They're also getting the SOT so they can design and make full-auto guns. It'd be illegal for private citizens to own post-1986 machine guns (but it's quite legal for dealers/manufacturers to make them either for their own internal purposes or for sale to police/military). It's not illegal for them to publish the designs for 3D-printing machine guns (though it'd be very illegal for the average person to print such a gun).
It's actually cheaper to buy the basic machinery (a drill press) and metal parts to make a gun than it is to buy a 3D-printer. The skills required is essentially "can operate a power drill". It's really not that complex.
Sure, 3D-printing is easier, but not by much.
It's not like requiring a license will stop either methods of making guns -- that ship sailed a long time ago.
*shrugs* 3D printers cost about $2,000 + filament.
A drill press is about $100, the necessary drill bits are maybe $20-30, the drilling jig is about $125, and the 80% lower receiver and gun parts are about $750. Total cost: about $1,000, or about half the cost of a 3D printer. It's all metal, more durable, and completely unregulated.
If you can follow basic directions (drill here, squirt oil here, etc.) then you can make a gun in a few hours even with minimal skills. Sure, it's not as easy as "download, click 'print'" but it's not hard.
For me, the major thing is mags. Magazine restrictions are silly and ineffective, yet politicians seem to like them. Being able to make reasonable-quality mags in one's own home is nice. Or, even better, would be to use the 3D-printer to make a jig that you could use to make metal mags. It'd be a bit more durable too.
While making the whole gun from scratch is hard, it's not really that hard if you use an 80% complete receiver/frame. The ATF decided that a chunk of metal becomes a "gun" when more than 80% of its production is completed. There's many companies that sell, for example, 80%-complete AR-15 lower receivers. Legally, it's a chunk of metal but you can do some basic work to finish it up.
For example, here's some instructions. You basically need a drill press (about $100 from Amazon or $70 from Harbor Freight), some drill bits (and maybe an endmill bit) which are available for cheap at hardware stores, and some basic supplies like wood, a permanent marker, etc. 80% lowers are about $80 for small volumes but get cheaper in bulk. You can buy the jigs that tell you exactly where to drill for about $120 and they can be used to produce as many lowers as you want (they don't really wear out).
The fire control parts, trigger, grip, etc. are about $80.
For the "complete" gun parts, it's about $750 (that includes everything except the machine tool parts -- it includes the barrel, stock, fire control parts, etc.).
Operating a drill press isn't terribly hard and one can be trained in a few minutes. After that, it takes a few hours to make the needed holes and the jig makes it pretty idiot-proof. Putting the rifle together isn't terribly hard (and there's lots of information online that details how to do this) and you're good to go. Basically, it's less than a day's work and less than $1,000 for the first rifle (with the cost being amortized if you make any more).
Certain groups have "build parties" where you put your 80% lower into a CNC mill and press "start". Since you push the button, it's you who are making the gun (as opposed to the machinist) and thus is legal. It can make it in about 8 minutes.
Sure, making your own rifle out of metal isn't trivial like it is with a 3D-printer (where you just hit "print"), but it's not that hard either.
I registered for Google Apps shortly after it came out. I have my own domain, so having Google handle mail for my domain was fantastic. My needs are pretty basic (one user, a few aliases, really good spam filtering, IMAP, good webmail) and I've been with them for years.
I recommended Apps to anyone who had their domain and wanted to use Gmail with it.
Charge for business users? Sure. The price is quite reasonable. Offer a discount for non-profits or universities? Great. Still, it'd be great if they still allowed individuals or small groups (say, less than 10 users) to register for free. They already provide free mail service for Gmail accounts and Google Apps is, in essence, Gmail with an extra database entry saying that it's associated with a particular domain. I doubt they'd be losing money on such users. Even if they didn't offer Apps for free, it'd be great if you could link your domain with a personal Gmail account.
Yes, I know I'm grandfathered into their free plan and intend to stick with it, but it's still a bit annoying.
Yup. RC4 is really fast in software and so can scale really easily without needing any real change in server capacity.
Also, most browsers support Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange with RC4 which provides perfect forward secrecy with substantially less computing overhead as using the standard DH key exchange protocols.
The last I checked with Owncloud (~2-3 months ago), their system would update the entire encrypted file rather than just the parts that changed. This might work for a relatively small TrueCrypt file but it becomes impractical if you have a large file. Dropbox updates only the changed parts, which is handy.
Unrelated to the original topic, I also live in Switzerland. If you happen to be in Bern sometime, send an email to pete@[my/. username].com. I'm always interested in meeting folks and doing PGP keysignings.
While there's certainly some indie games, games like Counter-Strike (standard and Source), Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2 are available and are quite popular. Not bad for starting out for a new platform. I'm sure that'll increase in time.
So you only ever use computers you own that haven't been infected with malware and never use a smartphone or tablet because they don't have smart card readers? Awesome case of paranoia you have there.
When I use PGP, absolutely.
It's not paranoia, it's common sense: why would anyone use a potentially-untrustworthy system when dealing with secure communications? I also don't check my banking records from potentially-untrustworthy systems. Is that paranoid?
In regards to tablets and smartphones, I haven't really found any that pique my interest. I prefer more standard computers and a relatively basic mobile phone.
If your paranoia is justified though, there's always this method.
Indeed. That is not the threat model I'm worried about -- I have no illusions about securing communications from major world governments that have a personal interest in reading them and who are willing to use force in pursuit of that goal. I'm more concerned about more mundane, everyday threats like malware. Using a smartcard provides effective protection against such threats.
Why not? Traveling by airship would be a unique experience for many people.
With proper precautions, hydrogen as a lifting gas is not considerably more hazardous than jet aircraft loaded with gobs of jet fuel/covering the fabric of the airship with highly flammable chemicals seems like a bad idea
It is the most high-profile torrent search engine in the world and that makes it useful for spreading information.
Slight clarification bolded above.
TPB hasn't run a tracker since 2009. With a few exceptions (such as torrents with less than 10 seeds), they don't even host torrent files anymore: they only provide magnet links which a client can then use to find a torrent file in the DHT, over peer exchange, or other methods.
I've had quite a good experience with MATE (and Linux Mint) on a desktop system. The way Mint does things is a little different than plain-vanilla Gnome 2 but it's far superior to Unity, Gnome 3, etc.
Xfce is also quite good, but I find MATE slightly more familiar as I used Gnome 2 for a long time. Cinnamon's not bad but the performance isn't nearly as snappy as MATE on my netbook.
While there's a lot of games out there that I admit are a bunch of recycled crap (usually the next cycle of FPS games), there's still quite a few metaphorical diamonds in the rough.
For the money, gaming provides some of the least expensive entertainment around. Sure, paying $60 for the latest Call of Duty title with a 6-hour singleplayer campaign ends up being not terribly worthwhile from a cost-value perspective, but paying $25 for Portal 1 and 2? Well worth it. I find games like the Half-Life, Fallout, and Mass Effect series (to name but a few) to be enjoyable, replayable, and quite cost-effective entertainment.
Am I an addict? Not at all. I just enjoy the more interactive entertainment that gaming provides than a more passive form of entertainment like watching a movie.
Actually, most of them are essentially rocks. Iron meteorites or combinations of stone and a significant percentage of iron only make up around 6% of all meteorites.
Satellites in relatively low, known earth orbits != fast-moving meteoroids significantly further from the earth (you'd have mere seconds to react and intercept them if you only detect them at the distance most satellites are located, so that's pretty infeasible).
Universities in terms of functions like email are relatively standard and easy. It is easy to provide 35k students with email in house or out of house. Consider though the complexity of courseware, experimental labs, custom data sets and manipulation for research studies, the medical school and HIPAA / billing... What you are really saying is outsource these least complex 10%.
Yes, precisely. Email and calendars are pretty bog-standard and can easily be outsourced in a way that saves money and resources for the university. These resources can then be used to better perform other, university-specific tasks.
The university I used to work for had Google Apps for student mail (high degree of satisfaction among the users, very reliable), Office365 for staff (high degree of dissatisfaction, unreliable -- Microsoft heard about the Google Apps for students and somehow came out ahead in the bidding for staff email service -- most of the staff were unhappy with it and repeatedly asked the central IT folks to change to Google Apps), and university or department-hosted mail services for projects dealing with sensitive data that cannot be entrusted to third party services. Other than the annoyances of Office365, the system worked pretty well overall.
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They're also getting the SOT so they can design and make full-auto guns. It'd be illegal for private citizens to own post-1986 machine guns (but it's quite legal for dealers/manufacturers to make them either for their own internal purposes or for sale to police/military). It's not illegal for them to publish the designs for 3D-printing machine guns (though it'd be very illegal for the average person to print such a gun).
It's actually cheaper to buy the basic machinery (a drill press) and metal parts to make a gun than it is to buy a 3D-printer. The skills required is essentially "can operate a power drill". It's really not that complex.
Sure, 3D-printing is easier, but not by much.
It's not like requiring a license will stop either methods of making guns -- that ship sailed a long time ago.
*shrugs* 3D printers cost about $2,000 + filament.
A drill press is about $100, the necessary drill bits are maybe $20-30, the drilling jig is about $125, and the 80% lower receiver and gun parts are about $750. Total cost: about $1,000, or about half the cost of a 3D printer. It's all metal, more durable, and completely unregulated.
If you can follow basic directions (drill here, squirt oil here, etc.) then you can make a gun in a few hours even with minimal skills. Sure, it's not as easy as "download, click 'print'" but it's not hard.
For me, the major thing is mags. Magazine restrictions are silly and ineffective, yet politicians seem to like them. Being able to make reasonable-quality mags in one's own home is nice. Or, even better, would be to use the 3D-printer to make a jig that you could use to make metal mags. It'd be a bit more durable too.
And suppressors.
While making the whole gun from scratch is hard, it's not really that hard if you use an 80% complete receiver/frame. The ATF decided that a chunk of metal becomes a "gun" when more than 80% of its production is completed. There's many companies that sell, for example, 80%-complete AR-15 lower receivers. Legally, it's a chunk of metal but you can do some basic work to finish it up.
For example, here's some instructions. You basically need a drill press (about $100 from Amazon or $70 from Harbor Freight), some drill bits (and maybe an endmill bit) which are available for cheap at hardware stores, and some basic supplies like wood, a permanent marker, etc. 80% lowers are about $80 for small volumes but get cheaper in bulk. You can buy the jigs that tell you exactly where to drill for about $120 and they can be used to produce as many lowers as you want (they don't really wear out).
The fire control parts, trigger, grip, etc. are about $80.
For the "complete" gun parts, it's about $750 (that includes everything except the machine tool parts -- it includes the barrel, stock, fire control parts, etc.).
Operating a drill press isn't terribly hard and one can be trained in a few minutes. After that, it takes a few hours to make the needed holes and the jig makes it pretty idiot-proof. Putting the rifle together isn't terribly hard (and there's lots of information online that details how to do this) and you're good to go. Basically, it's less than a day's work and less than $1,000 for the first rifle (with the cost being amortized if you make any more).
Certain groups have "build parties" where you put your 80% lower into a CNC mill and press "start". Since you push the button, it's you who are making the gun (as opposed to the machinist) and thus is legal. It can make it in about 8 minutes.
Sure, making your own rifle out of metal isn't trivial like it is with a 3D-printer (where you just hit "print"), but it's not that hard either.
Not sure how you define "young person". I'm 30, my wife is about the same age, and she's a huge fan as are many of her friends in the same age group.
This.
I registered for Google Apps shortly after it came out. I have my own domain, so having Google handle mail for my domain was fantastic. My needs are pretty basic (one user, a few aliases, really good spam filtering, IMAP, good webmail) and I've been with them for years.
I recommended Apps to anyone who had their domain and wanted to use Gmail with it.
Charge for business users? Sure. The price is quite reasonable. Offer a discount for non-profits or universities? Great. Still, it'd be great if they still allowed individuals or small groups (say, less than 10 users) to register for free. They already provide free mail service for Gmail accounts and Google Apps is, in essence, Gmail with an extra database entry saying that it's associated with a particular domain. I doubt they'd be losing money on such users. Even if they didn't offer Apps for free, it'd be great if you could link your domain with a personal Gmail account.
Yes, I know I'm grandfathered into their free plan and intend to stick with it, but it's still a bit annoying.
Support for the open document standard (.odf etc.) in Google Docs should never have been removed.
Say what? I can import and export OpenDocument files in Google Docs just fine.
Second. While you can still search usenet using Google Groups, it's a massive pain compared to how it used to be.
Yup. RC4 is really fast in software and so can scale really easily without needing any real change in server capacity.
Also, most browsers support Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange with RC4 which provides perfect forward secrecy with substantially less computing overhead as using the standard DH key exchange protocols.
Hmm. Now to change some settings. Whee.
Link? I'd be curious to get just such a device.
The last I checked with Owncloud (~2-3 months ago), their system would update the entire encrypted file rather than just the parts that changed. This might work for a relatively small TrueCrypt file but it becomes impractical if you have a large file. Dropbox updates only the changed parts, which is handy.
Unrelated to the original topic, I also live in Switzerland. If you happen to be in Bern sometime, send an email to pete@[my /. username].com. I'm always interested in meeting folks and doing PGP keysignings.
While there's certainly some indie games, games like Counter-Strike (standard and Source), Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2 are available and are quite popular. Not bad for starting out for a new platform. I'm sure that'll increase in time.
So you only ever use computers you own that haven't been infected with malware and never use a smartphone or tablet because they don't have smart card readers? Awesome case of paranoia you have there.
When I use PGP, absolutely.
It's not paranoia, it's common sense: why would anyone use a potentially-untrustworthy system when dealing with secure communications? I also don't check my banking records from potentially-untrustworthy systems. Is that paranoid?
In regards to tablets and smartphones, I haven't really found any that pique my interest. I prefer more standard computers and a relatively basic mobile phone.
If your paranoia is justified though, there's always this method.
Indeed. That is not the threat model I'm worried about -- I have no illusions about securing communications from major world governments that have a personal interest in reading them and who are willing to use force in pursuit of that goal. I'm more concerned about more mundane, everyday threats like malware. Using a smartcard provides effective protection against such threats.
here's still quite a few metaphorical diamonds in the rough.
The expression means unpolished, not that there are gems amid trash.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
What's next, Hindenburg replica?
Why not? Traveling by airship would be a unique experience for many people.
With proper precautions, hydrogen as a lifting gas is not considerably more hazardous than jet aircraft loaded with gobs of jet fuel /covering the fabric of the airship with highly flammable chemicals seems like a bad idea
I don't need to take your PGP, I just need to take your private key.
Considering that my PGP key exists on a tamper-resistant smartcard specifically to prevent that type of attack, that would be impressive.
Sure, one could apply the old rubber hose or steal the smartcard and extract the data from the chip but that seems a bit extreme.
It is the most high-profile torrent search engine in the world and that makes it useful for spreading information.
Slight clarification bolded above.
TPB hasn't run a tracker since 2009. With a few exceptions (such as torrents with less than 10 seeds), they don't even host torrent files anymore: they only provide magnet links which a client can then use to find a torrent file in the DHT, over peer exchange, or other methods.
I've had quite a good experience with MATE (and Linux Mint) on a desktop system. The way Mint does things is a little different than plain-vanilla Gnome 2 but it's far superior to Unity, Gnome 3, etc.
Xfce is also quite good, but I find MATE slightly more familiar as I used Gnome 2 for a long time. Cinnamon's not bad but the performance isn't nearly as snappy as MATE on my netbook.
While there's a lot of games out there that I admit are a bunch of recycled crap (usually the next cycle of FPS games), there's still quite a few metaphorical diamonds in the rough.
For the money, gaming provides some of the least expensive entertainment around. Sure, paying $60 for the latest Call of Duty title with a 6-hour singleplayer campaign ends up being not terribly worthwhile from a cost-value perspective, but paying $25 for Portal 1 and 2? Well worth it. I find games like the Half-Life, Fallout, and Mass Effect series (to name but a few) to be enjoyable, replayable, and quite cost-effective entertainment.
Am I an addict? Not at all. I just enjoy the more interactive entertainment that gaming provides than a more passive form of entertainment like watching a movie.
Actually, most of them are essentially rocks. Iron meteorites or combinations of stone and a significant percentage of iron only make up around 6% of all meteorites.
Satellites in relatively low, known earth orbits != fast-moving meteoroids significantly further from the earth (you'd have mere seconds to react and intercept them if you only detect them at the distance most satellites are located, so that's pretty infeasible).
...that, and the abrasive lunar regolith playing hell with the door seals.
Universities in terms of functions like email are relatively standard and easy. It is easy to provide 35k students with email in house or out of house. Consider though the complexity of courseware, experimental labs, custom data sets and manipulation for research studies, the medical school and HIPAA / billing... What you are really saying is outsource these least complex 10%.
Yes, precisely. Email and calendars are pretty bog-standard and can easily be outsourced in a way that saves money and resources for the university. These resources can then be used to better perform other, university-specific tasks.
The university I used to work for had Google Apps for student mail (high degree of satisfaction among the users, very reliable), Office365 for staff (high degree of dissatisfaction, unreliable -- Microsoft heard about the Google Apps for students and somehow came out ahead in the bidding for staff email service -- most of the staff were unhappy with it and repeatedly asked the central IT folks to change to Google Apps), and university or department-hosted mail services for projects dealing with sensitive data that cannot be entrusted to third party services. Other than the annoyances of Office365, the system worked pretty well overall.