Maybe it's just me, but this seems to not address any of the important RFID issues at all.
Irrelevant. If you can show the tracking system is trivial to break, public opinion is swayed against, big time. Remember the uproar about the Clipper chip? Same deal.
If some demonstrations are made of breaking this more completely, the RFID bud can get nipped.
Jerry Bussell, Gov. Kenny Guinn's adviser on homeland security, ruled out terrorism and described the phenomenon as a "frequency problem."
Here's two dumb questions in a row:
Are governors asking their homeland security advisors whether everything could be terrorism now? "My toilet clogged up this morning...could that be terrorism?" Isn't that really time the governor could spend better, I don't know, say, whimpering underneath a desk in the fetal position, or playing golf, or even chewing gum?
How do they know it's not the result of terrorist action? Perhaps there are some acutely stupid terrorists, and this is the first strike against keyless entry...in a very small area of the world...which nobody really noticed. Maybe they're just stupid terrorists. Maybe their next plan is to have a terror blog. Maybe their next plan is to get shirts printed up with the word "Terrorist" emblazoned on the front.
More importantly -- and as I continually addressed in the letter I sent to Mistah Russell -- is the implicit assumption that governmental security review processes are automatically going to be less trustworthy than other security review processes. Russell does all he can to talk about the poor government, how terrible that they can't just buy something off the shelf. Buying something is no guarantee of security, and if I'm going to pay tax dollars for government employees to purchase software they're too busy killing interns to write themselves, they damn well better scope said software out. It's not enough that the guy's points are just wrong -- he goes one step further and insults those paying for crappy government by telling them that their crappy governments should buy crappy software in crappy ways.
I don't know -- most of this is either a truism about software with the words "open source" in front of the word software, or else something Microsoft said about open source in one of their -- er, I mean the independant testing consortium they hired's -- tests.
Plus, el supremo Jones fails to comprehend the concept of reverse engineering. Perhaps learning things is more difficult with that enormous wad of MicrosoftBucks that keeps showing up in his bank account.
It takes a serious disconnect from the real world to see something threatening about this.
Nope, just takes a penchant for graphic design and a liking of the design of the money. If you have trouble scanning and printing things that look like money, you have a very difficult time trying to parody bills.
He may be a smart guy, but I think he might just be recycling old material and calling it the Next Big Thing (TM). Again, I won't find out unless this book catches on, because most of my book purchases are by word of mouth or by trusted source...
Um, actually, the whole book's available online, for free. It's up there in the story you replied to.
They are believers in freedom to not get punched in the mouth.
Hang on -- let me get this straight. You're saying it's okay to punish people for expressing themselves?
That's known as a "crock". If speaking freely becomes punishable by death -- even informally then you're describing a totalitarian regime. The freedom to speak out being immediately punished results in a lack of freedom.
It's been my experience that people crying to reduce anonymity on the internet are simply bullies. They believe they're free to punch other people in the mouth, and some of them like it quite a bit.
Just wait until next week, when India's news sources start reporting on the loss of outsourcing contracts to Cambodian developers living in villages...!
I demand the opposite, actually. If I hear the word 'unlimited', then I don't expect to be hassled about the amount of time/bandwidth I take up. Easy as pie. If someone's got a time limit, I want to hear that.
ISP services, right now, are in the same boat that cough syrup once was a few hundred years ago, being sold by anybody who can sell it, using whatever terminology they can -- this is true. Plenty of people aren't informed enough to know what the word 'unlimited' actually means, and plenty of unscrupulous people mean unlimited to a certain amount when they say 'unlimited'. Advertising regulations might eventually prevent this, but other lies will show up.
I stick with people who tell me the truth. If my ISP lies to me, they aren't my ISP any more.
Funny -- I've heard it described by others that there's a fairly uniform amount of intelligence in "subconscious" minds, but "conscious" intelligence varies widely.
Some folks just don't want to believe they're that smart, it would seem.
They did notice that, among those who believed that there was no difference between the intelligence levels of "subconscious" and "conscious" minds...there was little to no difference.
Those of us who read Harriet The Spy when we were younger (the real book, not that crap they put out to go with the shiny movie version) will remember the notion of sleeping on a couch, with one arm extended, and a spoon loosely gripped in that hand. Under that spoon, on the floor, is a plate.
And when you start to slide off into slumberland, and drop that spoon, you stop right quick. Doesn't get deep sleep, of course, but it helps with strange imagery and such, and odd associations you get when you're drifting off...
Dave Barry once said that the federal government had to be viewed as a form of entertainment, and in that way I think he's correct. No sane American, fully understanding what happens in American politics, would consider the government money well spent.
SCO's circus is better entertainment because most of us aren't paying quite as much for it...
You know what sleeping dogs I'm referring to don't you? No? Well, let me refresh your memory. Hackers! That's right, Hackers, Geeks, Software Engineers, G-P-Lers! Oh, now you remember. Well, do you also remember a few years ago when we all talked about how the Hackers were going to take over the world and how every household would be run by Hackers and their filthy free software? Oh, yeah, we feared the Hackers back in them days and for good reason too. Now, all I hear is poor little Geeks, they've got no money. Poor little Hackers, they've been arrested. Poor little Nerdies this and poor little Coders that.
Don't you get it? Am I the only one that gets it? It's a trick! Free software never dies. Free software is a cancer. A cancer that is sleeping, waiting to devour our freedom. Devour democracy.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "This guy's just some money-grubbing, lawsuit-filing wannabe-attorney who had a horrible upbringing and whose father beat him every day with a bible." Well, that may be true, but it never did me any harm!
All I'm saying is, a few years ago, people listened to what I had to say. I fit in. Well, listen to me now. The Hackers, they're going to try to take over the world again. Don't you forget that for one second, friend, or else you'll be lining up for source code in a God-less world.
There's one more thing I'd like to say. Linux! You forgot about it, didncha? Well, that's just what they want us to do, that's right. The Hacker GPLers, the Linux Geeks, they're like this!
So when people say to me, 'Let sleeping dogs lye." I say, to them, 'Friend, sleeping dogs, they eventually wake up and chew out the throat of democracy! Don't think I don't know what you're up to, Hackers. Don't think I'm unaware that Sam Palmisano or should I say, l33t5killz is one of you! (pulls up Sam from behind the desk)
Sam: (tied up with a gag in his mouth) He's crazy!
Crazy like a fanatic -- FOX, I mean! (pushes Sam back down behind his desk) Down you fanatic geek! (starts beating Sam with a stack of legal briefs) One man, one consumer! One man, one consumer!
The FBI came with a blonde woman agent carrying the warrent and trying to be as nice as they can to a suspect. Let's face it, that's what this guy, and his entire group, appears to be right now.
People unwilling to identify themselves significantly are not, in my opinion, being "nice". As far as these guys know, they were invaded by a bunch of extremely well-organized burglars. The badges mean nothing if you cannot compare them to something else.
As for the "fishing"...if he's got anything deeply encrypted on those machines, he'll never get them back. Period.
The system, say its British creators, did just as well as biology graduate students in solving a problem in genetics...
Just as every college student has suspected at one time or another -- a machine could be doing their homework for them, and they could be doing something interesting instead.
...the spooks are already required to disconnect (or ditch-and-not-listen-to any recording) the instant they realize it's a call that is unrelated to the matter being investigated...
And that's very nice, if you trust said spooks. It's really not that hard to become a federal employee in some places, and there's less oversight every single day.
Slashdot Mirror
Irrelevant. If you can show the tracking system is trivial to break, public opinion is swayed against, big time. Remember the uproar about the Clipper chip? Same deal.
If some demonstrations are made of breaking this more completely, the RFID bud can get nipped.
...and the proof is the HHGG. I can't wait until they announce that Ronald McDonald's going to be in the damn thing.
Here's two dumb questions in a row:
Are governors asking their homeland security advisors whether everything could be terrorism now? "My toilet clogged up this morning...could that be terrorism?" Isn't that really time the governor could spend better, I don't know, say, whimpering underneath a desk in the fetal position, or playing golf, or even chewing gum?
How do they know it's not the result of terrorist action? Perhaps there are some acutely stupid terrorists, and this is the first strike against keyless entry...in a very small area of the world...which nobody really noticed. Maybe they're just stupid terrorists. Maybe their next plan is to have a terror blog. Maybe their next plan is to get shirts printed up with the word "Terrorist" emblazoned on the front.
Case in point.
More importantly -- and as I continually addressed in the letter I sent to Mistah Russell -- is the implicit assumption that governmental security review processes are automatically going to be less trustworthy than other security review processes. Russell does all he can to talk about the poor government, how terrible that they can't just buy something off the shelf. Buying something is no guarantee of security, and if I'm going to pay tax dollars for government employees to purchase software they're too busy killing interns to write themselves, they damn well better scope said software out. It's not enough that the guy's points are just wrong -- he goes one step further and insults those paying for crappy government by telling them that their crappy governments should buy crappy software in crappy ways.
Plus, el supremo Jones fails to comprehend the concept of reverse engineering. Perhaps learning things is more difficult with that enormous wad of MicrosoftBucks that keeps showing up in his bank account.
Nope, just takes a penchant for graphic design and a liking of the design of the money. If you have trouble scanning and printing things that look like money, you have a very difficult time trying to parody bills.
Just means that your spider is forced to go slowly. NBD.
Hang on -- let me get this straight. You're saying it's okay to punish people for expressing themselves?
That's known as a "crock". If speaking freely becomes punishable by death -- even informally then you're describing a totalitarian regime. The freedom to speak out being immediately punished results in a lack of freedom.
It's been my experience that people crying to reduce anonymity on the internet are simply bullies. They believe they're free to punch other people in the mouth, and some of them like it quite a bit.
Just wait until next week, when India's news sources start reporting on the loss of outsourcing contracts to Cambodian developers living in villages...!
I demand the opposite, actually. If I hear the word 'unlimited', then I don't expect to be hassled about the amount of time/bandwidth I take up. Easy as pie. If someone's got a time limit, I want to hear that.
ISP services, right now, are in the same boat that cough syrup once was a few hundred years ago, being sold by anybody who can sell it, using whatever terminology they can -- this is true. Plenty of people aren't informed enough to know what the word 'unlimited' actually means, and plenty of unscrupulous people mean unlimited to a certain amount when they say 'unlimited'. Advertising regulations might eventually prevent this, but other lies will show up.
I stick with people who tell me the truth. If my ISP lies to me, they aren't my ISP any more.
If those with a serious interest in literary comedies had no reason to kill themselves before, they certainly do now.
On the bright side, however, I hear there's going to be a Zaphod-themed drink at McD's, with a dual cup, one side shake, one side soda...!
Sorry.
No.
Some folks just don't want to believe they're that smart, it would seem.
They did notice that, among those who believed that there was no difference between the intelligence levels of "subconscious" and "conscious" minds...there was little to no difference.
And when you start to slide off into slumberland, and drop that spoon, you stop right quick. Doesn't get deep sleep, of course, but it helps with strange imagery and such, and odd associations you get when you're drifting off...
SCO's circus is better entertainment because most of us aren't paying quite as much for it...
...the schmucks who think they run the world got h4x0red. As Brak would say, "That's a feeling that smells like SUCCESS!"
You know what sleeping dogs I'm referring to don't you? No? Well, let me refresh your memory. Hackers! That's right, Hackers, Geeks, Software Engineers, G-P-Lers! Oh, now you remember. Well, do you also remember a few years ago when we all talked about how the Hackers were going to take over the world and how every household would be run by Hackers and their filthy free software? Oh, yeah, we feared the Hackers back in them days and for good reason too. Now, all I hear is poor little Geeks, they've got no money. Poor little Hackers, they've been arrested. Poor little Nerdies this and poor little Coders that.
Don't you get it? Am I the only one that gets it? It's a trick! Free software never dies. Free software is a cancer. A cancer that is sleeping, waiting to devour our freedom. Devour democracy.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "This guy's just some money-grubbing, lawsuit-filing wannabe-attorney who had a horrible upbringing and whose father beat him every day with a bible." Well, that may be true, but it never did me any harm!
All I'm saying is, a few years ago, people listened to what I had to say. I fit in. Well, listen to me now. The Hackers, they're going to try to take over the world again. Don't you forget that for one second, friend, or else you'll be lining up for source code in a God-less world.
There's one more thing I'd like to say. Linux! You forgot about it, didncha? Well, that's just what they want us to do, that's right. The Hacker GPLers, the Linux Geeks, they're like this!
So when people say to me, 'Let sleeping dogs lye." I say, to them, 'Friend, sleeping dogs, they eventually wake up and chew out the throat of democracy! Don't think I don't know what you're up to, Hackers. Don't think I'm unaware that Sam Palmisano or should I say, l33t5killz is one of you! (pulls up Sam from behind the desk)
Sam: (tied up with a gag in his mouth) He's crazy!
Crazy like a fanatic -- FOX, I mean! (pushes Sam back down behind his desk) Down you fanatic geek! (starts beating Sam with a stack of legal briefs) One man, one consumer! One man, one consumer!
People unwilling to identify themselves significantly are not, in my opinion, being "nice". As far as these guys know, they were invaded by a bunch of extremely well-organized burglars. The badges mean nothing if you cannot compare them to something else.
As for the "fishing"...if he's got anything deeply encrypted on those machines, he'll never get them back. Period.
Just as every college student has suspected at one time or another -- a machine could be doing their homework for them, and they could be doing something interesting instead.