I knew a lady with a similar situation. She did have security clearance. Why? Because she bolted seats down in fighter aircraft. Well, I'm sure she bolted other parts down too. She had no idea what they did, how the worked, or anything else. She knew to line the bolt holes up, and tighten them down properly. But, she was in a facility with classified stuff, so she needed it.
But, she got her clearance, and I still apply for a variety of positions and get nothing. Oh well, maybe someday I can bolt seats down in fighters.:)
A lot of computers come with a second NIC, so it's not inconceivable for a cable to be plugged in.
I'm sure they do plenty of proper security. But...... Do we all live in a perfect world? No.
I buy lots of used networking equipment. One piece of equipment in particular was still fully configured for a 3 letter agency. No, not an intelligence agency, a slightly more annoying and less dangerous one. I pulled the config, send it off to a friend that works at the DOD, and wiped it out. I was reselling it, and I always sell equipment with a clean config. He told me "this was a security breach, I have to send it to my superiors." I told him no problem. They can interview me about what I found. I actually expected the knock on my door where they'd interview me for a few hours. It never happened. I held onto the piece for several weeks, rather than just getting it out the door. It wasted floor space, but didn't change my profit, so I didn't care.
But.... That piece of equipment should have NEVER left the facility as it was. It contained passwords, credentials for various things, labels for what was attached to each interface. Information on their routes, etc, etc, etc. It was very nicely done, except for the fact that I got my hands on it.
I asked my friend a year later if he had heard anything about it, just after I received another piece of equipment that was previously owned by a Fortune 500 company in the same condition (full config). Actually, it's currently listed in the top 10 companies in the US. Since I don't particularly care about that company, and the information wasn't particularly sensitive, I just wiped it.
We're only talking about maybe 2% of the equipment that has passed through my hands.
The moral is.... In a perfect world, things work exactly as expected. Security protocols are followed to the letter. In the real world, mistakes happen more often than you'd like to know.
I know I'm an ass about protecting my data. I never resell hard drives from my own network. I make very sure configs are wiped on anything taken out of service. If it's sitting in storage, it's a blank slate. It's not laying around with the old config on it. People thought I was nuts for retaining a box of hard drives for several years. I recycled some internally, but once they were too old/slow/small for use they were worthless to me, but entertaining. Have you ever popped the cover off a hard drive just so you could dig grooves in the platters with a screwdriver?:) It makes an awful noise, but it's good for demonstrating to someone who hasn't how a hard drive works. Well, until it's destroyed.:) I like the forged rings inside too. They bounce very nicely off of concrete floors. The platters themselves make good but slightly dangerous frisbees.:)
I didn't call. I did a whois on their domain. They were nice enough to have a legitimate address for their NOC. I emailed the NOC saying that there was a security problem with their network and that I would like their security admin to write to me. I received a response in about a day.
I did a little research on who had written to me, and confirmed that he appeared to actually be network security for them. He had a good background in network security, after I found his resume online.
I then sent it to him.
I wouldn't be surprised if it had been brought up with management. I had absolutely nothing to hide, which is why I sent my logs and a full description of what I had done to accomplish it. I'm sure they reviewed their information too, and saw that there was no unusual activity in the period.
If they had noticed anything weird, I'm sure Vinny and the boys would be at my house within hours to rough me up. Rather, I he said thanks, we had a good chat, over the course of the next couple days, and that was it.
I guess the important part was, I didn't ask for reimbursement for the information. I didn't threaten to exploit it, or release it. I just gave it to them. If I had one anything else, it would have been a potentially deadly issue.
I can do electronic recon and intelligence. I don't do hits. Then again, for the right money, with government protection (like, if it's part of my job, so I won't go to prison forever), it's not very hard to make someone disappear.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted airline record for ticket booked to BOG (Bogotá, Colombia) on his credit card.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted boarding pass issued and used.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted customs & immigration record showing departure from US. Declared departure from US with $1000 cash and personal items.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted Columbia customs & immigration record showing arrival in Columbia
[tappity][tappity] Inserted hotel record showing 6 night stay at cheap resort hotel
No return indicated.
[tappity][tappity] Los Angeles county coroners office. Cremation order for one "Doe, John". Drug overdose. No identity available. Appearance was of vagrant. Detected heroin in remains.
You'll find, even in the happiest secure network, there can be a security hole.
Think of this. It shouldn't happen, but I know it has. You have two networks jacks on your wall. One is green. One is red. Unclassified machines can be plugged into the green one. Classified machines an be plugged into the red one. A user who's annoyed that he can't be on both with the same machine, yet has two network interfaces on his PC plugs into both.
Now, your nice secure network has a compromise. If that unclassified machine, on the unclassified network, becomes compromised, they have a nice portal into the classified network.
Just because your network doesn't have any connections to the outside world, doesn't mean you shouldn't treat it as if it has a public IP on the Internet.
What's happened more times than is funny is, some user decides he needs a wireless connection to his laptop, so he can put his laptop on another desk without an extra wire going to it. Since he's just a user, and picked up the AP at a retail store, he may not have set up security. "I'm 10 stories up in a secure building, I have nothing to worry about." Yup, nothing to worry about, until someone sits in the next building with a high gain antenna, and stumbles on the fact that there's an open AP begging for them to come in. Stores have been bitten by this. Schools have been bitten by this. Even banks have. Plenty of companies have had the same problem.
I found a school once that did this. I found their printers very quickly. I installed the drivers for the printer, and printed a simple note. "Your network has an unencrypted access point on it. It is allowing anyone to access your network. Please call your network security administrator to correct this."
I found a casino in Las Vegas did the same thing several years ago. I couldn't get in from outside, but from a legitimately purchased hotel room, I found I had access to every display board in the casino. I logged enough traffic to see how it worked. When I got home, I got a hold of the network security admin for the casino. I sent him the logs, the floor I was on, and exactly what I did. He thanked me for finding the mistake and not taking advantage of it. He said it was fixed within hours of my report. I'm sure it was an oversight when someone else did the install, and no one had ever looked at it as an outside hacker inside the building. Who would bother hack the casino network from a room in the hotel in Las Vegas. Oh ya, and DefCon was 3 months away.:) The only reason I was looking was, they didn't provide internet access in the rooms, and I was hoping to pick up an AP in the lobby or somewhere that was available for guests. Unfortunately, they didn't have one that I could reach the Internet with. No email for 3 days.:)
Always be a good guy. Never be a bad guy. If you find a problem, report it with details. Trust me, the guy who would have gotten fired over it would prefer to know about the problem first so he can fix it.
If you're good enough, they'll never come to you, because they'll never know you exist.
If you're not quite good enough, you've talked too much, or left a trail somewhere you shouldn't have.
Category 2 sucks. Category 1 is the happier place to be.
I fall more into Category 1. I may talk on here, but I don't say enough to show the difference between someone who's full of hot air, and someone who should have a desk in sub-basement 4. You know, the one down the broken stairs, with no lights, behind the door marked "Beware Of The Leopard". At least I get my tan from the warm glow of a half dozen monitors. Too bad they don't let me leave very often.
Too bad they don't provide a link of where to apply.
Worse for some of us is the typical stumbling block for us well skilled civilians who haven't worked for the government yet. I just skimmed through the GD listings for "Defense/Military Intelligence Analysis" and "Information Technology". They all require at least TS/SCI
Since I haven't worked for the government, nor for any company who would sponsor security clearance, I can't even apply for these jobs. It's not that would be excluded. Anything in my history is trivial at best. I've held many secrets. I've ensured privileged data has never been released. I've joked with friends about things I've told them. They say "You can't keep a secret", but I've always responded "Those are the secrets I could tell. You'll never know the secrets I can't."
Us civilians are stuck. We're well qualified for the jobs, but we'll never be considered if we apply for the jobs. This is a perfect example. I spent years intercepting, analyzing, and protecting against people doing "bad things". I'm well versed in what the "bad guys" can do, and used their own tools and methods against myself to ensure my defenses were up to par. For example, it's one thing to know my firewalls can block any unwanted traffic. It's another thing to poke a huge glaring hole in the firewall for myself to attack, and then proceed to attack.
I've posed as an inside attacker. I've posed as an outside attacker. I see what each can get away with, and protected against both.
I won't claim that I know everything. No one does. But people come to me asking "What the hell is this?" and I can give them a practical off-the-cuff response, and a detailed response after a good analysis. Most of the time, they match.
Without the clearance, I'd never be allowed to use these skills for a position like that. I know if I ever got my foot in the door, things would be different. Until then, I do my job well for civilian clients
Then again, none of you know me. Maybe I have TS/SCI with EBI and FSP. If I had it, would you know?:) Bragging rights aside, if I were to announce my clearance, that indicates that I may have access to information that someone may want, which could put myself, my family, my friends, and my neighbors at risk. Don't get too anxious, officially my clearance is "none" and my work history is "civilian".:) I'd like to correct that some day, so if any real recruiters read this, feel free to find me. It won't be hard for you. Check the file for "Smythe, JW (alias)"
5) An arbitrary set of numbers to make people wonder what you're on about.
6) 42 = the answer to the life, the universe, and everything. The others are numbers leading to that answer. To understand the answer, you must understand the question. For that, you'll need a much bigger computer. We can build it. We'll call it "Earth".
7) As a single integer, the number of years old the earth will be, when it simply falls apart.:) (start singing REM "It's the end of the world as we know it")
8) A phone number in a non existant area code.
9) A local number in any of a number of countries, depending on the dialed country code.
It depends on the secretary. Sometimes they're "staff motivational aids". Sometimes just "eye candy". In either case (but not the CEO case), they're motivation to get the staff in early, and stay late, so they can check out the hot chick(s).
I have absolutely no problem with eye candy in the office place. They're great for morale. They're twice as good if they can do their jobs well.
It only works well if they can politely take pointed questions, and still say "no". Once they start sleeping with staff members, it all becomes territorial, and you end up with little wars throughout the office place.
I was sarcastic when I was referencing the coal and nuclear plant. I would prefer to see real renewable resources used.
There have been some beautiful power generation projects done with simple reflectors, heat loops, and sterling engines. A mix of that and wind would do wonders on the property that those 4 coal plants sit on. They own a huge tract of land there, which is more than large enough to provide an equal amount of power from other methods. It also sits on the Gulf of Mexico, where they have sufficient water and waves to use anchored buoys with fixed magnets and coils to harness wave power.
All in all, they have the ability to generate clean power from the same location, using known good technologies.
What is nice about that area is, land is abundant. It's rural Florida. For those who haven't actually toured through Florida, the majority of Florida is either rural farmland or unused rural land.
If you were to drive North on US Hwy 19 from Crystal River (not exactly a bastion of civilization), you would pass the power plants and then Inglis. It's about 30 miles before you see the next spec of civilization. There's a whole lot of nothing out there.
There are options. They can be done at or near existing facilities. But for the owners of the facilities, it's more profitable for them to continue as they have been. Burn oil and coal.
It was a running joke in the area, fueled by the people working there, that the nuclear plant was down more than it was up. When I lived there, they reported approximately 1 month a year.
I was saying there is no natural way to do it. They do it through dams and flooding (or artificial lakes). They do it, and because of the artificial means, it does work. It'd be nicer to have a mountain top lake and a hydroelectric plant below, but hey, we work with what we have.
And differential is a valid term.:) See the first noun, definition 3.:)
I used to live near the Inglis Hydroelectric plant. The dam was built in 1909, but stopped generating power in 1965. I know there was talk through the 80's and maybe early 90's about restarting it, but it's output was insignificant compared to the nuclear and 4 coal plants of the Florida Power (Now Progress Energy) Crystal River site, just a few miles away. Bah, who needs clean renewable, when we have 4 coal burning plants and a nuclear reactor that's offline most of the time.:)
The link above indicates that they're trying to bring it back online as a 2 megawatt facility. In comparison, the nuclear plant a few miles away is a 914 megawatt facility. The 4 coal plants there generate 2313 megawatts. Then again, the Crystal River site is the 12th worst polluter in the US. Ahhh, gotta love clean burning coal. {cough}{cough}
People get bent out of shape about new power plants going in. But, they get even more bent out of shape if you try to put a hydroelectric plant in. Not only does it use the land the plant is on, but it also uses miles upstream that it has to back up for water pressure. There's no "natural" way to do it, you need the differential in water level to make it work. How do you say "We're going to flood this million acres, all of you need to move now. You'll be paid for your property. Have a nice day."
> Since the panels could be used as the roof itself, there wouldn't be any more leverage for storms to rip them off.
You've never been in a hurricane, have you?
Leverage doesn't have all that much to do with things getting ripped up. Wind, pressures, and dumb luck have a lot to do with it.
Hurricanes can be rough. I still prefer them to earthquakes, but, they're rough. I've seen well secured things rip loose. I've also seen things that shouldn't have survived a light breeze not flinch.
Right about the time you've seen a steel roof rip from a building and wrap itself around power lines, you get the idea of what you're in for.
The "maximum sustained winds" used to rate hurricanes are rough. Ya winds over 100mph can make life difficult. But the real wind hazard is in the tornadoes. We're talking about winds that can pick up a car and toss it for miles, or take a 2x4 and make it into a cement block wall piercing missile.
I've helped friends during hurricanes. I'm the friend who will drive out to you, to help evacuate when you realize that your house is too close to the water, or that your car is stuck under a tree (like UNDER a tree), or that your road is blocked by debris. I can't say I've seen it all, but I've seen enough to know that no matter how nice you think a roof panel is, it's nothing. When it comes down to it, you could lose the entire upper part of your house. Ok, so the roof stays intact. It just isn't tied to the ground any more.:)
And speaking of which, the North Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1st (officially). Wheeee!
You haven't been in IRC lately, have you? I was just DCC'd the master list of all active bank accounts. I'll be pulling $1 from each, marking it as a "service fee", and I'll be filthy rich. I'm thinking of buying a tropical island. Maybe Hawaii.
For my next trick, I'm going to buy a small fleet of slightly retired naval warships and freighters, and head over to Somalia to do some business. Those pirates will have nothing on me. Handheld weapons on speedboats? Ha! Wait til I level the guns of my slightly used battleship at them. I don't think anyone will argue with that.:)
"Pirate ship Smythe to merchant vessel off our port. Please have all of your crew board the lifeboats, or we will turn your cargo ship into an artificial reef. You have 2 minutes to comply"
I'm sure with the purchase of a fleet of slightly used warships, we could get enough small arms to equip several squads of mercenaries who will be more than happy to secure the boat for us.
If the local pirates tried to play rough, they wouldn't have a chance. I'm not sure a radio call would even be in order (or possible, they probably don't have radios). Deck guns would be enough to eliminate any threat, should they show any resistance.
With enough money (hey, a few catch and releases should fund that), I'm sure a few soviet states may be willing to let some more interesting ships go. Ever wonder what happens when you do an emergency surface in a Yankee class sub under a small boat?:) They may not be the latest greatest ships, but with what they'd fighting against, you don't need it.
It's all about the money though. The crews would be given safe passage to the nearest safe port with a nearby airport, and a paid ticket home. Of course they'd have an apology note, so their bosses wouldn't be upset.
Ya, if I was a bad guy, I could be dangerous. It's a good thing I'm a good guy. I'm sitting comfortably in the US, with no plans on getting any bank account lists, nor my own navy. Then again, if a rogue navy started really screwing with the pirates by Somalia, it would probably stop all that BS. What are they going to do? Declare war against a navy with heavy weapons, flagged as pirates?:) Maybe the US Navy could be encouraged to free up some mothballed ships of various flavors for a few false flag missions. I can't imagine that US Navy ships are the only thing they have laying around. A rogue navy could be useful in many ways. Need an enemy seaport destroyed without implicating your own country? Leave it to Smythe Industries. We'll lay waste to any port city you want. Pesky pirates interfering with your commerce traffic? We'll blow them out of the water. Need a war started with a couple tense countries? A little paint and we'll have them believing they started it themselves. False flag operations starting at only $1 billion. Need your special forces moved into unreachable waters with no questions asked? Take a ride on our "fully loaded and documented" freighter. We'll bring them right into port! No target too big or too small. Radio first, and have an unarmed helicopter drop cash on the ship named "Pirate Funds".
Just wait until the false flag navy gets a hold of a couple carriers and some decent (yet retired) aircraft.
You thought Blackwater had something going? Nah, we'll show you how it's done. Think "Air America" meets "Lord of War"
Voting doesn't work like that. Lower IQ people tend to be swayed into really strong beliefs. That's why high IQ people don't make for good cultists. One cult in particular that I know of has any prospective member take personality and IQ tests. They aren't ideal tests (badly written), but they are tests. If you score high on either (or in my case both), they won't talk to you ever again.:) Strong personalities and high IQ's make for bad cultists. That is unless you're the one running the cult. That's what they're afraid of.
So, lower IQ people, who can be swayed to believe almost anything, are a great catch. "You have to vote for...." "the other guy will...." scare tactics with no factual backing. The less intelligent and/or less informed will believe what they are told, and get their friends, family, strangers, whoever, to side with them.
Sure, there are plenty of above-the-curve folks who vote too, don't get me wrong. But when you're looking at 20% of the population who are low enough where they shouldn't be voting (huh, I don't get it), and the middle 68% who are intelligent enough to read a newspaper and influence friends, but shouldn't be making wide spread decisions based on "he has a better name" or "that sounds like a good idea because of the title", I'm not terribly confident in the democratic mob rule. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if we ensured leadership was in the higher 20% (government or corporate, it doesn't matter).
As you'll find, a decent portion of that 20% don't vote. They may not have time to get to the ballot box. They may not have scheduled to receive their absentee ballot, or they may have simply thought they'd be in town for voting, and ended up on a business trip. I make an effort to be home on voting day. And from standing in line listening to some of the absolutely crap spewed by people in line, I know there is a substantial curve.
Obama is going to put all white people in prison. He's going to raise taxes on whites to 200%. He's going to take away our guns. He'll take away the constitution entirely! That was from white people who had no clue. He got lucky, and had a good following across many demographics. Even that side was catty. McCain will send everyone to war. He's going to kill us all. We're going to send Americans to their deaths for the next 100 years. And the regular quotes. He's going to raise taxes to 200%. He's going to take away our guns. He's going to destroy the constitution. But McCain had the ideal running mate for failure. I won't even get into that, she failed on her own merits.
It still wasn't a matter of issues or behavioral history. It was a "I like him more. He's pretty." and "My friend knows someone who knows someone who said I should vote for...."
A friend of mine was very demanding. She gave me a list. "This is what you should vote on the ballot." It was entertaining. On topics I knew, I generally agreed and voted the same. It wasn't because she told me to, it was because I knew the subject. A few items I didn't vote on, because I had no educated opinion on them. They were always lesser items though. Who's better for district 14 animal control manager? Hell if I know. How was the other question phrased. "Are you in favor of abolishing the sanctity of heterosexual marriage". Nah, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty close. Do I care if a gay couple get married? Well, I am well versed on the subject. I'm not gay, but I know bisexual and homosexuals. (oh my gosh). Yes, I am in favor of letting them get married. I don't care. It's a subject between two consenting adults, and has nothing to do with me. I will (and did) vote for the laws to not restrict them. The absolute worst that comes from it is (oh my gosh), there may be some lesbians that I'm attracted to, that I'll never marry, because they're already married. You know what? It wouldn't happen anyways, so it really doesn't matter.
When a common theme in congress is to vote on things based on how your peers are going to vote, or even just by the title, without reviewing the material, then... well... I beg to differ.
That's not much different than public voting though. People will vote on ballot items based on what is written on the ballot. You could get an "anti-child pornography" line item on the ballot, but the text of the actual item (not on the ballot, of course) could outlaw any video recording device (still or video), computers, any method of disseminating that video (modem, phone lines, portable media, print media, internet connectivity), or viewing such materials (televisions, computers, projectors, etc). Insert "including but not limited to" before each list in a formal bill. We'll assume no riders that require the listed items actually used in conjunction with child pornography.
I would be willing to bet that if the above "anti-child pornography" item showed up, it would have a greater than 90% vote for it. So, when it passed, suddenly cameras (video and still), computers, televisions, VCR's, floppy disks, tapes, cd's, DVD's, flash drives, telephone lines, internet connections, would all suddenly become illegal.
Who's going to vote against something phrased properly? Not many people. A very few would raise a stink about it, but who would ever come out in favor of child pornography? No one.
That's what most of the nasty anti-second amendment bills have been. Controlling "arms". Not controlling arms that have been used in conjunction with a crime. Just controlling them. When California passed it's own anti-assult weapons ban, a stack of search warrants were signed the same day, and assault weapons were seized from law enforcement officers across the state. Some officers had them to help with their jobs, but they were personally owned. Some had them "just in case". LA has seen riots. If I were an officer living in that area, I'd prefer to have a good assault weapon, and be able to protect my friends, family, and neighbors. Rather, they are allowed to have their department issued equipment. So, fend off a looting murderous mob with a pistol, and good luck. Maybe backup will come.
Such laws MUST be properly evaluated before presentation. Signing off on something because the title was nice, or even the first couple pages read well, does not cut it. And ya, that's where intelligence comes in. I know if I were to try to do something sneaky, I'd slip it in on page 400. Refusal of overworded nonsensical crap is fine. "Rejected for proper rewrite". If I were in a member of Congress, I'd stand before them (where they're attending, not late night talking to myself and CSPAN for the sake of being on the record) and say it. But accepting it because it seemed ok, and some other people I spoke with thought the same is what gets us into serious trouble on a regular basis. Or did we forget the Patriot Act?
But hey, I can tell, you would have voted for the "anti-child pornography" bill, so we'd all be criminals for having computers, televisions, and Internet connectivity.
Or to quote Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
I don't believe being in a position of power is necessarily corrupting. I believe as humans, most will find that being able to take advantage of the power is intoxicating. Now, how they decide to handle it is something else. As president, sure I'd ride in Air Force One rather than coach on a commercial plane. Sure I'd ride in a fully equipped limo. When you have the new perspective, unpopular decisions may seem to be the prudent ones.
They played it out well on Stargate SG1. Daniel gained the knowledge of the universe (more or less). He built a system to protect the earth from enemies. The leaders couldn't understand his grand plan. When other leaders turned on him, he saw the obvious threat that would be coming, and eliminated them before it happened. A prudent choice in his position, but not a prudent choice as a human.
We are well beyond that point now. All it takes is one mistake or misunderstanding at a high enough level, and entire countries could be wiped off the map in seconds. (Seconds to push the button. Minutes of travel for the ICBM. Seconds for it to do it's damage). The only thing really holding that back for any nuclear power is the knowledge that they can't win immediately. Some can lose without a chance, but no side can win. It's not intelligence that assures this, it's fear.
Those in power aren't necessarily intelligent. They get lucky. Very lucky. They make the right connections, get with the right people who can control them, and they are guided up through the ranks until the are on top.
There is no way to eliminate the power. We have all been trained for so long that we are followers of some sort. I'm not a very good follower, but I am a good leader. Consider a fire in an office building. Some people stand around wondering what to do. Some people run for the door, regardless if it's the right one or not. Some start telling people "You will go through that door, and exit the building." The leader has spoken, not only are you to leave the building through the safe route, but the leader will be out to make sure you did it. Been there, done that, luckily a false alarm.:)
Someone pointed out at in some disasters, people have been clueless. There was no leader, so you have a bunch of followers standing around wondering what to do. Someone hears from someone else that they can't safely go a particular way, so they don't. Maybe some survive. Maybe some don't. Without someone in power, a leader, they're lost.
Democracy is mob rule. The group gets to make the decision based on whatever information they get, regardless of the facts.
So 1/4 million folks voted for Colbert. It wasn't consistent with the theme, but they shouldn't have asked for a vote if they weren't going to accept the answer.
Democracy says, when the people vote, that's the way it works. So you're in a country of with 307 million people and an average IQ of 98. Just because it's what the people want doesn't mean it's the right thing. I think we've already proven that, unless the masses that have chosen to drive SUV's and eat fast food religiously are proof that it's what we should be doing.
The movie Idiocracy had a point. Well, several rather sad points. The Brawndo references were sad in that they were not only similar to current marketing, but working on current marketing concepts, and people honestly fall for it.
I'd prefer for people smarter than me to be running things. Unfortunately, that's rarely if ever the case. I would accept their answers more openly, knowing that they are based on educated opinions, rather than just whims.
No, you are one of us now. We are one happy family. We live here in the compound, grow our own food, take care of our community... and...
and stockpile weapons for the Armageddon. We know it's coming soon. We are planning it.
We are not a fictional hybrid race. We are a modern cult.
Ya, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with "We're Linux" either. I know what happens to cultists. Once they get fingered for stockpiling anything dangerous, either you'll be disappeared, or it will be a nasty engagement with a 3-letter agency that will make national news, frequently with words like "63 cultists confirmed dead in bloody shoot with federal law enforcement officers. No survivors have been found."
Nah, I had just shot those and tried to make a photosynth of them. It didn't act as advertised, but at least all the photos ended up online. I didn't have them anywhere else to link to, or else I would have linked directly to the cockpit photo, which shows two distinct cockpit windows.
I personally shot these photos. But hey, it could be disinformation. They wouldn't let me take it out for a test flight. We did notice that the engines were still in it, so it hasn't been completely sanitized as a museum piece, just put in air conditioned storage.
I was considering how to taxi it out. They left too much stuff in the way, and I was short just about one ground crew to get it moving properly.
I have been cleared to state, there may or may not be an Area 51A. I cannot confirm nor deny the designation, purpose, or location, should such a location exist.
I hope that clarifies things for you.
Our next statement on the issue will come in 50 years.
I've known so many guys like this. No matter what, they're the latest, greatest, whatever who's so much better than you.
If you go to the YouTube page, it has a link for some marketing scam. The whole idea of this is, "I'm better than you, so I make better money, but you can buy whatever I'm selling and be like me."
If I met this guy at an industry convention, where I would expect to be talking and trading cards with people, I'd walk away from this guy. He's an ass. I wouldn't even want to do business with him.
I like his card idea. It's too big to fit in the Rolodex. Ya, it's also too big to fit in my wallet with the other cards I collect. It's too big to fit in my pocket. But one thing is for sure, if for some ungodly reason I ended up with his card, it isn't too big to flick into the trash.
I don't know, maybe he has the attitude because he is great at what he does. Really though, the people who are that great don't act like this. The guy who managed to get 100 cards printed (at $4/ea, according to his spiel), and somehow managed to get a really poor video shot and put online, is probably the really pathetic guy who's sure he can make money if he feels confident enough about himself. In real life, he's not. That's his front. He's the guy who goes home alone to his apartment at night, gets out a bottle of cheap liquor, drinks until he can't see straight, and cries himself to sleep every night because he's pathetic. Sorry dude. It's a hard life, isn't it. Maybe if you weren't trying so hard to prove your "confidence", and actually had something marketable, you could do so much better.
I don't need a big card to compensate for anything. I have a very very plain card. It has my name, my email, and my site name. Anything else, you can write on the back, and you can put it in your pocket without hurting yourself. I'd offer to help, but I can't offer psychiatric help. Maybe there's a "surviving motivational speaking" group that you can join. You can all pitch at each other until you realize how pathetic you all are.
One of my coworkers, who I'm on a new project with, asked me at 11am this morning, "What time do you get in?".
I warned him "I don't wake up until noon. Don't expect any good answers or work from me any time before then."
I'm pretty sure he didn't get any other good answers other than that. I'm still a little groggy (now = 2:25pm eastern), but my code is starting to take something resembling a shape.
Slashdot Mirror
I knew a lady with a similar situation. She did have security clearance. Why? Because she bolted seats down in fighter aircraft. Well, I'm sure she bolted other parts down too. She had no idea what they did, how the worked, or anything else. She knew to line the bolt holes up, and tighten them down properly. But, she was in a facility with classified stuff, so she needed it.
But, she got her clearance, and I still apply for a variety of positions and get nothing. Oh well, maybe someday I can bolt seats down in fighters. :)
Actually, I know that.
A lot of computers come with a second NIC, so it's not inconceivable for a cable to be plugged in.
I'm sure they do plenty of proper security. But...... Do we all live in a perfect world? No.
I buy lots of used networking equipment. One piece of equipment in particular was still fully configured for a 3 letter agency. No, not an intelligence agency, a slightly more annoying and less dangerous one. I pulled the config, send it off to a friend that works at the DOD, and wiped it out. I was reselling it, and I always sell equipment with a clean config. He told me "this was a security breach, I have to send it to my superiors." I told him no problem. They can interview me about what I found. I actually expected the knock on my door where they'd interview me for a few hours. It never happened. I held onto the piece for several weeks, rather than just getting it out the door. It wasted floor space, but didn't change my profit, so I didn't care.
But.... That piece of equipment should have NEVER left the facility as it was. It contained passwords, credentials for various things, labels for what was attached to each interface. Information on their routes, etc, etc, etc. It was very nicely done, except for the fact that I got my hands on it.
I asked my friend a year later if he had heard anything about it, just after I received another piece of equipment that was previously owned by a Fortune 500 company in the same condition (full config). Actually, it's currently listed in the top 10 companies in the US. Since I don't particularly care about that company, and the information wasn't particularly sensitive, I just wiped it.
We're only talking about maybe 2% of the equipment that has passed through my hands.
The moral is.... In a perfect world, things work exactly as expected. Security protocols are followed to the letter. In the real world, mistakes happen more often than you'd like to know.
I know I'm an ass about protecting my data. I never resell hard drives from my own network. I make very sure configs are wiped on anything taken out of service. If it's sitting in storage, it's a blank slate. It's not laying around with the old config on it. People thought I was nuts for retaining a box of hard drives for several years. I recycled some internally, but once they were too old/slow/small for use they were worthless to me, but entertaining. Have you ever popped the cover off a hard drive just so you could dig grooves in the platters with a screwdriver? :) It makes an awful noise, but it's good for demonstrating to someone who hasn't how a hard drive works. Well, until it's destroyed. :) I like the forged rings inside too. They bounce very nicely off of concrete floors. The platters themselves make good but slightly dangerous frisbees. :)
I didn't call. I did a whois on their domain. They were nice enough to have a legitimate address for their NOC. I emailed the NOC saying that there was a security problem with their network and that I would like their security admin to write to me. I received a response in about a day.
I did a little research on who had written to me, and confirmed that he appeared to actually be network security for them. He had a good background in network security, after I found his resume online.
I then sent it to him.
I wouldn't be surprised if it had been brought up with management. I had absolutely nothing to hide, which is why I sent my logs and a full description of what I had done to accomplish it. I'm sure they reviewed their information too, and saw that there was no unusual activity in the period.
If they had noticed anything weird, I'm sure Vinny and the boys would be at my house within hours to rough me up. Rather, I he said thanks, we had a good chat, over the course of the next couple days, and that was it.
I guess the important part was, I didn't ask for reimbursement for the information. I didn't threaten to exploit it, or release it. I just gave it to them. If I had one anything else, it would have been a potentially deadly issue.
I can do electronic recon and intelligence. I don't do hits. Then again, for the right money, with government protection (like, if it's part of my job, so I won't go to prison forever), it's not very hard to make someone disappear.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted airline record for ticket booked to BOG (Bogotá, Colombia) on his credit card.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted boarding pass issued and used.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted customs & immigration record showing departure from US. Declared departure from US with $1000 cash and personal items.
[tappity][tappity] Inserted Columbia customs & immigration record showing arrival in Columbia
[tappity][tappity] Inserted hotel record showing 6 night stay at cheap resort hotel
No return indicated.
[tappity][tappity] Los Angeles county coroners office. Cremation order for one "Doe, John". Drug overdose. No identity available. Appearance was of vagrant. Detected heroin in remains.
Ok, one gone. Who else was on that list again?
Your question is your answer.
You'll find, even in the happiest secure network, there can be a security hole.
Think of this. It shouldn't happen, but I know it has. You have two networks jacks on your wall. One is green. One is red. Unclassified machines can be plugged into the green one. Classified machines an be plugged into the red one. A user who's annoyed that he can't be on both with the same machine, yet has two network interfaces on his PC plugs into both.
Now, your nice secure network has a compromise. If that unclassified machine, on the unclassified network, becomes compromised, they have a nice portal into the classified network.
Just because your network doesn't have any connections to the outside world, doesn't mean you shouldn't treat it as if it has a public IP on the Internet.
What's happened more times than is funny is, some user decides he needs a wireless connection to his laptop, so he can put his laptop on another desk without an extra wire going to it. Since he's just a user, and picked up the AP at a retail store, he may not have set up security. "I'm 10 stories up in a secure building, I have nothing to worry about." Yup, nothing to worry about, until someone sits in the next building with a high gain antenna, and stumbles on the fact that there's an open AP begging for them to come in. Stores have been bitten by this. Schools have been bitten by this. Even banks have. Plenty of companies have had the same problem.
I found a school once that did this. I found their printers very quickly. I installed the drivers for the printer, and printed a simple note. "Your network has an unencrypted access point on it. It is allowing anyone to access your network. Please call your network security administrator to correct this."
I found a casino in Las Vegas did the same thing several years ago. I couldn't get in from outside, but from a legitimately purchased hotel room, I found I had access to every display board in the casino. I logged enough traffic to see how it worked. When I got home, I got a hold of the network security admin for the casino. I sent him the logs, the floor I was on, and exactly what I did. He thanked me for finding the mistake and not taking advantage of it. He said it was fixed within hours of my report. I'm sure it was an oversight when someone else did the install, and no one had ever looked at it as an outside hacker inside the building. Who would bother hack the casino network from a room in the hotel in Las Vegas. Oh ya, and DefCon was 3 months away. :) The only reason I was looking was, they didn't provide internet access in the rooms, and I was hoping to pick up an AP in the lobby or somewhere that was available for guests. Unfortunately, they didn't have one that I could reach the Internet with. No email for 3 days. :)
Always be a good guy. Never be a bad guy. If you find a problem, report it with details. Trust me, the guy who would have gotten fired over it would prefer to know about the problem first so he can fix it.
Well....
If you're good enough, they'll never come to you, because they'll never know you exist.
If you're not quite good enough, you've talked too much, or left a trail somewhere you shouldn't have.
Category 2 sucks. Category 1 is the happier place to be.
I fall more into Category 1. I may talk on here, but I don't say enough to show the difference between someone who's full of hot air, and someone who should have a desk in sub-basement 4. You know, the one down the broken stairs, with no lights, behind the door marked "Beware Of The Leopard". At least I get my tan from the warm glow of a half dozen monitors. Too bad they don't let me leave very often.
Too bad they don't provide a link of where to apply.
Worse for some of us is the typical stumbling block for us well skilled civilians who haven't worked for the government yet. I just skimmed through the GD listings for "Defense/Military Intelligence Analysis" and "Information Technology". They all require at least TS/SCI
Since I haven't worked for the government, nor for any company who would sponsor security clearance, I can't even apply for these jobs. It's not that would be excluded. Anything in my history is trivial at best. I've held many secrets. I've ensured privileged data has never been released. I've joked with friends about things I've told them. They say "You can't keep a secret", but I've always responded "Those are the secrets I could tell. You'll never know the secrets I can't."
Us civilians are stuck. We're well qualified for the jobs, but we'll never be considered if we apply for the jobs. This is a perfect example. I spent years intercepting, analyzing, and protecting against people doing "bad things". I'm well versed in what the "bad guys" can do, and used their own tools and methods against myself to ensure my defenses were up to par. For example, it's one thing to know my firewalls can block any unwanted traffic. It's another thing to poke a huge glaring hole in the firewall for myself to attack, and then proceed to attack.
I've posed as an inside attacker. I've posed as an outside attacker. I see what each can get away with, and protected against both.
I won't claim that I know everything. No one does. But people come to me asking "What the hell is this?" and I can give them a practical off-the-cuff response, and a detailed response after a good analysis. Most of the time, they match.
Without the clearance, I'd never be allowed to use these skills for a position like that. I know if I ever got my foot in the door, things would be different. Until then, I do my job well for civilian clients
Then again, none of you know me. Maybe I have TS/SCI with EBI and FSP. If I had it, would you know? :) Bragging rights aside, if I were to announce my clearance, that indicates that I may have access to information that someone may want, which could put myself, my family, my friends, and my neighbors at risk. Don't get too anxious, officially my clearance is "none" and my work history is "civilian". :) I'd like to correct that some day, so if any real recruiters read this, feel free to find me. It won't be hard for you. Check the file for "Smythe, JW (alias)"
In response to your sig.... 4 8 15 16 23 42
1) Coordinates in the Central African Republic according to Google Maps
2) Somewhere in the pacific according to Mapquest
3) The mystery numbers on "Lost"
4) The lottery numbers I lost with last week
5) An arbitrary set of numbers to make people wonder what you're on about.
6) 42 = the answer to the life, the universe, and everything. The others are numbers leading to that answer. To understand the answer, you must understand the question. For that, you'll need a much bigger computer. We can build it. We'll call it "Earth".
7) As a single integer, the number of years old the earth will be, when it simply falls apart. :) (start singing REM "It's the end of the world as we know it")
8) A phone number in a non existant area code.
9) A local number in any of a number of countries, depending on the dialed country code.
Did I get it right?
It depends on the secretary. Sometimes they're "staff motivational aids". Sometimes just "eye candy". In either case (but not the CEO case), they're motivation to get the staff in early, and stay late, so they can check out the hot chick(s).
I have absolutely no problem with eye candy in the office place. They're great for morale. They're twice as good if they can do their jobs well.
It only works well if they can politely take pointed questions, and still say "no". Once they start sleeping with staff members, it all becomes territorial, and you end up with little wars throughout the office place.
But, that's what temps are for, right? :)
You're preaching to the choir son...
I was sarcastic when I was referencing the coal and nuclear plant. I would prefer to see real renewable resources used.
There have been some beautiful power generation projects done with simple reflectors, heat loops, and sterling engines. A mix of that and wind would do wonders on the property that those 4 coal plants sit on. They own a huge tract of land there, which is more than large enough to provide an equal amount of power from other methods. It also sits on the Gulf of Mexico, where they have sufficient water and waves to use anchored buoys with fixed magnets and coils to harness wave power.
All in all, they have the ability to generate clean power from the same location, using known good technologies.
What is nice about that area is, land is abundant. It's rural Florida. For those who haven't actually toured through Florida, the majority of Florida is either rural farmland or unused rural land.
If you were to drive North on US Hwy 19 from Crystal River (not exactly a bastion of civilization), you would pass the power plants and then Inglis. It's about 30 miles before you see the next spec of civilization. There's a whole lot of nothing out there.
There are options. They can be done at or near existing facilities. But for the owners of the facilities, it's more profitable for them to continue as they have been. Burn oil and coal.
It was a running joke in the area, fueled by the people working there, that the nuclear plant was down more than it was up. When I lived there, they reported approximately 1 month a year.
I was saying there is no natural way to do it. They do it through dams and flooding (or artificial lakes). They do it, and because of the artificial means, it does work. It'd be nicer to have a mountain top lake and a hydroelectric plant below, but hey, we work with what we have.
And differential is a valid term. :) See the first noun, definition 3. :)
Actually, wrong.
I used to live near the Inglis Hydroelectric plant. The dam was built in 1909, but stopped generating power in 1965. I know there was talk through the 80's and maybe early 90's about restarting it, but it's output was insignificant compared to the nuclear and 4 coal plants of the Florida Power (Now Progress Energy) Crystal River site, just a few miles away. Bah, who needs clean renewable, when we have 4 coal burning plants and a nuclear reactor that's offline most of the time. :)
The link above indicates that they're trying to bring it back online as a 2 megawatt facility. In comparison, the nuclear plant a few miles away is a 914 megawatt facility. The 4 coal plants there generate 2313 megawatts. Then again, the Crystal River site is the 12th worst polluter in the US. Ahhh, gotta love clean burning coal. {cough}{cough}
People get bent out of shape about new power plants going in. But, they get even more bent out of shape if you try to put a hydroelectric plant in. Not only does it use the land the plant is on, but it also uses miles upstream that it has to back up for water pressure. There's no "natural" way to do it, you need the differential in water level to make it work. How do you say "We're going to flood this million acres, all of you need to move now. You'll be paid for your property. Have a nice day."
> Since the panels could be used as the roof itself, there wouldn't be any more leverage for storms to rip them off.
You've never been in a hurricane, have you?
Leverage doesn't have all that much to do with things getting ripped up. Wind, pressures, and dumb luck have a lot to do with it.
Hurricanes can be rough. I still prefer them to earthquakes, but, they're rough. I've seen well secured things rip loose. I've also seen things that shouldn't have survived a light breeze not flinch.
Right about the time you've seen a steel roof rip from a building and wrap itself around power lines, you get the idea of what you're in for.
The "maximum sustained winds" used to rate hurricanes are rough. Ya winds over 100mph can make life difficult. But the real wind hazard is in the tornadoes. We're talking about winds that can pick up a car and toss it for miles, or take a 2x4 and make it into a cement block wall piercing missile.
I've helped friends during hurricanes. I'm the friend who will drive out to you, to help evacuate when you realize that your house is too close to the water, or that your car is stuck under a tree (like UNDER a tree), or that your road is blocked by debris. I can't say I've seen it all, but I've seen enough to know that no matter how nice you think a roof panel is, it's nothing. When it comes down to it, you could lose the entire upper part of your house. Ok, so the roof stays intact. It just isn't tied to the ground any more. :)
And speaking of which, the North Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1st (officially). Wheeee!
You haven't been in IRC lately, have you? I was just DCC'd the master list of all active bank accounts. I'll be pulling $1 from each, marking it as a "service fee", and I'll be filthy rich. I'm thinking of buying a tropical island. Maybe Hawaii.
For my next trick, I'm going to buy a small fleet of slightly retired naval warships and freighters, and head over to Somalia to do some business. Those pirates will have nothing on me. Handheld weapons on speedboats? Ha! Wait til I level the guns of my slightly used battleship at them. I don't think anyone will argue with that. :)
"Pirate ship Smythe to merchant vessel off our port. Please have all of your crew board the lifeboats, or we will turn your cargo ship into an artificial reef. You have 2 minutes to comply"
I'm sure with the purchase of a fleet of slightly used warships, we could get enough small arms to equip several squads of mercenaries who will be more than happy to secure the boat for us.
If the local pirates tried to play rough, they wouldn't have a chance. I'm not sure a radio call would even be in order (or possible, they probably don't have radios). Deck guns would be enough to eliminate any threat, should they show any resistance.
With enough money (hey, a few catch and releases should fund that), I'm sure a few soviet states may be willing to let some more interesting ships go. Ever wonder what happens when you do an emergency surface in a Yankee class sub under a small boat? :) They may not be the latest greatest ships, but with what they'd fighting against, you don't need it.
It's all about the money though. The crews would be given safe passage to the nearest safe port with a nearby airport, and a paid ticket home. Of course they'd have an apology note, so their bosses wouldn't be upset.
Ya, if I was a bad guy, I could be dangerous. It's a good thing I'm a good guy. I'm sitting comfortably in the US, with no plans on getting any bank account lists, nor my own navy. Then again, if a rogue navy started really screwing with the pirates by Somalia, it would probably stop all that BS. What are they going to do? Declare war against a navy with heavy weapons, flagged as pirates? :) Maybe the US Navy could be encouraged to free up some mothballed ships of various flavors for a few false flag missions. I can't imagine that US Navy ships are the only thing they have laying around. A rogue navy could be useful in many ways. Need an enemy seaport destroyed without implicating your own country? Leave it to Smythe Industries. We'll lay waste to any port city you want. Pesky pirates interfering with your commerce traffic? We'll blow them out of the water. Need a war started with a couple tense countries? A little paint and we'll have them believing they started it themselves. False flag operations starting at only $1 billion. Need your special forces moved into unreachable waters with no questions asked? Take a ride on our "fully loaded and documented" freighter. We'll bring them right into port! No target too big or too small. Radio first, and have an unarmed helicopter drop cash on the ship named "Pirate Funds".
Just wait until the false flag navy gets a hold of a couple carriers and some decent (yet retired) aircraft.
You thought Blackwater had something going? Nah, we'll show you how it's done. Think "Air America" meets "Lord of War"
hahahahahahaha
ok.
Voting doesn't work like that. Lower IQ people tend to be swayed into really strong beliefs. That's why high IQ people don't make for good cultists. One cult in particular that I know of has any prospective member take personality and IQ tests. They aren't ideal tests (badly written), but they are tests. If you score high on either (or in my case both), they won't talk to you ever again. :) Strong personalities and high IQ's make for bad cultists. That is unless you're the one running the cult. That's what they're afraid of.
So, lower IQ people, who can be swayed to believe almost anything, are a great catch. "You have to vote for ...." "the other guy will ...." scare tactics with no factual backing. The less intelligent and/or less informed will believe what they are told, and get their friends, family, strangers, whoever, to side with them.
Sure, there are plenty of above-the-curve folks who vote too, don't get me wrong. But when you're looking at 20% of the population who are low enough where they shouldn't be voting (huh, I don't get it), and the middle 68% who are intelligent enough to read a newspaper and influence friends, but shouldn't be making wide spread decisions based on "he has a better name" or "that sounds like a good idea because of the title", I'm not terribly confident in the democratic mob rule. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if we ensured leadership was in the higher 20% (government or corporate, it doesn't matter).
As you'll find, a decent portion of that 20% don't vote. They may not have time to get to the ballot box. They may not have scheduled to receive their absentee ballot, or they may have simply thought they'd be in town for voting, and ended up on a business trip. I make an effort to be home on voting day. And from standing in line listening to some of the absolutely crap spewed by people in line, I know there is a substantial curve.
Obama is going to put all white people in prison. He's going to raise taxes on whites to 200%. He's going to take away our guns. He'll take away the constitution entirely! That was from white people who had no clue. He got lucky, and had a good following across many demographics. Even that side was catty. McCain will send everyone to war. He's going to kill us all. We're going to send Americans to their deaths for the next 100 years. And the regular quotes. He's going to raise taxes to 200%. He's going to take away our guns. He's going to destroy the constitution. But McCain had the ideal running mate for failure. I won't even get into that, she failed on her own merits.
It still wasn't a matter of issues or behavioral history. It was a "I like him more. He's pretty." and "My friend knows someone who knows someone who said I should vote for...."
A friend of mine was very demanding. She gave me a list. "This is what you should vote on the ballot." It was entertaining. On topics I knew, I generally agreed and voted the same. It wasn't because she told me to, it was because I knew the subject. A few items I didn't vote on, because I had no educated opinion on them. They were always lesser items though. Who's better for district 14 animal control manager? Hell if I know. How was the other question phrased. "Are you in favor of abolishing the sanctity of heterosexual marriage". Nah, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty close. Do I care if a gay couple get married? Well, I am well versed on the subject. I'm not gay, but I know bisexual and homosexuals. (oh my gosh). Yes, I am in favor of letting them get married. I don't care. It's a subject between two consenting adults, and has nothing to do with me. I will (and did) vote for the laws to not restrict them. The absolute worst that comes from it is (oh my gosh), there may be some lesbians that I'm attracted to, that I'll never marry, because they're already married. You know what? It wouldn't happen anyways, so it really doesn't matter.
[soap box off]
When a common theme in congress is to vote on things based on how your peers are going to vote, or even just by the title, without reviewing the material, then ... well ... I beg to differ.
That's not much different than public voting though. People will vote on ballot items based on what is written on the ballot. You could get an "anti-child pornography" line item on the ballot, but the text of the actual item (not on the ballot, of course) could outlaw any video recording device (still or video), computers, any method of disseminating that video (modem, phone lines, portable media, print media, internet connectivity), or viewing such materials (televisions, computers, projectors, etc). Insert "including but not limited to" before each list in a formal bill. We'll assume no riders that require the listed items actually used in conjunction with child pornography.
I would be willing to bet that if the above "anti-child pornography" item showed up, it would have a greater than 90% vote for it. So, when it passed, suddenly cameras (video and still), computers, televisions, VCR's, floppy disks, tapes, cd's, DVD's, flash drives, telephone lines, internet connections, would all suddenly become illegal.
Who's going to vote against something phrased properly? Not many people. A very few would raise a stink about it, but who would ever come out in favor of child pornography? No one.
That's what most of the nasty anti-second amendment bills have been. Controlling "arms". Not controlling arms that have been used in conjunction with a crime. Just controlling them. When California passed it's own anti-assult weapons ban, a stack of search warrants were signed the same day, and assault weapons were seized from law enforcement officers across the state. Some officers had them to help with their jobs, but they were personally owned. Some had them "just in case". LA has seen riots. If I were an officer living in that area, I'd prefer to have a good assault weapon, and be able to protect my friends, family, and neighbors. Rather, they are allowed to have their department issued equipment. So, fend off a looting murderous mob with a pistol, and good luck. Maybe backup will come.
Such laws MUST be properly evaluated before presentation. Signing off on something because the title was nice, or even the first couple pages read well, does not cut it. And ya, that's where intelligence comes in. I know if I were to try to do something sneaky, I'd slip it in on page 400. Refusal of overworded nonsensical crap is fine. "Rejected for proper rewrite". If I were in a member of Congress, I'd stand before them (where they're attending, not late night talking to myself and CSPAN for the sake of being on the record) and say it. But accepting it because it seemed ok, and some other people I spoke with thought the same is what gets us into serious trouble on a regular basis. Or did we forget the Patriot Act?
But hey, I can tell, you would have voted for the "anti-child pornography" bill, so we'd all be criminals for having computers, televisions, and Internet connectivity.
Or to quote Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
I don't believe being in a position of power is necessarily corrupting. I believe as humans, most will find that being able to take advantage of the power is intoxicating. Now, how they decide to handle it is something else. As president, sure I'd ride in Air Force One rather than coach on a commercial plane. Sure I'd ride in a fully equipped limo. When you have the new perspective, unpopular decisions may seem to be the prudent ones.
They played it out well on Stargate SG1. Daniel gained the knowledge of the universe (more or less). He built a system to protect the earth from enemies. The leaders couldn't understand his grand plan. When other leaders turned on him, he saw the obvious threat that would be coming, and eliminated them before it happened. A prudent choice in his position, but not a prudent choice as a human.
We are well beyond that point now. All it takes is one mistake or misunderstanding at a high enough level, and entire countries could be wiped off the map in seconds. (Seconds to push the button. Minutes of travel for the ICBM. Seconds for it to do it's damage). The only thing really holding that back for any nuclear power is the knowledge that they can't win immediately. Some can lose without a chance, but no side can win. It's not intelligence that assures this, it's fear.
Those in power aren't necessarily intelligent. They get lucky. Very lucky. They make the right connections, get with the right people who can control them, and they are guided up through the ranks until the are on top.
There is no way to eliminate the power. We have all been trained for so long that we are followers of some sort. I'm not a very good follower, but I am a good leader. Consider a fire in an office building. Some people stand around wondering what to do. Some people run for the door, regardless if it's the right one or not. Some start telling people "You will go through that door, and exit the building." The leader has spoken, not only are you to leave the building through the safe route, but the leader will be out to make sure you did it. Been there, done that, luckily a false alarm. :)
Someone pointed out at in some disasters, people have been clueless. There was no leader, so you have a bunch of followers standing around wondering what to do. Someone hears from someone else that they can't safely go a particular way, so they don't. Maybe some survive. Maybe some don't. Without someone in power, a leader, they're lost.
No, no....
This goes with my idiocracy post in another thread. "the goddamn hippies were using computers , they deserved everything they got."
Democracy is mob rule. The group gets to make the decision based on whatever information they get, regardless of the facts.
So 1/4 million folks voted for Colbert. It wasn't consistent with the theme, but they shouldn't have asked for a vote if they weren't going to accept the answer.
Democracy says, when the people vote, that's the way it works. So you're in a country of with 307 million people and an average IQ of 98. Just because it's what the people want doesn't mean it's the right thing. I think we've already proven that, unless the masses that have chosen to drive SUV's and eat fast food religiously are proof that it's what we should be doing.
The movie Idiocracy had a point. Well, several rather sad points. The Brawndo references were sad in that they were not only similar to current marketing, but working on current marketing concepts, and people honestly fall for it.
I'd prefer for people smarter than me to be running things. Unfortunately, that's rarely if ever the case. I would accept their answers more openly, knowing that they are based on educated opinions, rather than just whims.
No, you are one of us now. We are one happy family. We live here in the compound, grow our own food, take care of our community ... and ...
and stockpile weapons for the Armageddon. We know it's coming soon. We are planning it.
We are not a fictional hybrid race. We are a modern cult.
Ya, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with "We're Linux" either. I know what happens to cultists. Once they get fingered for stockpiling anything dangerous, either you'll be disappeared, or it will be a nasty engagement with a 3-letter agency that will make national news, frequently with words like "63 cultists confirmed dead in bloody shoot with federal law enforcement officers. No survivors have been found."
Nah, I had just shot those and tried to make a photosynth of them. It didn't act as advertised, but at least all the photos ended up online. I didn't have them anywhere else to link to, or else I would have linked directly to the cockpit photo, which shows two distinct cockpit windows.
How about this...
USAF Diagrams of the pilot and RSO seats
Photo of the RSO seat (the rear seat)
It's not to argue the point though. There were 13 1-seat A-12 and 32 2-seat SR71's built.
And just to keep things interesting. Here's a M-21 with a D-21 drone
It's easier to count the windows.
I personally shot these photos. But hey, it could be disinformation. They wouldn't let me take it out for a test flight. We did notice that the engines were still in it, so it hasn't been completely sanitized as a museum piece, just put in air conditioned storage.
I was considering how to taxi it out. They left too much stuff in the way, and I was short just about one ground crew to get it moving properly.
I have been cleared to state, there may or may not be an Area 51A. I cannot confirm nor deny the designation, purpose, or location, should such a location exist.
I hope that clarifies things for you.
Our next statement on the issue will come in 50 years.
I've known so many guys like this. No matter what, they're the latest, greatest, whatever who's so much better than you.
If you go to the YouTube page, it has a link for some marketing scam. The whole idea of this is, "I'm better than you, so I make better money, but you can buy whatever I'm selling and be like me."
If I met this guy at an industry convention, where I would expect to be talking and trading cards with people, I'd walk away from this guy. He's an ass. I wouldn't even want to do business with him.
I like his card idea. It's too big to fit in the Rolodex. Ya, it's also too big to fit in my wallet with the other cards I collect. It's too big to fit in my pocket. But one thing is for sure, if for some ungodly reason I ended up with his card, it isn't too big to flick into the trash.
I don't know, maybe he has the attitude because he is great at what he does. Really though, the people who are that great don't act like this. The guy who managed to get 100 cards printed (at $4/ea, according to his spiel), and somehow managed to get a really poor video shot and put online, is probably the really pathetic guy who's sure he can make money if he feels confident enough about himself. In real life, he's not. That's his front. He's the guy who goes home alone to his apartment at night, gets out a bottle of cheap liquor, drinks until he can't see straight, and cries himself to sleep every night because he's pathetic. Sorry dude. It's a hard life, isn't it. Maybe if you weren't trying so hard to prove your "confidence", and actually had something marketable, you could do so much better.
I don't need a big card to compensate for anything. I have a very very plain card. It has my name, my email, and my site name. Anything else, you can write on the back, and you can put it in your pocket without hurting yourself. I'd offer to help, but I can't offer psychiatric help. Maybe there's a "surviving motivational speaking" group that you can join. You can all pitch at each other until you realize how pathetic you all are.
I'm working there now.
One of my coworkers, who I'm on a new project with, asked me at 11am this morning, "What time do you get in?".
I warned him "I don't wake up until noon. Don't expect any good answers or work from me any time before then."
I'm pretty sure he didn't get any other good answers other than that. I'm still a little groggy (now = 2:25pm eastern), but my code is starting to take something resembling a shape.