"They have this pedo scanner. They have your stuff. How is it they don't use one on the other?"
Easily. They say "you know what, scanning people's own data will probably result in everyone shunning us. It makes bad business sense, so let's not do it".
Apple has aligned itself as the defender of customer privacy, so if Google let law enforcement into people's private data on their phones, you know there would be Apple ads everywhere letting everyone know about it. Surely, Google realizes this, too.
They are merely taking hanlon's razor to an extreme. In this case, I think it's really a matter of blaming ignorance rather than facing the reality that it's malice.
If that's what you want, you need to attack the places the politicians care about - their wallet and their power, and that means impeachment. But in the present system, politicians don't fear impeachment because it's such a convoluted process -- it doesn't happen much. What I propose is a process for direct impeachment, where every quarter constituents can vote to impeach or not. Perhaps semi-annually. It's like a job performance review -- they work for us so we should be able to fire them at any time if we think they are doing their job poorly. The reason these people remain in office is because the terms are so long, by the time re-elections are due, everyone has forgotten about the past 2-4 years of shenanigans. We need to close that loop, and get the people directly involved, on short timeframes. The colossal amount of fail happening in the government right now is truly embarrassing. We need to make it easier for the people to remove bad leaders. If we can't have direct democracy, I think direct impeachment is a good alternative.
There are plenty of issues with the US electoral system that need remedies, but 2-, 4-, and 6-year terms being too long is not one of them.
Let's review:
Voters generally elect people by picking their "team" without regard for issues or voting history.
Elections are winner-take-all.
Gerrymandering has effectively predetermined the outcome of elections in many areas of the country.
The Supreme Court declared that money = speech, enshrining corruption as a constitutional right. It has also defined the criteria for bribery so narrowly that it's nearly impossible to prosecute.
Most elected officials are given cushy private sector jobs upon leaving office (likely in return for undisclosed favors).
While not all the above are under direct control by voters, the first one certainly is, and fixing it is necessary to address any of the others.
The appropriate response to a lone wolf security guard from a PR standpoint is to issue a statement that it was the act of a single guard, that guard has been sacked, and measures have been put in place to prevent it from happening again. It would have gotten some finger-wagging and ultimately blown-over.
Pursuing a cover-up campaign makes it look a lot more sinister, indicating (right or wrong) that the university supports the behavior, and we get to dig the story back up in the future like we are now. It reinforces the idea that the guard's actions were indeed representative of the university.
What dollar figure are you attaching to the dead American soldiers? To the soldiers with limbs blown off? To the soldiers with PTSD who come home and start beating their children?
Are you interested in living in a society with enforceable laws, or do you feel that strongly about technology that it must be allowed to be free regardless of any impact it has to that society?
I'm interested in living in a society where I have some privacy, and I'm willing to accept the additional 1/1,000,000 chance that a terrorist will kill me for that to happen.
The worse part of it is that even when some people *do* take into account the ways things may fail, often times others (i.e., management) do not want to hear any of it and force adherence to the overly-optimistic plan.
The US also had a heavy-handed progressive tax system from FDR until Reagan (at one point the top bracket was taxed at 91%), and we did pretty well. Over time, however, we have made cut after cut in the upper tax bracket and especially capital gains such that the system is now effectively regressive.
You don't like a project leader? Don't contribute.
The really nice thing about open source projects is that you can go further and fork the project to replace the leadership. If there was genuinely a leadership issue, and you pick better leaders, you can expect the contributors will likely shift over to the new project. We have already seen this in practice when leadership shifts to entities we do not trust (e.g., MySql going to Oracle).
Remember, China isn't a dictatorship, it's basically a cabal. The elites of society are the ones who run the "Communist" Party, and they choose the leaders. Not that different from the USA.
Slashdot Mirror
"They have this pedo scanner. They have your stuff. How is it they don't use one on the other?" Easily. They say "you know what, scanning people's own data will probably result in everyone shunning us. It makes bad business sense, so let's not do it".
Apple has aligned itself as the defender of customer privacy, so if Google let law enforcement into people's private data on their phones, you know there would be Apple ads everywhere letting everyone know about it. Surely, Google realizes this, too.
They are merely taking hanlon's razor to an extreme. In this case, I think it's really a matter of blaming ignorance rather than facing the reality that it's malice.
Most likely, it's done with aqua regia.
If that's what you want, you need to attack the places the politicians care about - their wallet and their power, and that means impeachment. But in the present system, politicians don't fear impeachment because it's such a convoluted process -- it doesn't happen much. What I propose is a process for direct impeachment, where every quarter constituents can vote to impeach or not. Perhaps semi-annually. It's like a job performance review -- they work for us so we should be able to fire them at any time if we think they are doing their job poorly. The reason these people remain in office is because the terms are so long, by the time re-elections are due, everyone has forgotten about the past 2-4 years of shenanigans. We need to close that loop, and get the people directly involved, on short timeframes. The colossal amount of fail happening in the government right now is truly embarrassing. We need to make it easier for the people to remove bad leaders. If we can't have direct democracy, I think direct impeachment is a good alternative.
There are plenty of issues with the US electoral system that need remedies, but 2-, 4-, and 6-year terms being too long is not one of them.
Let's review:
While not all the above are under direct control by voters, the first one certainly is, and fixing it is necessary to address any of the others.
The appropriate response to a lone wolf security guard from a PR standpoint is to issue a statement that it was the act of a single guard, that guard has been sacked, and measures have been put in place to prevent it from happening again. It would have gotten some finger-wagging and ultimately blown-over.
Pursuing a cover-up campaign makes it look a lot more sinister, indicating (right or wrong) that the university supports the behavior, and we get to dig the story back up in the future like we are now. It reinforces the idea that the guard's actions were indeed representative of the university.
Why stop at Hilary? Nearly everyone in DC would serve the country better from a jail cell, be they Democrat or Republican.
Or what has become increasingly popular: charge the person's possessions with a crime and take them to increase yearly revenue. In some years, the police have taken more from people than burglars.
He's doing it because he knows the emperor has no clothes and anyone can use it to spy on him.
Which drives home the point that anytime you open a backdoor for the government, it will inevitably be found and used by others.
CARRIER LOST, or more commonly, NO CARRIER, is a meme originating from the message an over-the-phone modem would send when the connection was dropped.
Now you know.
You're at more risk from a teen driving a car, or second hand cigarette smoke.
Or even furniture.
What dollar figure are you attaching to the dead American soldiers? To the soldiers with limbs blown off? To the soldiers with PTSD who come home and start beating their children?
$182.3 Billion for 2017
Are you interested in living in a society with enforceable laws, or do you feel that strongly about technology that it must be allowed to be free regardless of any impact it has to that society?
I'm interested in living in a society where I have some privacy, and I'm willing to accept the additional 1/1,000,000 chance that a terrorist will kill me for that to happen.
We need our five minutes of hate.
I want universal translators and hypospray injectors next!
Jet injectors have existed longer than most people here. Universal translators, on the other hand... are still very much a work in progress.
I would use less sand, i.e., fewer grains of sand.
Ugly, buggy, spaghetti code. Therac 25 has nothing on US code.
The set that makes the laws and the set that has to follow it?
The worse part of it is that even when some people *do* take into account the ways things may fail, often times others (i.e., management) do not want to hear any of it and force adherence to the overly-optimistic plan.
That largely depends on their cause. If the cause is to show how insecure the DHS is or to damage its reputation, then mission accomplished.
Now how do I get a critical fix from a coworker when the server is down.
Set your coworker as your origin and pull.
It's largely irrelevant, though. The killer will get away scott-free because the lead investigator is too busy spying on his ex.
Don't divide: Intel Inside.
The US also had a heavy-handed progressive tax system from FDR until Reagan (at one point the top bracket was taxed at 91%), and we did pretty well. Over time, however, we have made cut after cut in the upper tax bracket and especially capital gains such that the system is now effectively regressive.
Odd that rather than increasing GDP growth year over year like trickle-down economics might tell us, in fact, our GDP growth in the last few years is lower than it was during the 90+% tax years.
You don't like a project leader? Don't contribute.
The really nice thing about open source projects is that you can go further and fork the project to replace the leadership. If there was genuinely a leadership issue, and you pick better leaders, you can expect the contributors will likely shift over to the new project. We have already seen this in practice when leadership shifts to entities we do not trust (e.g., MySql going to Oracle).
Remember, China isn't a dictatorship, it's basically a cabal. The elites of society are the ones who run the "Communist" Party, and they choose the leaders. Not that different from the USA.
FTFY