The FBI has used traffic analysis against the mafia quite effectively.
Tracking encrypted communications
on
A New Kind of War
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
You don't have to break the crypto to get information. Traffic analysis can tell you a lot. Who is talking to who? If person "A" gets lots of messages after an event, but only sends a few, then "A" is probably in charge of the organization being monitored. And if you know where "A" is, you can target him. Thus, you've gotten valuable strategic, and possibly tactical, information from his commo, without having to break his crypto.
To start putting in my posts. I know keeping a sense of humor is difficult lately, especially for those of us in target zones, but, Christ, do I need to start putting "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these" in every post?
Info here. It was going to be here in DC next week, and I imagine most of the attendees were flying into National Airport, which is closed indefinitely.
I wonder. Was he professional, or his usual annoying self. When the Air Florida crash happened he was a DJ here in DC. The next day he called up the airline and asked for a one way ticket to the 14th Street bridge. He left town soon after.
I thought the "Elliot in the Morning" crew at DC101 did a wonderful job. I need to write a letter to thank them. Hope Clear Channel gives them all raises after this.
Not Islam. Not Arabs. The enemy is "radical" Islam. They are not numerous, a few thousand out of many millions. The same enemy is here at home, and calls itself "Christian Identity". But the radicals have power in places like Afghanistan. The ones who preach hatred and intolerance are the enemy.
And could someone moderate the parent up? If my post is worth +4, his damn sure is.
The enemy's greatest fear is that the prosperity of the West will seduce the generation after this one. That the memories of old blood feuds will fade when presented with McDonald's and computers and cheap cell phones. Every call they make to recruit is against the decadence of the West destroying their way of life.
After we punish the enemy with bombs, with bullets, we must salt the soil that the twisted tree of intolerance and fanaticism takes root in. We must change the hearts and minds of the young.
We salt them with small computers. With internet access. With a telephone in every village. With juvenile novels and encyclopedias translated into Arabic. With teachers who speak their language, and who teach them to use these tools to answer questions for themselves. Yes, some of those teachers will be killed. They are soldiers in this war as much as anyone who takes on a beret or a gun, and we can make martyrs of them for the world.
No tyrant can long survive with an informed and educated populace.
The organizations they declaim as the mouthpieces of the US shall be USED as the mouthpieces of the west. We tell their children that there is a life beyond substistence farming and blood feuds. We tell their wives and daughters that there is a life where they are valued as individuals and people in their own right, not as chattel.
We give them the tools of bilateral communication, rather than unilateral indoctrination. We give them the internet. We declare a great work, of making sure that every corner of this globe has access to fast internet access. Not just the US. Not just Europe. The world.
They will see pornography sites. They will also see sites discussing engineering, and simple improvements to agriculture. The curiousity of children will be piqued, and their questions answered. With each question asked, and each answer given, we slowly wean them away from the culture of intolerance.
They'll be able to ask questions without censure or censoring, and get answers they might not otherwise have.
I would sooner carpet bomb with game boys and Pokemon, and an Arabic translation of Monopoly, than FAEs and nuclear explosives. The adults are beyond our reach. The young MUST be reached so that 20 years from now, the thought of piloting a captured airliner into an office building full if innocent bystanders meets with universal horror.
I fear, in the haste for vengeance, that the nature of this conflict will be forgotten. Make no bones about it -- this is a culture war. It can only end with a declaration on the order of Cartago Delendo Est.
We cannot win this war with bombs or bullets, although we can accelerate its prosecution by those means. We can only win this war through a generational conflict; we must win the war in the hearts and minds of the children growing up in the Middle East now.
Winning that longer war will be costlier and less immediately gratifying than cluster bombs and Fuel Air Explosives, and "killing the bastards and everyone that helped them."
It can, however, be a profitable war.
If you are an author, or someone who creates media, contact your publisher about translating your works into Arabic. Someone in the DoD is in charge of outbound propaganda; we should find who that person is, and give them the munitions to win this war.
Bin-Ladin has declared this a culture war.
Let's show him what a culture war TRULY looks like. Let's send in Shakespeare. And Heinlein. And Harlequin Romances, Pokemon and The Simpsons.
Ken Burnside
reprinted without permission from jerrypournelle.com But Jerry won't mind.
The Washington Post
on
More WTC News
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The Post has extensive coverage of the Pentagon operations.
This morning, Wednesday, I can still hear, and see, pairs of them overhead every 15 minutes or so. You know, an F-16 lit by the dawn looks very pretty for being such a deadly machine.
Well, we're talking hard sf here. Generally, FTL travel is fantasy. But..
It's hard to name sci-fi books. Most of Larry Niven's Known Space books (pre-hyperdrive). 2001 (and the movie). Fountains of Paradise. Mote in Gods Eye (passes the plausibility test, great first contact novel)
I like much of what's marketed as sf, Anne McCaffrey is my "guilty pleasure". Her early work was definitely fantasy, later moves towards sf.
My favorites are Niven, Niven/Pournelle, Piper, Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. Stephenson is the only modern author I've been able to read.
Slashdot Mirror
The FBI has used traffic analysis against the mafia quite effectively.
You don't have to break the crypto to get information. Traffic analysis can tell you a lot. Who is talking to who? If person "A" gets lots of messages after an event, but only sends a few, then "A" is probably in charge of the organization being monitored. And if you know where "A" is, you can target him. Thus, you've gotten valuable strategic, and possibly tactical, information from his commo, without having to break his crypto.
To start putting in my posts. I know keeping a sense of humor is difficult lately, especially for those of us in target zones, but, Christ, do I need to start putting "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these" in every post?
Step 1. Get BSD or Linux
Step 2. Install.
Problem fixed.
This isn't a particularly good time to be putting that phrase in your communications...
Info here. It was going to be here in DC next week, and I imagine most of the attendees were flying into National Airport, which is closed indefinitely.
More importantly, is she intelligent? Think she'd like my cooking?
No.Greaseman said "no wonder they drag them behind trucks" when he was with 94.7 a couple of years ago. After Howie left, in 81, Grease came to town.
I thought the "Elliot in the Morning" crew at DC101 did a wonderful job. I need to write a letter to thank them. Hope Clear Channel gives them all raises after this.
Yes! I have that book! Frito,Goodgulf, Tim Benzedrine! Attack Sheep!
Yes. It did. I don't think that the German people would, today, tolerate someone like Hitler, or his policies.
Good God, I'm actually defending Katz.
And could someone moderate the parent up? If my post is worth +4, his damn sure is.
After we punish the enemy with bombs, with bullets, we must salt the soil that the twisted tree of intolerance and fanaticism takes root in. We must change the hearts and minds of the young.
We salt them with small computers. With internet access. With a telephone in every village. With juvenile novels and encyclopedias translated into Arabic. With teachers who speak their language, and who teach them to use these tools to answer questions for themselves. Yes, some of those teachers will be killed. They are soldiers in this war as much as anyone who takes on a beret or a gun, and we can make martyrs of them for the world.
No tyrant can long survive with an informed and educated populace.
The organizations they declaim as the mouthpieces of the US shall be USED as the mouthpieces of the west. We tell their children that there is a life beyond substistence farming and blood feuds. We tell their wives and daughters that there is a life where they are valued as individuals and people in their own right, not as chattel.
We give them the tools of bilateral communication, rather than unilateral indoctrination. We give them the internet. We declare a great work, of making sure that every corner of this globe has access to fast internet access. Not just the US. Not just Europe. The world.
They will see pornography sites. They will also see sites discussing engineering, and simple improvements to agriculture. The curiousity of children will be piqued, and their questions answered. With each question asked, and each answer given, we slowly wean them away from the culture of intolerance.
They'll be able to ask questions without censure or censoring, and get answers they might not otherwise have.
I would sooner carpet bomb with game boys and Pokemon, and an Arabic translation of Monopoly, than FAEs and nuclear explosives. The adults are beyond our reach. The young MUST be reached so that 20 years from now, the thought of piloting a captured airliner into an office building full if innocent bystanders meets with universal horror.
I fear, in the haste for vengeance, that the nature of this conflict will be forgotten. Make no bones about it -- this is a culture war. It can only end with a declaration on the order of Cartago Delendo Est.
We cannot win this war with bombs or bullets, although we can accelerate its prosecution by those means. We can only win this war through a generational conflict; we must win the war in the hearts and minds of the children growing up in the Middle East now.
Winning that longer war will be costlier and less immediately gratifying than cluster bombs and Fuel Air Explosives, and "killing the bastards and everyone that helped them."
It can, however, be a profitable war.
If you are an author, or someone who creates media, contact your publisher about translating your works into Arabic. Someone in the DoD is in charge of outbound propaganda; we should find who that person is, and give them the munitions to win this war.
Bin-Ladin has declared this a culture war.
Let's show him what a culture war TRULY looks like. Let's send in Shakespeare. And Heinlein. And Harlequin Romances, Pokemon and The Simpsons.
Ken Burnside
reprinted without permission from jerrypournelle.com But Jerry won't mind.
The Post has extensive coverage of the Pentagon operations.
This morning, Wednesday, I can still hear, and see, pairs of them overhead every 15 minutes or so. You know, an F-16 lit by the dawn looks very pretty for being such a deadly machine.
Remember DOS vs OS/2
OS/2 vs Windows?
Remember Unix vs VMS?
etc?
Yeah, but are you demons?
I don't know why, but "Slurped replication demon" just sounds funny as all hell. Try to visualize slurping a replicating demon.
Those damn Europeans will be litting companies like GE and Honeywell merge.
A Babbage Difference Engine built out of Legos? They've got all the gears and stuff...
Much of his writing, including the Crackdown, is available here
It's hard to name sci-fi books. Most of Larry Niven's Known Space books (pre-hyperdrive). 2001 (and the movie). Fountains of Paradise. Mote in Gods Eye (passes the plausibility test, great first contact novel)
I like much of what's marketed as sf, Anne McCaffrey is my "guilty pleasure". Her early work was definitely fantasy, later moves towards sf.
My favorites are Niven, Niven/Pournelle, Piper, Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. Stephenson is the only modern author I've been able to read.
That said, I'm looking forward to the show.
They were silicon based, turned out to be good guys, and had no manipulative digits. Looked like dog vomit, from a large dog, though.