Well, that presupposes the NSA don't already have quantum decryption up and running. I wouldn't like to bet on that.
True. I thought about including some disclaimers, but those are boring.
There's also the fact that my private key is in a freeweb.ini file in a locally publicly readable folder on my Win2k box. If my security there gets compromised in any way my key could be exposed.
If the NSA really wanted to find out what's on my computers and/or what I've been publishing to Freenet I think it'd be fairly trivial for them to do so. They might only have to ask Gator:-). I could get paranoid and encrypt all my data at home using a passphrase to encrypt (or hash, I forget how that works) my private key(s) and data, but I think I'd be far more likely to losing the info due to forgetting the passphrase or some accidental overwriting of the encrypted mishmash. Besides, in my case I think the NSA would quickly bore with watching my computer activities, even on Freenet.
As for privacy, though, it's not so much the government controlling me that I'm worried about. I'm more worried that someday I might be in the public eye (run for office, head of a publicized company, in the news for some reason, etc.) and someone will dig up some of the stupid stuff I've said on the internet--some of it out of sarcasm, some out of temporary stupidity and some out of permanent stupidity. None of you know who I am, but if someone really wanted to find out I doubt it would be very difficult. None of you care right now, but if I become interesting enough that someone does care I'm afraid a lot of this stuff could come back to haunt me.
When I first tried Freenet a year or so ago it defaulted to be a transient node.
I noticed the lastest versions default to permanent node and the Windows version also puts itself in your startup folder.
I don't think a few hundred or thousand transient nodes coming onto and off of Freenet would hurt it, but I think permanent nodes frequently hopping on and off will slow it down. I wonder why they changed the default to permanent?
If I understand correctly, a transient node doesn't store data, respond to data requests from other nodes or get put in the routing table, while a permanent node does. A full-time permanent node will make your local browsing faster as well has help out Freenet, but a sporadically on permanent node would cause delays I suspect.
The reason that Freenet is supposedly free from the Slashdot effect is because a greater demand for a freesite naturally causes it to be available from more nodes. The supply scales to demand.
There's no login or password to publish data on Freenet. Sites are inserted with private/public key combinations. As long as you never let your private key out in the open no one should be able to impersonate you.
It is possible to publish data without strong crypto (KSK keys, I think), and those are vulnerable to spoofing, but it also makes for a convenient anonymous feedback system.
Supporting FreeNet is not supporting the kiddie porn scene.
I can't argue with that, but it still took a long time of consideration before I could bring myself to run a Freenet node. I know it's not exactly supporting kiddie porn, but it was hard to accept that I might in some small way be helping the distribution of the pics and/or written material.
You make some other good related points.
Kiddie porn is just one of those things that's deeply disgusting to me. But I do realize that the trading or viewing of pictures is not the problem. The problem is how they get those pictures and the assumption that the children are sexually abused. (I don't think children can consent since they don't understand so much.) (Also, I've never seen kiddie porn, so I don't know if it's just nekkid kids or sex with kids or literature or the whole gamut just like 'normal' porn. And frankly I don't want to know unless it can somehow help me prevent it from happening.)
Since the content on your machine is encrypted, you'll never know for sure anyways.
FYI, and to be really picky, I believe it is possible to find out what is in your Freenet data store, but it is difficult to do. However, since it's encrypted and difficult to discover, you have plausible deniability if someone manages to discover something illegal in there.
Freenet content is referenced by public keys, and the keys can decrypt the content. I believe if you were to get the URIs (==links==keys) for the kiddie porn sites you would be able to determine if some of the data for that site is in your data store.
But I don't know precisely how to do it, and I could be wrong.
I've been trying to learn more about it since I set up a permanent Freenet node two days ago. I wanted to a long time ago but couldn't stomach the possibility that it would help the proliferation of kiddie porn and other disturbing material. However the political and corporate climate in the U.S. makes me--a law-abiding citizen--feel less free and more closely watched. So I'm doing this as my little way to help combat it.
Even if it is possible to identify content given a public key, it would be very difficult to determine the source of the content. It would require a lot of traffic analysis. It might be slightly easier to determine if someone is requesting content.
Another point: The best way to minimize the kiddie porn and other socially unacceptable stuff is to publish your own freesite(s). It doesn't have to be "naughty" to be on Freenet. I put out a Freesite with perfectly legal content but content that I wouldn't want to share nonanonymously.
It's interesting to look at paintings done before perspective was used. All the people painted are the same size whether they're in the foreground or accross the river and up a tree.
Very very good question. I wanted to provide other examples about child molesters getting deferred adjudication (translated as "you can go home, but if you do it again you'll be in more trouble"), but I can't find links.
When I lived in Fort Worth one of the radio DJ's had a top-10 sex offender list (based on local convictions that week) every Friday; I was shocked that the convicted child molesters very frequently got deferred adjudication, which is basically probation except you don't have to report to anybody. (Supposedly you get extra jailtime if you're caught doing it again.)
Unfortunately I can't find a link to similar info. I believe the DJ was the one who more or less created the Amber Alert system, but I can't remember his name.
Very good points. I have to agree that online socializing helps you communicate with parts of yourself that you can't or won't do 'in real life', and many times that is very useful personally and helpful to 'real' relationships.
That allows you to develop your sense of self both in and out of relationships- a VERY important skill (that some people never get).
A very, very good point. I'm just realizing that I'm slowly recovering from a 'real life' relationship that beat down my sense of self/ego/self esteem/whatever. It's amazing how that affects a person.
Going back to the first post with this subject name (the great-great-grandparent post?), I was more concerned that he seemed to be using the online world as his only social life and claiming it was just as valid as any other social life. I still have to disagree with that, personally; it looks and feels much more like an addiction than a life to me. But I will open my mind a bit and reserve judgement for when some more time has passed and there's been more study and consideration of the evidence.
What you and I are talking about now I think is an online supplement to real life socializing, and I agree that can be healthy and productive, you turd. (Just kidding on that last part.)
Same thing in real life, people frquently mis-represent themselves. Its just that due to its prevelance online, most people come to expect it.
True, but it would be difficult for me to misrepresent myself as a curious 14-year-old girl in person, to use an extreme example. I could pretend to have more or less money than I do; I could pretend to be more confident; I could lie about how much I've traveled or famous people I've met.
But there are still elements of personality that are difficult or impossible to hide for long in person, or to some degree on the telephone. (By the way, I don't think I'd feel like I knew someone talking only on the telephone, either, but it would be closer to 'real' than online chatting.)
There are just lots of little things, like maybe you stop in the middle of conversations to watch big-breasted women walk by, or maybe you cringe when dogs (as in canines, not ugly women) are close. Your eyes may widen when the waiter puts a filet mignon in front of you, or your voice may change when we're about to get some ice cream from your favorite place. Similar things happen when talking about certain subjects or people. You don't get that online, and I guess that's what defines 'real' for me: the minutiae.
The idea of "living in a fantasy world where I/we are more fabulous than we actually are" crosses the keyboard boundary.
Definitely, but the detectability and accountability is greatly increased in person.
Here's a good example of the shortcomings of online communication: I have no idea if your post was serious or sarcastic, and my impression of you would be very different depending on whether or not you're serious.
Well, our avatars are supposed to develop habits so we don't have to think so much about micromanaging them, but for some reason my 33-year-old avatar started forgetting to zip his fly every now and then before going to work. What the hell is up with that? He was doing automatically for the past 25 years.
I never could understand why only the good habits broke by themselves and never spontaneously started while bad habits never broke but frequently spontaneously started. There are lots of contradictions like that. Take food. Ice cream is good only when cold, but it naturally warms up. Steak is good when hot, but it naturally cools down. WTF is up with this game world? Doesn't anything stay okay by itself? Sheesh!
Also, my avatar is way too picky. In some third-rate servers the people reuse bath water. My avatar refuses to even piss in anything but fresh water. Go figure.
That's somewhat disturbing to me. This phenomenon of online socializing deserves a lot more psychological study and philisophical debate, but I won't even try to analyze it myself. I'll also avoid judgement (for the most part) and just post my personal experience and opinion in my little world.
Online socializing has never been "real" to me. I was on 300bps dialup BBS systems back in the early 80's, and I've done a lot of online messaging over the years and met quite a few people that way (BBS parties and some online dating). To me, people are completely different online versus real life. Some people intentionally misrepresent themselves (as in the classic guy-impersonating-a-horny-teenage-girl), but even those who are trying to present their true selves are altered by the sense of anonymity or the lack of body language and other instant feedback. "LOL" just doesn't get the whole message accross.
When I tried online dating I never felt like I knew anything about the girl until I met her. To me it was like two different people (appearance description jokes aside). Someone who was appealing in email was frequently unappealing personalitywise in person.
I had an email penpal female friend for a couple of years. We confided a lot in each other, using each other as a safe way to get the perspective of the opposite sex and helping each other through insecurities and perplexing actions by our dates. Even though I shared things with her that I haven't shared with others, I still don't feel like I know her. It's entirely possible that we wouldn't be able to stand each other in person. I really appreciated her help and vice versa, but it never felt like a real life friendship to either of us. I wouldn't have considered letting her stay at my place or borrow my car if she had been into town on business, for example. A real life female would be offered the use of my place and car, assuming I trusted her.
I do get some social enjoyment out of online situations. I laugh at myself about it. Slashdot, for example. I enjoy being modded up, and I take it a bit personally sometimes. I like when people reply positively or thoughtfully. But it's still very different from real interaction.
By the way, I never take game interaction seriously, but the only MMOG game I played was WWII Online which didn't lend itself to role playing or extended socialization. Way back in the BBS days there were some MUD-like games, but I didn't take those seriously, either.
The anonymity and privacy online does help in some cases, though. I'm a fat white guy with a very sloppy apartment, but you can't tell that by reading most of what I type. And I judge other/. posters by their ideas, grammar and spelling. Back in the BBS days I met a shy girl at a BBS party who was deaf. You'd never know it online, but she was very shy in person because of her being deaf. I think she liked that the BBS made her identically functional to everyone else there.
On the other hand, with instant messaging today, slow typers might be judged poorly when they're slow to respond and/or mispell things (too slow to correct everything) or use poor capitalization or grammar (again because they're trying not to be too slow).
Slashdot Mirror
BRING OUT . . .
.
.
the COMFY CHAIR!!
POKE her with . .
the Fluffy Cushion!!
NOooobody expects . .
The Spanish Inquisition!
Well, that presupposes the NSA don't already have quantum decryption up and running. I wouldn't like to bet on that.
:-). I could get paranoid and encrypt all my data at home using a passphrase to encrypt (or hash, I forget how that works) my private key(s) and data, but I think I'd be far more likely to losing the info due to forgetting the passphrase or some accidental overwriting of the encrypted mishmash. Besides, in my case I think the NSA would quickly bore with watching my computer activities, even on Freenet.
True. I thought about including some disclaimers, but those are boring.
There's also the fact that my private key is in a freeweb.ini file in a locally publicly readable folder on my Win2k box. If my security there gets compromised in any way my key could be exposed.
If the NSA really wanted to find out what's on my computers and/or what I've been publishing to Freenet I think it'd be fairly trivial for them to do so. They might only have to ask Gator
As for privacy, though, it's not so much the government controlling me that I'm worried about. I'm more worried that someday I might be in the public eye (run for office, head of a publicized company, in the news for some reason, etc.) and someone will dig up some of the stupid stuff I've said on the internet--some of it out of sarcasm, some out of temporary stupidity and some out of permanent stupidity. None of you know who I am, but if someone really wanted to find out I doubt it would be very difficult. None of you care right now, but if I become interesting enough that someone does care I'm afraid a lot of this stuff could come back to haunt me.
- Save as RTF (but your docs are probably too complex for this)
- Save in Word Perfect format (may still be conversion erros; I don't know)
- Convert to PDF using Ghostscript
- print to file (PCL, Postscript, or whatever is appropriate for the printer) and ftp it, netcat it or copy
/b it (for LPT1: printers) to the printer
You apparently already have a method to transfer your data file to the school computers, so all of the above are adaptable to your method.If you buy a machine (for instance, from Dell) with Windows OEM installed, even if you destroy the machine, you can't reuse the Windows.
According to Microsoft.
But has it ever been taken to court? (Not that I would want to be the first one.)
MTV quit playing music years ago.
When I first tried Freenet a year or so ago it defaulted to be a transient node.
I noticed the lastest versions default to permanent node and the Windows version also puts itself in your startup folder.
I don't think a few hundred or thousand transient nodes coming onto and off of Freenet would hurt it, but I think permanent nodes frequently hopping on and off will slow it down. I wonder why they changed the default to permanent?
If I understand correctly, a transient node doesn't store data, respond to data requests from other nodes or get put in the routing table, while a permanent node does. A full-time permanent node will make your local browsing faster as well has help out Freenet, but a sporadically on permanent node would cause delays I suspect.
The reason that Freenet is supposedly free from the Slashdot effect is because a greater demand for a freesite naturally causes it to be available from more nodes. The supply scales to demand.
There's no login or password to publish data on Freenet. Sites are inserted with private/public key combinations. As long as you never let your private key out in the open no one should be able to impersonate you.
It is possible to publish data without strong crypto (KSK keys, I think), and those are vulnerable to spoofing, but it also makes for a convenient anonymous feedback system.
(IANACryptorapher)
Unless your favorite browser is IE. Then use your secong favorite Mozil--er, browser.
It's possible to lose your anonymity with IE since it ignores MIME types.
I'm just curious: Is the cost of backing up all your DVDs less than the cost of replacing the occasional failed DVD?
I'm all for being able to back them up; I'm not trying to make an anti-piracy/pro-MPAA point. But I am curious if the cost is currently worth it.
Thank you for admitting it and keeping attention away from people who do it but don't say it.
Other people.
Not me.
Yeah.
Supporting FreeNet is not supporting the kiddie porn scene.
I can't argue with that, but it still took a long time of consideration before I could bring myself to run a Freenet node. I know it's not exactly supporting kiddie porn, but it was hard to accept that I might in some small way be helping the distribution of the pics and/or written material.
You make some other good related points.
Kiddie porn is just one of those things that's deeply disgusting to me. But I do realize that the trading or viewing of pictures is not the problem. The problem is how they get those pictures and the assumption that the children are sexually abused. (I don't think children can consent since they don't understand so much.) (Also, I've never seen kiddie porn, so I don't know if it's just nekkid kids or sex with kids or literature or the whole gamut just like 'normal' porn. And frankly I don't want to know unless it can somehow help me prevent it from happening.)
Since the content on your machine is encrypted, you'll never know for sure anyways.
FYI, and to be really picky, I believe it is possible to find out what is in your Freenet data store, but it is difficult to do. However, since it's encrypted and difficult to discover, you have plausible deniability if someone manages to discover something illegal in there.
Freenet content is referenced by public keys, and the keys can decrypt the content. I believe if you were to get the URIs (==links==keys) for the kiddie porn sites you would be able to determine if some of the data for that site is in your data store.
But I don't know precisely how to do it, and I could be wrong.
I've been trying to learn more about it since I set up a permanent Freenet node two days ago. I wanted to a long time ago but couldn't stomach the possibility that it would help the proliferation of kiddie porn and other disturbing material. However the political and corporate climate in the U.S. makes me--a law-abiding citizen--feel less free and more closely watched. So I'm doing this as my little way to help combat it.
Even if it is possible to identify content given a public key, it would be very difficult to determine the source of the content. It would require a lot of traffic analysis. It might be slightly easier to determine if someone is requesting content.
Another point: The best way to minimize the kiddie porn and other socially unacceptable stuff is to publish your own freesite(s). It doesn't have to be "naughty" to be on Freenet. I put out a Freesite with perfectly legal content but content that I wouldn't want to share nonanonymously.
It's interesting to look at paintings done before perspective was used. All the people painted are the same size whether they're in the foreground or accross the river and up a tree.
By the way, "Netscape" is pronounced "moe-zill-ah". *BAM*
Must.....kill....Titusdot....Groan....
Care to post your credit card number?
I do all the time. I buy things at retail stores and online stores, and they use my cc # to get to my money.
It's not the cc# I care about, it's my money.
Ouch. Guess I shouldn't have left the subject intact. I thought it was funny. Didn't mean to offend.
Very very good question. I wanted to provide other examples about child molesters getting deferred adjudication (translated as "you can go home, but if you do it again you'll be in more trouble"), but I can't find links.
When I lived in Fort Worth one of the radio DJ's had a top-10 sex offender list (based on local convictions that week) every Friday; I was shocked that the convicted child molesters very frequently got deferred adjudication, which is basically probation except you don't have to report to anybody. (Supposedly you get extra jailtime if you're caught doing it again.)
Unfortunately I can't find a link to similar info. I believe the DJ was the one who more or less created the Amber Alert system, but I can't remember his name.
Please, sirs, wait until the Slashdot editors submit the question list to you before answering. Thank you.
Very good points. I have to agree that online socializing helps you communicate with parts of yourself that you can't or won't do 'in real life', and many times that is very useful personally and helpful to 'real' relationships.
That allows you to develop your sense of self both in and out of relationships- a VERY important skill (that some people never get).
A very, very good point. I'm just realizing that I'm slowly recovering from a 'real life' relationship that beat down my sense of self/ego/self esteem/whatever. It's amazing how that affects a person.
Going back to the first post with this subject name (the great-great-grandparent post?), I was more concerned that he seemed to be using the online world as his only social life and claiming it was just as valid as any other social life. I still have to disagree with that, personally; it looks and feels much more like an addiction than a life to me. But I will open my mind a bit and reserve judgement for when some more time has passed and there's been more study and consideration of the evidence.
What you and I are talking about now I think is an online supplement to real life socializing, and I agree that can be healthy and productive, you turd. (Just kidding on that last part.)
Same thing in real life, people frquently mis-represent themselves. Its just that due to its prevelance online, most people come to expect it.
True, but it would be difficult for me to misrepresent myself as a curious 14-year-old girl in person, to use an extreme example. I could pretend to have more or less money than I do; I could pretend to be more confident; I could lie about how much I've traveled or famous people I've met.
But there are still elements of personality that are difficult or impossible to hide for long in person, or to some degree on the telephone. (By the way, I don't think I'd feel like I knew someone talking only on the telephone, either, but it would be closer to 'real' than online chatting.)
There are just lots of little things, like maybe you stop in the middle of conversations to watch big-breasted women walk by, or maybe you cringe when dogs (as in canines, not ugly women) are close. Your eyes may widen when the waiter puts a filet mignon in front of you, or your voice may change when we're about to get some ice cream from your favorite place. Similar things happen when talking about certain subjects or people. You don't get that online, and I guess that's what defines 'real' for me: the minutiae.
The idea of "living in a fantasy world where I/we are more fabulous than we actually are" crosses the keyboard boundary.
Definitely, but the detectability and accountability is greatly increased in person.
Here's a good example of the shortcomings of online communication: I have no idea if your post was serious or sarcastic, and my impression of you would be very different depending on whether or not you're serious.
Well, our avatars are supposed to develop habits so we don't have to think so much about micromanaging them, but for some reason my 33-year-old avatar started forgetting to zip his fly every now and then before going to work. What the hell is up with that? He was doing automatically for the past 25 years.
I never could understand why only the good habits broke by themselves and never spontaneously started while bad habits never broke but frequently spontaneously started. There are lots of contradictions like that. Take food. Ice cream is good only when cold, but it naturally warms up. Steak is good when hot, but it naturally cools down. WTF is up with this game world? Doesn't anything stay okay by itself? Sheesh!
Also, my avatar is way too picky. In some third-rate servers the people reuse bath water. My avatar refuses to even piss in anything but fresh water. Go figure.
That's somewhat disturbing to me. This phenomenon of online socializing deserves a lot more psychological study and philisophical debate, but I won't even try to analyze it myself. I'll also avoid judgement (for the most part) and just post my personal experience and opinion in my little world.
/. posters by their ideas, grammar and spelling. Back in the BBS days I met a shy girl at a BBS party who was deaf. You'd never know it online, but she was very shy in person because of her being deaf. I think she liked that the BBS made her identically functional to everyone else there.
Online socializing has never been "real" to me. I was on 300bps dialup BBS systems back in the early 80's, and I've done a lot of online messaging over the years and met quite a few people that way (BBS parties and some online dating). To me, people are completely different online versus real life. Some people intentionally misrepresent themselves (as in the classic guy-impersonating-a-horny-teenage-girl), but even those who are trying to present their true selves are altered by the sense of anonymity or the lack of body language and other instant feedback. "LOL" just doesn't get the whole message accross.
When I tried online dating I never felt like I knew anything about the girl until I met her. To me it was like two different people (appearance description jokes aside). Someone who was appealing in email was frequently unappealing personalitywise in person.
I had an email penpal female friend for a couple of years. We confided a lot in each other, using each other as a safe way to get the perspective of the opposite sex and helping each other through insecurities and perplexing actions by our dates. Even though I shared things with her that I haven't shared with others, I still don't feel like I know her. It's entirely possible that we wouldn't be able to stand each other in person. I really appreciated her help and vice versa, but it never felt like a real life friendship to either of us. I wouldn't have considered letting her stay at my place or borrow my car if she had been into town on business, for example. A real life female would be offered the use of my place and car, assuming I trusted her.
I do get some social enjoyment out of online situations. I laugh at myself about it. Slashdot, for example. I enjoy being modded up, and I take it a bit personally sometimes. I like when people reply positively or thoughtfully. But it's still very different from real interaction.
By the way, I never take game interaction seriously, but the only MMOG game I played was WWII Online which didn't lend itself to role playing or extended socialization. Way back in the BBS days there were some MUD-like games, but I didn't take those seriously, either.
The anonymity and privacy online does help in some cases, though. I'm a fat white guy with a very sloppy apartment, but you can't tell that by reading most of what I type. And I judge other
On the other hand, with instant messaging today, slow typers might be judged poorly when they're slow to respond and/or mispell things (too slow to correct everything) or use poor capitalization or grammar (again because they're trying not to be too slow).
Dear Mr. AC Troll,
Please remember that you still need to plug the PC in, even if it has Linux.
Sincerely,
MyHair