What does he mean by convince a user to click on a special image. What if _I_ wanted to attach a RIM server and I had access to a Blackberry?! WTF? Why not describe a butterfly sneezing in China as a part of the attack?
First, I want to agree with you re: the somewhat sinister disregard for individual privacy when companies want to sell stuff. I have joked that Lucifer himself sits on the Board of Doubleclick. No doubt the former DoubleClick officer (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110299, 00.asp) is charged with the task of tuning processes and systems to comply while still getting what the agency wants.
Second, I'd like to suggest coming up with a pattern for bogus data when you're asked by various retailers, etc. Try to come up with something that identifies the source of the data so you know what channel certain data came from. Think: a middle name of "Berlin" for WalMart (the Berlin Wall). It's interesting where you see data pop up when you do this.
"We complain about the government listening in on people's phone calls without a warrant, yet, I would bet at least half of us on this board have user superuser powers on his or her company systems at one point to read another user's documents. If you are a network admin, you don't have to have a warrant to read your users' email or documents. You just do it."
Personally, I've _never_ read email that was not mine. I actively avoid reading data that is not meant for me to read. Honestly, I'll look away or just make an effort not to interpret it. I wouldn't keep data on a box that wasn't under my control if I didn't want someone to read it, but that doesn't mean I would violate anyone else's privacy. I _LOATHE_ when people do this, and it's one of the worst transgressions after physical voilence and slanderous attack on character / reputation that I can think of.
What's the difference between them holding some object and having an unmanned probe go have a look. Surely that's as verifiable, in fact perhaps moreso if we can verify weather patterns or have real-time light signals that are dictated by viewers or some neutral party visible from the probe. Think: a big MythBusters logo blasted at a huge swath of cloud.
That's pretty racist. I'm often embarrassed of being an American citizen, but usually I feel shame because I comply and support the current administration's political and economic campaigns by paying taxes.
The fact that Americans are insulated by the media and deprived of objective and relevant information frustrates me greatly, but in a different way. When Americans are cultureally afflicted it's a social shortcoming, which is even personal to a degree.
re: "But I can see why Google is reluctant, providing this data incurs more costs, and I can imagine that there will be a lot of advertisers who are going to argue with them about their bills."
ok, they could pay someone to write a web panel that would provide access to the ad account's logs. that would take anyone competent -at most, if someone came on to do it with no background information and no documentation- like a week.
I totally agree with you. I've always been wary of RPMs, probably due to the same ignorance that people claim that slackware either doesn't have or has inferior package management. There have been situations where my RPM database said that an RPM wasn't installed but it was, and I didn't have the patience to sort it out. Also, the RPM dependencies insistence, only defeatable with --nodeps (which maybe caused my RPM db issue) always interferes with a project. Slackware now has slapt, although one can easily do an upgradepkg./* from a directory of packages. The dropline and freerock management systems make keeping your windowing system up to date a breeze.
And most importantly, Slackware has actually prompted me to _understand_ what all the bits are for. I have an edge now, because I never started with magical RPMs or a magical up2date (although those tools are available now in various carnations for both RPM and tgz packages). I still recommend slackware to people who want to learn about linux.
It's also considered a conservative distribution, which tends to mean it will stay with a stable version for longer before upgrading. That's official though. You can always compile your own from source and then CREATE a package.
There are great home-made packages available from www.linux-packages.net and various other sites.
I love slackware, and hope Pat's healthy and having a good time.
Which I did from games-addiction.com. I'm sure there are tons of other retailers that will let you pre-order them, and with more orders they can probably get priority from the distributors.
I have been travelling in various countries in the U.S., Europe, and Africa for several years now, and I don't own a computer normally. So, I ssh into my account, where my files are stored (in Texas, I believe) and voila. Anything that's sensitive I encrypt. Now, storing my private key on a CD is an issue, and I should move to a USB drive or something for that maybe. Or not. But cron a job to scp the encrypted data to another box and you're redundant-ized.
The other [and more significant] problem with storing the data AND the private key [which you'd have to do] on that USB device is that it renders the encryption a bit irrelevant. It could be brute-forced if found by someone with minimal know-how and lots of cycles. You're keeping the key under the doormat as it were.
I could understand the argument that you _may not_ have network access, or electricity, etc., but if that's the case and it were beyond a regional scope - government wouldn't be operating very much. You will have to find a computer for the USB drive anyway.
I'm not worried, personally. I've got my $HOME away from home.
Anyone who has any experience designing 'mission critical' systems will know that redundancy and resilience are the only way to get your 9's. Systems have to be redundant at every level. Without consideration for anything else, it unnerves me to know that there is ONE system controlling ONE valve. Logic can be perfect, but machines that execute a logical system and the elements which the logical system actions WILL fail at some point.
I have to say that at least this approach is fairer than just picking people arbitrarily and interfering with their life to set an example. Generally speaking, culture in most countries doesn't have a big taboo on copying media, even if it's a ertail product. If they at least try to outsmart the public they're playing on a level field within the bounds of common law.
Bigfoot was spotted in a Billings, MT fast food restaurant eating the lettuce out of several Bic Mac sandwiches, giving rise to speculation that this rarely seen species is in fact vegetarian. Rumors that the "Sasquatch" was fond of eating kittens and other house and farm animals seem to be quelched by this event.
There is video footage, but the manager claims that McDonald's headquarters has barred him from releasing it or making comment. Customers who were suprised to find out that the large feral primate was not a restaurant promotion but in fact a real customer when the gentle giant became frightened by a blonde child and dashed across the tables and condiments counter and through the glass windows.
Bobbi Staunton said, "Lottie wanted to get her photo taken with the big monkey, so I went to put her on his knee. I think she was scared of him, but he was definitely scared of her. As soon as she looked at him real close, with her light blue eyes, he just started bouncing off the walls.. running and screaming!"
Sarah Brosnan, Director of McDonald's US Communications, did not return calls about this event at press time. Her staff did say that McDonald's does not confirm or refute the existence or other details about Bigfoot or any other paranormal characters. They refused to answer questions about the West Virginia Moth Man, and seemed to treat the whole affair as a joke.
Yellowstone County Sheriff Chuck Maxwell said, "I seen this Bigfoot several times. I ain't afraid of him, and he needs to stay where he belongs, in the woods." Which prompts the question -- why _has_ bigfoot come out into such a populated area.
Environmentalists have suggested that deforestation and the alluring smell of french fries may be an answer.
Althea Zanecosky, dietician at the Philadelphia Zoo states, "Monkeys like french fries. It's a fact of nature. They steal fries from kids all the time. And let's not forget, Bigfoot IS a monkey."
The problem with a government collecting information of great detail on its citizens is that even if that current government would use that information in ways that only benefit you, governments (like anything else) are not permanent. So if you volunteer for a chip, and that chip can be read and more details put on it as uses are found and applied to this type of identification technology, that information could be used later by a government to harm you.
Think Nazi Germany or worse, Sadistically Opressive East Germany. Or the way the Soviet Union had a reputation for treating its dissenters. Or the way Mugabe handles people who aren't willing to agree with policies they believe are unfair.
This is my most basic, logical argument against this sort of thing, but there is an infinite array of other arguments against this sort of practice.
As much as I'd like to believe that we're at a point where the civilzed world is just that, and that our societies would never be able to devolve into some sick and opressive police state, I don't believe that. I'm sure that Germans wouldn't have believed that their government would get up to what it did if you had asked citizens or soldiers 30 years prior.
This is outside of the concerns of RFID being snagged by someone, anyone at all who has a device in RF proximity.
The keyboards in western Europe mostly follow the qwerty, France has an Azerty, Germany has a Qwertz, and other countries have other variations. I found that switching between them while travelling was troublesome at first, often frustrating me to the point when in france to leqve my emqils qs they were.
After a while, though, you get the feel and now whenever I'm in France after a few sentences I'm back up to speed. I think you'd learn to intuitively switch between your own keyboard and anyone elses. I also had a U.S. laptop in France, so it was a similar situation.
Habit develops quickly in repetitive processes like typing.
Go for it. Though I'm not sure one isn't just better off adopting a better typing posture or getting a better seat that forces you to type 'safely'.
I've read about the bombs in London. It's probably not as new to the English as it was to the Americans, and I'm not sure if you are in London. It's hard to swallow, this shit... and the worst part about it is the media sculpting the public's natural shock, mourning, and anger into a choreography of fear and subordinance. The government in the U.S. used it to convince people that they shouldn't have privacy or rights to fair trial if they were so 'evil' as to support or not directly combat "terrorism" in an obvious (physical and base) way.
I tried explaining to people that if we actually allow our government to persecute the people who they pin the blame on this, it will only be an act of complacency in the persecution of innocent people that will now have reason to hate and attack our society. People in NYC considered me a traitor and spineless, but I genuinely believe that sending guns to a poor country doesn't do anything but create enemies that don't have much to lose (the worst kind of enemies).
This is the reason for my sympathy. Of course I send my condolences to the innocent people, whoever that is, that died this morning or were hurt. That doesn't go without saying, but it's true. However, the greater tragedy is how much this sort of thing will usher in a new age of technological oppression. Where people don't have as much of a chance to redeem themselves, or balance their karma, or pay off their delinquent debts. This is what is the biggest burden that people in the U.K. will have to face.
In a wider context, the U.K. already leads the world in adoption of technologies for 'protection' that actually erode personal privacy and rights. This event, at the G-8 host, will open the doors wide(r) open for the U.S. and other countries to follow the U.K. example of cameras and cards and all of that other mess that's coming.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn those missing impotent events.
Do you store your sensitive DATA in RAM?! That's bizarre. Or do I not get it.
What does he mean by convince a user to click on a special image. What if _I_ wanted to attach a RIM server and I had access to a Blackberry?! WTF? Why not describe a butterfly sneezing in China as a part of the attack?
First, I want to agree with you re: the somewhat sinister disregard for individual privacy when companies want to sell stuff. I have joked that Lucifer himself sits on the Board of Doubleclick. No doubt the former DoubleClick officer (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110299, 00.asp) is charged with the task of tuning processes and systems to comply while still getting what the agency wants.
Second, I'd like to suggest coming up with a pattern for bogus data when you're asked by various retailers, etc. Try to come up with something that identifies the source of the data so you know what channel certain data came from. Think: a middle name of "Berlin" for WalMart (the Berlin Wall). It's interesting where you see data pop up when you do this.
J
"We complain about the government listening in on people's phone calls without a warrant, yet, I would bet at least half of us on this board have user superuser powers on his or her company systems at one point to read another user's documents. If you are a network admin, you don't have to have a warrant to read your users' email or documents. You just do it."
Personally, I've _never_ read email that was not mine. I actively avoid reading data that is not meant for me to read. Honestly, I'll look away or just make an effort not to interpret it. I wouldn't keep data on a box that wasn't under my control if I didn't want someone to read it, but that doesn't mean I would violate anyone else's privacy. I _LOATHE_ when people do this, and it's one of the worst transgressions after physical voilence and slanderous attack on character / reputation that I can think of.
I wish administrators had to take an Oath.
J
What's the difference between them holding some object and having an unmanned probe go have a look. Surely that's as verifiable, in fact perhaps moreso if we can verify weather patterns or have real-time light signals that are dictated by viewers or some neutral party visible from the probe. Think: a big MythBusters logo blasted at a huge swath of cloud.
j
That's pretty racist. I'm often embarrassed of being an American citizen, but usually I feel shame because I comply and support the current administration's political and economic campaigns by paying taxes.
The fact that Americans are insulated by the media and deprived of objective and relevant information frustrates me greatly, but in a different way. When Americans are cultureally afflicted it's a social shortcoming, which is even personal to a degree.
My apologies.
re: "But I can see why Google is reluctant, providing this data incurs more costs, and I can imagine that there will be a lot of advertisers who are going to argue with them about their bills."
ok, they could pay someone to write a web panel that would provide access to the ad account's logs. that would take anyone competent -at most, if someone came on to do it with no background information and no documentation- like a week.
I totally agree with you. I've always been wary of RPMs, probably due to the same ignorance that people claim that slackware either doesn't have or has inferior package management. There have been situations where my RPM database said that an RPM wasn't installed but it was, and I didn't have the patience to sort it out. Also, the RPM dependencies insistence, only defeatable with --nodeps (which maybe caused my RPM db issue) always interferes with a project. Slackware now has slapt, although one can easily do an upgradepkg ./* from a directory of packages. The dropline and freerock management systems make keeping your windowing system up to date a breeze.
And most importantly, Slackware has actually prompted me to _understand_ what all the bits are for. I have an edge now, because I never started with magical RPMs or a magical up2date (although those tools are available now in various carnations for both RPM and tgz packages). I still recommend slackware to people who want to learn about linux.
It's also considered a conservative distribution, which tends to mean it will stay with a stable version for longer before upgrading. That's official though. You can always compile your own from source and then CREATE a package.
There are great home-made packages available from www.linux-packages.net and various other sites.
I love slackware, and hope Pat's healthy and having a good time.
Yeah!
Which I did from games-addiction.com. I'm sure there are tons of other retailers that will let you pre-order them, and with more orders they can probably get priority from the distributors.
Just my 2 cents.
So there will technically be a 2.7, but it will never be released. Like there was a 2.5.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.5/
How come no one has mentioned this? Have they changed it?
I have been travelling in various countries in the U.S., Europe, and Africa for several years now, and I don't own a computer normally. So, I ssh into my account, where my files are stored (in Texas, I believe) and voila. Anything that's sensitive I encrypt. Now, storing my private key on a CD is an issue, and I should move to a USB drive or something for that maybe. Or not. But cron a job to scp the encrypted data to another box and you're redundant-ized.
The other [and more significant] problem with storing the data AND the private key [which you'd have to do] on that USB device is that it renders the encryption a bit irrelevant. It could be brute-forced if found by someone with minimal know-how and lots of cycles. You're keeping the key under the doormat as it were.
I could understand the argument that you _may not_ have network access, or electricity, etc., but if that's the case and it were beyond a regional scope - government wouldn't be operating very much. You will have to find a computer for the USB drive anyway.
I'm not worried, personally. I've got my $HOME away from home.
Panix and Ductape are great choices.
Anyone who has any experience designing 'mission critical' systems will know that redundancy and resilience are the only way to get your 9's. Systems have to be redundant at every level. Without consideration for anything else, it unnerves me to know that there is ONE system controlling ONE valve. Logic can be perfect, but machines that execute a logical system and the elements which the logical system actions WILL fail at some point.
I don't care what anyone says. This guy is right.
I have to say that at least this approach is fairer than just picking people arbitrarily and interfering with their life to set an example. Generally speaking, culture in most countries doesn't have a big taboo on copying media, even if it's a ertail product. If they at least try to outsmart the public they're playing on a level field within the bounds of common law.
My likkle opinion.
Or:
goatse.iq
Bigfoot was spotted in a Billings, MT fast food restaurant eating the lettuce out of several Bic Mac sandwiches, giving rise to speculation that this rarely seen species is in fact vegetarian. Rumors that the "Sasquatch" was fond of eating kittens and other house and farm animals seem to be quelched by this event.
There is video footage, but the manager claims that McDonald's headquarters has barred him from releasing it or making comment. Customers who were suprised to find out that the large feral primate was not a restaurant promotion but in fact a real customer when the gentle giant became frightened by a blonde child and dashed across the tables and condiments counter and through the glass windows.
Bobbi Staunton said, "Lottie wanted to get her photo taken with the big monkey, so I went to put her on his knee. I think she was scared of him, but he was definitely scared of her. As soon as she looked at him real close, with her light blue eyes, he just started bouncing off the walls.. running and screaming!"
Sarah Brosnan, Director of McDonald's US Communications, did not return calls about this event at press time. Her staff did say that McDonald's does not confirm or refute the existence or other details about Bigfoot or any other paranormal characters. They refused to answer questions about the West Virginia Moth Man, and seemed to treat the whole affair as a joke.
Yellowstone County Sheriff Chuck Maxwell said, "I seen this Bigfoot several times. I ain't afraid of him, and he needs to stay where he belongs, in the woods." Which prompts the question -- why _has_ bigfoot come out into such a populated area.
Environmentalists have suggested that deforestation and the alluring smell of french fries may be an answer.
Althea Zanecosky, dietician at the Philadelphia Zoo states, "Monkeys like french fries. It's a fact of nature. They steal fries from kids all the time. And let's not forget, Bigfoot IS a monkey."
The problem with a government collecting information of great detail on its citizens is that even if that current government would use that information in ways that only benefit you, governments (like anything else) are not permanent. So if you volunteer for a chip, and that chip can be read and more details put on it as uses are found and applied to this type of identification technology, that information could be used later by a government to harm you.
Think Nazi Germany or worse, Sadistically Opressive East Germany. Or the way the Soviet Union had a reputation for treating its dissenters. Or the way Mugabe handles people who aren't willing to agree with policies they believe are unfair.
This is my most basic, logical argument against this sort of thing, but there is an infinite array of other arguments against this sort of practice.
As much as I'd like to believe that we're at a point where the civilzed world is just that, and that our societies would never be able to devolve into some sick and opressive police state, I don't believe that. I'm sure that Germans wouldn't have believed that their government would get up to what it did if you had asked citizens or soldiers 30 years prior.
This is outside of the concerns of RFID being snagged by someone, anyone at all who has a device in RF proximity.
This is my rationale.
What do you think?
Well put. I am always frustrated and sometimes enraged by people who parrot out these same old arguments about why Linux is 'Bad' or even 'not Good'.
J
Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow
I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow
I can be anything
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow
A Reading Rainbow
The keyboards in western Europe mostly follow the qwerty, France has an Azerty, Germany has a Qwertz, and other countries have other variations. I found that switching between them while travelling was troublesome at first, often frustrating me to the point when in france to leqve my emqils qs they were.
After a while, though, you get the feel and now whenever I'm in France after a few sentences I'm back up to speed. I think you'd learn to intuitively switch between your own keyboard and anyone elses. I also had a U.S. laptop in France, so it was a similar situation.
Habit develops quickly in repetitive processes like typing.
Go for it. Though I'm not sure one isn't just better off adopting a better typing posture or getting a better seat that forces you to type 'safely'.
I've read about the bombs in London. It's probably not as new to the
English as it was to the Americans, and I'm not sure if you are in
London. It's hard to swallow, this shit... and the worst part about
it is the media sculpting the public's natural shock, mourning, and anger into
a choreography of fear and subordinance. The government in the U.S.
used it to convince people that they shouldn't have privacy or rights
to fair trial if they were so 'evil' as to support or not directly
combat "terrorism" in an obvious (physical and base) way.
I tried explaining to people that if we actually allow our government
to persecute the people who they pin the blame on this, it will only
be an act of complacency in the persecution of innocent people that
will now have reason to hate and attack our society. People in NYC
considered me a traitor and spineless, but I genuinely believe that
sending guns to a poor country doesn't do anything but create enemies
that don't have much to lose (the worst kind of enemies).
This is the reason for my sympathy. Of course I send my condolences
to the innocent people, whoever that is, that died this morning or
were hurt. That doesn't go without saying, but it's true. However,
the greater tragedy is how much this sort of thing will usher in a new
age of technological oppression. Where people don't have as much of a
chance to redeem themselves, or balance their karma, or pay off their
delinquent debts. This is what is the biggest burden that people in
the U.K. will have to face.
In a wider context, the U.K. already leads the world in adoption of
technologies for 'protection' that actually erode personal privacy and
rights. This event, at the G-8 host, will open the doors wide(r) open
for the U.S. and other countries to follow the U.K. example of cameras
and cards and all of that other mess that's coming.