Yeah, I've been kind of wondering about this for a while myself. Are things really worse today than they used to be? Or have things always been more or less the same and we are just more aware of it because of the Internet's prevalence?
In either case, we desperately need to work towards more openness and freedom.
I like to think that, in Canada, there is a large enough percentage of us who really lose our shit whenever we get even a hint that something oppressive or corrupt is going down.
I mean, a senator and high ranking official just lost their jobs because of... wait for it... $90,000 of questionable expenses. It was a huge deal and all over the news here. US government officials wipe their asses with that kind of money and nobody blinks.
Considering the immense amount of power bestowed upon them and how they continue to demonstrate just how undeserving of it really are, we certainly want all actions of law enforcement to be fiercely scrutinized with the undeceiving eyes and ears of a camera and microphone. On the other hand, it carries a considerable potential to frequently violate individuals' privacy.
On balance, it should probably be uploaded to a private server, accessible only to some sort of civil rights watchdog group with the power to charge law enforcement with violations; and these charges need to have TEETH. No, officer, you don't get a paid vacation for bludgeoning and tazing a suspect because he might have been a bit rude or simply defensive of his rights... you get charged for felony assault with a deadly weapon AND your wages/pension/whatever are garnished until you've paid out restitution, medical bills, etc.
A court order would be required for police access to specific footage and an additional, separate order for general publication. Release to private citizens or attorneys strictly for the purposes of legal defense would require only identification and an internal report.
Additionally, police should be required to immediately relinquish their duties to a fellow officer the instant the recording device ceases to function for any reason and continue only when it is repaired or replaced. Otherwise, the entire system is useless because oops, it just happened to malfunction at exactly the time I was accused of beating the suspect to a pulp -- I swear, he tripped and fell!
But who am I kidding... this is all a pipe dream as we are waaaaay too far down the rabbit hole of tyranny for anything like this to gain traction.
When did I say anything about just giving away money? It's a complicated problem that would require a lot of coordinated planning and effort to fix. It's a lot easier just to demonize and oppress them, which is why that is exactly what happens.
Leave it to Americans to assume that just throwing money at a problem is the first solution anyone would think of.
So, my two-year-old niece, who is normally a delight, only gets atypically pissy, stubborn and reckless when she's consumed sugar in excess because she possesses the cognizance to know she can excuse it based on supposedly false psychological conceptions?
Sure, OK, I guess I should tell my sister that her daughter is some sort of prodigy.
A general purpose computer / phone that can hold all of your data, be your only computer and fit in your pocket. What would be really great is if it could automatically connect to a wireless hub that attaches monitors, keyboard, mouse and various peripherals when it detects that it's within a specified proximity.
The technology is certainly possible and most of it likely exists in some autonomous form or another; it's mainly a matter of someone coordinating and bringing it all together. Will that someone be Ubuntu? Who knows. But I know that the one that will have the best chance will be the one that is most openly standardized.
I want one with x86/64, though, so I can run real software, not the piddly-ass crippleware that seems to plague ARM.
What a difference a mere few decades makes. This is exactly the type of thing that America historically mocked, derided and demonized the USSR and other "commie" or "evil" nations for doing. America is quite clearly demonstrating that their intentions are no less disingenuous.
The problem is not communism, not capitalism nor any other -ism. The problem is that the powerful will never satiate their craving for more power. Power absolutely despises being proven wrong and it will continue its scourge at all costs to cover up and misdirect conceptions.
This is what evil does when it's backed into a corner.
OK, so you have the option to manage your own keys, but we're trusting that Google doesn't copy your keys when you create them and that they don't have a backdoor. Based on recent revelations, I wouldn't put either past them.
Once Google unequivocally tells the feds to fuck off the next time they come sniffing around for user data, I'll put some stock into such supposed privacy measures.
"Should not" is only a line in a config script away from "blocked."
The point is that no ISP, least of all Google, should be taking this position. The terms "server" and "client" really just describe the instigator and direction of traffic flow. You start restricting that, the internet further degenerates into consumer and producer classes and becomes cable TV. *shudder*
Gang violence in NYC, LA, Detroit, Chicago, is what causes the majority of street murders. Stop and Frisk was meant to profile gang members and then allow police to search them for weapons. It's solved a considerable number of murders. And prevented a considerable number of murders.
The majority of murders solved and prevented by Stop and Frisk have been of black victims. Because black on black crime is almost an epidemic in large urban areas in the United States.
All of which is rooted in rampant poverty. But, by all means, let's continue playing cowboys and indians because it's a hell of a lot more fun than actually fixing the underlying problem.
For fuck's sake, "cloud" is not a technology, it's the latest marketing scam to get everyone relinquish control of their devices and data to the modern equivalent of the mainframe.
When you rely on a third party for security, you are placing an enormous amount of trust in them. You're trusting that they have not installed backdoors, that they do not copy your encryption keys and that they really are doing all the things they say they are. There are also external factors that may be beyond their control, like government demands, as we saw with Lavabit.
Now, if Mega is going to do something like build plugins, extensions or local proxies for popular web and local mail clients that makes end-to-end encryption easy and commonplace -- and will release all the relevant source code -- then we'll talk.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, we've given people more than that for winning the ovarian lottery, so why not?
It's a... bouncing marsupial.
Google the phrase, "Green in the new Red"
All I get is pictures of a Canadian hick wearing plaid and putting duct tape on everything.
Silly rabbit, the law doesn't apply to government and police!
Yeah, I've been kind of wondering about this for a while myself. Are things really worse today than they used to be? Or have things always been more or less the same and we are just more aware of it because of the Internet's prevalence?
In either case, we desperately need to work towards more openness and freedom.
I like to think that, in Canada, there is a large enough percentage of us who really lose our shit whenever we get even a hint that something oppressive or corrupt is going down.
I mean, a senator and high ranking official just lost their jobs because of ... wait for it ... $90,000 of questionable expenses. It was a huge deal and all over the news here. US government officials wipe their asses with that kind of money and nobody blinks.
They know there are offsite backups. This was intimidation, pure and simple.
I can buy that the submitted report "did not have enough technical information" to take action, but your response is ... uh, eh fuck it?
How about you follow up by contacting the submitter for more information.
Considering the immense amount of power bestowed upon them and how they continue to demonstrate just how undeserving of it really are, we certainly want all actions of law enforcement to be fiercely scrutinized with the undeceiving eyes and ears of a camera and microphone. On the other hand, it carries a considerable potential to frequently violate individuals' privacy.
On balance, it should probably be uploaded to a private server, accessible only to some sort of civil rights watchdog group with the power to charge law enforcement with violations; and these charges need to have TEETH. No, officer, you don't get a paid vacation for bludgeoning and tazing a suspect because he might have been a bit rude or simply defensive of his rights ... you get charged for felony assault with a deadly weapon AND your wages/pension/whatever are garnished until you've paid out restitution, medical bills, etc.
A court order would be required for police access to specific footage and an additional, separate order for general publication. Release to private citizens or attorneys strictly for the purposes of legal defense would require only identification and an internal report.
Additionally, police should be required to immediately relinquish their duties to a fellow officer the instant the recording device ceases to function for any reason and continue only when it is repaired or replaced. Otherwise, the entire system is useless because oops, it just happened to malfunction at exactly the time I was accused of beating the suspect to a pulp -- I swear, he tripped and fell!
But who am I kidding... this is all a pipe dream as we are waaaaay too far down the rabbit hole of tyranny for anything like this to gain traction.
Addendum: soul-sucking PHBs ruin everything.
When did I say anything about just giving away money? It's a complicated problem that would require a lot of coordinated planning and effort to fix. It's a lot easier just to demonize and oppress them, which is why that is exactly what happens.
Leave it to Americans to assume that just throwing money at a problem is the first solution anyone would think of.
So, my two-year-old niece, who is normally a delight, only gets atypically pissy, stubborn and reckless when she's consumed sugar in excess because she possesses the cognizance to know she can excuse it based on supposedly false psychological conceptions?
Sure, OK, I guess I should tell my sister that her daughter is some sort of prodigy.
A general purpose computer / phone that can hold all of your data, be your only computer and fit in your pocket. What would be really great is if it could automatically connect to a wireless hub that attaches monitors, keyboard, mouse and various peripherals when it detects that it's within a specified proximity.
The technology is certainly possible and most of it likely exists in some autonomous form or another; it's mainly a matter of someone coordinating and bringing it all together. Will that someone be Ubuntu? Who knows. But I know that the one that will have the best chance will be the one that is most openly standardized.
I want one with x86/64, though, so I can run real software, not the piddly-ass crippleware that seems to plague ARM.
Step 1: claim to champion freedom of speech, but oppress it when is inconvenient for the establishment.
Are they going to go after that episode of P&T's Bullshit where they say you can beat the box by clenching your ass?
What a difference a mere few decades makes. This is exactly the type of thing that America historically mocked, derided and demonized the USSR and other "commie" or "evil" nations for doing. America is quite clearly demonstrating that their intentions are no less disingenuous.
The problem is not communism, not capitalism nor any other -ism. The problem is that the powerful will never satiate their craving for more power. Power absolutely despises being proven wrong and it will continue its scourge at all costs to cover up and misdirect conceptions.
This is what evil does when it's backed into a corner.
OK, so you have the option to manage your own keys, but we're trusting that Google doesn't copy your keys when you create them and that they don't have a backdoor. Based on recent revelations, I wouldn't put either past them.
Once Google unequivocally tells the feds to fuck off the next time they come sniffing around for user data, I'll put some stock into such supposed privacy measures.
National No Shit Day
"Should not" is only a line in a config script away from "blocked."
The point is that no ISP, least of all Google, should be taking this position. The terms "server" and "client" really just describe the instigator and direction of traffic flow. You start restricting that, the internet further degenerates into consumer and producer classes and becomes cable TV. *shudder*
See why this is a net neutrality issue here?
From being hijacked by advertisers.
Other way around: you get what you pay for.
I know of Windows admins who were perplexed by filenames with mixed upper and lower case characters when they had to briefly deal with a Linux system.
Gang violence in NYC, LA, Detroit, Chicago, is what causes the majority of street murders. Stop and Frisk was meant to profile gang members and then allow police to search them for weapons. It's solved a considerable number of murders. And prevented a considerable number of murders.
The majority of murders solved and prevented by Stop and Frisk have been of black victims. Because black on black crime is almost an epidemic in large urban areas in the United States.
All of which is rooted in rampant poverty. But, by all means, let's continue playing cowboys and indians because it's a hell of a lot more fun than actually fixing the underlying problem.
You haven't heard of acute cancers? The untreated survival rate there is 0% after about a month or two.
thats-the-joke.jpg
For fuck's sake, "cloud" is not a technology, it's the latest marketing scam to get everyone relinquish control of their devices and data to the modern equivalent of the mainframe.
When you rely on a third party for security, you are placing an enormous amount of trust in them. You're trusting that they have not installed backdoors, that they do not copy your encryption keys and that they really are doing all the things they say they are. There are also external factors that may be beyond their control, like government demands, as we saw with Lavabit.
Now, if Mega is going to do something like build plugins, extensions or local proxies for popular web and local mail clients that makes end-to-end encryption easy and commonplace -- and will release all the relevant source code -- then we'll talk.