Twitter sign up rates have slowed down for the same reason Facebook has - there's only a limited number of people interested in that shit on a day to day basis
Yep, once you've signed up virtually everyone on the planet who wants to play the Twitter game, that's when the growth suddenly stops (oh noes!), and membership and participation inevitably start to decline. (And Twitter is a game, just not one in the conventional sense.)
We do everything we can to ensure security - for example airgapped internal networks with physically separate switching hardware rather than VLANs to avoid the risk of compromised switch firmware.
Exactly. We do the best we can, but we can never really know for certain if it's sufficient. That's basically the situation we're in today.
So while I don't think my communications are being monitored or intercepted, I have to accept the fact that it's certainly possible, and that if I was a "person of interest" then there's really nothing I could do that would ensure the privacy of my communications.
They cannot if they want to do the same for 1'000'000 other people at the same time.
But what if for some odd reason they want to read your email and not the email of the other 999,9999 people?
Again, Do you really think that the NSA, FBI, or CIA couldn't read or monitor your communications if they wanted to?
Of course they could, but you're probably not on their radar. If by some odd circumstance* you do pop up on their radar, they'll read and listen to whatever they want of yours.
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*Someone mis-enters a number, or you "appear" to be linked to someone else by some simple (yet innocent) circumstance, you misdial a number that they happen to have an elevated interest in, etc etc etc.
Windows 10 raped my dog and left the seat up in the bathroom. Then it threw out all of my toothbrushes and ate all my ice cream and left the dirty spoon on the carpet. It used a glass cutter to write "Microsawft RULEZ" on all of my windows and then, after plugging the drain in the upstairs tub, it turned on all the faucets and flooded my home. Before it left, it set fire to the roof, shot my wife, and got my nine-year old daughter pregnant.
So, all in all, not too bad compared to some Windows 10 stories I've heard.
No, real privacy is so private you will never hear about it.
Maybe I won't hear about, but then I don't have the resources available to me that the US government does. Maybe you think your privacy is really, truly private, but honestly, how would you know? The only way you'd know is if you somehow found out they were snooping, tapping, MITMing, source-capturing, etc etc etc.
By definition, you can't know that they've not managed to invade your privacy as long as they've done a good enough job of it.
We run encrypted channels between our datacentres - we're not trusting telco pipes to be private.
And maybe your datacenters have been compromised. How would you know? You wouldn't, basically.
The only way you'd know is if they fucked up and you noticed, but I'd bet that they're pretty good at what they do. After all, if they can install backdoors in the firmware of Cisco devices, how do you know they haven't done that to whatever brand you're using?
Maybe they have, maybe they haven't....but these days it's damn near impossible to know, even with deep audits and best security practices.
Stealing PGP keys is its own interesting security problem.
Why bother with stealing the keys when they can install malware on all your devices and get everything fresh from the keyboard?
Routers, phones, keyboards, NICs, etc etc....everything is susceptible and exploitable. They're probably giggling at the idea of people carefully protecting their PGP keys when they can capture every keystroke at the source.
I suspect that using any encrypted or "high security" email service will probably get you noticed, or at least earn you a checkmark by your name in some database somewhere.
If I was the government and wanted to know who might be of interest to spy on, that's what I'd do. Or I'd provide some "high security" email service and watch who uses it.
I use FastMail, it doesn't scan your emails for advertisement purposes and it doesn't send all your data to Google, Microsoft or NSA.
That you know of. Or maybe that they know of, or believe, but I wouldn't bet my life on the notion that using FastMail (or any other email service) is safe from prying eyes. If they really want to spy on you, they will. And if they want to read your email or SMS or Skype messages, they'll do that too.
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But even so, still a lot more private/secure than Gmail or Hotmail...
Maybe, but like I said, if they really want to read your stuff, they will.
I'm at the point where I have to say that real privacy is truly dead.
Between the NSA, FBI, CIA, DHS, and the other untold number of government and non-government snoops and spies, I don't believe there is any real expectation of privacy left, period. If they want to read your stuff, they will.
Have they checked the couch, really really carefully? A lot of times when I can't find something, it ends up being under one of the couch cushions. It probably fell out of their pocke when they were watching TV.
It's possible that one of their wives stumbled across it and didn't realize it was THE dark matter they were looking for, so she threw it out or put it in a closet somewhere.
By the way, anyone know what's up with the "sdsrc=popbyskidbtmprev" at the end of the "related suggestion" links?
I would guess that the "sdsrc" is a key that stands for "slashdot source" and the "popbyskidbtmprev" is a code that indicates the clicked link came form the "related stories" list.
I'm not trolling - my question is sincere. If CERN never discovers new particles, does it still add value scientifically?
Yes, it does. Sometimes pure research doesn't produce positive results, but that doesn't mean it doesn't produce useful information.
If you lose your keys, and after searching your home for a couple of days you determine they definitely aren't there, have you gained anything? Yes, you have. You now have the knowledge that you need to look elsewhere.
Sometimes that's how research works. It's guaranteed to produce results, but not necessarily the results you want.
I met my first real "moon landing was a hoax" guy not long ago and it blew my mind. This guy was by all accounts a normal person, but that little part of his brain where rationality gets suspended had metastasized into full-blown disbelief and there was NO way to convince this clod that the Moon landings really happened.
Explaining to him about the laser reflector left on the Moon that he himself could hit from his own backyard with a couple grand in off-the-shelf laser gear didn't do it. Photos didn't do it (of course). Nothing would convince him, nothing. And this is a guy who flies on airplanes and uses advanced medical technology and talks on cellphones, use GPS to go places, etc etc etc.
It's going to cost more to field these specially-equipped detector vans and the crews to operate them than they will EVER receive back in license fees.
Assume these costs:
the cost of the van ($30,000) the cost of gas, oil, tires, and maintenance for the van per year ($3000) the cost of the monitoring gear ($1000?) the cost of the crew to operate the van ($20,000 per year per person?) all associated upstream paperwork ($1000?) the occasional accident(s) that the van will (statistically) be involved in over time ($$$$???)
So, probably a minimum of $50,000+ per year to operate...and how much will they get back? Nowhere near $50,000.
In other words, it costs more than it brings in, so it's another ridiculous sink hole for money.
Look, if you want to teach someone programming, even kids, teach them the actual basics of programing: loops, if/then, and what variables are. Most 6-year olds are able to grasp this stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
RSS is even better for that, and on the plus side stupid people don't even realize it exists.
RSS? I've never heard of- hey, wait a minute!!
Twitter sign up rates have slowed down for the same reason Facebook has - there's only a limited number of people interested in that shit on a day to day basis
Yep, once you've signed up virtually everyone on the planet who wants to play the Twitter game, that's when the growth suddenly stops (oh noes!), and membership and participation inevitably start to decline. (And Twitter is a game, just not one in the conventional sense.)
Twitter: The Confetti of The Internet
>Say what you want, he's good at this game. He knows how to play people.
Yep. He was masterfully pissing people off until their brains were exploding but managing to stay within the rules.
In response, they changed the rules just enough to justify banning him.
Personally I can't stand him, but like a stopped clock even he was right once in a while. And that's what they really couldn't stand, lol.
For reference, see Sarkeesian.
Echh, no thanks. She's one of the most blatant con artists out there these days.
She practically pioneered the "I'm A Victim, Send Me Money!" movement.
Wish I had a mod point for you.
It's the thought that counts. (And money- money counts too, so you could always send me money in lieu of mod points.)
We do everything we can to ensure security - for example airgapped internal networks with physically separate switching hardware rather than VLANs to avoid the risk of compromised switch firmware.
Exactly. We do the best we can, but we can never really know for certain if it's sufficient. That's basically the situation we're in today.
So while I don't think my communications are being monitored or intercepted, I have to accept the fact that it's certainly possible, and that if I was a "person of interest" then there's really nothing I could do that would ensure the privacy of my communications.
They cannot if they want to do the same for 1'000'000 other people at the same time.
But what if for some odd reason they want to read your email and not the email of the other 999,9999 people?
Again, Do you really think that the NSA, FBI, or CIA couldn't read or monitor your communications if they wanted to?
Of course they could, but you're probably not on their radar. If by some odd circumstance* you do pop up on their radar, they'll read and listen to whatever they want of yours.
-
*Someone mis-enters a number, or you "appear" to be linked to someone else by some simple (yet innocent) circumstance, you misdial a number that they happen to have an elevated interest in, etc etc etc.
Mass-surveillance still counts as "they want to read your stuff" and encryption used right will reliably prevent that.
Do you really believe that the NSA, FBI, or CIA couldn't read or monitor your communications if they wanted to?
Windows 10 is the reason I changed my Windows 7 computers at home to Linux Mint 18.
Ditto. Installed it, love it, and never looked back.
Windows 10 raped my dog and left the seat up in the bathroom. Then it threw out all of my toothbrushes and ate all my ice cream and left the dirty spoon on the carpet. It used a glass cutter to write "Microsawft RULEZ" on all of my windows and then, after plugging the drain in the upstairs tub, it turned on all the faucets and flooded my home. Before it left, it set fire to the roof, shot my wife, and got my nine-year old daughter pregnant.
So, all in all, not too bad compared to some Windows 10 stories I've heard.
No, real privacy is so private you will never hear about it.
Maybe I won't hear about, but then I don't have the resources available to me that the US government does. Maybe you think your privacy is really, truly private, but honestly, how would you know? The only way you'd know is if you somehow found out they were snooping, tapping, MITMing, source-capturing, etc etc etc.
By definition, you can't know that they've not managed to invade your privacy as long as they've done a good enough job of it.
We run encrypted channels between our datacentres - we're not trusting telco pipes to be private.
And maybe your datacenters have been compromised. How would you know? You wouldn't, basically.
The only way you'd know is if they fucked up and you noticed, but I'd bet that they're pretty good at what they do. After all, if they can install backdoors in the firmware of Cisco devices, how do you know they haven't done that to whatever brand you're using?
Maybe they have, maybe they haven't....but these days it's damn near impossible to know, even with deep audits and best security practices.
Stealing PGP keys is its own interesting security problem.
Why bother with stealing the keys when they can install malware on all your devices and get everything fresh from the keyboard?
Routers, phones, keyboards, NICs, etc etc....everything is susceptible and exploitable. They're probably giggling at the idea of people carefully protecting their PGP keys when they can capture every keystroke at the source.
"then unless you are a priority to be spied on, you will not be"
This is the only thing that matters. As I've said elsewhere, if they want to read your stuff, they will.
No amount of PGP or encrypted messaging will prevent them from reading or listening to everything you send or say if they decide they need/want to.
I suspect that using any encrypted or "high security" email service will probably get you noticed, or at least earn you a checkmark by your name in some database somewhere.
If I was the government and wanted to know who might be of interest to spy on, that's what I'd do. Or I'd provide some "high security" email service and watch who uses it.
I use FastMail, it doesn't scan your emails for advertisement purposes and it doesn't send all your data to Google, Microsoft or NSA.
That you know of. Or maybe that they know of, or believe, but I wouldn't bet my life on the notion that using FastMail (or any other email service) is safe from prying eyes. If they really want to spy on you, they will. And if they want to read your email or SMS or Skype messages, they'll do that too.
-
But even so, still a lot more private/secure than Gmail or Hotmail...
Maybe, but like I said, if they really want to read your stuff, they will.
I'm at the point where I have to say that real privacy is truly dead.
Between the NSA, FBI, CIA, DHS, and the other untold number of government and non-government snoops and spies, I don't believe there is any real expectation of privacy left, period. If they want to read your stuff, they will.
Have they checked the couch, really really carefully? A lot of times when I can't find something, it ends up being under one of the couch cushions. It probably fell out of their pocke when they were watching TV.
It's possible that one of their wives stumbled across it and didn't realize it was THE dark matter they were looking for, so she threw it out or put it in a closet somewhere.
By the way, anyone know what's up with the "sdsrc=popbyskidbtmprev" at the end of the "related suggestion" links?
I would guess that the "sdsrc" is a key that stands for "slashdot source" and the "popbyskidbtmprev" is a code that indicates the clicked link came form the "related stories" list.
I'm not trolling - my question is sincere. If CERN never discovers new particles, does it still add value scientifically?
Yes, it does. Sometimes pure research doesn't produce positive results, but that doesn't mean it doesn't produce useful information.
If you lose your keys, and after searching your home for a couple of days you determine they definitely aren't there, have you gained anything? Yes, you have. You now have the knowledge that you need to look elsewhere.
Sometimes that's how research works. It's guaranteed to produce results, but not necessarily the results you want.
you think the moon landings were a hoax
I met my first real "moon landing was a hoax" guy not long ago and it blew my mind. This guy was by all accounts a normal person, but that little part of his brain where rationality gets suspended had metastasized into full-blown disbelief and there was NO way to convince this clod that the Moon landings really happened.
Explaining to him about the laser reflector left on the Moon that he himself could hit from his own backyard with a couple grand in off-the-shelf laser gear didn't do it. Photos didn't do it (of course). Nothing would convince him, nothing. And this is a guy who flies on airplanes and uses advanced medical technology and talks on cellphones, use GPS to go places, etc etc etc.
Some people are just plain stupid.
Ha, suck it, youngn's! We old farts are better at figurin' shit out, so bite that onion I wears on mah belt!
Now where's that damn new-fangled "sumbit" button doohickey thingy or whatever the hell it's called....Oh shoot, Matlock is on, gotta go.
It's going to cost more to field these specially-equipped detector vans and the crews to operate them than they will EVER receive back in license fees.
Assume these costs:
the cost of the van ($30,000)
the cost of gas, oil, tires, and maintenance for the van per year ($3000)
the cost of the monitoring gear ($1000?)
the cost of the crew to operate the van ($20,000 per year per person?)
all associated upstream paperwork ($1000?)
the occasional accident(s) that the van will (statistically) be involved in over time ($$$$???)
So, probably a minimum of $50,000+ per year to operate...and how much will they get back? Nowhere near $50,000.
In other words, it costs more than it brings in, so it's another ridiculous sink hole for money.
With noscript, their stupid javascript can't detect the blocking of their malware, and the article is readable.
I know, I laughed at the deliciousness of their stupidity.
Their "pleeeeez don't use an adblocker" detector uses Javascript and blithely lets you in if Javascript is turned off. Brilliant.
Let's not tell them about NoScript, shall we?
Not this shit again.
Look, if you want to teach someone programming, even kids, teach them the actual basics of programing: loops, if/then, and what variables are. Most 6-year olds are able to grasp this stuff.