And really has not much to do with PGP/GnuPG either, it is about the insane HTML integration in email software that can leak data if external resources are loaded automatically and, apparently, your email is decrypted automatically. If you have either of these, your security has gone out of the window long before the present issue was discovered. Also seems to require a broken MIME parser. Hence this is an issue with mailers, not with PGP/GnuPG (or rather the OpenPGP format). Pretty much the same screw-up by email software makers also affects S/MIME, only it suffers from missing authenticated encryption in addition.
Bottom line, a sane set-up that only renders HTML (or refuses it completely like I used to, these days I convert it to text with lynx), but does not fetch/execute anything should be safe from this. And yes, you should definitely use PGP/GnuPG, despite what some people say.
The other bottom line is that many people making email software have really, really screwed up here. The makers of PGP/GnuPG have not.
And really has not much to do with PGP either, it is about insane HTML integration in email software that can leak data if external resources are loaded automatically and your email is decrypted automatically. If you have either of these, your security has gone out of the window long before the present issue was discovered. Security is not free, it takes effort. Also apparently some mailers tell PGP to use insecure encryption.
Bottom line, a sane set-up that only renders HTML, but does not fetch/execute anything and uses the PGP/GnuPG is safe from this. And yes, you should definitely use PGP/GnuPG, despite what some people say.
And that is the essence of it. There is an unfortunately rather small part of the human race (often estimated at 10-15%) that are independent thinkers and that do not believe something just because they were told to. And Science, which is indeed just a tool, but a rather superior one, comes these days with a lot of documented applications and a lot of verifiable explanations why it works (if done right) and why the known alternatives do not work. The independent thinkers usually go though a phase where they actually look into whether Science actually works and verify a few results themselves.
Hence one group just believes, the other one listens, but only believes after verification. Verification can take various forms, and usually you cannot verify down to the basics. But even a reasonably careful plausibility estimation is pretty effective in separating propaganda/marketing/preaching/other_form_of_lies from likely truth.
Actually, no. The stupid find various ways to be stupid. For example, you have anti-vaxxers that have no problem believing that earth is round. That is not because they actually understand why earth is round or that there is evidence it is round, they simply decided they will not believe Science about vaccines, but the earth being round is no concern to them so they go with the majority opinion.
Incidentally, you are using the implication in the wrong direction or misuse it as a correlation. That is not the sign of a smart person. My argument goes "flat-earther => stupid". It does not go "stupid => flat earther" and it certainly does not go "flat earther stupid". Then I observe that flat-earthers are an instructive example of "stupid" and observe, without giving any evidence, that there are a lot of other people equally stupid on a meta-level (ignoring Science), but on other subjects (implied only).
Indeed. Religions age and change with age. The only advantage Christianity over Islam has at this time is that it is older and more sedate now (well, mostly). It is not in any way fundamentally better and the same applies to its followers.
Well, religion does usually enforce this fucked-up aspect of many humans. But I agree, the fundamental problem are those that think their particular group is better than all others and that this allows them to do whatever they like to the inferiors. Religion is just a sort-of parasitic construct riding on this.
Don't know what you are talking about. Christians did wholesale mass-murder in the crusades, for example, in pretty much the mode you describe. There is no larger religion that has not done atrocities and justified them afterwards.
I would call it instructive. It shows that most people do not manage to understand what Science is and what it can and cannot do, because they lack the mental capabilities to do so. It explains a few things about why so many things on this planet are so fucked up.
Stupidity combined with arrogance ("We know better!") will always be with the human race. There are far to many stupid people that do not understand what a "fact" is. Of course, cults of stupid depend on a majority that is a lot less stupid, or they do not survive. If they reach a certain size (e.g. the US as of today), they eventually self-destruct as ignoring reality is not sustainable on that scale.
As horses can be pretty smart, that is debatable.This would probably be a case where the smartest horse can open the stable door and can get out, while the Donald cannot without the help of the horse but later claims it was his doing.
At this time, we have no AI that deserves the name and it is unclear whether we will ever have it, as there is not even a credible theory how it could be implemented. Looking at the history of technology, this indicates we are > 50 years away from it and it may also be infeasible. All we have is dumb automation and dumb automation cannot "debate". It can give the appearance of doing it (see Eliza), but that is it.
Actually, laws that are only applied to people those in power do not like are quite useful as means of control and oppression. In fact, that seems to be the original idea behind laws and it is still the main purpose and motivator, even if that part is glossed over today because it is good PR to keep the masses believing something is there to protect _them_. Not so. And, if you are on top, even a police state or full-blown fascism can be a nice place to be in. Hence those in power have no motivation to prevent that from happening either.
Decisions like this one are always carefully considered and only allowed to be made if they do not actually change anything that matters. They do give the morons a nice opportunity to say "see, the system works!" and thereby generate some free propaganda, which aids nicely in keeping the clueless clueless.
It really does not matter what you think about the joke. There is no good reason to remove it and removing it validates a horribly wrong stance that some people fantasize would make the world better. (Even the Nazis though they were making the world better. Good intentions are not at all ensuring good deeds.) Hence it is quite refreshing that a high-profile person does not bow to this nonsense and just states "you have no say in this".
Ah, yes. The human capability for self-deception. One reason I post on/. is because I am looking into how deep it goes. Cannot say you just made the top-10, but you are pretty high up there.
By a tiny amount, if even that. It is the same technology, no understanding, no insight, no modelling capabilities, just reading from a giant cue-sheet.
Slashdot Mirror
And really has not much to do with PGP/GnuPG either, it is about the insane HTML integration in email software that can leak data if external resources are loaded automatically and, apparently, your email is decrypted automatically. If you have either of these, your security has gone out of the window long before the present issue was discovered. Also seems to require a broken MIME parser. Hence this is an issue with mailers, not with PGP/GnuPG (or rather the OpenPGP format). Pretty much the same screw-up by email software makers also affects S/MIME, only it suffers from missing authenticated encryption in addition.
Bottom line, a sane set-up that only renders HTML (or refuses it completely like I used to, these days I convert it to text with lynx), but does not fetch/execute anything should be safe from this. And yes, you should definitely use PGP/GnuPG, despite what some people say.
The other bottom line is that many people making email software have really, really screwed up here. The makers of PGP/GnuPG have not.
Oops, sorry, posted in the wrong thread. Please ignore.
And really has not much to do with PGP either, it is about insane HTML integration in email software that can leak data if external resources are loaded automatically and your email is decrypted automatically. If you have either of these, your security has gone out of the window long before the present issue was discovered. Security is not free, it takes effort. Also apparently some mailers tell PGP to use insecure encryption.
Bottom line, a sane set-up that only renders HTML, but does not fetch/execute anything and uses the PGP/GnuPG is safe from this. And yes, you should definitely use PGP/GnuPG, despite what some people say.
And that is the essence of it. There is an unfortunately rather small part of the human race (often estimated at 10-15%) that are independent thinkers and that do not believe something just because they were told to. And Science, which is indeed just a tool, but a rather superior one, comes these days with a lot of documented applications and a lot of verifiable explanations why it works (if done right) and why the known alternatives do not work. The independent thinkers usually go though a phase where they actually look into whether Science actually works and verify a few results themselves.
Hence one group just believes, the other one listens, but only believes after verification. Verification can take various forms, and usually you cannot verify down to the basics. But even a reasonably careful plausibility estimation is pretty effective in separating propaganda/marketing/preaching/other_form_of_lies from likely truth.
Actually, no. The stupid find various ways to be stupid. For example, you have anti-vaxxers that have no problem believing that earth is round. That is not because they actually understand why earth is round or that there is evidence it is round, they simply decided they will not believe Science about vaccines, but the earth being round is no concern to them so they go with the majority opinion.
Incidentally, you are using the implication in the wrong direction or misuse it as a correlation. That is not the sign of a smart person.
My argument goes "flat-earther => stupid". It does not go "stupid => flat earther" and it certainly does not go "flat earther stupid".
Then I observe that flat-earthers are an instructive example of "stupid" and observe, without giving any evidence, that there are a lot of other people equally stupid on a meta-level (ignoring Science), but on other subjects (implied only).
Indeed. Religions age and change with age. The only advantage Christianity over Islam has at this time is that it is older and more sedate now (well, mostly). It is not in any way fundamentally better and the same applies to its followers.
Well, religion does usually enforce this fucked-up aspect of many humans. But I agree, the fundamental problem are those that think their particular group is better than all others and that this allows them to do whatever they like to the inferiors. Religion is just a sort-of parasitic construct riding on this.
Indeed. Whoever voted for Trump, did indeed vote for Trump. How people can even attempt to weasel out of their responsibility here is beyond me.
He is a textbook example of "moron on top and put there by other morons".
Don't know what you are talking about. Christians did wholesale mass-murder in the crusades, for example, in pretty much the mode you describe. There is no larger religion that has not done atrocities and justified them afterwards.
I would call it instructive. It shows that most people do not manage to understand what Science is and what it can and cannot do, because they lack the mental capabilities to do so. It explains a few things about why so many things on this planet are so fucked up.
Stupidity combined with arrogance ("We know better!") will always be with the human race. There are far to many stupid people that do not understand what a "fact" is. Of course, cults of stupid depend on a majority that is a lot less stupid, or they do not survive. If they reach a certain size (e.g. the US as of today), they eventually self-destruct as ignoring reality is not sustainable on that scale.
It is a classical cycle. Right before the crash induced by complete incompetence, the have-beens think they are at the pinnacle of their power.
As horses can be pretty smart, that is debatable.This would probably be a case where the smartest horse can open the stable door and can get out, while the Donald cannot without the help of the horse but later claims it was his doing.
And by using many different fallacies, humans cannot only "win" but also lose and out themselves as morons at the same time!
At this time, we have no AI that deserves the name and it is unclear whether we will ever have it, as there is not even a credible theory how it could be implemented. Looking at the history of technology, this indicates we are > 50 years away from it and it may also be infeasible. All we have is dumb automation and dumb automation cannot "debate". It can give the appearance of doing it (see Eliza), but that is it.
While the fight against stupidity is certainly a permanent one, giving up is stupid, weak and unethical. So take your defeatist crap elsewhere please.
Actually, laws that are only applied to people those in power do not like are quite useful as means of control and oppression. In fact, that seems to be the original idea behind laws and it is still the main purpose and motivator, even if that part is glossed over today because it is good PR to keep the masses believing something is there to protect _them_. Not so. And, if you are on top, even a police state or full-blown fascism can be a nice place to be in. Hence those in power have no motivation to prevent that from happening either.
Decisions like this one are always carefully considered and only allowed to be made if they do not actually change anything that matters. They do give the morons a nice opportunity to say "see, the system works!" and thereby generate some free propaganda, which aids nicely in keeping the clueless clueless.
Just strap a bomb to this thing and send it wherever you want to do harm!
Why is this stupid, you ask? Because it will be very easy to trace back to the source of the attack. No self-respecting terrorist will be that stupid.
Well, to be fair, so is any state today. Somebody smart in power is the absolute exception. And the level of stupidity just continues to get worse.
It is. But I don't expect you to have the mental capacity and technological insight to understand that, so go right on with your denial.
It is all in the reasons stated and the context. If you do not see the problem here, then you are part of it.
It really does not matter what you think about the joke. There is no good reason to remove it and removing it validates a horribly wrong stance that some people fantasize would make the world better. (Even the Nazis though they were making the world better. Good intentions are not at all ensuring good deeds.) Hence it is quite refreshing that a high-profile person does not bow to this nonsense and just states "you have no say in this".
Ah, yes. The human capability for self-deception. One reason I post on /. is because I am looking into how deep it goes. Cannot say you just made the top-10, but you are pretty high up there.
By a tiny amount, if even that. It is the same technology, no understanding, no insight, no modelling capabilities, just reading from a giant cue-sheet.