads. I don't go out of my way to run ad blockers or anything like that, but my local news website recently pushed me over the limit, and I took measures to ensure I maintained my quality experience on their website.
I'm surprised that /. would like to the definition of schadenfreude. It seems like every slashdotter is WELL acquainted with that principle.
I see this move as a short term fix... because in the end there are really only two types of viewers... the mindless drones that say "I think I want a Zima" (see Josie and the pussycats) and those who see that add and say: "that's stupid, I'm not buying that, stop being so annoying." Advertisers know that they can NEVER reach a certain segment of the population, so they cater their ads for the Zima crowd. This arms race of screaming louder and louder for attention, like the monster truck voice selling cars at the dealership, can only go so high... eventually even the Zima crowd will tire of it. In this battle, only one group can actually take their ball and go home: The viewers will eventually abandon the site and it will shrivel up and die.
So for those who are fed up, vote with your feet. Just walk away and let nature take it's course, but don't bitch about the loss of a free resource as it was always your choice to begin with.
cheap Chinese
there's your problem...
Apparently bio-defense mode can't protect you from "affluenza"... so good on Elon for shutting him down.
Good effort, but Factually Incorrect should not be a mod... it should be a reply... with the facts.
I think you are confusing moderating with conversating... if you disagree, just post up and say so.
Your Sig, Juxtaposed on this thread is freaking hilarious!
To this point... I've also freaked out when a paper bag rolled in front of my car. And I don't drive over bags and boxes that simply "appear" to be strewn about by a storm... I've also seen Seran Wrap stretched across the road between two power poles (someone's idea of a prank, or perhaps trying to steal a car, but I took my keys with me when I got out to cut it down)... the car should dutifully stop whenever there is an unknown object in the road. I once heard a story (dunno if it's true) about a UPS driver that stopped at a cardboard box in the street, only to find a 2 year old boy playing inside. If he'd just assumed it was empty things would have been very bad. I've got faith that autonomous cars will eventually overcome all of this, but they definitely have a long road ahead of them. ;)
Lol... mods should not be capped at 5 for funny!
+1x10^23 I haven't been on SourceForge for years for this exact reason!
I've already commented... so I can't mod you up... but +1 on this. Which by the way makes me think that perhaps I should suggest... I get not modding on a thread you've commented on... but the entire comments section? I think maybe you shouldn't be able to mod the tree you've commented in, but the rest of the comments are fair game... sometimes I want to mod someone UP, and still comment. But I guess I don't know the reasons behind why that rule exists, so maybe I'm off.
I think I may have posted AC only once, and it was out of curiosity if I would get notifications about ranking/responses. As such, I'm not a big fan of the AC feature... but I see how others like it, so I propose these two things I think I'd like to see:1 if you post AC, moderations to your AC comments should be applied to your Karma... You should be free to speak anonymously, but I should still be able to tell you your opinion is shit. And 2: a proper spam mod option, which should then be connected to a proper ML spam filtering system. It took WAY too long for the stupid "you're all cows" bullshit to end!
Best FTFY Evar!
I doubt the media can make it any worse than the explanations already offered by the perpmo crowd. If they had an actual scientific understanding of what was happening and allowed their work to be peer reviewed, then they would be.... wait for it... scientists.
I'm simply explaining why giving it to them isn't as automatically "ineffective" as some people think.
I believe that it IS automatically ineffective. The government has yet to point to a single example of a major crime being disrupted through their spying programs, and I suspect it will continue to be that way in perpetuity. The reason is, when you are awash with data, getting even more data rarely helps. One must have a starting point. One must already have a suspect to consider. Once a suspect is identified, then the search through the data can be meaningful, but in every material case that people point to and say "see this is why we need access to their data" the truth is even more simple: the case was cracked by some other means. The other side of the coin is that millions of people will be ransomed and robbed online by untouchable criminals in countries with no extradition, and the government will be completely ineffective at stopping it. Look to the OPM breach to see how the government punishes those who hack and steal American data. Their advice to those affected by the breach is to never make a new friend, never trust a stranger. We have lost our humanity because our government is the lowest common denominator when it comes to proper information security.
I came here to post the same thing... except that instead of sub-space sci-fi... I was going with mother nature... like your compass spinning when standing at magnetic north, I suspect they will stumble upon a method of extracting a minute amount of energy from the environment, and due to their lack of scientific understanding they will attribute it to perpetual motion rather than simple energy balance accounting. Then some scientist will come along and explain it in a few minutes and the "inventor" will be all sad because science crapped on their idea.
The bottom line is they spend years tinkering with an idea, that a scientist armed with a little math and chemistry can debunk in a matter of minutes... leaving the rest of the time to do real science.
I wish I could +1 this... well said.
Agreed, but that is a delicate argument, since if a person is already a suspect, then a diary is fair game in a search warrant. However, if someone says "papers please..." and then thumbs through your diary, the search is illegal because they had no cause to search. It's important to point out the difference for those who see it more like a web-blog than a diary.
Two things: First, US law doesn't extend to other nations... so making encryption illegal here won't stop it from happening anywhere else. Bank fraud and ransom are already illegal in the US... does that stop Russian hackers? Nope. Chinese hackers? Nope.
Second, go read up on Watergate, and tell me you want the government to have the capability to look at the contents of any person's phone. I'm not concerned at all about someone reading my emails. They're pretty boring. I'm worried about the incumbent political party (Dems or Reps... doesn't matter which) ensuring that they STAY the incumbent party... once the democratic process has been subverted, we will never be able to return to it. People keep saying "but warrants" and I keep saying... warrants must be read and obeyed by people... there isn't some technical interlock that ACTUALLY prevents a law enforcement tech from using the back door... just look to newly coined terms like "loveint" to better understand the fallacy of trusting regular people with such power.
It's CRAZY to me to see how many people append "gate" to the end of their meaningless little scandals, because it cheapens the actual nefariousness of the actual Watergate scandal. Imagine where we would be today if they hadn't been caught?
You missed an option:
No revolution: Those who can adapt will survive, and those who cannot will stop reproducing. We'll see a massive population decrease as we shift towards an "intelligence class" and a "subsitance class" who will not ever interact. Do you really think the people who create robots to replace workers won't think to create robots to defend their empires?