As a general rule, we all throw in ~$60 to ~$100 which is bundled on the rego renewal notice along with a couple of other things.. and everyone is happy.
It used to be that only one insurer would provide this insurance (generally NRMA). They recently introduced a scheme so that you can (potentially) choose from a variety of insurers. Just pick from the list on your rego renewal form. Easy.
tl;dr version: TFA is about trying to implement a technical solution (scan numberplates at the bowser and reject if not insured) for a social problem (people not buying insurance)
New Erfworld website
Free Erfworld book 1 for a variety of people
Funding a reprint of book 1
Funding to making Hamstard beanies
Funding for a make-your-own-Hamstard-comic tool
Funding for a soundtrack album
I quite liked the sequels, up to The Warlock is Missing, but nothing meets the first book. Seriously recommend also reading Escape Velocity which is the prequel to Warlock in Spite of Himself.
Re:The response of 99.9% of humanity:
on
GitHub Hacked
·
· Score: 1
Millions? There's only one of you.. and boy are you prolific... and somewhat talented. Up at all hours, hammer and tongs sometimes.. you can go for weeks on end posting all sorts of enlightened prose along with complete bullshit.
My hat off to you, Anonymous Coward, without you/. just wouldn't be the same.
Just like Github isn't exactly the same as it was before
You don't need to ask permission, you only need to know how to google. Lots of people install cameras and leave them wide open for anyone to view. Search for anything with inurl:/view.shtml
Her sister, actually, hence why it was damn difficult to continue dating.. I overruled her sister.. eventually. Thanks for asking.
In relation to the article, your question provides an apt example of why the American system is so broken... an appropriate authority should be in place to determine a correct path - in particular for appeals - and where the party doing so has a personal interest in the outcome.. the outcome is unlikely to be fair and equitable.
Actually, it was strange for the first year. Many shops set their prices to the nearest 5c.. but then had problems at the till because fruit and veg and discounts meant that it the bill was rarely divisible by 5.
After a while, the prices all went back to normal, and the world continued on.
The only difference is that when you have a poker night now you use 5c and 10c pieces instead of 1c and 2c pieces.
Many people use credit card to pay so there is no difference - as there is no change. For those that pay with cash your change is rounded up or down.
Let's all go out and register a company, for which there is 1 person employed, who's salary is $1 per year, and of which the company makes a loss per year. Even better, make it a non-for-profit organisation.
The company buys the computer. The company pays for the internet service. The company pays for any VPN or other services used.
If you get sued or arrested then you point to the company and say 'I am but an employee' of company X. You will need to sue my company.
When they start legal proceedings against the company you shut down the company.. and the trail goes cold.
After all, isn't this what companies effectively do right now?
To this day I maintain I learned and retain more in several of my courses due to having to cram as much information as possible an a single sheet of paper (human written only) in letters and drawings small enough to cram in but still large enough to read.
I spoke to one of the seniors about it and he agreed; also added that he thought that there are 4 classes of student: those who don't need the "cheat sheet",. those who use it as a memory recall, those who desperately need it and those for whom nothing will make a difference.
Although, I do remember that I didn't actually use the sheet very much. For a few things.. yes.. but mostly it was all in my head. Probably because I spent two days carefully scribing on on that sheet of paper just before the test:)
The main one being that if a problem occurs you can lose the entire drive. I have a 500gb drive on my desk for which can now be classified as a paperweight. I still have not been able to mount it.. it is still here in the hope that one day I will be able to.
At least with files you can copy the whole file, effectively backing up GB or TB of data quickly and easily.
Overall, the approach is good.. however, some bright spark is still likely to say 'these is a drive here of random data, decrypt it. Now'.
Best bet you have is to have that drive on a removal or external connection so that you can pull it out quickly if need be. Doesn't help if they break down the door though.
As I've said before: Best solution I know of is to have a mini server or SAN device, stick it in a wall or concealed part of the roof cavity and access it via wireless. If you are really up to it, cable your house with patch cables and have one set of cables able to be routed to the concealed SAN device.
A good friend of mine has two of these in his ceiling. When he was robbed they got his main PC and TV but not 90% of his data. He figures that if he ever gets MAFIAAd then he'd be done for a few files on his PC.. but not for TB of files.
Perhaps you would be interested to know that I've already had a couple of passes through this from the courts.. and damn it can be scary.
By the time you think 'should I do something' - then at that point it is way too late (usually). It's lovely to sit here and have the time to execute a secure delete (so far as it is possible) on a hard drive.. but looking at GB of data just sitting there waiting for someone to read it? Yeah, at that point you wish that you had taken precautions.
I read ages ago about a guy who put a server in the wall / roof cavity and accessed any sensitive files from wireless. Best solution (pick your implementation) that I've heard of. Add encryption to that mix along with a dedicate SAN device and it's pretty solid. They turn the property power off.. and goodbye evidence.
If there's evidence that you've accessed files on a TrueCrypt volume, you have TrueCrypt installed,
Hence running from a VM, or mounting a volume and running programs from that mounted volume. Very good point.
and the investigator believes that case-relevant data is in an encrypted volume, they're probably going to try to make you decrypt the volumes.
At which point you start getting into the debate about what is and is not 'reasonable'. Last time I offered them all of my data, all drives, devices, everything - so long as a neutral third party went through it and they paid for it when they lost. That debate was worthy of a benny hill flashback. "So, you will just hand everything over?" "Yes, and you pay for it" "No, we won't" "Ahh, yes, you will, and it is going to take a while to go through millions of files.. and very costly. Are you sure you want to do this?" "Ahhhh. So, you will just hand everything over?".....
This is why I have a range of 'random' files on my devices, including my phone, for which are random data. The point I will make is this: If the file is actually a container then it will be possible, eventually, to decrypt it. If it's not.. well, then that is not my problem. I can't possibly remember all of the passwords to all of the files; it's quite likely I've encrypted important data for a specific time for which if I lose the password will be useless in the future.
It would be hilarious for them to open one file, for which I have lost the password, which contains a bunch of my high school work.
Even funnier will be when they find a program I have to set file timestamps. When that one comes up in a court case.. it can make the prosecution's job just a little bit harder.
Sitting in jail in contempt for a while is not as bad as you think. I'm all for telling them what I've done and making them take a reasonable position to figure it out. Charging me with a crime because they can't unravel the maze I have constructed to hide my data is not reasonable. Probably won't stop them though.
As someone else said: If they want to sink you, you are sunk. The only choice you get is how much damage they can do to you on the way down.
If any of this at all helps someone else then I will be happy. I plan to never be in the position where someone is kicking down my door to take my drives and devices.
Your response gives me a chilling effect. If I want to fill a HDD with random data then I should be able to. It doesn't mean I am a criminal. Nor should it mean that a judge can lock me away for decades.
I have pondered this problem for some time.
Let's say you have a couple of HDD filled with random data, and several large files which are random data, and quite a few medium and small files which are.. random data.
Add to this that if these are truecrypt volumes, then they all have hidden volumes, but not all have files in them, and some will be literally random data.. not encrypted volumes at all.
What can they do? Force you to decrypt hard drives full of random data files which may or may not be valid encrypted volumes?
Force you to decrypt each and every single file which appears in some way to be an encrypted container - regardless if it is actually an encrypted container or not?
If this is the case, then you may as well encrypt and offsite store everything important or have a method for complete concealment so they can't see the files at all. Rubberhose file system or similar perhaps..
Meanwhile, anyone stupid enough to steal my files (thieves, police, or otherwise) can spend all the time they like trying to break into what appears to be encrypted files. If they are lucky, perhaps they will find a file which actually may possibly be an encrypted container and for which may actually have legitimate files in it. I wouldn't count on it though.
The $5 wrench can't work when the files have no key. Yes, my head will hurt. Price you pay for sticking up for your rights.
If they want to break into my files then they can dedicate the processing time required to do so. Otherwise, the data is private; bugger off. If they can't get in then it's not my problem. I am willing to 'rot in jail' to prove this point... even if the only outcome is that you can go on living your life without this hassle.
If that's all you're doing then it seems a waste of time.
Wrong.
It's there to try to ensure that people are on track.
However, if people really want to be subversive, and if there is no strong manager to stop it, then nothing will work to ensure people actually are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
In the context of agile this makes sense - days are precious.
In normal meetings, perhaps not so much so.. unless you have a specific objective. For example, if I had a nosy upper line manager for whom I do want to stop coming to my meeting and taking over.. then I would use this tactic.
Used well it works. Like any strategy.. used badly it can be just as damaging as doing nothing at all.
and be wary of apps that want permission to make phone calls, connect to the Internet or reveal your identity and location."
but.. but.. they ALL require internet access.. apparently...
(grrr, damn you google for preventing me from being able to control my own phone. no, a jailbreak is not acceptable. I paid for this device. give me root access on it, and soon.. ice cream sandwich *should* have had sudo made available. grrr)
No need This is what facebook and google are for Just legislate a back.door into each and go right to step 4... 4. Profit (invade privacy of citizens at will)
I take your opinion on board.. but it doesn't match my current experience with gmail. I have reverted to the old interface 4 times now. Every time I have submitted a report with issues with the new interface.
So... you don't find the new interface to be an eye strain? No issues with the new message layout? The themes are not screwed up for you? (I am going to miss the ocean theme) You don't find having a huge red button blaring at you annoying? You like icons with no labels? You don't find yourself subconsciously hovering over icons before clicking? The menu and functions items jumping around doesn't irritate you? Functions appearing and disappearing as you click things? (yes, I find the latest MS Office to be the most irritating software in existence - it even beats out Lotus Notes for plain aggravation and annoyance - in particular how it hides menu functions) Have you compared the old and new interfaces next to each other / and one after the other? (alt -tab is good for this); And after seeing both, you still prefer the new interface layout?
I am certain that there will be greasemonkey scripts to fix what they are introducing.. just a matter of time. I suspect that they are delaying forcing everyone to the new interface for just this reason.\
It's bad enough that MS is going down the track of 'if it looks good and works like that on a mobile device then the users must want it on their desktop'.. but for google to follow this insanity is just.. a letdown. I expect more from google. Sanity, for a start.
Yes, it's free. So is yahoo. So is hotmail. Something to remember.
Meanwhile, I am getting irritated at seeing google+ messages. I'm not signed up for G+. Why would it be sending me spam? Meh.
Yes. This. I should have included a mention of the removal of + with the replacement of " " - it drives me nuts.
Although, I am finding their 'natural language search' "feature" to be more irritating. You search for key words including 'website' and it returns results including 'web' and 'site'.. but I know I am looking for "website".
Also, I've found that dissimilar searches.. are returning very similar search results. It is like google has cached the original search.. and is now throwing half of the original search results at me for the second search.. where I can't see how those hits would be included in the search search. Very very strange behaviour.
I miss +
"The new way" "doesn't" seem to "do the same thing".
I was using FreeBSD as my primary OS back in 2000 at work. Was actually quite good for a work OS as the basis for my server admin / php coder role. All Windows req's handled via Citrix metaframe session.
So, how much of this swing away from Google is due to the seriously annoying things they have done recently including, but not limited to, Google Instant (seriously annoying), Google Preview (irritating and annoying) and screwing over the gmail interface.
As for the third, in this day and age there is no excuse.
As for the first two... I use other search engines in places where I can't disable google instant and google preview. I find both of them so annoying that I waste more time disabling them than actually using the search engine. The interface gets in the way of the function. Yes, there are ways to ignore and bypass these irritations.. but why I am wasting effect on doing so?
Slashdot Mirror
When you register your car you pay a compulsory third party greenslip insurance. How much depends on what type of car or bike you are registering.
As a general rule, we all throw in ~$60 to ~$100 which is bundled on the rego renewal notice along with a couple of other things.. and everyone is happy.
It used to be that only one insurer would provide this insurance (generally NRMA). They recently introduced a scheme so that you can (potentially) choose from a variety of insurers. Just pick from the list on your rego renewal form. Easy.
tl;dr version: TFA is about trying to implement a technical solution (scan numberplates at the bowser and reject if not insured) for a social problem (people not buying insurance)
and while we are on the topic, the Erfworld Kickstarter has raised over $64000 with over 880 backers to fund a motion comic
Additional funds will go towards -
New Erfworld website
Free Erfworld book 1 for a variety of people
Funding a reprint of book 1
Funding to making Hamstard beanies
Funding for a make-your-own-Hamstard-comic tool
Funding for a soundtrack album
That's just sad
Pity we can't force idiots like to this use Bing as their punishment.. would cut down this type of problem in no time
Okay, so it's not 'old' but if you haven't read this trilogy.. you should.
Name: Fencer Trilogy
Books are:
1. Colours in the Steel (1998)
2. The Belly of the Bow (1999)
3. The Proof House (2000)
Don't look it up. Just read them. Easily worth buying.
The premise and execution of the first book is well worth while by itself.
Start with the Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff.
I quite liked the sequels, up to The Warlock is Missing, but nothing meets the first book. Seriously recommend also reading Escape Velocity which is the prequel to Warlock in Spite of Himself.
For a standalone book, Heinlein's The Door into Summer is excellent.
Millions? There's only one of you.. and boy are you prolific... and somewhat talented. Up at all hours, hammer and tongs sometimes.. you can go for weeks on end posting all sorts of enlightened prose along with complete bullshit.
My hat off to you, Anonymous Coward, without you /. just wouldn't be the same.
Just like Github isn't exactly the same as it was before
You don't need to ask permission, you only need to know how to google. Lots of people install cameras and leave them wide open for anyone to view.
Search for anything with inurl:/view.shtml
This has been known for a long time.
There is even a bunch of blogs and videos detailing exactly how to do this:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/hack-to-search-and-view-free-live-webcam-with-google-search/
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-view-live-cams-through-google-155767/
Her sister, actually, hence why it was damn difficult to continue dating.. I overruled her sister.. eventually. Thanks for asking.
In relation to the article, your question provides an apt example of why the American system is so broken... an appropriate authority should be in place to determine a correct path - in particular for appeals - and where the party doing so has a personal interest in the outcome.. the outcome is unlikely to be fair and equitable.
Actually, it was strange for the first year. Many shops set their prices to the nearest 5c .. but then had problems at the till because fruit and veg and discounts meant that it the bill was rarely divisible by 5.
After a while, the prices all went back to normal, and the world continued on.
The only difference is that when you have a poker night now you use 5c and 10c pieces instead of 1c and 2c pieces.
Many people use credit card to pay so there is no difference - as there is no change. For those that pay with cash your change is rounded up or down.
Let's all go out and register a company, for which there is 1 person employed, who's salary is $1 per year, and of which the company makes a loss per year. Even better, make it a non-for-profit organisation.
The company buys the computer.
The company pays for the internet service.
The company pays for any VPN or other services used.
If you get sued or arrested then you point to the company and say 'I am but an employee' of company X. You will need to sue my company.
When they start legal proceedings against the company you shut down the company.. and the trail goes cold.
After all, isn't this what companies effectively do right now?
In many systems there is a legal requirement to retain data for, and then delete data, within a specified period of time.
For government systems this is generally 7 to 10 years.
What data retention law applies to these sites?
Is there any kind of law or mandate requirement these sites to delete user submitted data?
To this day I maintain I learned and retain more in several of my courses due to having to cram as much information as possible an a single sheet of paper (human written only) in letters and drawings small enough to cram in but still large enough to read.
I spoke to one of the seniors about it and he agreed; also added that he thought that there are 4 classes of student: those who don't need the "cheat sheet",. those who use it as a memory recall, those who desperately need it and those for whom nothing will make a difference.
Although, I do remember that I didn't actually use the sheet very much. For a few things.. yes.. but mostly it was all in my head. Probably because I spent two days carefully scribing on on that sheet of paper just before the test :)
There are several problems with this approach.
The main one being that if a problem occurs you can lose the entire drive. I have a 500gb drive on my desk for which can now be classified as a paperweight. I still have not been able to mount it.. it is still here in the hope that one day I will be able to.
At least with files you can copy the whole file, effectively backing up GB or TB of data quickly and easily.
Overall, the approach is good.. however, some bright spark is still likely to say 'these is a drive here of random data, decrypt it. Now'.
Best bet you have is to have that drive on a removal or external connection so that you can pull it out quickly if need be. Doesn't help if they break down the door though.
As I've said before: Best solution I know of is to have a mini server or SAN device, stick it in a wall or concealed part of the roof cavity and access it via wireless.
If you are really up to it, cable your house with patch cables and have one set of cables able to be routed to the concealed SAN device.
A good friend of mine has two of these in his ceiling. When he was robbed they got his main PC and TV but not 90% of his data. He figures that if he ever gets MAFIAAd then he'd be done for a few files on his PC.. but not for TB of files.
Excellent technical insight, and something I did not know. Thank you.
I take the path of muddying the water .. even if the only outcome is that an opponent needs to spent more resources.
Agreed.
Perhaps you would be interested to know that I've already had a couple of passes through this from the courts.. and damn it can be scary.
By the time you think 'should I do something' - then at that point it is way too late (usually). It's lovely to sit here and have the time to execute a secure delete (so far as it is possible) on a hard drive.. but looking at GB of data just sitting there waiting for someone to read it? Yeah, at that point you wish that you had taken precautions.
I read ages ago about a guy who put a server in the wall / roof cavity and accessed any sensitive files from wireless. Best solution (pick your implementation) that I've heard of. Add encryption to that mix along with a dedicate SAN device and it's pretty solid. They turn the property power off.. and goodbye evidence.
Hence running from a VM, or mounting a volume and running programs from that mounted volume. Very good point.
At which point you start getting into the debate about what is and is not 'reasonable'. Last time I offered them all of my data, all drives, devices, everything - so long as a neutral third party went through it and they paid for it when they lost. That debate was worthy of a benny hill flashback. "So, you will just hand everything over?" "Yes, and you pay for it" "No, we won't" "Ahh, yes, you will, and it is going to take a while to go through millions of files.. and very costly. Are you sure you want to do this?" "Ahhhh. So, you will just hand everything over?" .....
This is why I have a range of 'random' files on my devices, including my phone, for which are random data. The point I will make is this: If the file is actually a container then it will be possible, eventually, to decrypt it. If it's not.. well, then that is not my problem. I can't possibly remember all of the passwords to all of the files; it's quite likely I've encrypted important data for a specific time for which if I lose the password will be useless in the future.
It would be hilarious for them to open one file, for which I have lost the password, which contains a bunch of my high school work.
Even funnier will be when they find a program I have to set file timestamps. When that one comes up in a court case.. it can make the prosecution's job just a little bit harder.
Sitting in jail in contempt for a while is not as bad as you think. I'm all for telling them what I've done and making them take a reasonable position to figure it out. Charging me with a crime because they can't unravel the maze I have constructed to hide my data is not reasonable. Probably won't stop them though.
As someone else said: If they want to sink you, you are sunk. The only choice you get is how much damage they can do to you on the way down.
If any of this at all helps someone else then I will be happy. I plan to never be in the position where someone is kicking down my door to take my drives and devices.
Your response gives me a chilling effect.
If I want to fill a HDD with random data then I should be able to. It doesn't mean I am a criminal. Nor should it mean that a judge can lock me away for decades.
I have pondered this problem for some time.
Let's say you have a couple of HDD filled with random data, and several large files which are random data, and quite a few medium and small files which are.. random data.
Add to this that if these are truecrypt volumes, then they all have hidden volumes, but not all have files in them, and some will be literally random data.. not encrypted volumes at all.
What can they do? Force you to decrypt hard drives full of random data files which may or may not be valid encrypted volumes?
Force you to decrypt each and every single file which appears in some way to be an encrypted container - regardless if it is actually an encrypted container or not?
If this is the case, then you may as well encrypt and offsite store everything important or have a method for complete concealment so they can't see the files at all. Rubberhose file system or similar perhaps..
Meanwhile, anyone stupid enough to steal my files (thieves, police, or otherwise) can spend all the time they like trying to break into what appears to be encrypted files. If they are lucky, perhaps they will find a file which actually may possibly be an encrypted container and for which may actually have legitimate files in it. I wouldn't count on it though.
The $5 wrench can't work when the files have no key.
Yes, my head will hurt. Price you pay for sticking up for your rights.
If they want to break into my files then they can dedicate the processing time required to do so. Otherwise, the data is private; bugger off.
If they can't get in then it's not my problem. I am willing to 'rot in jail' to prove this point... even if the only outcome is that you can go on living your life without this hassle.
Why?
Wrong.
It's there to try to ensure that people are on track.
However, if people really want to be subversive, and if there is no strong manager to stop it, then nothing will work to ensure people actually are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
In the context of agile this makes sense - days are precious.
In normal meetings, perhaps not so much so.. unless you have a specific objective. For example, if I had a nosy upper line manager for whom I do want to stop coming to my meeting and taking over.. then I would use this tactic.
Used well it works. Like any strategy.. used badly it can be just as damaging as doing nothing at all.
but.. but.. they ALL require internet access.. apparently...
(grrr, damn you google for preventing me from being able to control my own phone. no, a jailbreak is not acceptable. I paid for this device. give me root access on it, and soon.. ice cream sandwich *should* have had sudo made available. grrr)
In Australia it is the PBS - http://www.pbs.gov.au/ - Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - which is already under financial strain.
The PBS is administered in Australia by Medicare - http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/pbs/index.jsp
No need ...
This is what facebook and google are for
Just legislate a back.door into each and go right to step 4
4. Profit (invade privacy of citizens at will)
I take your opinion on board.. but it doesn't match my current experience with gmail. I have reverted to the old interface 4 times now. Every time I have submitted a report with issues with the new interface.
So... you don't find the new interface to be an eye strain?
No issues with the new message layout?
The themes are not screwed up for you? (I am going to miss the ocean theme)
You don't find having a huge red button blaring at you annoying?
You like icons with no labels? You don't find yourself subconsciously hovering over icons before clicking?
The menu and functions items jumping around doesn't irritate you? Functions appearing and disappearing as you click things? (yes, I find the latest MS Office to be the most irritating software in existence - it even beats out Lotus Notes for plain aggravation and annoyance - in particular how it hides menu functions)
Have you compared the old and new interfaces next to each other / and one after the other? (alt -tab is good for this); And after seeing both, you still prefer the new interface layout?
I am certain that there will be greasemonkey scripts to fix what they are introducing.. just a matter of time. I suspect that they are delaying forcing everyone to the new interface for just this reason.\
It's bad enough that MS is going down the track of 'if it looks good and works like that on a mobile device then the users must want it on their desktop' .. but for google to follow this insanity is just.. a letdown. I expect more from google. Sanity, for a start.
Yes, it's free. So is yahoo. So is hotmail. Something to remember.
Meanwhile, I am getting irritated at seeing google+ messages. I'm not signed up for G+. Why would it be sending me spam? Meh.
Yes. This.
I should have included a mention of the removal of + with the replacement of " " - it drives me nuts.
Although, I am finding their 'natural language search' "feature" to be more irritating. You search for key words including 'website' and it returns results including 'web' and 'site' .. but I know I am looking for "website".
Also, I've found that dissimilar searches.. are returning very similar search results. It is like google has cached the original search.. and is now throwing half of the original search results at me for the second search.. where I can't see how those hits would be included in the search search. Very very strange behaviour.
I miss +
"The new way" "doesn't" seem to "do the same thing".
I was using FreeBSD as my primary OS back in 2000 at work. Was actually quite good for a work OS as the basis for my server admin / php coder role. All Windows req's handled via Citrix metaframe session.
Now I feel old. Thanks.
So, how much of this swing away from Google is due to the seriously annoying things they have done recently including, but not limited to, Google Instant (seriously annoying), Google Preview (irritating and annoying) and screwing over the gmail interface.
As for the third, in this day and age there is no excuse.
As for the first two... I use other search engines in places where I can't disable google instant and google preview. I find both of them so annoying that I waste more time disabling them than actually using the search engine. The interface gets in the way of the function. Yes, there are ways to ignore and bypass these irritations.. but why I am wasting effect on doing so?