I have noscript, when I ~allow~ (whitelist) their site, the images disappear along with most of the functionality, blank page for the most part?!. Turn off scripts and it seems to work fine. Maybe it's just my borked up firefox, but if this is the way it was intended, then I'll actually start looking at their site far more - If I see a site in flash I tend to go elsewhere. : ) Very nice change.
They would benefit from it simply by being able to dig through the connections to see what leads to where and to whom - it's exactly the same as mapping out telephone activity.
Welcome to the new Facebook, the real time, always up to date, police forensics / NSA database : ) Saves them the trouble of gathering it all anyway. These new changes seem to benefit big brother more than anyone else. I can't really see any worthwhile benefit to the end user or advertisers.
A few billion people have managed to convince themselves that an invisible 'god' actually exists. In that regard your post is null and void good sir.
I think a few thousand scientists could easily have a similar agenda - not necessarily in the interests of pure science. It might be political, could be about keeping a roof over ones head and food on the table, gravy train, peer pressure, say what the boss tells you to say, whatever.
A few bad apples on both sides of the argument have bent the raw data to suit their own agendas, very much to their collective detriment. So much so that the words 'climate scientist' can now sit with pride of place beside the word 'homeopathy' - which is to say that I don't give a crap what either side is saying anymore.
Although I may be wrong, I don't imagine you are driving around with your phone logging every single access point on every single street right throughout the country - and then making that information available for analysis or sale to others.
Back when I was an electronic warfare drone we might label this kind of activity as 'traffic analysis', then tie it in with every other database on hand to build up a very clear picture of how the world interconnects.
I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist having held a TS security clearance for a lot of years - I've seen the world from the perspective of 'them', but really, google scares me a bit, as does facebook.
You aren't describing a monopoly, just popularity. You can still by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, and on and on as easily as walking in to your nearest shopping mall.
Apple seem to be making a small transition toward selling appliances rather than general purpose computers, but whatever, nobody is forcing anyone to buy an iPhone.
Yes, but I as an Australian am legally allowed to expose the state secrets of China in Austraila. It's not a crime. If (figuratively speaking) I happened to expose the points at which the Australian Defence Signals Directorate was in violation of Australian law, you can bet your backside I'd be sent to jail - Even if I just outlined the higher level details and not the specific collection systems, my backside would still be toast. In theory you are supposed to follow the chain of command if you see something not right. Theory and reality are very different on this point - you're more likely to find your career path vanish before your eyes.
Patriotism is a strange beast.
Disclaimer: This post does not imply the DSD is breaking the law or sucking down Chinese state secrets. Just making an example.
You didn't think about this before you fired off your little opinion piece did you. It is indeed absolutely possible, though one might not necessarily recommend it. All you need to do is boot from another source - mount your compromised file system and then overwrite anything not having a proper hash. This works fine if you keep a hash list based on an uncompromised reference. Think about a 'tripwire' concept.
Clearly you don't 'hate to say it' - you are trolling.
Windows 7 works for those who like that kind of thing, me, I require virtual desktops, a window manager that doesn't demand click to focus - has highlight copy - middle mouse paste, and on and on and on. Certainly MS Windows can be tweaked to do all these things, but generally not for free, and almost always not without drawbacks.
So what is it, exactly, that makes Windows 7 better from a usability perspective? I'm curious.
Lucky you I say - here in the Philippines there are about 6 common plug types you might randomly end up with no matter what you buy. Voltage at the outlet is 220, but some appliances require 110. As for the wiring, I don't think anyone in this country actually knows what the third prong is for so they never run a wire for it. (grounding conductor connection / earth connection)
All in all it keeps the private fire brigades in business.
There is more than one way to be 'connected' to the internet.
Think of it like this, you have your own secret 3 letter agency, one of your collection systems is sucking up data from a point somewhere within a communications path. It's a completely passive system, no way to detect it, it's running on a bunch of Sun blades, all it does is demodulate the signal, copy the data stream, break out the packets, then filter the result so it looks all pretty and point and click for the PHB's. These PHB's see something they like, and because this collection system is connected to the internal network, the smarter drones are able to copy man_boobs.exe to their windows PC on the other side of the building.
You see where this is all going right? The only slightly mitigating factor is that whatever the code is capable of doing, it probably wont leak back to the outside world because you have that secure 'air gap' thing happening. Or rather, it will, but only as a newspaper report saying Spy agency XXX was infected with Trojan/YYY - The 'terrorist' or 'cyber criminal' simply needs to have their stuff out there, eventually an interesting target will get hooked.
Right you are, but clearly the bounds of reality vary between individuals - I guess this also includes judges. Are unicorns possible? Is god possible? Exactly which kind of reality are you talking about, because every time I open my eyes I see millions of people willing to believe in what I consider to be the imaginary. Naturally you may refute what I say if it does not mesh with your version of the world around you. I think that is the general point others are trying to make, it's better to have a formal process no matter how delusional and stupid the claims may sound - once you've established the facts you can then use the case history to avoid wasting time later on.
Not quite accurate sir. Insiders, people who have been delta briefed and hold a security clearance (at least in the top secret areas) are assumed to be 'trustworthy' - this trust is implicit and never questioned - except by the buggers that want to do positive vetting every couple of years, bastards:-) For sure there are audit trails and such, but these aren't monitored in real time - not really monitored at all, just a paper trail if you will that can be referenced later. The 'lot of other layers of security' you mention are mostly wishful thinking on your part. The Air Gap, security guards, jail time, and various security branches take care of the whole unsanctioned espionage thing. Computer systems, these exist to be used, if I needed a memory stick to transport data around, I'd go to the safe and grab an empty one. Seriously, real life, real high tech, it's not Jame's Bond, glamor, hot women, and whatever, it's a bunch of geeks and scientists doing whatever they need to do, using available technology fully.
The NSA, just like most other similar 3 letter entities, also have customer facing departments that are generally where other government agencies (sometimes private industry) go to get all their security advice, policies, best practices, and sometimes software.
This is going back a few years, but permit me to explain the logic used:
Because the stories were being 'transplanted' from the real slashdot to some server or other 'as is', completely unmodified, everyone involved was okay with it.
Possibly I've made it sound a bit more frequent that it actually was, though the stories were usually pretty high profile in so far as they related directly to the agencies themselves along with public knowledge and perception thereof.
I would definitely give you an irony mod if such a thing existed, some people here do indeed have fame they don't realize they have.
I think the article was just trying to milk the whole wikileaks publicity train for an extra 15 minutes of fame:-)
Espionage in real life is more likely to land your backside in jail (naturally a few exceptions here and there): Back when I was working for 'them' (secret 3 letter agency) there was a guy who tried to sell a certain ELINT publication to a foreign country - as far as classified documents go, this one was (and still is) pretty damned important, with a short shelf life. Ultimately not of much interest to anyone other than the people that make use of it. What struck me as both amusing and interesting was that representatives of this particular country returned the document and helped out with the investigations. Naturally the guy is sitting in a cell. A good many classified documents and publications can sometimes (read: very rarely) be interesting, but it's often not the publication itself that is important, it's how it came to exist. Politicians are a terribly leaky bunch, but they are also usually a little smarter than they look, you rarely, virtually never, hear them talk about collection systems.
My point: throughout all of the agencies I worked for over the years, WikiLeaks was pretty low on the Radar. So low that most people, until now, had no idea it actually existed. It might be a very small PR problem every once in a while, but this little pony show you saw on CNN is about publicity just at the moment. Nothing more, nothing less. War sucks for sure, but cherry picking pieces of a story to highlight ones own agenda, that's not cool, though it probably does bring in the money, fame, hookers and whatever.
Disclaimer: I'm just one guy though, so what matters to me might not be viewed the same way by another. If you feel differently this is okay. I'm good with it. Slashdot actually gets far higher publicity than WikiLeaks anyway. Some of these 3 letter agencies may or may not have even approached Mr Taco (and others) for permission to graft certain articles along with their comments such that they are visible 'on the other side of the air gap' so to speak.
I'm guessing you are American, the IPhone is a tiny player in the rest of the world - a world that is dominated by Nokia, SE, LG, and Samsung for the most part, though there are many other manufacturers. In Asia the Chinese knock offs are extremely popular.
Now that said, if you were to venture away from the self delusional 'free phone mentality' and just bought something outright, you would find even in America, a vast array of hardware to choose from. Hardware without all the draconian operator restrictions programmed in.
If it was his personal email address then shouldn't the judge be filing a case just the rest of the population would have to do if they felt so inclined?
The guy does have a bit of a thing for technology though - back in the 80's I met him at some convention or other in Melbourne pushing the virtues of a local university grown communications multiplexer. I wouldn't at all be surprised if he gets jabbed with a needle containing some 'live forever' nano-buzzword-crap that us annoying peasants could simply never afford:-)
There are two explanations for the van. Many people have repeated this many times already.
1. The gunner is a retard and fucked up by pulling the trigger.
2. After an encounter such as this, there is a general propensity for these groups to have a person out on the periphery drive in to collect any weapons and bodies. It is possible that this was the case.
I don't know how accurate either of these two might be, though I do think the pilots could have been a good deal more circumspect about the van.
Tell me again in which country you can carry an RPG down the street and have people think of it as nothing more than a cell phone or handbag or some every day item the general population would just ignore?
Slashdot Mirror
I have noscript, when I ~allow~ (whitelist) their site, the images disappear along with most of the functionality, blank page for the most part?!. Turn off scripts and it seems to work fine. Maybe it's just my borked up firefox, but if this is the way it was intended, then I'll actually start looking at their site far more - If I see a site in flash I tend to go elsewhere. : ) Very nice change.
Quote: We have a very high confidence that we will be able to ignite the target within the next two years...
So basically it'll never happen. Haven't they been saying this for the last 20 years?
They would benefit from it simply by being able to dig through the connections to see what leads to where and to whom - it's exactly the same as mapping out telephone activity.
Former TLA drone myself.
Welcome to the new Facebook, the real time, always up to date, police forensics / NSA database : ) Saves them the trouble of gathering it all anyway. These new changes seem to benefit big brother more than anyone else. I can't really see any worthwhile benefit to the end user or advertisers.
A few billion people have managed to convince themselves that an invisible 'god' actually exists. In that regard your post is null and void good sir.
I think a few thousand scientists could easily have a similar agenda - not necessarily in the interests of pure science. It might be political, could be about keeping a roof over ones head and food on the table, gravy train, peer pressure, say what the boss tells you to say, whatever.
A few bad apples on both sides of the argument have bent the raw data to suit their own agendas, very much to their collective detriment. So much so that the words 'climate scientist' can now sit with pride of place beside the word 'homeopathy' - which is to say that I don't give a crap what either side is saying anymore.
Or it's part of someones star system. : )
Although I may be wrong, I don't imagine you are driving around with your phone logging every single access point on every single street right throughout the country - and then making that information available for analysis or sale to others.
Back when I was an electronic warfare drone we might label this kind of activity as 'traffic analysis', then tie it in with every other database on hand to build up a very clear picture of how the world interconnects.
I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist having held a TS security clearance for a lot of years - I've seen the world from the perspective of 'them', but really, google scares me a bit, as does facebook.
Expensive? They make them out of sand! :-)
Does it matter though? Some people talk to faces, others talk to breasts :-) Seems about right to me.
You aren't describing a monopoly, just popularity. You can still by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, and on and on as easily as walking in to your nearest shopping mall.
Apple seem to be making a small transition toward selling appliances rather than general purpose computers, but whatever, nobody is forcing anyone to buy an iPhone.
Yes, but I as an Australian am legally allowed to expose the state secrets of China in Austraila. It's not a crime. If (figuratively speaking) I happened to expose the points at which the Australian Defence Signals Directorate was in violation of Australian law, you can bet your backside I'd be sent to jail - Even if I just outlined the higher level details and not the specific collection systems, my backside would still be toast. In theory you are supposed to follow the chain of command if you see something not right. Theory and reality are very different on this point - you're more likely to find your career path vanish before your eyes.
Patriotism is a strange beast.
Disclaimer: This post does not imply the DSD is breaking the law or sucking down Chinese state secrets. Just making an example.
You didn't think about this before you fired off your little opinion piece did you. It is indeed absolutely possible, though one might not necessarily recommend it. All you need to do is boot from another source - mount your compromised file system and then overwrite anything not having a proper hash. This works fine if you keep a hash list based on an uncompromised reference. Think about a 'tripwire' concept.
In Linux this is trivially simple to do.
Clearly you don't 'hate to say it' - you are trolling.
Windows 7 works for those who like that kind of thing, me, I require virtual desktops, a window manager that doesn't demand click to focus - has highlight copy - middle mouse paste, and on and on and on. Certainly MS Windows can be tweaked to do all these things, but generally not for free, and almost always not without drawbacks.
So what is it, exactly, that makes Windows 7 better from a usability perspective? I'm curious.
Lucky you I say - here in the Philippines there are about 6 common plug types you might randomly end up with no matter what you buy. Voltage at the outlet is 220, but some appliances require 110. As for the wiring, I don't think anyone in this country actually knows what the third prong is for so they never run a wire for it. (grounding conductor connection / earth connection)
All in all it keeps the private fire brigades in business.
There is more than one way to be 'connected' to the internet.
Think of it like this, you have your own secret 3 letter agency, one of your collection systems is sucking up data from a point somewhere within a communications path. It's a completely passive system, no way to detect it, it's running on a bunch of Sun blades, all it does is demodulate the signal, copy the data stream, break out the packets, then filter the result so it looks all pretty and point and click for the PHB's. These PHB's see something they like, and because this collection system is connected to the internal network, the smarter drones are able to copy man_boobs.exe to their windows PC on the other side of the building.
You see where this is all going right? The only slightly mitigating factor is that whatever the code is capable of doing, it probably wont leak back to the outside world because you have that secure 'air gap' thing happening. Or rather, it will, but only as a newspaper report saying Spy agency XXX was infected with Trojan/YYY - The 'terrorist' or 'cyber criminal' simply needs to have their stuff out there, eventually an interesting target will get hooked.
Right you are, but clearly the bounds of reality vary between individuals - I guess this also includes judges. Are unicorns possible? Is god possible? Exactly which kind of reality are you talking about, because every time I open my eyes I see millions of people willing to believe in what I consider to be the imaginary. Naturally you may refute what I say if it does not mesh with your version of the world around you. I think that is the general point others are trying to make, it's better to have a formal process no matter how delusional and stupid the claims may sound - once you've established the facts you can then use the case history to avoid wasting time later on.
Not quite accurate sir. Insiders, people who have been delta briefed and hold a security clearance (at least in the top secret areas) are assumed to be 'trustworthy' - this trust is implicit and never questioned - except by the buggers that want to do positive vetting every couple of years, bastards :-) For sure there are audit trails and such, but these aren't monitored in real time - not really monitored at all, just a paper trail if you will that can be referenced later. The 'lot of other layers of security' you mention are mostly wishful thinking on your part. The Air Gap, security guards, jail time, and various security branches take care of the whole unsanctioned espionage thing. Computer systems, these exist to be used, if I needed a memory stick to transport data around, I'd go to the safe and grab an empty one. Seriously, real life, real high tech, it's not Jame's Bond, glamor, hot women, and whatever, it's a bunch of geeks and scientists doing whatever they need to do, using available technology fully.
The NSA, just like most other similar 3 letter entities, also have customer facing departments that are generally where other government agencies (sometimes private industry) go to get all their security advice, policies, best practices, and sometimes software.
This is going back a few years, but permit me to explain the logic used:
Because the stories were being 'transplanted' from the real slashdot to some server or other 'as is', completely unmodified, everyone involved was okay with it.
Possibly I've made it sound a bit more frequent that it actually was, though the stories were usually pretty high profile in so far as they related directly to the agencies themselves along with public knowledge and perception thereof.
I would definitely give you an irony mod if such a thing existed, some people here do indeed have fame they don't realize they have.
I think the article was just trying to milk the whole wikileaks publicity train for an extra 15 minutes of fame :-)
Espionage in real life is more likely to land your backside in jail (naturally a few exceptions here and there): Back when I was working for 'them' (secret 3 letter agency) there was a guy who tried to sell a certain ELINT publication to a foreign country - as far as classified documents go, this one was (and still is) pretty damned important, with a short shelf life. Ultimately not of much interest to anyone other than the people that make use of it. What struck me as both amusing and interesting was that representatives of this particular country returned the document and helped out with the investigations. Naturally the guy is sitting in a cell. A good many classified documents and publications can sometimes (read: very rarely) be interesting, but it's often not the publication itself that is important, it's how it came to exist. Politicians are a terribly leaky bunch, but they are also usually a little smarter than they look, you rarely, virtually never, hear them talk about collection systems.
My point: throughout all of the agencies I worked for over the years, WikiLeaks was pretty low on the Radar. So low that most people, until now, had no idea it actually existed. It might be a very small PR problem every once in a while, but this little pony show you saw on CNN is about publicity just at the moment. Nothing more, nothing less. War sucks for sure, but cherry picking pieces of a story to highlight ones own agenda, that's not cool, though it probably does bring in the money, fame, hookers and whatever.
Disclaimer: I'm just one guy though, so what matters to me might not be viewed the same way by another. If you feel differently this is okay. I'm good with it. Slashdot actually gets far higher publicity than WikiLeaks anyway. Some of these 3 letter agencies may or may not have even approached Mr Taco (and others) for permission to graft certain articles along with their comments such that they are visible 'on the other side of the air gap' so to speak.
I'm guessing you are American, the IPhone is a tiny player in the rest of the world - a world that is dominated by Nokia, SE, LG, and Samsung for the most part, though there are many other manufacturers. In Asia the Chinese knock offs are extremely popular.
Now that said, if you were to venture away from the self delusional 'free phone mentality' and just bought something outright, you would find even in America, a vast array of hardware to choose from. Hardware without all the draconian operator restrictions programmed in.
If it was his personal email address then shouldn't the judge be filing a case just the rest of the population would have to do if they felt so inclined?
The guy does have a bit of a thing for technology though - back in the 80's I met him at some convention or other in Melbourne pushing the virtues of a local university grown communications multiplexer. I wouldn't at all be surprised if he gets jabbed with a needle containing some 'live forever' nano-buzzword-crap that us annoying peasants could simply never afford :-)
There are two explanations for the van. Many people have repeated this many times already.
1. The gunner is a retard and fucked up by pulling the trigger.
2. After an encounter such as this, there is a general propensity for these groups to have a person out on the periphery drive in to collect any weapons and bodies. It is possible that this was the case.
I don't know how accurate either of these two might be, though I do think the pilots could have been a good deal more circumspect about the van.
Tell me again in which country you can carry an RPG down the street and have people think of it as nothing more than a cell phone or handbag or some every day item the general population would just ignore?
You certainly live up to your user name sir.