The guy may be slimy, but what he did is business as usual in American politics - particularly in Chicago.....
He pissed somebody off or stepped on some toes and THAT is why he's being prosecuted - then, rather than lying down, which would have resulted in lesser charges or some sort of deal, he told the powers that did this to him to "fuck off" and grandstanded, which they really didn't like, so they're going after him....
I would say "that's American politics in 2010" for you, but I'd imagine there are plenty of other countries where this sort of shit goes on too....Apparently Finland and Norway and Sweden are the places to live if you want relatively uncorrupted politicians...(though I suspect there must be some corruption there).....
Oh, you mean after the CIA overthrew a popular, truly democratic freely elected president (Mossdegh) - and installed a brutally repressive "company man" (the Shah) with his dreaded SAVAK secret police, utilizing that embassy as a base and storage which documented all of these activities.
Operation AJAX. It was led by Kermit Roosevelt and became the template for ousting leaders who preferred to take care of their obligations to their own people rather than selling their people out for whatever corporate/oil interests the CIA was backing; a template that the CIA would use many times over around the world.
That "hostage crisis" where IIRC none of the hostages were killed, despite the fact that the students, after painstakingly reconstructing shredded papers learned the true extent to which America was involved in turning their country into a nightmare.
I am an American, and I love my country - but that doesn't mean that it is okay our government to do this shit, it;s wrong, and it always comes back to haunt us.
Haystack is currently in the beta testing stage, and we are in the process of working out the last kinks in the system. We are also in the process of taking care of a number of procedural hurdles that must be settled before the program is operational. We are aiming for a full release sometime this winter.
That guy is a ready made pop-culture hero for our times...I predict instant internet fame, and appearances on talk shows, reality shows, and job offers...
I guess it's a good thing he wasn't playing "Angry Birds," because while Plants vs Zombies is good, Angry Birds is likee the holy grail of Iphone games and certainly would have resulted in the entire jail being emptied.
This guy must be stupid on several different levels.....
In all reality that sort of speeding is reckless and stupid - and if a cop actually saw it, then I am all for this guy having to pay for the crime. Too many people treat their vehicles like toys and risk others lives for no reason at atll....
With that said though, I cannot see how it is possible for this guy to be convicted, unless he is a TOTAL idiot and actually confessed to the police, because people post bullshit on internet forums all of the time....For example, everyone should know that I stole a police car last night and drove it exceeding speeds of 160MPH between Philly and Atlantic City and ran it right into the ocean....well, wait, maybe that was actually MY car.....I must be hallucinating from the LSD lab that I built inside of the Police car as I was flying down the parkway.
What he should have done, when confronted about the post by the police, (which I am assuming is what happened) is said "I was making it up," or "I was just trying to impress the forum." I just have a huge problem with someone being charged for a traffic infraction based on a forum post when a officer clearly wasn't present and is basing the entire case/evidence on an internet forum post.
That's not my understanding of the situation at all...
What "massive problems" were there? (I mean prior to them removing him)?
Because by all accounts everything worked perfectly until that time.
I am not saying that the guy handled the situation well, but this situation was not as it has been presented by the DA, and about half of the articles written about it.
It's not so simple as saying "he refused to hand over the passwords." I administer a network for a technology company, I am at the top of the IT org chart here, but of the people who are above me in the structure of the corporation, there is only one I would give the infomation to - simply because the rest of them do not have a need to know, and most certainly are capable of ding things that would result in serious issues (security, practical, etc) then the network would be down for everyone until I could fix it.
At our company what I've done is create a secured document that there are 3 copies of - one is stored in the safe of the managing director (basically our CEO); one is held by the Director of Engineering, and one is held offsite by our Exec VP.
One of Terry's primary failures was not having processes in place like this - that took that decision out of his immediate hands and placed it into a procedure, or the hands of management.
Also, your statement about self-interest - I don't think this was about self interest - if it was he would have given up the passwords to avoid jail.
I didn't hear anything about this starting from them trying to fire or transfer him....
I don't know everything about the entire situation as I wasn't there, but what I have heard from source I trust has led me to believe that while he didn't handle it well, he was trying to do the right thing and those involved decided to make an example out of him by exaggerating what actually happened.
Never in the history of American business has a company as large and powerful as Google NOT taken advantage of something this profitable and desired by those in control of the country.
I don't care what they say, or how many slogans they have that they sometimes follow and sometimes ignore - they're going to use this data. The only question is to wha extent - and given Eric Schmidt's recent statements on privacy and the future of the web (which were completely disgusting to me and likely to anyone else who values the internet as a place of freedom and growth), I expect that they will fully exploit all that they have.
I am not anti-Google, I love Google's products and I think their search engine is the best, and as far as large companies go they certainly aren't anywhere near the most evil - but the power and data they have, along with some of the places they've received funding from, combined with the attitude of their CEO is greatly concerning.
He may not have used the best judgment politically in dealing with this, and yes - people have pointed out the need for proper documentation, which I completely agree with, but ultimately he was just doing his job too well...based on what he's said, it looks like he's wishing he had "gotten out sooner," but I wonder if that means he wishes he had compromised his principles. I could understand if he lost his job, people do lose their jobs over bullshit political workplace workplace situations all the time, but JAIL! and likely losing his CCIE?
There was no "denial of service." I hope he appeals, wins and is somehow able to rip those involved (and/or the city) a new one...
I am sure there will be people who have never been responsible for maintaining a network that other depend on and who have never had to deal with the practicalities of dealing with inept senior management playing political games with your work and your responsibilities who will comment on this and suggest that "he got what he deserved," but they're likely the same sort of assholes he had to deal with who precipitated this mess, and are certainly wrong.
A lot of times people are charged as sex offenders when they shouldn;t be - like the guy who took a picture of these two girls who were flashing on the side of a public street when after they were arrested it turned out that they were only 15.
But urinating in public in most places will NOT get one a sex offender charge. Usually it's a disorderly, or a public decency charge.
Dry ice in a plastic bottle with water is NOT a "destructive device." It's a fucking science experiment.....
This is utterly ridiculous. Yes, it makes a loud noise - so do all of the other methods of popping a plastics bottle.
Now, if he were putting these on unsuspecting people's doosteps, that would be problematic....
To prove my point I am making some now..RIght now, at 2:19pm, in downtown Philly....Now all of you who have read this are aware, and though I am not a minor, your silence (or comments) obviously indicate tacit approval...If you disapprove, that can be conveyed by doing something other than commenting or not commenting....
While I do see the issue with making these things, particularly if care isn't taken when placing them, but they are not bombs...Like anything else involving science (or REALITY), carelessness can lead to injury, but this is NOT something his mother should be charged with a FELONY for.......I would urge everyone to contact the department that some thoughtful individual listed above in the thread.
One way to see if you're getting what you should..
on
The Fastest ISPs In the US
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
As everyone has pointed out, this test in this article really isn't measuring the bandwidth that your ISP is providing; it's like saying "let's see how fast you can run - oh, by the way, you'll be wearing this heavy backpack, dodging traffic." They say it's real world surf performance, but there are so many variables at work here that it really isn;t a very useful metric.
You can use the JAVA or Flash based speed tests at places like www.broadbandreports.com (which is a great site BTW if you aren't familiar for it) those tests are fairly accurate - but not always.
The best, most accurate way I have found to test whether I am getting the speeds I am supposed to, is to use newsleecher and download a bunch of binaries from my premium newsgroup provider. I use Giganews, and I have been really happy with them, but I assume the other top tier newsgroup providers are similar..... With most premium news providers, you get multiple connections and most of the good ones can max out your connection at anytime, provided you are using multiple connections.
I'm sure that most people here know this, but if not: - to figure out if you're getting what you're supposed to, once you're as certain as you can be that you are maxing out your connection, take youy average download speed in megabytes and multiply it by 8.
I live in Philly and have a 22 megabit at home, and 50 megabit at work.
When downloading at home I get about 2.8 megabytes/sec.....when downloading at work I get about 6.2 megabits per second.......so 2.8 x 8 = 22.4 and 6.2 x 8 = 49.6 So all is well...if I notice that something seems to be off, or slow - the first thing I do is queue up some binaries and check....
The bottom line is that these oligarchs want total control over information, they're threatened by the openness of the internet, the ability for people to bypass mainstream media outlets, the ability for people to share news and information worldwide without censorship or government/corporations (almost the same thing now in the US) putting everything into their own context, the dislike the ability for people to organize.....One way or they other they are going to try to destroy all that is good about the internet.
Malware is a problem, and people who don't patch or have proper security are stupid, but he model we have, where everyone takes responsibility for their own systems works fine, despite the rhetoric, and giving the corporate/government empire more control for any reason is a bad, bad idea.
...Also, while we're at it - I wish there was a way to eliminate form office any politicians who uses any of the following rhetoric:
"think of the children" "if you don't have anything to hide, then there's no reason to worry about monitoring/spying/us analraping your privacy" "the constitution* was written over 200 years ago, it's no longer valid for our times." (*if we're talking about non-US entities, then change that to whatever law/document/convention gives people their rights).
This isn't about the children at all....The goal is the same as it's always been, regardless of the argument: Control. They want control, they don;t like people being able to anonymously share information and organize - and if I were them, trying to do a lot of the things these people are doing, I would feel the same way - because they're basically criminals - they want to manipulate us out of our freedoms and protections with scare tactics.
In this day and age people should be educated enough about history to recognize these ploys and know what they mean..Unfortunately (particuarly in the US) the majority aren't.
Yes, I would like future copies of Byte as well......When the wish fairy that brings us modern day equivalents of classic awesome magazines comes by, I would like:
1. A modern day equivalent of Mondo 2000 (because it so ISN'T Wired). 2. A modern day equivalent of Omni
It wasn't just the content of those magazine, it was the spirit and openness behind them....
As a couple of posts have mentioned, "Make" is pretty awesome, it has the right some of spirit behind it.
Well, as they say: "you don't beat the polygraph - you beat the polygraph examiner.
As others have also pointed out on this thread, the higher the stakes, the more likely you are to have autonomic responses.
I think if you practice with a machine, you can probably pull it off, but it's going to be harder with someone who REALLY understands how to use one....
One thing that does help in almost all circumstances (as I understand it) is a dose of Benzodiazepines.
Unsecured wireless isn't illegal in most places and shouldn't be.
I'm aware of all of the potential issues, but the implications of government control; being forced to secure something if you don't wish to - are far worse.
Slashdot Mirror
Quite true...Strip malls, boardwalks, pine barrens, marshes, suburbs, golf courses.....and corruption out the ass.
The guy may be slimy, but what he did is business as usual in American politics - particularly in Chicago.....
He pissed somebody off or stepped on some toes and THAT is why he's being prosecuted - then, rather than lying down, which would have resulted in lesser charges or some sort of deal, he told the powers that did this to him to "fuck off" and grandstanded, which they really didn't like, so they're going after him....
I would say "that's American politics in 2010" for you, but I'd imagine there are plenty of other countries where this sort of shit goes on too....Apparently Finland and Norway and Sweden are the places to live if you want relatively uncorrupted politicians...(though I suspect there must be some corruption there).....
Oh, you mean after the CIA overthrew a popular, truly democratic freely elected president (Mossdegh) - and installed a brutally repressive "company man" (the Shah) with his dreaded SAVAK secret police, utilizing that embassy as a base and storage which documented all of these activities.
Operation AJAX. It was led by Kermit Roosevelt and became the template for ousting leaders who preferred to take care of their obligations to their own people rather than selling their people out for whatever corporate/oil interests the CIA was backing; a template that the CIA would use many times over around the world.
That "hostage crisis" where IIRC none of the hostages were killed, despite the fact that the students, after painstakingly reconstructing shredded papers learned the true extent to which America was involved in turning their country into a nightmare.
I am an American, and I love my country - but that doesn't mean that it is okay our government to do this shit, it;s wrong, and it always comes back to haunt us.
0. When will Haystack be ready?
Haystack is currently in the beta testing stage, and we are in the process of working out the last kinks in the system. We are also in the process of taking care of a number of procedural hurdles that must be settled before the program is operational. We are aiming for a full release sometime this winter.
What a dick. Seriously.
Change? When it comes to war and civil liberties, the only changes he has made is maknig the government's positions on both more extreme.
Emergency slides > Dry erase boards....
I'm just sayin...
That guy is a ready made pop-culture hero for our times...I predict instant internet fame, and appearances on talk shows, reality shows, and job offers...
I guess it's a good thing he wasn't playing "Angry Birds," because while Plants vs Zombies is good, Angry Birds is likee the holy grail of Iphone games and certainly would have resulted in the entire jail being emptied.
This guy must be stupid on several different levels.....
In all reality that sort of speeding is reckless and stupid - and if a cop actually saw it, then I am all for this guy having to pay for the crime. Too many people treat their vehicles like toys and risk others lives for no reason at atll....
With that said though, I cannot see how it is possible for this guy to be convicted, unless he is a TOTAL idiot and actually confessed to the police, because people post bullshit on internet forums all of the time....For example, everyone should know that I stole a police car last night and drove it exceeding speeds of 160MPH between Philly and Atlantic City and ran it right into the ocean....well, wait, maybe that was actually MY car.....I must be hallucinating from the LSD lab that I built inside of the Police car as I was flying down the parkway.
What he should have done, when confronted about the post by the police, (which I am assuming is what happened) is said "I was making it up," or "I was just trying to impress the forum." I just have a huge problem with someone being charged for a traffic infraction based on a forum post when a officer clearly wasn't present and is basing the entire case/evidence on an internet forum post.
That's not my understanding of the situation at all...
What "massive problems" were there? (I mean prior to them removing him)?
Because by all accounts everything worked perfectly until that time.
I am not saying that the guy handled the situation well, but this situation was not as it has been presented by the DA, and about half of the articles written about it.
It's not so simple as saying "he refused to hand over the passwords." I administer a network for a technology company, I am at the top of the IT org chart here, but of the people who are above me in the structure of the corporation, there is only one I would give the infomation to - simply because the rest of them do not have a need to know, and most certainly are capable of ding things that would result in serious issues (security, practical, etc) then the network would be down for everyone until I could fix it.
At our company what I've done is create a secured document that there are 3 copies of - one is stored in the safe of the managing director (basically our CEO); one is held by the Director of Engineering, and one is held offsite by our Exec VP.
One of Terry's primary failures was not having processes in place like this - that took that decision out of his immediate hands and placed it into a procedure, or the hands of management.
Also, your statement about self-interest - I don't think this was about self interest - if it was he would have given up the passwords to avoid jail.
I didn't hear anything about this starting from them trying to fire or transfer him....
I don't know everything about the entire situation as I wasn't there, but what I have heard from source I trust has led me to believe that while he didn't handle it well, he was trying to do the right thing and those involved decided to make an example out of him by exaggerating what actually happened.
Never in the history of American business has a company as large and powerful as Google NOT taken advantage of something this profitable and desired by those in control of the country.
I don't care what they say, or how many slogans they have that they sometimes follow and sometimes ignore - they're going to use this data. The only question is to wha extent - and given Eric Schmidt's recent statements on privacy and the future of the web (which were completely disgusting to me and likely to anyone else who values the internet as a place of freedom and growth), I expect that they will fully exploit all that they have.
I am not anti-Google, I love Google's products and I think their search engine is the best, and as far as large companies go they certainly aren't anywhere near the most evil - but the power and data they have, along with some of the places they've received funding from, combined with the attitude of their CEO is greatly concerning.
Par for the course in 2010 America.
He may not have used the best judgment politically in dealing with this, and yes - people have pointed out the need for proper documentation, which I completely agree with, but ultimately he was just doing his job too well...based on what he's said, it looks like he's wishing he had "gotten out sooner," but I wonder if that means he wishes he had compromised his principles. I could understand if he lost his job, people do lose their jobs over bullshit political workplace workplace situations all the time, but JAIL! and likely losing his CCIE?
There was no "denial of service." I hope he appeals, wins and is somehow able to rip those involved (and/or the city) a new one...
I am sure there will be people who have never been responsible for maintaining a network that other depend on and who have never had to deal with the practicalities of dealing with inept senior management playing political games with your work and your responsibilities who will comment on this and suggest that "he got what he deserved," but they're likely the same sort of assholes he had to deal with who precipitated this mess, and are certainly wrong.
This is fucked.
I'm not so sure about that.
A lot of times people are charged as sex offenders when they shouldn;t be - like the guy who took a picture of these two girls who were flashing on the side of a public street when after they were arrested it turned out that they were only 15.
But urinating in public in most places will NOT get one a sex offender charge. Usually it's a disorderly, or a public decency charge.
Holy shit...I guess I DID take the red pill...
Now...where's Trinity..I have a job for her...
...and math, and most everything else...
If you enjoyed the dry ice overpressurizing a bottle until it pops, you'll LOVE this:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/307550/how_to_make_a_works_bomb/
Dry ice in a plastic bottle with water is NOT a "destructive device." It's a fucking science experiment.....
This is utterly ridiculous. Yes, it makes a loud noise - so do all of the other methods of popping a plastics bottle.
Now, if he were putting these on unsuspecting people's doosteps, that would be problematic....
To prove my point I am making some now..RIght now, at 2:19pm, in downtown Philly....Now all of you who have read this are aware, and though I am not a minor, your silence (or comments) obviously indicate tacit approval...If you disapprove, that can be conveyed by doing something other than commenting or not commenting....
While I do see the issue with making these things, particularly if care isn't taken when placing them, but they are not bombs...Like anything else involving science (or REALITY), carelessness can lead to injury, but this is NOT something his mother should be charged with a FELONY for.......I would urge everyone to contact the department that some thoughtful individual listed above in the thread.
As everyone has pointed out, this test in this article really isn't measuring the bandwidth that your ISP is providing; it's like saying "let's see how fast you can run - oh, by the way, you'll be wearing this heavy backpack, dodging traffic." They say it's real world surf performance, but there are so many variables at work here that it really isn;t a very useful metric.
You can use the JAVA or Flash based speed tests at places like www.broadbandreports.com (which is a great site BTW if you aren't familiar for it) those tests are fairly accurate - but not always.
The best, most accurate way I have found to test whether I am getting the speeds I am supposed to, is to use newsleecher and download a bunch of binaries from my premium newsgroup provider. I use Giganews, and I have been really happy with them, but I assume the other top tier newsgroup providers are similar..... With most premium news providers, you get multiple connections and most of the good ones can max out your connection at anytime, provided you are using multiple connections.
I'm sure that most people here know this, but if not: - to figure out if you're getting what you're supposed to, once you're as certain as you can be that you are maxing out your connection, take youy average download speed in megabytes and multiply it by 8.
I live in Philly and have a 22 megabit at home, and 50 megabit at work.
When downloading at home I get about 2.8 megabytes/sec.....when downloading at work I get about 6.2 megabits per second.......so 2.8 x 8 = 22.4 and 6.2 x 8 = 49.6 So all is well...if I notice that something seems to be off, or slow - the first thing I do is queue up some binaries and check....
The bottom line is that these oligarchs want total control over information, they're threatened by the openness of the internet, the ability for people to bypass mainstream media outlets, the ability for people to share news and information worldwide without censorship or government/corporations (almost the same thing now in the US) putting everything into their own context, the dislike the ability for people to organize.....One way or they other they are going to try to destroy all that is good about the internet.
Malware is a problem, and people who don't patch or have proper security are stupid, but he model we have, where everyone takes responsibility for their own systems works fine, despite the rhetoric, and giving the corporate/government empire more control for any reason is a bad, bad idea.
I don't know about that....I think he probably had a ball right before the end....
...Also, while we're at it - I wish there was a way to eliminate form office any politicians who uses any of the following rhetoric:
"think of the children"
"if you don't have anything to hide, then there's no reason to worry about monitoring/spying/us analraping your privacy"
"the constitution* was written over 200 years ago, it's no longer valid for our times." (*if we're talking about non-US entities, then change that to whatever law/document/convention gives people their rights).
This isn't about the children at all....The goal is the same as it's always been, regardless of the argument: Control. They want control, they don;t like people being able to anonymously share information and organize - and if I were them, trying to do a lot of the things these people are doing, I would feel the same way - because they're basically criminals - they want to manipulate us out of our freedoms and protections with scare tactics.
In this day and age people should be educated enough about history to recognize these ploys and know what they mean..Unfortunately (particuarly in the US) the majority aren't.
....I tip my hat to you sir; as an ISR joke on Slashdot at this point is risky....but it worked.
Yes, I would like future copies of Byte as well......When the wish fairy that brings us modern day equivalents of classic awesome magazines comes by, I would like:
1. A modern day equivalent of Mondo 2000 (because it so ISN'T Wired).
2. A modern day equivalent of Omni
It wasn't just the content of those magazine, it was the spirit and openness behind them....
As a couple of posts have mentioned, "Make" is pretty awesome, it has the right some of spirit behind it.
Well, as they say: "you don't beat the polygraph - you beat the polygraph examiner.
As others have also pointed out on this thread, the higher the stakes, the more likely you are to have autonomic responses.
I think if you practice with a machine, you can probably pull it off, but it's going to be harder with someone who REALLY understands how to use one....
One thing that does help in almost all circumstances (as I understand it) is a dose of Benzodiazepines.
How about "The Truth About the NSA - According to the Polygraph."
It would be a much better article.
Unsecured wireless isn't illegal in most places and shouldn't be.
I'm aware of all of the potential issues, but the implications of government control; being forced to secure something if you don't wish to - are far worse.