You'll notice two are front facing sites, which the buisness may use for "speech", but not necessarily. And the other two are API urls that are never used for "speech".
Yes, I'd agree they should replace the front facing urls with api urls, obviously that's more effective, and completely avoids trampling on anyone else's right to speak.
Yes, voluntary DDoS attacks are a legitimate form of non-violent resistance, assuming people use their own computers, probably not corporations. And these are these first opt-in DDoS attacks being seen sympathetically by the main stream press (outside the U.S.). So big win!
Btw, Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is NOT a hacking tool. It's just a opt-in DDoS tool.
I was initially torn about whether only seeding should be called jesusing, but actually jesus ate his own copies with the poor, so just any piracy could be called jesusing, provided your sharing too.
IANAL. You might become vulnerable under the Espionage Act for distributing the Iraq war logs. Applying the Espionage Act gets really tricky however, apparently no journalist or whistle blower has ever been convicted. So you're likely safe. And all the informant names are redacted in the Iraq war logs, making the Espionage Act less relevant. I imagine any other leaks are even less relevant under the Espionage Act.
If you're particularly worried, you might distribute just their older leaks, and their upcoming bank leak. Holder cannot prosecuted you under the Espionage Act for merely distributing the bank leaks.:P
Except the insurance file was posted before they'd redacted the cable gate archives, or presumably even the war log. If this information were public, there would be many U.S. informants assasonated in Afganastan, and maybe elsewhere.
Afaik, there have been no assassinations of U.S. informants caused by wikileaks. And we do not expect the non-redacted files will ever be released.
Assange has stated the insurance file's key gets kept on a "dead man's switch". It follows that any direct action against wikileaks by anyone will clearly hurt the U.S. along with numerous others.
p.s. There has been suspicion that Russia's leaders are far more personally vulnerable to wikileaks because they're basically robbing the country blind. We'd therefore suspect Russia will not risk attacking Assange or wikileaks, except as retaliation for ruining Putin's personal finances, yet conversely wikileaks cannot safely release that information.
I'm doubtful that punishment makes a particularly wise or effective deterrent against leaks or espionage. Yes, you need some threat of punishment of course, but the core deterrents are personal. For example, espionage is deterred by loyalty, lifestyle immune to blackmail, etc.
There is however an ocean between espionage and leaks. A spy works for money, fear blackmail, etc. while leaks always stem from patriotism. It follows that 'belief in the system' must be the first-and-formost deterrent against leaks.
So we must address one question : What creates belief in the system? Seeing it work of course!
Our last & best line of defense against leaks is actually the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which usually turns big leaks into small controllable leaks. In other words, an insider passes hints about illegal activity to a social organization like the ACLU, etc. who then file a FOIA request. All other insiders see simply that a FOIA request brought down pressure, concluding the system largely works, and discouraging further leaks.
To counter the wikileaks idea, we must strengthen effective deterrents like the FOIA. Some suggestions :
- Senators should have cleared aides who insiders may invite on-site for classified discussions and/or review of questionable material.
- There should be a free & anonymous internal procedure for insiders making FOIA requests on behalf of some civilian organization.
If we assume that Manning was responsible for all three wikileaks about the U.S. this year, then I'd imagine his thought processes were :
(1) "Wow! We killed a journalist, Americans should know." -- We'd all agree that's a perfectly valid sentiment, yet one that'd *eventually* be settled by a FOIA request.
(2) "I've already leaks this video, but so many incidents were so fucked up, I should really leak the whole war log." -- If we'd given him an out via anonymous internal FOIA request for the journalist, then he'd never get this far. At worst, he'd file a few more FOIAs for other bad incidents.
(3) "I've already leaked so much about my fellow soldiers, but just look at all these diplomatic fat cats." -- Yes, it's risky giving soldiers access to diplomatic cables that exist in a world totally disconnected from their own, yet again he might accept their system if he'd seen his work.
In raw financial terms, wikileaks has probably gained the U.S. more tax revenue from that Caymen Islands thing than it has cost the U.S. in over all expenses. Just say'n.
Apple never does new technology, not once, not ever, obviously. Apple is however the best at artful delivery of existing technology.
My favorite example is time machine, an ancient technology, likely predating even C. Yet, Apple was the first to deliver the metaphor that got desktop users actually using it.
There are however various companies moving towards more Apple-like finished products. Andoird phones are usually every bit as clean and pleasant as iPhones. Nokia's N900 (Maemo/MeeGo) is less polished once you get into the applications, but you'll find all that's good about the iPhone there too. In fact, even facebook has trounced all the competition largely by offering a simple yet comprehensive interface.
In fact, the whole problem is that denial of service attacks are perfectly fucking useless, especially when directed against some stooge site that nobody ever uses. In other words, operation payback is not being force full enough.
There are three viable approaches to resolving the piracy issue :
(1) civil disobedience --- You need enough people to pirate like crazy, brag about it, get sued, and not pay the fines.
(2) hacktivism --- hack all the systems of all anti-piracy lawyers, expose their illegal activities, and get them disbarred.
(3) technological --- We could create viable friend-to-friend file sharing by creating an open source social networking and messaging application that envorced privacy through end-to-end encryption for all communications, and shared all file types. App developers would be immunte to prosicution because they'd obviously need file sharing for photos and videos to compete with facebook. Bonus, you'd kill off facebook too.
DoS attacks are meant to be vaguely like civil disobedience but they're neither effective nor sympathetic.
We're talking about American companies based in the U.S. that base their European headquarters in Ireland for the Tax breaks. All this occurs only because higher level executive can order some European executive to live in Ireland. Alcatel, Airbus, Nokia, etc. are not based in Ireland because Ireland is a shit hole.
If Ireland raises their tax rates, but still keeps their taxes slightly lower than France, German, England, etc., all these American companies will keep their existing European corporate headquarters in Ireland. Ireland would need to raise their tax rates slight above some other European country before any corporate headquarters moves.
Issue 2.
All these American companies maintain European work forces in Ireland because the corporate tax rates are lower. If Ireland raised it's tax rates, they might consider moving some facilities to European countries with cheaper labor, like Spain, Poland, etc.
We're not talking about a terribly fast process however for various reasons such as : The company benefiting from specific work forces being near their European corporate headquarters, which we've established won't move. Inability to simple move the people coupled with a lack of suitable workers in the new country. etc.
So what is the real cost of raising taxes?
Easy, Ireland will cease growth due to new foreign investment. American companies will not establish new divisions in an expensive shit hole like Ireland once the corporate taxes rise to European standards. Instead, they'll either look for lower wage locations in Eastern or Southern Europe, or preferably India and Singapore. Or they'll invest in more expensive but better educated workers in probably Germany, but maybe Scandinavia or France.
In fact, almost any jobs that could be exported to India and Singapore will most likely be exported eventually anyways. So honestly all the other countries of Europe will benefit enormously from forcing Ireland to raise it's corporate tax rates. I'd argue this holds true even if this means the ECB must bail them out eventually.
Ireland fucked up. Germany & co. now own their ass. Time to pay the piper guys. And one payment will be more American investment in Germany instead of Ireland.
p.s. Don't forget that China isn't exactly an option. Google is currently only discussing their moral qualms with China. All the industrial espionage is however a major problem for *all* companies. You realize even being married to a chinese national precludes you from any kind of U.S. security clearance? It's entirely realistic that the U.S. could start banning software developed in China from any sort of sensitive industrial processes. etc. China isn't a good option, plus the Indians do software better.
All Scandinavian countries are having a problem with rapes committed by islamic immigrants and asylum seekers. Yes, some aspects are surely a racially motivated moral panic, but the arabic immigrants are really not behaving very well.
Afaik, wikileaks agenda is maximizing the impact of their leaks. They've released documents that benefited the U.S. by embarrassing Iran, China, etc. and helped us catch U.S. citizens hiding income in Swiss bank accounts. If wikileaks suppressed an interesting leak, we'd just see that leak on cryptome.org with the subheading "Suppressed by Wikileaks".
You are of course correct that we need more organizations like wikileaks, ideally run by less flamboyant people. In fact, all the "real" news organizations around like Independent Media Center, Al Jazeera, BBC, etc. should be racing to set up separate but similar blind document submission networks.
In any case, I'm fairly happy that Julian Assange is playing wanna-be martyr chicken with the U.S. intelligence services. Americans must eventually choose between our freedom and our empire.
I don't think the word "integrated" means quite what you think it means. Yes, Android may be fragments but the iPhone is not integrated. Isn't not integrating half the meaning of "there's an app for that"?
Both SIP & Skype audio & video are actually integrated into Maemo/MeeGo, along with ALL other IM protocols.
(1) Skype does not require the cooperation of sysadmins because Skype was built by people willing to break the rules. Skype just works unless sysadmins specifically fight it. SIP not so much.
Solution : We need slightly more expensive SIP providers that proxy your traffic when necessary for bypassing network restrictions and incompetent sysadmins.. as well as variations on SIP that use a Skype-like P2P proxy approach.
(2) Skype dramatically simplifies the installation and setup. You've actually some chance of non-tech savvy people like your girlfriend or mom installing Skype unaided.
Solution : We need better information about which SIP providers provide cleaner packaging and proxies. Think gsmarena.com level informative.
Google might pick it up. Android shows Google's willingness to adopt openness as a "scorched earth" policy against competitors who're doing end runs around Google's core business. All the other social networking sites like hi5 might adopt it for strength in numbers vs. facebook. You could even imagine IM programs like skype jumping on the social networking bandwagon through variation on Disapora's protocols.
Also, friends-to-friend file sharing is the untapped killer app for social networking, as easy invisible widespread friend-to-friend piracy could finally muzzle the MafIAA bullshit. For example, Skype could steal facebooks thunder tomorrow if they built social networking into their client, but supported filetypes beyond merely photos. Friend-to-friend file sharing might emerge in Disapora if people started using stand alone clients, just support more filetypes than merely photos.
You'll get a warning message during boot up if your N900 has no SIM card, no other issues arise.
You could prevent this message by putting in some old SIM card. I'd recommend against that however as you'll probably save cpu time and batteries if the GSM stack does not initialize.
An N810's only advantage over an N900 is the larger screen, plus maybe you can find one uber cheap on ebay, but really I'd say either buy an N900 or wait for Nokia's first MeeGo device.
Corrupt governments are quite effective at executing nefarious plots.
That said, the U.N. isn't the powerful's favorite tool. Think WTO, G8, etc. Oh wait, those oligarchies are actually too democratic, let's try the secret negotiations for ACTA. To award the U.N. any real authority, our powerful elites would need to feel they've learned everything possible from Germany's economic dominance over the European Union. In fact, they'd probably need to try that experiment a couple more times, say a South American Union and African Union. And honestly a few regional economic unions would suffice all by themselves, assuming they properly award indirect authority to foreign investors.
Anywho, the U.N. is a very real potential bad guy, but they'll remain impotent for the foreseeable future thanks to much worse guys much closer to home.
I agree, they needed a file (photo) sharing feature. Ideally they'd add general purpose friend-to-friend file sharing with blind encrypted peer-to-peer caching, kinda like Freenet. Hordes would dump Facebook for Facebook minus games plus piracy. You'd give photos special features of course, but allow arbitrary filetypes.
I'd recommend they add friend-to-friend file sharing with blind encrypted peer-to-peer caching, kinda like Freenet. And then mock the system up as a social networking site, i.e. photos are given special features, but arbitrary filetypes are supported.
They'd immediately gain hard core file sharers because solid friend-to-friend systems are immune to the MafIAA. All those file sharers would serve as their basis for beating Facebook.
The N900's resistive screen does not require much pressure and seems fairly responsive for gestures. I'm doubtful that multitouch gestures are doable on N900, but the underlying pressure issue was solved.
Slashdot Mirror
I donno if the JavaScript LOIC at http://www.calgarc.com/jloic.html has their current list of targets, but it's default target list is :
http://www.moneybookers.com:80/
http://api.paypal.com:443/
http://verified.visa.com:80/
http://www.mastercard.com:80/
You'll notice two are front facing sites, which the buisness may use for "speech", but not necessarily. And the other two are API urls that are never used for "speech".
Yes, I'd agree they should replace the front facing urls with api urls, obviously that's more effective, and completely avoids trampling on anyone else's right to speak.
Yes, voluntary DDoS attacks are a legitimate form of non-violent resistance, assuming people use their own computers, probably not corporations. And these are these first opt-in DDoS attacks being seen sympathetically by the main stream press (outside the U.S.). So big win!
Btw, Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is NOT a hacking tool. It's just a opt-in DDoS tool.
I was initially torn about whether only seeding should be called jesusing, but actually jesus ate his own copies with the poor, so just any piracy could be called jesusing, provided your sharing too.
IANAL. You might become vulnerable under the Espionage Act for distributing the Iraq war logs. Applying the Espionage Act gets really tricky however, apparently no journalist or whistle blower has ever been convicted. So you're likely safe. And all the informant names are redacted in the Iraq war logs, making the Espionage Act less relevant. I imagine any other leaks are even less relevant under the Espionage Act.
If you're particularly worried, you might distribute just their older leaks, and their upcoming bank leak. Holder cannot prosecuted you under the Espionage Act for merely distributing the bank leaks. :P
Except the insurance file was posted before they'd redacted the cable gate archives, or presumably even the war log. If this information were public, there would be many U.S. informants assasonated in Afganastan, and maybe elsewhere.
Afaik, there have been no assassinations of U.S. informants caused by wikileaks. And we do not expect the non-redacted files will ever be released.
Assange has stated the insurance file's key gets kept on a "dead man's switch". It follows that any direct action against wikileaks by anyone will clearly hurt the U.S. along with numerous others.
p.s. There has been suspicion that Russia's leaders are far more personally vulnerable to wikileaks because they're basically robbing the country blind. We'd therefore suspect Russia will not risk attacking Assange or wikileaks, except as retaliation for ruining Putin's personal finances, yet conversely wikileaks cannot safely release that information.
I'm doubtful that punishment makes a particularly wise or effective deterrent against leaks or espionage. Yes, you need some threat of punishment of course, but the core deterrents are personal. For example, espionage is deterred by loyalty, lifestyle immune to blackmail, etc.
There is however an ocean between espionage and leaks. A spy works for money, fear blackmail, etc. while leaks always stem from patriotism. It follows that 'belief in the system' must be the first-and-formost deterrent against leaks.
So we must address one question : What creates belief in the system? Seeing it work of course!
Our last & best line of defense against leaks is actually the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which usually turns big leaks into small controllable leaks. In other words, an insider passes hints about illegal activity to a social organization like the ACLU, etc. who then file a FOIA request. All other insiders see simply that a FOIA request brought down pressure, concluding the system largely works, and discouraging further leaks.
To counter the wikileaks idea, we must strengthen effective deterrents like the FOIA. Some suggestions :
- Senators should have cleared aides who insiders may invite on-site for classified discussions and/or review of questionable material.
- There should be a free & anonymous internal procedure for insiders making FOIA requests on behalf of some civilian organization.
If we assume that Manning was responsible for all three wikileaks about the U.S. this year, then I'd imagine his thought processes were :
(1) "Wow! We killed a journalist, Americans should know." -- We'd all agree that's a perfectly valid sentiment, yet one that'd *eventually* be settled by a FOIA request.
(2) "I've already leaks this video, but so many incidents were so fucked up, I should really leak the whole war log." -- If we'd given him an out via anonymous internal FOIA request for the journalist, then he'd never get this far. At worst, he'd file a few more FOIAs for other bad incidents.
(3) "I've already leaked so much about my fellow soldiers, but just look at all these diplomatic fat cats." -- Yes, it's risky giving soldiers access to diplomatic cables that exist in a world totally disconnected from their own, yet again he might accept their system if he'd seen his work.
You made my day!
In raw financial terms, wikileaks has probably gained the U.S. more tax revenue from that Caymen Islands thing than it has cost the U.S. in over all expenses. Just say'n.
Apple never does new technology, not once, not ever, obviously. Apple is however the best at artful delivery of existing technology.
My favorite example is time machine, an ancient technology, likely predating even C. Yet, Apple was the first to deliver the metaphor that got desktop users actually using it.
There are however various companies moving towards more Apple-like finished products. Andoird phones are usually every bit as clean and pleasant as iPhones. Nokia's N900 (Maemo/MeeGo) is less polished once you get into the applications, but you'll find all that's good about the iPhone there too. In fact, even facebook has trounced all the competition largely by offering a simple yet comprehensive interface.
In fact, the whole problem is that denial of service attacks are perfectly fucking useless, especially when directed against some stooge site that nobody ever uses. In other words, operation payback is not being force full enough.
There are three viable approaches to resolving the piracy issue :
(1) civil disobedience --- You need enough people to pirate like crazy, brag about it, get sued, and not pay the fines.
(2) hacktivism --- hack all the systems of all anti-piracy lawyers, expose their illegal activities, and get them disbarred.
(3) technological --- We could create viable friend-to-friend file sharing by creating an open source social networking and messaging application that envorced privacy through end-to-end encryption for all communications, and shared all file types. App developers would be immunte to prosicution because they'd obviously need file sharing for photos and videos to compete with facebook. Bonus, you'd kill off facebook too.
DoS attacks are meant to be vaguely like civil disobedience but they're neither effective nor sympathetic.
It's all a secret plot by the CIA to make America into the worlds most powerful porn exporter. ;)
There are actually two separate issues here.
Issue 1.
We're talking about American companies based in the U.S. that base their European headquarters in Ireland for the Tax breaks. All this occurs only because higher level executive can order some European executive to live in Ireland. Alcatel, Airbus, Nokia, etc. are not based in Ireland because Ireland is a shit hole.
If Ireland raises their tax rates, but still keeps their taxes slightly lower than France, German, England, etc., all these American companies will keep their existing European corporate headquarters in Ireland. Ireland would need to raise their tax rates slight above some other European country before any corporate headquarters moves.
Issue 2.
All these American companies maintain European work forces in Ireland because the corporate tax rates are lower. If Ireland raised it's tax rates, they might consider moving some facilities to European countries with cheaper labor, like Spain, Poland, etc.
We're not talking about a terribly fast process however for various reasons such as : The company benefiting from specific work forces being near their European corporate headquarters, which we've established won't move. Inability to simple move the people coupled with a lack of suitable workers in the new country. etc.
So what is the real cost of raising taxes?
Easy, Ireland will cease growth due to new foreign investment. American companies will not establish new divisions in an expensive shit hole like Ireland once the corporate taxes rise to European standards. Instead, they'll either look for lower wage locations in Eastern or Southern Europe, or preferably India and Singapore. Or they'll invest in more expensive but better educated workers in probably Germany, but maybe Scandinavia or France.
In fact, almost any jobs that could be exported to India and Singapore will most likely be exported eventually anyways. So honestly all the other countries of Europe will benefit enormously from forcing Ireland to raise it's corporate tax rates. I'd argue this holds true even if this means the ECB must bail them out eventually.
Ireland fucked up. Germany & co. now own their ass. Time to pay the piper guys. And one payment will be more American investment in Germany instead of Ireland.
p.s. Don't forget that China isn't exactly an option. Google is currently only discussing their moral qualms with China. All the industrial espionage is however a major problem for *all* companies. You realize even being married to a chinese national precludes you from any kind of U.S. security clearance? It's entirely realistic that the U.S. could start banning software developed in China from any sort of sensitive industrial processes. etc. China isn't a good option, plus the Indians do software better.
All Scandinavian countries are having a problem with rapes committed by islamic immigrants and asylum seekers. Yes, some aspects are surely a racially motivated moral panic, but the arabic immigrants are really not behaving very well.
All Scandinavian are having a *big* problem with rapes committed by arabic immigrants and asylum seekers.
Yes resources and trade are always nice, but the good news is :
Africa & Central America will turn into uninhabitable deserts unable to support life.
We westerners will finally free ourselves from our hated farm subsidies! yey!
Afaik, wikileaks agenda is maximizing the impact of their leaks. They've released documents that benefited the U.S. by embarrassing Iran, China, etc. and helped us catch U.S. citizens hiding income in Swiss bank accounts. If wikileaks suppressed an interesting leak, we'd just see that leak on cryptome.org with the subheading "Suppressed by Wikileaks".
You are of course correct that we need more organizations like wikileaks, ideally run by less flamboyant people. In fact, all the "real" news organizations around like Independent Media Center, Al Jazeera, BBC, etc. should be racing to set up separate but similar blind document submission networks.
In any case, I'm fairly happy that Julian Assange is playing wanna-be martyr chicken with the U.S. intelligence services. Americans must eventually choose between our freedom and our empire.
I don't think the word "integrated" means quite what you think it means. Yes, Android may be fragments but the iPhone is not integrated. Isn't not integrating half the meaning of "there's an app for that"?
Both SIP & Skype audio & video are actually integrated into Maemo/MeeGo, along with ALL other IM protocols.
Initially I miss-read the title as :
Astronaut Sues Dilo [Maker] Over Aluminum Cover
Boy was I disappointed!
Skype has two big advantages over SIP :
(1) Skype does not require the cooperation of sysadmins because Skype was built by people willing to break the rules. Skype just works unless sysadmins specifically fight it. SIP not so much.
Solution : We need slightly more expensive SIP providers that proxy your traffic when necessary for bypassing network restrictions and incompetent sysadmins.. as well as variations on SIP that use a Skype-like P2P proxy approach.
(2) Skype dramatically simplifies the installation and setup. You've actually some chance of non-tech savvy people like your girlfriend or mom installing Skype unaided.
Solution : We need better information about which SIP providers provide cleaner packaging and proxies. Think gsmarena.com level informative.
Google might pick it up. Android shows Google's willingness to adopt openness as a "scorched earth" policy against competitors who're doing end runs around Google's core business. All the other social networking sites like hi5 might adopt it for strength in numbers vs. facebook. You could even imagine IM programs like skype jumping on the social networking bandwagon through variation on Disapora's protocols.
Also, friends-to-friend file sharing is the untapped killer app for social networking, as easy invisible widespread friend-to-friend piracy could finally muzzle the MafIAA bullshit. For example, Skype could steal facebooks thunder tomorrow if they built social networking into their client, but supported filetypes beyond merely photos. Friend-to-friend file sharing might emerge in Disapora if people started using stand alone clients, just support more filetypes than merely photos.
You'll get a warning message during boot up if your N900 has no SIM card, no other issues arise.
You could prevent this message by putting in some old SIM card. I'd recommend against that however as you'll probably save cpu time and batteries if the GSM stack does not initialize.
An N810's only advantage over an N900 is the larger screen, plus maybe you can find one uber cheap on ebay, but really I'd say either buy an N900 or wait for Nokia's first MeeGo device.
Corrupt governments are quite effective at executing nefarious plots.
That said, the U.N. isn't the powerful's favorite tool. Think WTO, G8, etc. Oh wait, those oligarchies are actually too democratic, let's try the secret negotiations for ACTA. To award the U.N. any real authority, our powerful elites would need to feel they've learned everything possible from Germany's economic dominance over the European Union. In fact, they'd probably need to try that experiment a couple more times, say a South American Union and African Union. And honestly a few regional economic unions would suffice all by themselves, assuming they properly award indirect authority to foreign investors.
Anywho, the U.N. is a very real potential bad guy, but they'll remain impotent for the foreseeable future thanks to much worse guys much closer to home.
I agree, they needed a file (photo) sharing feature. Ideally they'd add general purpose friend-to-friend file sharing with blind encrypted peer-to-peer caching, kinda like Freenet. Hordes would dump Facebook for Facebook minus games plus piracy. You'd give photos special features of course, but allow arbitrary filetypes.
I'd recommend they add friend-to-friend file sharing with blind encrypted peer-to-peer caching, kinda like Freenet. And then mock the system up as a social networking site, i.e. photos are given special features, but arbitrary filetypes are supported.
They'd immediately gain hard core file sharers because solid friend-to-friend systems are immune to the MafIAA. All those file sharers would serve as their basis for beating Facebook.
The N900's resistive screen does not require much pressure and seems fairly responsive for gestures. I'm doubtful that multitouch gestures are doable on N900, but the underlying pressure issue was solved.