It's the age-old philosophy of "understand or destroy." Once they realize something can make or save them huge bucks, they'll no longer demonize it. Or at least not their own brand of it...
It seems to me that maybe this could be covered under an extension to libel laws. If you take a recognizable picture of anyone--say Britney Spears--and modify it such that she looks like she did something she did not (rob a bank, kill John Lennon, have sex with Joe Pornstar) and distribute it, does she have any recourse? If you write a false article as if it were a factual account, she certainly does.
If indeed people in general are protected, then it seems like double, treble or more damages might be implied if a minor is involved. I'm guessing, although IANAL, that any protections would be civil rather than criminal, but if I had a kid and some sicko (adult or minor) photoshopped it so that my child's recognizable face was doing something suggestive, inappropriate, outright sexual or deviant, I think it would be appropriate for that creator/distributor to have to face some consequences.
Why destroy data, when it should be nearly as secure in encrypted form? If I was a not-nice interrogator, and I entered a password that caused the disk to grind away and erase everything... believe me, toes would start missing.
The key here is nearly, isn't it. If you're in a situation where toes might go missing, it's likely that the information you want to protect is important enough to risk that, and start the scrubbing process.
If you're a CIA agent apprehended by a FOE (Forces Of Evil) officer, for instance, you don't want that data nearly secure, you want it totally protected.
Now as far as the grinding goes, you could conceivably make a system that scrubs portion by portion of the disk, with just a little activity each time the mouse is moved, the button is clicked, a key is pressed, the motion sensor is jiggled, etc. That way you could reduce the chances of a toe-loss, but still protect the data in case the computer is kept for further analysis.
Don't forget, encryption that is password protected can be strong as all-get-out, but it's only as strong as its password. If someone really thinks you have something, they can apply a lot of CPU time to trying to guess your password.
I know. There are other ways to interpret it, but any path you go down makes it seem strange and arbitrary. Maybe, for instance, it wasn't the terrorist's actual birth date, but instead, they had some information about the date on a stolen or forged passport. But if they had that information, wouldn't they likely know the name on the 'port, too?
Any way you slice it, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Funny. Even funnier is that until I wrote the quote, I didn't know I knew the teacher's name; if you had asked me what Lisa's teacher's name is, I wouldn't have known. It's not as memorable as "Crabapple". But that one quote is strong enough to keep that little factoid in my head, and now I've made a new connection.
I shudder to think at what knowledge I've kept out by enfirming my knowledge of Simpsons trivia. Sigh.
I love your "pony" comment. A couple of months ago, I was on a conference call with a client, a large defense contractor whose name sounds like it might refer to a hole in the ground where sweet, sticky bee-made syrup comes from, and I used that line. They said, "We would like to see X and Y done by Z date," and I said, "I understand, and similarly, I would very much like a pony."
My boss called me two seconds after the conf call ended. Since I saw the caller ID, I knew what was coming, and I answered the phone, "Was that inappropriate?" "Yes," was the answer, "but very funny. Don't do it again."
Good point. BTW, I have a tendency to think that everything is a Simpsons reference, but you'll have to forgive me if reading your account name makes me think of Ralph Wiggum reading his card to his teacher: "Dear Mrs. Hoover, We miss you. (someone) is pulling my hair. Here is a drawing of a spyrochaete."
I've been lucky, knock on wood. The only time I was really hassled was one day when apparently they had an alert to watch for someone with my birth date. Even then, it wasn't a huge deal; I just had to verify all sorts of information about myself so they would be sure that it wasn't someone with a forged or stolen passport trying to get through. Some friends of mine from Germany, however, got hassled a lot traveling in the US after 9/11; since several of the hijackers had come to the US via Germany, I guess they figured they would make Germans the "random search" victims as often as possible. Of course, since I know them, I can't imagine two more innocent people, so it was comical to me, but annoying to them.
That's an interesting idea, though I've never heard of it, and the challenges for it seem that they would be significant, though not insurmountable. Might also be nice if it had a feature to maybe even destroy the real data when the "duress" password is entered.
Anything you don't want to find, host it on a remote server that you access with SSHFS or something similar.
Some people swear by services like Amazon's AWS via JungleDisk or something similar, but of course then you have to trust Amazon. My system's pretty clean, but I often keep a port open on my home network with a server (an old G4) running there for just this purpose.
I don't really think the OP meant to make a judgement here. Perhaps it would have been clearer or at least less politically inflammatory if they had simply said that "Windows is the default choice for most consumers who do not have specific computing requirements which would lead them to other OS choices." Just like (Apple's) iPod appears to be the default choice for those who don't require Ogg or any number of other features which may be a bit out of the mainstream purely by their lack of inclusion with the number-one selling product.
Banks don't care about individual customers; they'd rather not see you. Business customers, who come in and deposit lots of money and take out lots of loans, however, are their bread and butter.
Let me guess: are you white, maybe anglo-saxon and protestant, too? I hate to make generalizations, as that would be politically incorrect, but that's the only group I know that gets pissed off at so-called political correctness.
You're totally right on. There was a time that a significant portion of pro basketball players were Jewish, too. Was it because of cultural or economic reasons? No, of course not. Sports pundits of the time indicated that shorter men would be better at basketball because they would have greater balance and agility... A quick Google search on "jews in basketball" reveals that and other interesting statements.
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I prefer ROT-26; less chance for data loss.
It's the age-old philosophy of "understand or destroy." Once they realize something can make or save them huge bucks, they'll no longer demonize it. Or at least not their own brand of it...
It seems to me that maybe this could be covered under an extension to libel laws. If you take a recognizable picture of anyone--say Britney Spears--and modify it such that she looks like she did something she did not (rob a bank, kill John Lennon, have sex with Joe Pornstar) and distribute it, does she have any recourse? If you write a false article as if it were a factual account, she certainly does.
If indeed people in general are protected, then it seems like double, treble or more damages might be implied if a minor is involved. I'm guessing, although IANAL, that any protections would be civil rather than criminal, but if I had a kid and some sicko (adult or minor) photoshopped it so that my child's recognizable face was doing something suggestive, inappropriate, outright sexual or deviant, I think it would be appropriate for that creator/distributor to have to face some consequences.
ah, but if you ignore emotion altogether, you're missing half the picture. no credibility there either.
4. ???
5. Profit!
The key here is nearly, isn't it. If you're in a situation where toes might go missing, it's likely that the information you want to protect is important enough to risk that, and start the scrubbing process.
If you're a CIA agent apprehended by a FOE (Forces Of Evil) officer, for instance, you don't want that data nearly secure, you want it totally protected.
Now as far as the grinding goes, you could conceivably make a system that scrubs portion by portion of the disk, with just a little activity each time the mouse is moved, the button is clicked, a key is pressed, the motion sensor is jiggled, etc. That way you could reduce the chances of a toe-loss, but still protect the data in case the computer is kept for further analysis.
Don't forget, encryption that is password protected can be strong as all-get-out, but it's only as strong as its password. If someone really thinks you have something, they can apply a lot of CPU time to trying to guess your password.
I know. There are other ways to interpret it, but any path you go down makes it seem strange and arbitrary. Maybe, for instance, it wasn't the terrorist's actual birth date, but instead, they had some information about the date on a stolen or forged passport. But if they had that information, wouldn't they likely know the name on the 'port, too?
Any way you slice it, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Funny. Even funnier is that until I wrote the quote, I didn't know I knew the teacher's name; if you had asked me what Lisa's teacher's name is, I wouldn't have known. It's not as memorable as "Crabapple". But that one quote is strong enough to keep that little factoid in my head, and now I've made a new connection.
I shudder to think at what knowledge I've kept out by enfirming my knowledge of Simpsons trivia. Sigh.
I love your "pony" comment. A couple of months ago, I was on a conference call with a client, a large defense contractor whose name sounds like it might refer to a hole in the ground where sweet, sticky bee-made syrup comes from, and I used that line. They said, "We would like to see X and Y done by Z date," and I said, "I understand, and similarly, I would very much like a pony."
My boss called me two seconds after the conf call ended. Since I saw the caller ID, I knew what was coming, and I answered the phone, "Was that inappropriate?" "Yes," was the answer, "but very funny. Don't do it again."
Good point. BTW, I have a tendency to think that everything is a Simpsons reference, but you'll have to forgive me if reading your account name makes me think of Ralph Wiggum reading his card to his teacher: "Dear Mrs. Hoover, We miss you. (someone) is pulling my hair. Here is a drawing of a spyrochaete."
I've been lucky, knock on wood. The only time I was really hassled was one day when apparently they had an alert to watch for someone with my birth date. Even then, it wasn't a huge deal; I just had to verify all sorts of information about myself so they would be sure that it wasn't someone with a forged or stolen passport trying to get through. Some friends of mine from Germany, however, got hassled a lot traveling in the US after 9/11; since several of the hijackers had come to the US via Germany, I guess they figured they would make Germans the "random search" victims as often as possible. Of course, since I know them, I can't imagine two more innocent people, so it was comical to me, but annoying to them.
That's an interesting idea, though I've never heard of it, and the challenges for it seem that they would be significant, though not insurmountable. Might also be nice if it had a feature to maybe even destroy the real data when the "duress" password is entered.
Anything you don't want to find, host it on a remote server that you access with SSHFS or something similar.
Some people swear by services like Amazon's AWS via JungleDisk or something similar, but of course then you have to trust Amazon. My system's pretty clean, but I often keep a port open on my home network with a server (an old G4) running there for just this purpose.
I don't really think the OP meant to make a judgement here. Perhaps it would have been clearer or at least less politically inflammatory if they had simply said that "Windows is the default choice for most consumers who do not have specific computing requirements which would lead them to other OS choices." Just like (Apple's) iPod appears to be the default choice for those who don't require Ogg or any number of other features which may be a bit out of the mainstream purely by their lack of inclusion with the number-one selling product.
Erm... Don't forget the Apple TV. It may not be a huge seller, but it's probably one of the most popular single makes of STB after TiVo.
A friend of mine wrote a comedy sketch with that concept in mind.
Banks don't care about individual customers; they'd rather not see you. Business customers, who come in and deposit lots of money and take out lots of loans, however, are their bread and butter.
Nice.
Yes, as a matter of fact!
Nice. I once thought about making an image that said, "This site best viewed in Lynx."
The badge I used to put on all my sites...
I'm ashamed that I get that joke.
For me, Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream", Beatles' white album, and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". Those were the good old days :)
Let me guess: are you white, maybe anglo-saxon and protestant, too? I hate to make generalizations, as that would be politically incorrect, but that's the only group I know that gets pissed off at so-called political correctness.
You're totally right on. There was a time that a significant portion of pro basketball players were Jewish, too. Was it because of cultural or economic reasons? No, of course not. Sports pundits of the time indicated that shorter men would be better at basketball because they would have greater balance and agility... A quick Google search on "jews in basketball" reveals that and other interesting statements.