And what's truly appalling is that federal law enforcement is involved in trying to make an end run around the Constitution in order to be able to trump up charges they wouldn't have been aware of if they hadn't illegally gathered intelligence.
Given that these people swear an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution... I'm of the opinion that this whole "parallel construction" crap more or less amounts to a serious crime, because it's done in such a way as to bypass Constitutional protections.
Any federal agent doing this should be jailed. Or hanged maybe. Because it's a blatant ignoring of the Constitution, and undermines the credibility of the legal system when you can have a hidden actor providing evidence to law enforcement (which they shouldn't have had in the first place) and the conspiring with them to effectively lie to the court and pretend they got this information through legal means.
They're bypassing the 4th amendment, and ignoring the legal protections of facing your accuser and seeing the evidence against you. And, in this case, once they've constructed an alternate reality, the entire thing is based on a lie that they somehow came up with this information through other means.
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
When you start collecting everything, either via expanding the scope of your warrant, or just scooping everything up... sooner or later you can come back to almost anybody and decide that they've done something.
When law enforcement can retroactively file charges for which they had no initial probable cause or scope, that is a truly Orwellian society.
And, governments keep saying "but we need to be able to bypass all of these things because of kiddie fiddlers and terrorists".
I really hope we start to see the courts reign in the level of surveillance and how it can be used. Because, right now, so called 'free' societies and democracy are being eroded as government decides it needs to know everything about everybody just in case something ever comes up.
Well, I can think of the obvious ones: money, access to your personal information (money), sales of advertising (money), making Google the go-to for everything on the interwebs (money)... and completing their transition to evil megacorp (money).
Why does pretty much any corporation do anything? Money. As much damned money as they can. Look at all this money.
Why ever for? He's advocating for finding ways to do it better. You think he should hobble himself with the best of 1970s technology?
Look, this is a PR stunt, and a press release designed to drive awareness to him. Let's not suddenly start acting like he needs to recreate the exact same conditions to be able to say he stayed down longer than his very famous grandfather.
You have to remember what this is before you start arguing the semantics of it. Because there's not a lot of point or value in doing that once you remember that this is mostly a stunt, with some actual attempts to do some research.
At the end of the day, he's saying "I will do this longer than my grandfather did, but with newer technology -- and if people didn't mention my grandfather, nobody would even cover this". Because he's nowhere near as famous as his grandfather was in his day.
This is as much about awareness (and probably fund raising) as it is the specifics of the 'record'.
I'm sure this also gets Oracle access to all of that tasty data, which they can monetize, sell, or otherwise mis-handle.
I also predict a lot of smaller businesses getting completely gouged by their new overlords on their licensing costs. What do you mean I need to buy a Solaris server with a 10 year service plan to get to my existing data?
Shortly after they hire editors who can actually write in the English language, which will be slightly before we all decide that Beta is awesome, which will then lead to hell freezing over.
Come on, your UID is low enough to know that dupes are an integral part of the Slashdot experience.:-P
If you deploy new software where it does not improve the user experience, then it's valid for the userbase to punish that move to a reasonable extent.
This is what happens when you do this to your users instead of for your users.
I have seen instances of IT saying "we're switching to this because it's cheaper/easier for us", and which left the business users completely screwed because IT didn't bother to find out how those systems were used, what depended on them, and what the business needs were.
This sounds like it was deployed pretty poorly.
And, for those of us who have worked in regulated industries... how someone in law enforcement could do something like this is staggering.
This sounds like an epic fail of UAT and actually being sure your software works as the vendor claims.
It's only illegal if they counseled the cops to do this in a specific case. If they just told the cops that's what they should do in general, then it isn't a crime.
If you don't think subverting some of the basic principles of the justice system, as well as the checks and balances in the system to prevent abuses isn't a crime, you're sadly mistaken.
This gets rid of your right to a fair trial. To not be subject to unreasonable search. To face the evidence against you. To trust that the cops aren't framing you.
If the feds and the police forces have decided they should be able to do this, then they have effectively become the worst sort of thugs and miscreants out there -- because they're legitimate thugs and miscreants who are allowed to do anything they see fit, all in the name of claiming to be the good guys.
No society where the police have unlimited power to cover up their own abuses and make any charge they want stick can last.
When federal law enforcement is telling local police how to subvert the justice system in order to conceal illegal, secret methods which wouldn't hold up in court... the whole legal system is fucked.
When I was a kid, this kind of shit is what was attributed to the Soviets. And now, people seem to somehow accept this as normal.
You may think fascism is an OK idea, but the rest of us don't want that.
I think if a federal agent is telling law enforcement how to do an end-run around the Constitution, they should be hung for treason.
It's one of the big players in the oligarchy which is taking over control of everything, but which is cozy with the nascent totalitarian regime which is forming all around us.
Once governments have access to ubiquitous information about everybody through government peering to bypass laws, and appropriation from corporations under secret order, and trade agreements which allow corporations to sue governments for lost revenue... well, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, right?
Then you have totalitarian governments beholden to an oligarchy.
I'm watching the tubes, I'm in ur thermostat, and I'm lookin in ur spycam, I r big brother
What could possibly go wrong?
How long before Google and a handful of other companies can more or less monitor, analyze, measure, and monetize every aspect of what you do in your own home and everywhere else? And then pretty much own the data, and be compelled to hand it to government agencies.
Slashdot Mirror
And what's truly appalling is that federal law enforcement is involved in trying to make an end run around the Constitution in order to be able to trump up charges they wouldn't have been aware of if they hadn't illegally gathered intelligence.
Given that these people swear an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution ... I'm of the opinion that this whole "parallel construction" crap more or less amounts to a serious crime, because it's done in such a way as to bypass Constitutional protections.
Any federal agent doing this should be jailed. Or hanged maybe. Because it's a blatant ignoring of the Constitution, and undermines the credibility of the legal system when you can have a hidden actor providing evidence to law enforcement (which they shouldn't have had in the first place) and the conspiring with them to effectively lie to the court and pretend they got this information through legal means.
They're bypassing the 4th amendment, and ignoring the legal protections of facing your accuser and seeing the evidence against you. And, in this case, once they've constructed an alternate reality, the entire thing is based on a lie that they somehow came up with this information through other means.
Cardinal Richelieu wrote:
When you start collecting everything, either via expanding the scope of your warrant, or just scooping everything up ... sooner or later you can come back to almost anybody and decide that they've done something.
When law enforcement can retroactively file charges for which they had no initial probable cause or scope, that is a truly Orwellian society.
And, governments keep saying "but we need to be able to bypass all of these things because of kiddie fiddlers and terrorists".
I really hope we start to see the courts reign in the level of surveillance and how it can be used. Because, right now, so called 'free' societies and democracy are being eroded as government decides it needs to know everything about everybody just in case something ever comes up.
Well, I can think of the obvious ones: money, access to your personal information (money), sales of advertising (money), making Google the go-to for everything on the interwebs (money) ... and completing their transition to evil megacorp (money).
Why does pretty much any corporation do anything? Money. As much damned money as they can. Look at all this money.
Did we mention the money??
Yeah, vomiting, for instance. That's both intuitive and awful. ;-)
Therefore, Surface is like vomiting. :-P
(Cheap humor only folks, I've never actually even seen one.)
Say you have a very famous grandfather.
Now say you've gone into the 'family business', but you're not nearly as famous as he is.
Now say you'd like some publicity.
Do you:
In the 70s damned near everybody knew who Jacques Cousteau was. The kids born recently likely have no idea.
But if you can get the press to invoke your famous grandfather to get you a little PR for your stuff ... well, such is modern life.
He's media whoring because he has his grandfather's name.
When you need to keep up the PR campaign, I'd say it's indispensable.
This whole thing is at least 25% PR stunt, as much as 100% depending on your cynicism.
And, the reality is, if you want people to pay attention to you these days, you pretty much do it via these things.
And since people have shorter attention spans, if you didn't remind them you were still there ... they'd forget entirely by day 2.
Why ever for? He's advocating for finding ways to do it better. You think he should hobble himself with the best of 1970s technology?
Look, this is a PR stunt, and a press release designed to drive awareness to him. Let's not suddenly start acting like he needs to recreate the exact same conditions to be able to say he stayed down longer than his very famous grandfather.
You have to remember what this is before you start arguing the semantics of it. Because there's not a lot of point or value in doing that once you remember that this is mostly a stunt, with some actual attempts to do some research.
At the end of the day, he's saying "I will do this longer than my grandfather did, but with newer technology -- and if people didn't mention my grandfather, nobody would even cover this". Because he's nowhere near as famous as his grandfather was in his day.
This is as much about awareness (and probably fund raising) as it is the specifics of the 'record'.
This is the headline:
What is your source of confusion?
It's not a world record, it's longer than Jacques Cousteau did it.
Compared to Oracle, I'm sure Micros were lightweights when it came to gouging their customers.
Hmmmm ... so, are customers safer with an incompetent company, or a malicious and greedy company?
It's so hard to keep track these days.
I'm sure this also gets Oracle access to all of that tasty data, which they can monetize, sell, or otherwise mis-handle.
I also predict a lot of smaller businesses getting completely gouged by their new overlords on their licensing costs. What do you mean I need to buy a Solaris server with a 10 year service plan to get to my existing data?
Shortly after they hire editors who can actually write in the English language, which will be slightly before we all decide that Beta is awesome, which will then lead to hell freezing over.
Come on, your UID is low enough to know that dupes are an integral part of the Slashdot experience. :-P
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot dupes you.
My Mom doesn't have a basement, you insensitive clod.
LOL ... it probably failed because it didn't have enough glitter.
Wouldn't the Wild Wild West stuff actually be steampunk?
I seem to remember all sorts of steam and brass and the like.
That, or you've lost track of how to use google. Because for me, it's the first search result.
It's most certainly defined in the Urban Dictionary.
This is what happens when you do this to your users instead of for your users.
I have seen instances of IT saying "we're switching to this because it's cheaper/easier for us", and which left the business users completely screwed because IT didn't bother to find out how those systems were used, what depended on them, and what the business needs were.
This sounds like it was deployed pretty poorly.
And, for those of us who have worked in regulated industries ... how someone in law enforcement could do something like this is staggering.
This sounds like an epic fail of UAT and actually being sure your software works as the vendor claims.
Increasingly, less so.
Three words for you: Rule Thirty Four.
And, no, I have no intention of googling it. ;-)
Well, if he doesn't go near the ocean, that is pretty much guaranteed to be true.
I, for instance, have an exceedingly small chance of being eaten by a dingo.
WHOOSH!
If you don't think subverting some of the basic principles of the justice system, as well as the checks and balances in the system to prevent abuses isn't a crime, you're sadly mistaken.
This gets rid of your right to a fair trial. To not be subject to unreasonable search. To face the evidence against you. To trust that the cops aren't framing you.
If the feds and the police forces have decided they should be able to do this, then they have effectively become the worst sort of thugs and miscreants out there -- because they're legitimate thugs and miscreants who are allowed to do anything they see fit, all in the name of claiming to be the good guys.
No society where the police have unlimited power to cover up their own abuses and make any charge they want stick can last.
When federal law enforcement is telling local police how to subvert the justice system in order to conceal illegal, secret methods which wouldn't hold up in court ... the whole legal system is fucked.
When I was a kid, this kind of shit is what was attributed to the Soviets. And now, people seem to somehow accept this as normal.
You may think fascism is an OK idea, but the rest of us don't want that.
I think if a federal agent is telling law enforcement how to do an end-run around the Constitution, they should be hung for treason.
Amazing how much evil you can do with a motto which says do no evil.
Evil inc., we're the good guys, honest
Google isn't the totalitarian regime.
It's one of the big players in the oligarchy which is taking over control of everything, but which is cozy with the nascent totalitarian regime which is forming all around us.
Once governments have access to ubiquitous information about everybody through government peering to bypass laws, and appropriation from corporations under secret order, and trade agreements which allow corporations to sue governments for lost revenue ... well, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, right?
Then you have totalitarian governments beholden to an oligarchy.
Sounds like some wacky fiction, don't it?
I'm watching the tubes, I'm in ur thermostat, and I'm lookin in ur spycam, I r big brother
What could possibly go wrong?
How long before Google and a handful of other companies can more or less monitor, analyze, measure, and monetize every aspect of what you do in your own home and everywhere else? And then pretty much own the data, and be compelled to hand it to government agencies.
Where is Blank Reg when you need him?
Time for another layer of tinfoil.
Well, they are raised in vats, and specifically bred for blind obedience and ruthlessness, not to mention enhanced human reflexes.
Should be no problem.