Hot topics as I write this: Why doesn't Bruce resurrect Technocrat.net now that Slashdot is owned by Dice.com and stinks more than the last two times I've shut down Technocrat.net due to lack of readership?
Think it would really work this time? You've got my email and phone.
So yes, email him to give him an idea of how much actual interest there is so he knows the readership will be there.
Nothing to worry about. It's just a 50th Anniversary tribute to Dr. Strangelove.
Interesting sentiment, considering things got to a point in Dr. Strangelove where soldiers breaking the law was the only hope for saving the world:
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there. Colonel "Bat" Guano: That's private property. Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit! Colonel "Bat" Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you? Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: What? Colonel "Bat" Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.
Perhaps encouraging these officers to come up with outside the box solutions is a good idea. Not that it worked in the movie, but they need to be prepared to piss on a spark plug if they think it will do any good.
Certain United States export control regulations prohibit U.S. businesses, such as MOOC providers like Coursera, from offering services to users in sanctioned countries, including Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Under the law, certain aspects of Coursera’s course offerings are considered services and are therefore subject to restrictions in sanctioned countries...
Facebook is a "U.S. business" that is "offering services" to users in sanctioned countries. Only it's the Iranian government that tries to block it and redirects you to a page informing users the Web site they are trying to access is "bad for your health." I suppose the difference is that Facebook can be used to help people organize to overthrow the regime the U.S. government does not want, so that makes it OK. Plus, more people using it in a sanctioned country gives the NSA a clearer picture of the trends, attitudes and threats in that country.
I'm not saying Facebook should be restricted from offering services in countries like Iran. I'm saying laws should be applied equally, not politically.
I'll be in trouble if I'm ever raided -- I have several USB devices and CD-R's that I used in the past to make a backup of something, and have lost or forgotten the passwords.
Forget your CDs, it's your DVD collection you should be worried about. "All I remember is the first part! 09 F9... then the hex code for some shade of red... I swear!" This is why everyone should have that number handy.
You would have to know where the signature was. If the document was distributed to a few dozen people, a single character could be used to identify which one leaked the document. It could be a punctuation "mistake" or any number of other minor things you wouldn't think to change. It could be a different thing that is changed in each version (in John's copy there is an extra space after the end of the first sentence, but in Jane's copy there is an extra space after the second sentence, etc.).
All the other side needs to know is that you have something to hide, and depending on the level of society you live on, water boarding, lead pipes, or court order to make you divulge what it is.
Unsophisticated societies use lead pipes to force people to divulge information.
Sophisticated societies use court orders.
Modern societies use waterboarding.
Postmodern societies use facebook.
But it uses a new form of steganography based on cryptographic hashes to make the presence of a hidden message far harder for an eavesdropper to detect than in traditional stego.
I think steganography is far more likely to be used to track the people who leak information. When information gets out that was apparently available to multiple people, the leaker may not realize that his copy had a specific steganographic signature that identifies him as the source. It could be a pattern of extra spaces or line breaks in the code of document that he doesn't even see. The increased availability of the technology will likely mean smaller companies or government agencies will use it to suppress leaks.
It's called a Hollerith card tabulating machine. I can make you a good price!
NSA PROCUREMENT OFFICE (EQUIPMENT DIVISION)
Mr. Kyosuke:
Thank you for your recent letter offering a good price on a Hollerith machine. I regret to inform you that the NSA already has several of these in its possession that were purchased at an IBM auction of surplus machines that had been leased to the German government in the 1940s. We have made many custom improvements to the German machines over the years and would not think of wasting them on something as trivial as contracts.
However, as replacement parts for these machines are in short supply and knowledge of their purpose is a forgotten state secret we have sent agents from the Procurement Office (Human Division) to collect you and your machine. They are at your front and back doors now. Please cooperate with them fully to make this easier on everyone.
Again, thank you for contacting the NSA and helping us keep you safe.
With the high profile shutdown of Silk Road the number of things you can buy with Bitcoin would be considerably less. While it's true that there are other services available, it seems strange to me that so much money is being dumped into the system now.
Although, if you invest in Bitcoin to attend UNic (official abbreviation of University of Nicosia) and the currency crashes, you may find that you've become a financial eunuch. It's all Greek to me.
More than that: the wording was that he "can't trust anyone who..." This would seem to indicate that it's a personal bias, and not some kind of technical requirement.
Perhaps there was some dark paperwork incident in his past of which we're unaware:
Hopefully this turns out to be good advertising for NewEgg - I know I'll be making my next computer purchase from them to help support them in fighting a patent troll.
So, once you know, you Newegg?
And once you patent troll, you patent troll Newegg?
I would suggest that such aliens have something better than radio to use.
Like the Internet. Or call centers. Possibly call centers which are connected to the Internet for cost-efficiency. Next time you're talking to "Bob" while trying to troubleshoot your cable modem, ask him if he's an alien, and tell him you'll keep his secret in exchange for some small compensation, such as a couple of Higgs bosons (one to lose and the other to not show to Stephen Hawking)... or the secret to consistent and reliable cold fusion.
You've never heard of Geordi La Forge from Star Trek?
He just didn't recognize Geordi without his Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement. Happens all the time, and Burton likes it that way. If everyone wore Google Glass he'd be recognized everywhere he goes, like poor Patrick Stewart. He couldn't ring the bell at the NYSE the other day for Twitter without people yelling, "Look, it's Captain Picard! Make it so! Come on, say it!" The guy dressed up as Nerval's Lobster for Halloween, but people still recognized him. Burton has plenty of reason to value his visual anonymity.
North Korea's real weapon is fear. Has been for decades.
South Korea has the world's 15th-largest economy, but it is largely driven by electronics exports. North Korea has been threatening nuclear weapons for so long it's like the boy who cried wolf. The world knows the North is not going to resort to a nuclear strike unless something goes very, very wrong. So it needed a new, more-plausible boogie man. What better, and cheaper, to scare the world into giving it economic aid than the threat of an EMP strike that could cripple the South's economy? It wouldn't set the North back that far, and the world's response would be far less punitive than the response to a nuclear strike.
Of course, it's quite likely the North lacks the ability to deliver an effective EMP weapon, just as it lacks the ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the U.S. But to the masses, its just believable enough thanks to Western media plot devices. Did your parents ever waste electricity leaving a night light on to keep the monsters away from your bed at night? They knew there were no monsters, but it was a small cost compared to having you spend the night in their room. Likewise, the North is betting that the first world governments would rather spend a token amount on aid than waste all their time trying to reassure their citizens that the EMP monster isn't really going to take away their TVs/smartphones/etc.
Can I pay them an extra $1000 and buy directly from amazon? Why get a dealer involved?
A dealer gets involved so they can get that $1000 back from you. Familiarize yourself with the Four Square Worksheet. You probably won't see the physical sheet, but they're using it. It's a shell game where they get you to pull the trigger on the purchase by giving you a deal in one area but they get that money back, and then some, in another area. Half the reason the salesperson keeps going to visit his boss is so the boss can ensure the salesperson got the money back somewhere else on the four square. The other half is to make you sweat it out so you'll give in and pay more. Eat a good lunch before going but act like you didn't... bringing your lunch only tips them off that you're ready to wait out their nonsense and they don't want to business if they think they can't fleece you. They will offer you coffee to make you edgy... accept it and pretend to drink occasionally, but don't swallow it or anything else they give/tell you. Argue for a fair price, but once they agree on it in writing and you have your own written copy, let them think your guard is down... then absolutely refuse to let them add anything in any square.
I've negotiated prices on five car purchases for myself and others. When going into a dealership you need to remind yourself that you're not dealing with a human being. You're dealing with a Ferengi. You might want to bookmark the Rules of Acquisition on your phone to read while you're waiting for their latest offer so you see things through their eyes:
Anything worth selling is worth selling twice
Anything stolen is pure profit
A deal is a deal... until a better one comes along
A bargain usually isn't
Acting stupid is often smart
When the customer is sweating, turn up the heat
Only negotiate when you are certain to profit
Never trust a man wearing a better suit than you own
I read somewhere that all NSA restrooms switched their toilet paper to Quilted Northern a couple years ago. Allegedly, the employees had grown so accustomed to wiping their rear ends with "the cloud" they refused to use anything less.
Mark Zuckerberg was raised in Dobbs Ferry, which lies on the Hudson River. The town itself is named for the ferry service that ran across the Hudson River there during the revolutionary war. Had he been raised in a community with fewer PCBs in the water, he might have sung a different tune and founded Twitter instead. Rapper DMX is also allegedly from Dobbs Ferry... he could have been an opera singer instead of naming himself after a drum machine!
Ballmer told Nokia, "look, if you put Android on your phones, you're going to end up paying us so much in licensing fees you might as well just sell yourself to us now."
Or, Ballmer realized there wouldn't be many Windows phones left if Nokia switched to Android, and decided it was worth $7 billion to keep one major handset manufacturer putting Windows phones into the marketplace.
So that is where Larry Ellison hid the pennies he hears from ask.com toolbar spam on the Java installer.
Ironically, TFA has an ad on the sidebar that exhorts the reader to install a "Customized Toolbar for Serious Sailors" by the site that is hosting TFA. The ad seems to move around, so if you're having trouble locating it, here's the gif itself. I wonder if Ellison has this toolbar installed... being a serious sailor and all.
At first I thought she was just trying to keep him on the phone so they could complete the trace. I was sure that after about 30 seconds she would cut him off and say:
"Mr. Mohammadi? Mr. Mo... OK, OK, Masood? We're not going to be able to help you over the phone, but if you'll drive over to the Delta terminal at JFK we'll have someone meet you there. No, no need to pack a bag. No, it should only take you 23 minutes. There's no traffic on Van Wyck, but just avoid Lefferts and Sutter because there's a traffic jam there. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. OK? The street outside your house is empty... go now."
Even though he stayed on the line long enough for them to trace it through multiple countries she still kept asking... which makes me think the video is a fake.
Yet he's touted as the likely heir for CEO when Ballmer retires.
It reminds me of the resume of Gil Amelio, who had a similar record of failures yet people managed to convince themselves that he was some sort of CEO genius. He took Apple to the lowest point, when in desperation tried to buy BeOS. He fscked up that deal and then, to his incredible luck, bought NeXT instead. Jobs forced the board to fire Amelio and the recovery of Apple began then.
Are you suggesting Elop is the rebound CEO? He's not supposed to be the one? Wait 'till Microsoft brings him home to meet the parents. Microsoft's reproductive-marketing clock is ticking... and the shareholders want to see some grandkids.
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Hot topics as I write this: Why doesn't Bruce resurrect Technocrat.net now that Slashdot is owned by Dice.com and stinks more than the last two times I've shut down Technocrat.net due to lack of readership?
Think it would really work this time? You've got my email and phone.
So yes, email him to give him an idea of how much actual interest there is so he knows the readership will be there.
Nothing to worry about. It's just a 50th Anniversary tribute to Dr. Strangelove.
Interesting sentiment, considering things got to a point in Dr. Strangelove where soldiers breaking the law was the only hope for saving the world:
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.
Colonel "Bat" Guano: That's private property.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!
Colonel "Bat" Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: What?
Colonel "Bat" Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.
Perhaps encouraging these officers to come up with outside the box solutions is a good idea. Not that it worked in the movie, but they need to be prepared to piss on a spark plug if they think it will do any good.
Certain United States export control regulations prohibit U.S. businesses, such as MOOC providers like Coursera, from offering services to users in sanctioned countries, including Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Under the law, certain aspects of Coursera’s course offerings are considered services and are therefore subject to restrictions in sanctioned countries...
Facebook is a "U.S. business" that is "offering services" to users in sanctioned countries. Only it's the Iranian government that tries to block it and redirects you to a page informing users the Web site they are trying to access is "bad for your health." I suppose the difference is that Facebook can be used to help people organize to overthrow the regime the U.S. government does not want, so that makes it OK. Plus, more people using it in a sanctioned country gives the NSA a clearer picture of the trends, attitudes and threats in that country.
I'm not saying Facebook should be restricted from offering services in countries like Iran. I'm saying laws should be applied equally, not politically.
I'll be in trouble if I'm ever raided -- I have several USB devices and CD-R's that I used in the past to make a backup of something, and have lost or forgotten the passwords.
Forget your CDs, it's your DVD collection you should be worried about. "All I remember is the first part! 09 F9... then the hex code for some shade of red... I swear!" This is why everyone should have that number handy.
You would have to know where the signature was. If the document was distributed to a few dozen people, a single character could be used to identify which one leaked the document. It could be a punctuation "mistake" or any number of other minor things you wouldn't think to change. It could be a different thing that is changed in each version (in John's copy there is an extra space after the end of the first sentence, but in Jane's copy there is an extra space after the second sentence, etc.).
All the other side needs to know is that you have something to hide, and depending on the level of society you live on, water boarding, lead pipes, or court order to make you divulge what it is.
Unsophisticated societies use lead pipes to force people to divulge information.
Sophisticated societies use court orders.
Modern societies use waterboarding.
Postmodern societies use facebook.
Think about it.
But it uses a new form of steganography based on cryptographic hashes to make the presence of a hidden message far harder for an eavesdropper to detect than in traditional stego.
I think steganography is far more likely to be used to track the people who leak information. When information gets out that was apparently available to multiple people, the leaker may not realize that his copy had a specific steganographic signature that identifies him as the source. It could be a pattern of extra spaces or line breaks in the code of document that he doesn't even see. The increased availability of the technology will likely mean smaller companies or government agencies will use it to suppress leaks.
01101110 01101111 00100000 01101101
01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000
01110011 01100101 01100011 01110010
01100101 01110100 01110011
I give up. Are the Chinese running KitKat or Key Lime Pie on Chang'e 3?
And if you believe that, I have some healthcare to sell you.
You can keep your stinking healthcare! Oh wait...
It's called a Hollerith card tabulating machine. I can make you a good price!
NSA PROCUREMENT OFFICE (EQUIPMENT DIVISION)
Mr. Kyosuke:
Thank you for your recent letter offering a good price on a Hollerith machine. I regret to inform you that the NSA already has several of these in its possession that were purchased at an IBM auction of surplus machines that had been leased to the German government in the 1940s. We have made many custom improvements to the German machines over the years and would not think of wasting them on something as trivial as contracts.
However, as replacement parts for these machines are in short supply and knowledge of their purpose is a forgotten state secret we have sent agents from the Procurement Office (Human Division) to collect you and your machine. They are at your front and back doors now. Please cooperate with them fully to make this easier on everyone.
Again, thank you for contacting the NSA and helping us keep you safe.
With the high profile shutdown of Silk Road the number of things you can buy with Bitcoin would be considerably less. While it's true that there are other services available, it seems strange to me that so much money is being dumped into the system now.
The largest private university in Cyprus, the University of Nicosia, announced last week it will begin accepting BTC for tuition, books, room and board, and it will offer a master's-level course of study on digital currency to help people outside the Bitcoinsphere understand it. Those two developments would seem to inject a significant amount of legitimacy into Bitcoin.
Although, if you invest in Bitcoin to attend UNic (official abbreviation of University of Nicosia) and the currency crashes, you may find that you've become a financial eunuch. It's all Greek to me.
More than that: the wording was that he "can't trust anyone who..." This would seem to indicate that it's a personal bias, and not some kind of technical requirement.
Perhaps there was some dark paperwork incident in his past of which we're unaware:
I've never trusted Arial documents, and I never will. I could never forgive them for the death of my boy.
Careless words like that in a personal log can earn you a one-way ticket to Rura Penthe.
Hopefully this turns out to be good advertising for NewEgg - I know I'll be making my next computer purchase from them to help support them in fighting a patent troll.
So, once you know, you Newegg?
And once you patent troll, you patent troll Newegg?
I would suggest that such aliens have something better than radio to use.
Like the Internet. Or call centers. Possibly call centers which are connected to the Internet for cost-efficiency. Next time you're talking to "Bob" while trying to troubleshoot your cable modem, ask him if he's an alien, and tell him you'll keep his secret in exchange for some small compensation, such as a couple of Higgs bosons (one to lose and the other to not show to Stephen Hawking)... or the secret to consistent and reliable cold fusion.
You've never heard of Geordi La Forge from Star Trek?
He just didn't recognize Geordi without his Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement. Happens all the time, and Burton likes it that way. If everyone wore Google Glass he'd be recognized everywhere he goes, like poor Patrick Stewart. He couldn't ring the bell at the NYSE the other day for Twitter without people yelling, "Look, it's Captain Picard! Make it so! Come on, say it!" The guy dressed up as Nerval's Lobster for Halloween, but people still recognized him. Burton has plenty of reason to value his visual anonymity.
North Korea's real weapon is fear. Has been for decades.
South Korea has the world's 15th-largest economy, but it is largely driven by electronics exports. North Korea has been threatening nuclear weapons for so long it's like the boy who cried wolf. The world knows the North is not going to resort to a nuclear strike unless something goes very, very wrong. So it needed a new, more-plausible boogie man. What better, and cheaper, to scare the world into giving it economic aid than the threat of an EMP strike that could cripple the South's economy? It wouldn't set the North back that far, and the world's response would be far less punitive than the response to a nuclear strike.
Of course, it's quite likely the North lacks the ability to deliver an effective EMP weapon, just as it lacks the ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the U.S. But to the masses, its just believable enough thanks to Western media plot devices. Did your parents ever waste electricity leaving a night light on to keep the monsters away from your bed at night? They knew there were no monsters, but it was a small cost compared to having you spend the night in their room. Likewise, the North is betting that the first world governments would rather spend a token amount on aid than waste all their time trying to reassure their citizens that the EMP monster isn't really going to take away their TVs/smartphones/etc.
Illusion? Hardly. Whats more transparent than invisible?
Your Guide To Tape:
Red Tape not transparent all
Transparent Tape sort of but not very transparent
Magic Tape like Transparent Tape, but Magic
Invisible Tape almost transparent
Nixon Tape so transparent it erases
A. Nixon Tape is more transparent than Invisible Tape
Can I pay them an extra $1000 and buy directly from amazon? Why get a dealer involved?
A dealer gets involved so they can get that $1000 back from you. Familiarize yourself with the Four Square Worksheet. You probably won't see the physical sheet, but they're using it. It's a shell game where they get you to pull the trigger on the purchase by giving you a deal in one area but they get that money back, and then some, in another area. Half the reason the salesperson keeps going to visit his boss is so the boss can ensure the salesperson got the money back somewhere else on the four square. The other half is to make you sweat it out so you'll give in and pay more. Eat a good lunch before going but act like you didn't... bringing your lunch only tips them off that you're ready to wait out their nonsense and they don't want to business if they think they can't fleece you. They will offer you coffee to make you edgy... accept it and pretend to drink occasionally, but don't swallow it or anything else they give/tell you. Argue for a fair price, but once they agree on it in writing and you have your own written copy, let them think your guard is down... then absolutely refuse to let them add anything in any square.
I've negotiated prices on five car purchases for myself and others. When going into a dealership you need to remind yourself that you're not dealing with a human being. You're dealing with a Ferengi. You might want to bookmark the Rules of Acquisition on your phone to read while you're waiting for their latest offer so you see things through their eyes:
I read somewhere that all NSA restrooms switched their toilet paper to Quilted Northern a couple years ago. Allegedly, the employees had grown so accustomed to wiping their rear ends with "the cloud" they refused to use anything less.
Mark Zuckerberg was raised in Dobbs Ferry, which lies on the Hudson River. The town itself is named for the ferry service that ran across the Hudson River there during the revolutionary war. Had he been raised in a community with fewer PCBs in the water, he might have sung a different tune and founded Twitter instead. Rapper DMX is also allegedly from Dobbs Ferry... he could have been an opera singer instead of naming himself after a drum machine!
Given that Microsoft was making more money off Android phones than Windows phones, one of two things must have occurred:
Ballmer told Nokia, "look, if you put Android on your phones, you're going to end up paying us so much in licensing fees you might as well just sell yourself to us now."
Or, Ballmer realized there wouldn't be many Windows phones left if Nokia switched to Android, and decided it was worth $7 billion to keep one major handset manufacturer putting Windows phones into the marketplace.
So that is where Larry Ellison hid the pennies he hears from ask.com toolbar spam on the Java installer.
Ironically, TFA has an ad on the sidebar that exhorts the reader to install a "Customized Toolbar for Serious Sailors" by the site that is hosting TFA. The ad seems to move around, so if you're having trouble locating it, here's the gif itself. I wonder if Ellison has this toolbar installed... being a serious sailor and all.
"Mr. Mohammadi? Mr. Mo... OK, OK, Masood? We're not going to be able to help you over the phone, but if you'll drive over to the Delta terminal at JFK we'll have someone meet you there. No, no need to pack a bag. No, it should only take you 23 minutes. There's no traffic on Van Wyck, but just avoid Lefferts and Sutter because there's a traffic jam there. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. OK? The street outside your house is empty... go now."
Even though he stayed on the line long enough for them to trace it through multiple countries she still kept asking... which makes me think the video is a fake.
Yet he's touted as the likely heir for CEO when Ballmer retires.
It reminds me of the resume of Gil Amelio, who had a similar record of failures yet people managed to convince themselves that he was some sort of CEO genius. He took Apple to the lowest point, when in desperation tried to buy BeOS. He fscked up that deal and then, to his incredible luck, bought NeXT instead. Jobs forced the board to fire Amelio and the recovery of Apple began then.
Are you suggesting Elop is the rebound CEO? He's not supposed to be the one? Wait 'till Microsoft brings him home to meet the parents. Microsoft's reproductive-marketing clock is ticking... and the shareholders want to see some grandkids.