I bet the good conduct medal really pisses 'em off. Hell, if ya gotta couple of pizza boxes on your chest some of us know that you got 'em just for being able to shoot straight but we appreciate that. It's not like every medal is the Medal of Honor. (One pizza box is bigger than the other one.) Of course, those pizza boxes are really badges but I suspect that the person complaining doesn't actually know the difference.
Yeah though I was thinking without the need for special hardware - something already on the market that might be re-purposed. A poster, below your comment, did show some Java done on the hardware level. I think, for the sake of this silliness, we'd be able to include the firmware as hardware. I gotta get food into me - coffee will be soon, but I might actually meander around the 'net for a few hours and see what I find. There's a lot of crazy people out there - someone might have done something like this already. Or at least something close enough - that'll keep me amused for a few hours.
Ha! That's crazy talk! People insane enough to act on it. I think I'm going to have to look into this - thanks!
Wait, no. Those are Java. Close enough though. They're interesting - I'll have to look around when I get some coffee and food into me. Thanks - they're still interesting.
Whilst there's probably lots to learn, I don't think you'll find that this is an area to learn a whole lot. Basically, it's TV, movies, books, and things like that. It's not subversive or probably not even banned material. It's just stuff that is either expensive or difficult to acquire - at least that's my understanding. There doesn't actually appear to be much of an underground to overthrow the regime or anything. It's what you'd torrent if you wanted off-line entertainment. Low-res video, books, and music. Maybe even some pop music.
If that's the kind of thing you were thinking of then, perhaps, the old Soviet Bloc countries or even WWII France might be a good place to look. Unless you're concerned with a government crackdown on soap operas, flamenco music, and the latest Spanish translations of James Patterson then I'm not sure there's anything there to learn - in this particular area. The people seem legitimately happy and fully aware that they're not in an ideal situation but content that they're not in the worst place.
Seriously, if you ever get the chance to visit - jump at the offer. There really doesn't seem to be much of an undercurrent of dissent or anything. They laugh, drink, play, and sing - not just for tourists. It's not ideal but it's still better (from what I can tell) than it was under Batista and many of them remember those days as well as know the rhetoric pushed out by the party which seems, for the most part, fairly accurate - if a bit biased.
If you're looking to hide from an oppressive government then people were building their own computers, by hand, out of parts in Soviet Bloc countries and had all sorts of ways to smuggle information in and out from behind the Iron Curtain. During the occupation of France they used women (often the best looking ones) to transfer firearms, explosives, documents, and things like that - they also used very young children, typically under the age of 12 but sometimes much younger. One memorable young chap springs to mind but his name is caught in the cobwebs of my brain, he carried firearms in a violin case and once mapped a bookstore out so that his older brother could plant a book bomb in it.
It seems that most of the people who don't want to be in Cuba aren't actually in Cuba any more. They live in Florida or Mexico. The folks who are left seem to not mind it too much. I'm not really sure what more to add but, from my experiences, you seem to be thinking of it a little off, it's movies and music and books for the vast majority of stuff, as far as I know. I believe it's technically illegal but nobody cares. That's why I'd have been able to bring thumb drives in unless I tried to bring in a whole bunch of 'em. If it was something they wanted to crack down on, they'd just take them when you get off the plane and put you into a Cuban jail.
Ah thanks for sharing. I've been to a half-dozen or so of the islands there. Every one of my trips (three total) was for pleasure - seeking out historical places and enjoying the area. I have no idea how they're that low on the list. Well, no. I guess I can probably guess it. There were some violent areas, as I recall. I also recall hearing that there were some islands with a whole lot of firearms? As in, pretty much any firearm type you can imagine is available but, oddly, a whole bunch of them are made in the Philippines.
Overall, and with just my limited experience, the Philippines wasn't bad at all. I had an enjoyable time and met a bunch of good people. A friend of mine, in the US Navy, was stationed there way back when and is married to a native. They live there and one my sojourns was to visit him. I'm guessing that I've just never seen the worst sections - though people were certainly not wealthy, they weren't violent or anything. I have no idea how that would end up being rated as low as it is. Several of the countries, listed as better, certainly seem like much worse place - I know, because I've been to some of them and they were much worse than the Philippines.
Ah well... I guess that confirms that I probably shouldn't put a whole lot of stock in that list. I could see myself living in the Philippines except I hate the heat. I'm also not too fond of rain. Otherwise, it's a nice place.
The freedom of choice. That choice might only be the freedom to decide who does the screwing but at least there's a chance and at least there's a choice.
All-in-all, I'd say that's a pretty big advantage. You, on the other hand, might have different values but I'm not terribly scared to make choices and accept responsibility for those choices where and when I can. It may sound strange to you but I'm old and have probably at least thought out the same thoughts you're thinking right now. I value the chance to choose to fail. I value the risks and rewards. I know that there are risks inherent in freedoms and in liberties. I accept those risks and I'd rather not have my freedom curtailed nor my liberties restricted because of other people's cowardice.
I'd say freedom of choice is a noble goal - with, of course, reasonable restrictions on what one is at liberty to do - for I am not an extremist. If you're gonna get fucked then you might as well pick the cutest of the bunch. If you're nice enough, they might even give you a reach-around. Either way, even if you fail, it's nice to have a fighting chance.
I'd also say that if you want to move to Cuba that they'd let you but, alas, they don't want you. They've got enough mouths to feed already. Pretty much everyone that did that whole take a plane hostage and get a free trip to Cuba thing ended up leaving Cuba and Cuba didn't want them anyhow. It's kind of funny how that works.
At any rate, the answer to your question is choice. If you need help with the reasoning then just ask and I'm sure someone will try to help you to understand it. If you get out of the house, get some sunshine, and travel a little? You'll find out that you have it quite nice when you compare it to other areas. That doesn't mean it's perfect but it does mean it's quite nice, really.
So, cheer up buttercup and stop pissing in your knickers. You look silly and your ruining the floor. Make some good choices and things will turn out okay. No, they won't be perfect but they'll be okay. Considering that you have electricity, food, water, safe housing, internet, a device to connect to the internet, and are at least moderately literate - you're already doing a hell of a lot better than a whole shitload of people. If you stop leaving a puddle of piss everywhere you go, you just might find things aren't that bad and could be so very much worse.
This might sound crazy and I'm not fluent enough (nor articulate enough) but with the SoC type things going on today... It might be possible to do that on bare metal now that I think about it. It seems that one could, with work, load an interpreter onto the hardware itself?
I'm probably missing something and, it should be noted, that this is probably insane. In theory, however, it seems to me that one could put a Perl interpreter on the chip itself today. I imagine emulating such in a VM would be easier but it might be possible to put something like that onto a chip and actually go straight to bare metal.
Alas, I'm in Florida for the winter. They frown, very heavily, on marijuana so I don't have any here. That means I'm not nearly stoned enough to go start digging into documentation and doing research on how difficult it would be to get a VM up that interpreted Perl or, worse, trying to get it onto a chip directly and without anything under it. Oddly, I did have someone offer me some LSD the other day.:/ I doubt that'd help much.
That makes sense to me. I've never seen (and I've read a few and paid attention to a few - but it's not like I'm an expert, scholar, or lawyer) anyone actually argue it like I present it in the thread. It seems so simple to me - especially considering the many other things, things I might consider frivolous where they conclude that the plaintiff was harmed. Hell, they've found for damages with things like libel and slander. Are the judges aware what can be done with information? Especially information in aggregate....
I know, I know... I'm preaching to the choir.;-)
Still, it's damned frustrating. I kinda vented about the OPM hack in this thread already so I'm too frustrated to get into it again.
The more I think about it, the more I think they don't want to. As I understand it, they are able to push most fraudulent charges onto the merchant. I also understand that the SSN was never, ever, meant to be something confidential or used as something confidential. I'm not sure how it ended up that way? Perhaps someone has some insight...
So, I'm inclined to agree with you based on the things that I believe to be true. It might add some cost to them but, frankly, there should be a better way. Heh, later in this thread - I mention some of the things that can happen if you steal my ID. It's not exactly hard to fake a social security card and a birth certificate. Back home, I have an official seal and gold foil to use with the seal. I think it cost me about $50 for the kit. (I'm a Notary Public - it's a long story but some friends wanted me to marry them and I wanted to make sure everything was done properly.)
It didn't take one shard of evidence to get the official stamp. You can EASILY get a birth certificate to copy. Social Security cards haven't changed in years. I don't even know how to use GIMP worth a damn and I bet I can bang that out in a couple of hours. I've even got appropriate paper qualities to print on.
So, yes. I concur... There really should be some method of authentication and, for once, that damned method should be kept safe. Err... I feel a rant coming on so I'm gonna stop now. Yes, I'm going to stop while I'm ahead and just go bug the missus for a while. Well, after I check one more post.:/
What an odd list. Singapore is quite high and Iceland and Canada are below the US. I didn't look at the order of all of them but those jumped off the page at me. I've been to Iceland twice and am a dual-citizen so I go to Canada frequently. I've never been to Singapore but I understand they do stuff like cane people and have some rather insane drug laws. I'm not really sure what to make of it...
The only conclusion I did come to is that, by whatever metrics they use, you almost certainly live in a hellhole. I take it that moving is not an option for whatever reason? You don't need to disclose it but I am now curious as to where you live. I've been to a number of the countries that are rated rather poorly and many of them don't have a whole lot in the way of infrastructure or compute devices outside of the urban areas. Even in those areas, such isn't always available or even all that consistent/affordable.
The last time I was in Rwanda, in Kigali to be exact, is a good example - as near as I could tell, only the more wealthy areas had home use of the 'net at all, it wasn't always on, they had sporadic access (at great expense) at hotels, and I saw a few cafes but I don't know if they had internet - but they did have computers and said they had internet but it wasn't on very often. This was probably about six years ago so I suppose things may have changed.
Here's the kicker - outside of Kigali there wasn't *any* access at all, for the most part AND Kigali (the capital) has enough access (as poor as it was) to be considered #1 in broadband download speeds! (I'm not sure if that metric still holds true or if I'm recalling it exactly right.) I'm not sure where to check to find it. At any rate, the whole country had almost no access at all, there was very little in the city itself - and it was sporadic as all hell, and they're the *best* in all of Africa...
Ha! Wikipedia tells me:
Rwanda ranked in first place in Africa for broadband download speeds and 62nd globally with a speed of 7.88 Mbit/s in February 2013.[1]
In a country with fewer than 1000 TV sets though I think they had more than that when I was there - that stat seems to be from 1997.
At any rate, something like 8% of the people have connectivity (now - less when I was there, surely) and that connectivity probably didn't even have a 75% uptime while I was there. Hell, I bet it was less than 50% of the time. And they're the best in Africa. Well, as far as download speeds. Though, it should be noted, Rwanda is something like 25th from the bottom.
By the way, I use Rwanda as an example. It is literally the worst place I have ever been - parts of it are beautiful though. The place is so bad that, somehow, the US State Department made a special effort to contact me, by phone, to tell me that going there was a really stupid thing to do and that they'd not be able to help me if something happened. Not only would they not be able to help me but that they'd make absolutely no effort to help me.
I forget the name of the form they wanted to send me but they wanted me to read it, fill it out, and send it back. The gentleman on the other end of the phone used expletives to tell me how bad the place was and how stupid I was for going there, that I'd end up causing some sort of international diplomatic incident, and all sorts of other things.
Incidentally, I was fine. I had nary an issue and was able to travel outside of Kigali fairly easily. They use convoys and I had a guide who was familiar with all the happenings. There were three trucks in our convoy and maybe 20 people. Most of them had firearms but nobody needed any. I have no idea how to spell it but it tasted like honey and was pronounced something like oobookee (with a kind of harsher/stronger "k" in it) that was supposed to keep me safe. I drank far too much of it as it's a very sweet drink. I'm not finding anything with that spelling via Google. It was delightful but the hangover is powerful - which was cause to drin
I've pondered a part of that problem in the past. How about an agreement, it needn't even be formal at first, that they can use your software free of charge and then, should they use it and make a profit, they can/must/should pay you a percentage of that profit either in perpetuity, a single payment, at varied intervals, only when they make profits, or things of that nature.
Something that's not quite the same as software that's free for home use only, free for scholastic use, stuff that must be paid for in advance for a for-profit business, etc... There's room for a number of different licensing terms in there. Something like:
You can use this software for as long as you like, for free, until you use it to enable you to make a profit. After you've made a profit you can pay x% of that profit, pay a one time license fee, pay for past usage, pay for a continued license, or things of that nature.
It would, of course, be very hard to enforce but it might mean that people, who wouldn't be inclined to pay, would pay. You could even just ask them to set their own percentage - how much did you feel it helped? Then, have them subtract all their expenses and just pay a portion of the profits. They can do it monthly, yearly, bi-yearly, or whatever. It's not quite freeware, it's not quite shareware, it's not quite pay-ware. It can be adjusted in so very many ways and tailored to suit different markets, products, or end-goals while still affording the developer the chance to get their product entrenched in growing markets.
Yes, it's subject to being abused but if it would otherwise just be pirated and this offers them a chance to legitimately pay for something but only after they've made money...
I think a few of us had a sort of long discussion about this in the past. I'm not sure if it was on this site or another one but I think it was here.:/ This was probably about five years ago, however. My memory is not that good. Ah well, 'tis an idea if you want it. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it - it might be viable. Meh, it's worth looking into and expanding on it, I suppose.
As a trivial aside: What makes you think that people are taking advantage of people who do the jobs that you named? I have a housekeeper who works maybe 20 hours a week (sometimes a bit more) and gets paid a salary no matter how many hours she works or doesn't work. I had to force a raise on her because I realized I'd not given her one in a long time.
As a guess (and statistically I stand a good chance of being correct), she makes more money per hour than you do with her salary alone. When you add the benefits (like a car, gas card, and a variety of other things gifted to her) it's a near certainty that she makes more than you do on an hourly basis. If I use the US median income - she's statistically likely to make more than you do, both per hour and in total, even without enumerating the benefits.
Given that you're here and, I presume, in the tech industry - she may not make as much as you do overall or by the hour. Statistically, it's likely that she does as an overall average but your presence here indicates that you may make more than average. More importantly, she works maybe 20 hours a week and is here, with me, on an all-expenses paid quasi-vacation along with her husband. They both have been here since before the holidays - three Slashdotters met them over the New Years Eve celebrations.
How the fuck am I taking advantage of this person? She works half the time and exceeds the average income in her area - by a good margin. (The exact number isn't terribly important, suffice to say - I'm not a cheap prick.)
Seriously, WTF? Taking advantage of them? Do you know what good domestic help makes in some areas? This doesn't mean abuses don't happen but that that's a big fucking fat-ass brush you're painting with. Seriously?
Also, your heritage tax is laughable. That's another topic for another day. No, you don't get my shit when I die. That's why you form a limited liability corporation or a trust. Good luck taking away the assets of a business when a member of that business dies. Nobody pays that shit and there's fuck all you can do about it. I seriously hope you posted that while you were drunk.
I pay a nice old lady a very handsome wage for some rather minimal work and I'm taking advantage of her... Really? She'd be bored, unemployed, and puttering around in her kitchen all day otherwise.
She's "as pleased as punch" to work for me and she and her husband weren't a whole lot more than subsistence farmers before I moved to Maine. Hell, when we get back to Maine, I'll be buying their property (at a more than fair price) and they can live there until they pass away. I've already got it set up so that the couple that have also been living there and helping out will be able to remain there - in perpetuity, while keeping all profits, for the low cost of just maintaining the farm and the lady from that couple will be my new housekeeper.
On top of that, she knows she can retire at any time and that she'll still keep getting paid because, ya know, not everyone has the moral values that you'd have if you were in their shoes. You're projecting what you'd do if you were in that situation - oddly enough, not everyone is an asshole. (I am an asshole, just not to people I like or people that I want to be liked by -- and it's not a good idea to piss off the person who's cooking you a few meals a week.) Her replacement will get the same level of treatment and her husband will get the same level of treatment that this one gets.
In other words, I've got lots of land that needs tending, trees needing to be cut, logs that need to be felled to go off to the yard a few times a year, things that need to be fixed up, farm products that I want, a garden I need tended, and plenty of things to keep them busy even though, really, they could live just fine off her salary alone.
And no, I'm not an exception to the rule. No, I am not extraordinary. No, it's not oh so much worse everywhere else. How do I know? I get out of the fucking basement, talk to people, and know people from a
Hmm... What makes you think that such doesn't exist in the "free" world? I still regularly exchange data via sneakernet. I'm not even home and I'm exchanging data via sneakernet. I have not just one but several friends who have both access to storage on my network (via the net) but also have access to another physical structure on my property.
Once a month, or more frequently if needed, they'll go grab drives and physically transport them. Not only that, they grab my drives - I'm currently using my home network to send this message and am connected to a whole network (with attached storage) back home. Backups automatically get pushed to several locations and physical separations are made for disparate location assurance planning.
Seeing as they're already going there, if I find something interesting then I'll save it to just a little thumb drive that is sitting in a desktop computer's port and send them an email suggesting that they grab it and put a new one in. They know where the key is and they know the alarm codes so I obviously trust them. It works out pretty well and I don't end up making the site for some project pay for more bandwidth than is necessary if they're large files. Sometimes it's just something I created, wrote up, or whatnot.
Sneakernet isn't dead just because you don't use it. I certainly am not a member of the only group of people who do this. I've read about USB dead-drops and things of that nature. They're also built in to some buildings in some cities - you just meander up, plug in a cord, and leave or grab files. I've never encountered one, I have no need for such, but I've read about them. I'm sure Google will help you out if you're interested.
I don't actually have anything that I am hiding but it's actually easier and it makes for a good, disparate, off-site backup plan. I've got a dozen 6 TB external drives and we just keep rotating them. They have their own drives and they even have space on my hardware to do backups over the 'net. It's the best of both worlds and it works so well that I don't even have to be physically anywhere near my house in Maine for it to work. I've been doing this for years and had other ways of doing similar things before this. Hell, I still buy and hand out files on optical media if it's meant to be permanent. However, I prefer to just use USB keys - they're much simpler.
Hell, I am so certain that I'm not unique in these regards that I'm quite willing to bet that others of us use sneakernet still. Shit, I guarantee it - some of the ideas that we use are ideas given to me by people from this site. It's not like I thought this up on my own. Quite a few of us are passing around thumb drives, optical disks, external drives, or even just hard drives ripped from the case 'cause we don't even bother putting the case cover back on.
Nah, I can't think of a downside. It is not ideal but it's better than nothing. I've been to Cuba twice and might actually go again in the near future. When I was there last, I was a bit more comfortable and even met some of the folks that I'd met the first time. I'm mostly fluent in Spanish but it's a little different in Cuba and the dialect isn't something I'm entirely familiar with - there are a few localizations that I'm unfamiliar with, for example.
At any rate, that - the being mostly able to communicate, or make a good effort to do so, seems to be a good way to really get to have people treat you as more than a tourist. Before leaving the last time, I asked what sort of things they might like me to bring if I came back - things that might not land me in a Cuban prison, for example. One of the things they asked for was USB keys but not like I was thinking. They didn't seem to want the large ones - like 32 GB or anything. They'd rather have 32 of the 1 GB drives than one large one.
I've not yet been back. They're dirt cheap now and things are a little different now. I understand that I can fly straight there and I'm already down here in Florida. The last time, I flew over from Mexico and I flew from Canada the first time. Should I go back, I'll bring a whole stack of 'em as I'm quite positive they're still using the process, even though it has been a while. The last time I went, I was told that I'd have 'net access in my hotel - I was sorely disappointed and I had no net access with my cell phone.
I was also told that I shouldn't try to bring a whole lot in with me. They'd overlook a small number of them but probably not a whole lot of them. I'm guessing that it's a bit more slack now and I imagine they'd just take them from me now. The missus has never been so it'd be an interesting trip to go back, though I still need to get her a passport. I can order a whole huge lot of 'em from Amazon or something - I can probably find some company to sell me case of 'em at near wholesale prices if I really want.
Also, I did not read the article. I'm assuming that this is what they're referencing. When I was there it was technically illegal (or so I understand) but fairly well known and in the open. They had books, movies, and music on them - they rented them out for a fairly small fee and updated them on a regular basis and just kept them in rotation. (At least I think the fee was pretty small?) So, if this is not what they're referencing now you know why. I did not read the article. The summary says "portable drives" but they were just little thumb drives when I was there.
As an aside: I'd wiped my computer and only had a fairly basic install that I brought in with me during my last visit. So, I had nothing to share really else I'd have offered to help them out. I did have a few movies on DVD with me and I might have mistakenly left those in the hotel room when I left. Oops! I sure am forgetful. It's a really nice country to visit. The people are pretty decent and friendly. They know where they live and that they're in what people consider to be a repressive regime but, for the most part, they seem to just accept it because it kinda works.
They're not locked down like North Korea or anything and some of them speak English well enough. However, it has been my experience that you get a lot better interaction if you at least try to speak the language - even if they speak your language. Learn enough to order a beer, get to the bathroom, exchange greetings, and whatnot. "Mi neccito una cervasa por favor y gracias." (No, I speak it well enough - no, I can't spell it worth a damn so that's probably wrong.) Then to ask where the bathroom is: "La cantidad para la nina, por favor?" It's customary to throw some change on the counter when asking that last question. (I'm assuming the spelling is right. You might really, really not want to follow that last bit of advice.)
Well, did they damage the vault in the process of breaking in? Not that has one iota of bearing on the case at hand (necessarily) but they could be found liable in a civil court. It'd be a bit interesting if they didn't have enough to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the person had committed the offense but were able to prove that the defendant had, more likely than not, committed the offense and thus be liable for civil damages. Something akin to the OJ event.
But, and this is related, if they'd broken into the vault and the bank had needed to close or lost business because of that action then they might be liable. That, kinda sorta, is related but it's really a horrible analogy on their part. So, if the bank could show harm (closing, loss of business, needing to replace the security system) even though no physical harm might have been done - they may, in fact, be able to demonstrate that they have standing. Harm doesn't always need to be something physically tangible - see cases of libel for examples where tangible evidence of harm doesn't always need to be presented. There are also things like mental anguish affirmative findings, so - it seems that it needn't always be tangible.
In fact, that's kind of why I am surprised that these cases keep turning out this way. Then again, from what I've read, nobody has presented it quite like that. I touched on that in a prior post - in this thread, and it doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult to argue that they have standing, that there was harm (even if it is minor), and that they deserve to have an opportunity to put their case in front of a jury.
This doesn't mean that I think a victim should be awarded huge sums of money or anything like that. I just think it'd be good to get it in front of a jury and, hopefully, set a precedent. If the victim had to make even one phone call that they'd not normally make - there is harm. It's trivial, minimal, and not worth a whole lot but it is still harm. Setting precedent may make companies that wish to retain data think twice about it or, if they must, protect it better.
To try to put this back into the analogy, just the bank needing to run an ad campaign, put a sign in the window, spend more time reassuring clients, or things of that nature - they're actually harm. Probably not worth a significant amount but they're still harm. As such, they should be allowed to put their case in front of a jury of their peers.
I was doxxed about eight years ago (before it had a name, really). I've kept the 'do not issue credit' flag enabled at the reporting bureaus ever since. It's pretty good protection but a pain in the ass if I did want credit for something - and I do actually have a few credit cards for the benefits they give me but it's a hassle to get the information, make the calls, specify the lender, and enable them to run a check. Usually, I just use a debit card on a separate account and push money into that separate account as needed.
However, I'd my mail sent down to me over the holidays and inside was a fairly nondescript envelope (the standard tear open at the perforations type) that informed me that my data was, indeed, part of the OPM hack. (Thanks to another Slashdotter who was kind enough to clue me in on what to look for, it was eventually found though it looked like one of those fake things that tells you that you might win a car - sans fake key in the envelope.) Now, my credit is locked down and all so credit monitoring is of absolutely no benefit to me and I've no other way to ensure my information isn't being misused somewhere else.
Give me a couple of hours and I can figure out GIMP well enough to make a birth certificate and SSN. How the hell do I know that I'm not out somewhere getting speeding tickets in areas I've never even visited? In many areas they don't even do credit checks to hook up utilities. There are still lending agencies who will ignore the credit ratings/do not issue flags and give you a credit card - it might be prepaid at first but they'll go ahead and increase it after a while.
That doesn't even remotely cover some of the worst things a creative person could think of now that they've got all that information compiled. I am less than impressed. I'm also fairly helpless and have little/no recourse. For all I know, I'm smuggling drugs across the border into AZ right now or poteen out of Canada! Worse, I could be in Vermont and getting ready for sap season and planning on smuggling VT maple syrup into Canada to mix in with the local syrup as part of the VT Maple Syrup Cartel! You can go to prison for that sort of stuff!
Do you have any idea what they do to people who tamper with maple syrup in Canada? They'd probably make me root for the Edmonton Oilers and go curling! Worse, I don't even speak French and I prefer Maine's maple syrup! I'd be caught up in the web of deceit known as the Golden Syrup Triangle and not even have managed to get any pancakes out of the deal. They might even force me to use that "pancake syrup" that comes in a bottle shaped like an old woman. No, I don't think I could live like that - and all because OPM failed to keep my data secure or, you know, delete it because they didn't need it some 15 years later.
Hmm... Has anyone tried asserting that the loss of personally identifiable data (or even financial data) are, in fact, enough to be harmful in and of themselves? Add to that the loss of financial information - even if no direct financial harm has come, is both stressful and a loss of privacy as well as requiring one to take action - and, it seems to me, there's a good, viable, justification for standing.
The demonstrable harm would be, in those case, the concern, the loss of data, and the need to take action as well as remain vigilant. They are actual, viable, impacts and are certainly not absolved away by saying that there is no standing. Yet, strangely, in all the cases that I've looked at - nobody seems to have really argued this. Those are truly demonstrable harm. If they had to change one password, cancel one credit card, or even worry in the slightest then they have been harmed.
I'd also like to think the credit issuers would have cause. Even better, it's a civil matter so the burden of proof is much lower (things like jurisprudence and preponderance of evidence) so I'd think that harm could be shown and a finding for the plaintiff fairly easy to come by. Yet, strangely, I have read a few (not this particular case) and nobody has seemed to argue this. Even just the slightest of action, just one extra step, just one worry - is harm...
Two things...
I'm not normally sue-happy and think many civil cases end up being just plain silly but this matter has been going on for a while and there haven't been many meaningful repercussions handed down. Setting precedent might be nice - I'm not suggesting that the defendants should owe hundreds of millions of dollars because someone had to lock their credit down.
I am not, by any means, a lawyer but I have spent some time in court, read a bunch of findings, briefings, etc, and try to spend some time just going to the courts and observing them because I feel that such is my duty. The courts are our easiest to access branch of the government if we want to make changes. I observe the courts, as I feel it is my duty, and if I find a problem then I use my freedom of speech/press to make others aware of this problem (perhaps like this post) and firmly believe that this is a part of the social contract that we citizens have failed to uphold.
As Wootery says below my post - is this how it *should* be? As near as I can tell, there was harm. It may be minimal harm but that's for a jury to decide. They should have standing and they should be allowed their day in court. I think this can be appealed (the finding of no demonstrable harm) and a higher court might decide they have demonstrated harm and thus have standing and chuck it back down for them to actually put it in front of a jury.
Someone has to set precedent so that when really bad things do happen there is recourse for the victims. I have a notice that says my data was, indeed, in the OPM hack. I have a lawyer on retainer. I should have him look into it - it might be kind of fun, I could even present it myself with, of course, council to assist. Unfortunately, I've a very busy year coming up. Still... Someone's gotta try making a reasonable argument to the judges and, from what I've seen, they're not really giving the judge reason to believe there's harm. I'd argue that differently or, more accurately, ask a lawyer and see if it's a viable option to argue it differently.
Thoughts? There are a couple of lawdogs here. raymoris perhaps?
LOL Pretty much. I saw the first three (only now they're not the first three) and made it through most of the first one of the new ones (which would be the fourth one but is now the new first one - I think) and then made it part way into the second one before giving up. I've never seen the end of the first one nor the last 3/4 of the second one (which are fourth and fifth respectively).
I just couldn't get into them. Then again, I was kind of old when the first few came out so they've never been a huge attraction to me. I like some science in my science fiction and I don't think Star Wars qualifies as science fiction. Yes, I'm aware that such beliefs make me the spawn of Satan. I accept the label. I don't hate them but they're just not that important to me and I really just couldn't get into the prequels even though I bought the set on either DVD or Blu-Ray. (No, I have no idea which ones I bought.)
I mostly only watch documentaries or read books - if I'm not reading something online. I've never really been into television much - we didn't have it on much when I was growing up. Sometime in the mid or late 1980s they changed the format and there started being so many commercials that I simply stopped viewing entirely. I don't have anything against it - I have cable in the house here where I am until spring. (I did not know this and I have no idea how long I've been paying for this.)
I'm not one of the folks that hates TV. I just don't watch it enough to worry about it. I don't even have OTA hooked up and I took the satellite dish down years ago back home - I'd only had it turned on for a year or so and it wasn't getting used. I've gone from being a "freak" to a "hipster" to a "cord-cutter" and now I'm the "new normal." All because I don't really watch television.
In some regards, the 'net has been awesome for me. I've vast stores of documentaries at Hulu+ and Netflix. I've countless documentaries at YouTube. I'm not bashful, I'll even go pirate some if I am interested and can't find it available legally. I do, on occasion, watch regular movies but not that often. It probably sounds odd to some but I'm really entertained with documentaries. I don't watch them as a scholarly pursuit, just as passive entertainment.
Also, I'd not really call Coal House a documentary? It's a bit of a re-enactment or it might get classified as a reality television show except there aren't any real games and nobody is getting kicked out or any of those things. It's a bit like a historical recreation but less technical. I really think you might enjoy it and the Farms series that are in that same playlist. I'd guess you'd find both the Edwardian Farm and Wartime Farm to be of interest but they're all *very* good. Quite surprisingly so as that's just not my cup of tea normally.
Ah well, I've babbled long enough.;-) Give the Coal House a try. I think you'll really like it. I still find it a bit odd that I do but it's surprisingly good.
I'll be sure to keep a look-out. I'm not usually overly fond of the "what if" things but he had some good thinking and there's the other program which was the Brits and their hotel with the POWs - a series as I recall. I'll do my best to dig it out but it's going to mean a bit of a sitting to dig through my history at YouTube. See, I leave myself logged in, and yes I know they track me, so that they can keep track of what I watched. I don't mind it too much because I'm able to completely block their scripting and cookies at other sites - I have found the history functionality to be handy.
As an aside: I wish it would allow a 'search my viewing history' function. That would make things so much easier and I'd be able to pull the name of at least one of those documentaries up for you pretty quickly.
I'm a fairly good judge of character, normally, so I think I have something that you might enjoy.
Now, there are several very nice things in there. Two of which I just discovered yesterday, the others I'm familiar with and have watched them all, at least once, already. Two of them are very interesting - surprisingly so.
That link takes you to some guy's playlist. It has a strange name but that's immaterial. There's a few in there that you might like - there's an Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm, Wartime Farm, Manor Farm (I think), and some others - those are all well and good and you might really enjoy them. However, there are two hidden gems in there.
One is called Coal House and then there's a second one in the series (short episodes) called Coal House at War. I'm not yet done with the second series, having just discovered it a short while ago, and this is *not* my typical viewing. I prefer "drier" documentaries with hard facts, hard science, detailed histories, etc... Yet, this is strangely interesting and I was able to draw a few parallels that sort of made me think of other things. I don't want to suggest how you interpret it so I'll skip that but it's interesting - far more interesting than I'd have expected.
I was familiar with the Farm series and had really enjoyed those. That was actually how I ended up bumping into the Coal House series. They're a bit dated, 2007 and 2008 respectively, but still nicely done. The first Coal House starts at 58 in the playlist and the second one is immediately after. I may be wrong and you may not enjoy it. However, it seems like something that might be of mild interest to you - based on previous comments.
Hmm... You might be right. I was actually pondering it after I typed and sent it. It *might* be possible to not do it entirely in Perl, of course. Basically bootstrap something that's a decent interpreter (CGI perhaps - common gateway interface perhaps?) where, a more accurate statement would be, that the shell is in Perl so the userland is generated by Perl.
Keep in mind, this is absolutely something that shouldn't ever be attempted - but I'd install it in a VM if someone tried it. Why? Well, it's not like I've anything more interesting to do than that. It'd be quite interesting, I should think. However, I should think a userland generated in Perl might be possible though there's going to need to be something under it - unless someone's figured out how to compile it. I can't say that I've ever seen compiled Perl but I should also add that I never really looked and am not a guru.
Thanks! I'll take that to heart. I am, technically, a programmer. However, I did so (usually in C though I did some BASIC and QBASIC and Perl, PHP, JavaScript) out of necessity. I'm actually mostly a maths geek who was into modeling traffic years and years ago but I've long since sold my company and retired. So, I learned to program because I had to but eventually hired competent people who actually knew what they were doing. Eventually, we had a project where we converted the code base to C++ and I am, for the most part, unfamiliar with the language.
I've not really coded much of anything since - I've been pretty lazy. Sure, some PHP and maybe a bit of Perl and hacking someone's JavaScript to do what I wanted. Nothing major, nothing of any importance. Technically, there's still some of my Perl out there, running very insecurely and being horribly abused to this very day. (Not of my own but a "safelist" script that I authored for a friend who was into selling things to the MLM folk and not really into MLM himself.)
My goal is... Well... I don't have an actual project that needs doing. I don't have a damned thing that I want to program - maybe a few to tweak a little but nothing to write so much. I figure I'll learn some code and toss in some patches after I get more fluent in the languages. I'm not a zealot but I do prefer to just give anything that I write away. I don't need money but I don't want my brain to turn to mush. I was 50 when I retired, I'm 58 now, and I can honestly say that I seriously can sense my brain being less active/functional. I do not like that feeling which is why I'll be working on Python first, over the winter, and C++ second.
I may actually throw some Java into the mix. From what I've seen, it's really mostly people who don't seem to use it well that don't like it. I don't know as I'm qualified to say that, however. It's just an observation and having read *a lot* of comments and various blog posts, etc... There seems to be quite an ecosystem for Java and, from the outside looking in, it's a bit daunting as it's seemingly easy to go down the wrong road and have to backtrack. I don't want to get locked into a framework only to find out that I'd have been more able to understand the actual functionality by using a different framework or even having taken the time to author it myself.
I'm not so very articulate so, well, hopefully that makes sense.
The strange thing is, I'm not really a good programmer or anything - in fact, I diligently read comments here and do research as I prepare to dip my feet back into it as I try to stop my brain from turning into oatmeal. I read his post twice, looked up, saw the moderation, and was happy - because I was awfully confused. Then, I scrolled down... I think he was serious?
At any rate, if you all are to be believed, the Java (not to be mistaken for JavaScript) is wonderful, fast, slow, garbage, the cause for all the good in the world, and for all the evil. About the only consensus that I've noticed (which I'm inclined to agree with) is that Java applets (again, not to be confused with JavaScript) were an abomination and the few that are still in use are just because the management (not the programmers) are idiots.
That said, trying to figure out which languages to start back up with by listening to you guys is rather futile. Combined, you hate and love just about every language out there - and some of you love to hate some and others hate to love some. You're not exactly helpful with this one. As I already know a bit of C, PHP, Perl, and can figure out some JavaScript - I've decided on Python and C++. I'm quite positive that some folks will happily think I've chosen poorly and others will think it wise. In my defense, at least it's not Java.
You have a strange definition of lost. We tore apart the military, got their citizens to hang Saddam, and still have their oil. We enriched a whole ton of American businesses and advanced our Brown People Killing Technology. I'd say we won! Then again, I also like to argue that we won Vietnam and that people are just looking at it wrong. I might not be a good judge. I am, however, pragmatic.
Two of my favorite artists did an album together. It was so horrible that I've only listened to it twice. It truly has absolutely no redeeming qualities - none. Dylan and the Dead. They might want to toss that up on the playlist. It is absolutely horrific and shouldn't ever have been released. I love 'em all but they are absolutely horrific when combined.
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I bet the good conduct medal really pisses 'em off. Hell, if ya gotta couple of pizza boxes on your chest some of us know that you got 'em just for being able to shoot straight but we appreciate that. It's not like every medal is the Medal of Honor. (One pizza box is bigger than the other one.) Of course, those pizza boxes are really badges but I suspect that the person complaining doesn't actually know the difference.
Yeah though I was thinking without the need for special hardware - something already on the market that might be re-purposed. A poster, below your comment, did show some Java done on the hardware level. I think, for the sake of this silliness, we'd be able to include the firmware as hardware. I gotta get food into me - coffee will be soon, but I might actually meander around the 'net for a few hours and see what I find. There's a lot of crazy people out there - someone might have done something like this already. Or at least something close enough - that'll keep me amused for a few hours.
Ha! That's crazy talk! People insane enough to act on it. I think I'm going to have to look into this - thanks!
Wait, no. Those are Java. Close enough though. They're interesting - I'll have to look around when I get some coffee and food into me. Thanks - they're still interesting.
Whilst there's probably lots to learn, I don't think you'll find that this is an area to learn a whole lot. Basically, it's TV, movies, books, and things like that. It's not subversive or probably not even banned material. It's just stuff that is either expensive or difficult to acquire - at least that's my understanding. There doesn't actually appear to be much of an underground to overthrow the regime or anything. It's what you'd torrent if you wanted off-line entertainment. Low-res video, books, and music. Maybe even some pop music.
If that's the kind of thing you were thinking of then, perhaps, the old Soviet Bloc countries or even WWII France might be a good place to look. Unless you're concerned with a government crackdown on soap operas, flamenco music, and the latest Spanish translations of James Patterson then I'm not sure there's anything there to learn - in this particular area. The people seem legitimately happy and fully aware that they're not in an ideal situation but content that they're not in the worst place.
Seriously, if you ever get the chance to visit - jump at the offer. There really doesn't seem to be much of an undercurrent of dissent or anything. They laugh, drink, play, and sing - not just for tourists. It's not ideal but it's still better (from what I can tell) than it was under Batista and many of them remember those days as well as know the rhetoric pushed out by the party which seems, for the most part, fairly accurate - if a bit biased.
If you're looking to hide from an oppressive government then people were building their own computers, by hand, out of parts in Soviet Bloc countries and had all sorts of ways to smuggle information in and out from behind the Iron Curtain. During the occupation of France they used women (often the best looking ones) to transfer firearms, explosives, documents, and things like that - they also used very young children, typically under the age of 12 but sometimes much younger. One memorable young chap springs to mind but his name is caught in the cobwebs of my brain, he carried firearms in a violin case and once mapped a bookstore out so that his older brother could plant a book bomb in it.
It seems that most of the people who don't want to be in Cuba aren't actually in Cuba any more. They live in Florida or Mexico. The folks who are left seem to not mind it too much. I'm not really sure what more to add but, from my experiences, you seem to be thinking of it a little off, it's movies and music and books for the vast majority of stuff, as far as I know. I believe it's technically illegal but nobody cares. That's why I'd have been able to bring thumb drives in unless I tried to bring in a whole bunch of 'em. If it was something they wanted to crack down on, they'd just take them when you get off the plane and put you into a Cuban jail.
Ah thanks for sharing. I've been to a half-dozen or so of the islands there. Every one of my trips (three total) was for pleasure - seeking out historical places and enjoying the area. I have no idea how they're that low on the list. Well, no. I guess I can probably guess it. There were some violent areas, as I recall. I also recall hearing that there were some islands with a whole lot of firearms? As in, pretty much any firearm type you can imagine is available but, oddly, a whole bunch of them are made in the Philippines.
Overall, and with just my limited experience, the Philippines wasn't bad at all. I had an enjoyable time and met a bunch of good people. A friend of mine, in the US Navy, was stationed there way back when and is married to a native. They live there and one my sojourns was to visit him. I'm guessing that I've just never seen the worst sections - though people were certainly not wealthy, they weren't violent or anything. I have no idea how that would end up being rated as low as it is. Several of the countries, listed as better, certainly seem like much worse place - I know, because I've been to some of them and they were much worse than the Philippines.
Ah well... I guess that confirms that I probably shouldn't put a whole lot of stock in that list. I could see myself living in the Philippines except I hate the heat. I'm also not too fond of rain. Otherwise, it's a nice place.
The freedom of choice. That choice might only be the freedom to decide who does the screwing but at least there's a chance and at least there's a choice.
All-in-all, I'd say that's a pretty big advantage. You, on the other hand, might have different values but I'm not terribly scared to make choices and accept responsibility for those choices where and when I can. It may sound strange to you but I'm old and have probably at least thought out the same thoughts you're thinking right now. I value the chance to choose to fail. I value the risks and rewards. I know that there are risks inherent in freedoms and in liberties. I accept those risks and I'd rather not have my freedom curtailed nor my liberties restricted because of other people's cowardice.
I'd say freedom of choice is a noble goal - with, of course, reasonable restrictions on what one is at liberty to do - for I am not an extremist. If you're gonna get fucked then you might as well pick the cutest of the bunch. If you're nice enough, they might even give you a reach-around. Either way, even if you fail, it's nice to have a fighting chance.
I'd also say that if you want to move to Cuba that they'd let you but, alas, they don't want you. They've got enough mouths to feed already. Pretty much everyone that did that whole take a plane hostage and get a free trip to Cuba thing ended up leaving Cuba and Cuba didn't want them anyhow. It's kind of funny how that works.
At any rate, the answer to your question is choice. If you need help with the reasoning then just ask and I'm sure someone will try to help you to understand it. If you get out of the house, get some sunshine, and travel a little? You'll find out that you have it quite nice when you compare it to other areas. That doesn't mean it's perfect but it does mean it's quite nice, really.
So, cheer up buttercup and stop pissing in your knickers. You look silly and your ruining the floor. Make some good choices and things will turn out okay. No, they won't be perfect but they'll be okay. Considering that you have electricity, food, water, safe housing, internet, a device to connect to the internet, and are at least moderately literate - you're already doing a hell of a lot better than a whole shitload of people. If you stop leaving a puddle of piss everywhere you go, you just might find things aren't that bad and could be so very much worse.
Hmm... The interpreter on the hardware...
This might sound crazy and I'm not fluent enough (nor articulate enough) but with the SoC type things going on today... It might be possible to do that on bare metal now that I think about it. It seems that one could, with work, load an interpreter onto the hardware itself?
I'm probably missing something and, it should be noted, that this is probably insane. In theory, however, it seems to me that one could put a Perl interpreter on the chip itself today. I imagine emulating such in a VM would be easier but it might be possible to put something like that onto a chip and actually go straight to bare metal.
Alas, I'm in Florida for the winter. They frown, very heavily, on marijuana so I don't have any here. That means I'm not nearly stoned enough to go start digging into documentation and doing research on how difficult it would be to get a VM up that interpreted Perl or, worse, trying to get it onto a chip directly and without anything under it. Oddly, I did have someone offer me some LSD the other day. :/ I doubt that'd help much.
That makes sense to me. I've never seen (and I've read a few and paid attention to a few - but it's not like I'm an expert, scholar, or lawyer) anyone actually argue it like I present it in the thread. It seems so simple to me - especially considering the many other things, things I might consider frivolous where they conclude that the plaintiff was harmed. Hell, they've found for damages with things like libel and slander. Are the judges aware what can be done with information? Especially information in aggregate....
I know, I know... I'm preaching to the choir. ;-)
Still, it's damned frustrating. I kinda vented about the OPM hack in this thread already so I'm too frustrated to get into it again.
The more I think about it, the more I think they don't want to. As I understand it, they are able to push most fraudulent charges onto the merchant. I also understand that the SSN was never, ever, meant to be something confidential or used as something confidential. I'm not sure how it ended up that way? Perhaps someone has some insight...
So, I'm inclined to agree with you based on the things that I believe to be true. It might add some cost to them but, frankly, there should be a better way. Heh, later in this thread - I mention some of the things that can happen if you steal my ID. It's not exactly hard to fake a social security card and a birth certificate. Back home, I have an official seal and gold foil to use with the seal. I think it cost me about $50 for the kit. (I'm a Notary Public - it's a long story but some friends wanted me to marry them and I wanted to make sure everything was done properly.)
It didn't take one shard of evidence to get the official stamp. You can EASILY get a birth certificate to copy. Social Security cards haven't changed in years. I don't even know how to use GIMP worth a damn and I bet I can bang that out in a couple of hours. I've even got appropriate paper qualities to print on.
So, yes. I concur... There really should be some method of authentication and, for once, that damned method should be kept safe. Err... I feel a rant coming on so I'm gonna stop now. Yes, I'm going to stop while I'm ahead and just go bug the missus for a while. Well, after I check one more post. :/
What an odd list. Singapore is quite high and Iceland and Canada are below the US. I didn't look at the order of all of them but those jumped off the page at me. I've been to Iceland twice and am a dual-citizen so I go to Canada frequently. I've never been to Singapore but I understand they do stuff like cane people and have some rather insane drug laws. I'm not really sure what to make of it...
The only conclusion I did come to is that, by whatever metrics they use, you almost certainly live in a hellhole. I take it that moving is not an option for whatever reason? You don't need to disclose it but I am now curious as to where you live. I've been to a number of the countries that are rated rather poorly and many of them don't have a whole lot in the way of infrastructure or compute devices outside of the urban areas. Even in those areas, such isn't always available or even all that consistent/affordable.
The last time I was in Rwanda, in Kigali to be exact, is a good example - as near as I could tell, only the more wealthy areas had home use of the 'net at all, it wasn't always on, they had sporadic access (at great expense) at hotels, and I saw a few cafes but I don't know if they had internet - but they did have computers and said they had internet but it wasn't on very often. This was probably about six years ago so I suppose things may have changed.
Here's the kicker - outside of Kigali there wasn't *any* access at all, for the most part AND Kigali (the capital) has enough access (as poor as it was) to be considered #1 in broadband download speeds! (I'm not sure if that metric still holds true or if I'm recalling it exactly right.) I'm not sure where to check to find it. At any rate, the whole country had almost no access at all, there was very little in the city itself - and it was sporadic as all hell, and they're the *best* in all of Africa...
Ha! Wikipedia tells me:
Rwanda ranked in first place in Africa for broadband download speeds and 62nd globally with a speed of 7.88 Mbit/s in February 2013.[1]
In a country with fewer than 1000 TV sets though I think they had more than that when I was there - that stat seems to be from 1997.
At any rate, something like 8% of the people have connectivity (now - less when I was there, surely) and that connectivity probably didn't even have a 75% uptime while I was there. Hell, I bet it was less than 50% of the time. And they're the best in Africa. Well, as far as download speeds. Though, it should be noted, Rwanda is something like 25th from the bottom.
By the way, I use Rwanda as an example. It is literally the worst place I have ever been - parts of it are beautiful though. The place is so bad that, somehow, the US State Department made a special effort to contact me, by phone, to tell me that going there was a really stupid thing to do and that they'd not be able to help me if something happened. Not only would they not be able to help me but that they'd make absolutely no effort to help me.
I forget the name of the form they wanted to send me but they wanted me to read it, fill it out, and send it back. The gentleman on the other end of the phone used expletives to tell me how bad the place was and how stupid I was for going there, that I'd end up causing some sort of international diplomatic incident, and all sorts of other things.
Incidentally, I was fine. I had nary an issue and was able to travel outside of Kigali fairly easily. They use convoys and I had a guide who was familiar with all the happenings. There were three trucks in our convoy and maybe 20 people. Most of them had firearms but nobody needed any. I have no idea how to spell it but it tasted like honey and was pronounced something like oobookee (with a kind of harsher/stronger "k" in it) that was supposed to keep me safe. I drank far too much of it as it's a very sweet drink. I'm not finding anything with that spelling via Google. It was delightful but the hangover is powerful - which was cause to drin
I've pondered a part of that problem in the past. How about an agreement, it needn't even be formal at first, that they can use your software free of charge and then, should they use it and make a profit, they can/must/should pay you a percentage of that profit either in perpetuity, a single payment, at varied intervals, only when they make profits, or things of that nature.
Something that's not quite the same as software that's free for home use only, free for scholastic use, stuff that must be paid for in advance for a for-profit business, etc... There's room for a number of different licensing terms in there. Something like:
You can use this software for as long as you like, for free, until you use it to enable you to make a profit. After you've made a profit you can pay x% of that profit, pay a one time license fee, pay for past usage, pay for a continued license, or things of that nature.
It would, of course, be very hard to enforce but it might mean that people, who wouldn't be inclined to pay, would pay. You could even just ask them to set their own percentage - how much did you feel it helped? Then, have them subtract all their expenses and just pay a portion of the profits. They can do it monthly, yearly, bi-yearly, or whatever. It's not quite freeware, it's not quite shareware, it's not quite pay-ware. It can be adjusted in so very many ways and tailored to suit different markets, products, or end-goals while still affording the developer the chance to get their product entrenched in growing markets.
Yes, it's subject to being abused but if it would otherwise just be pirated and this offers them a chance to legitimately pay for something but only after they've made money...
I think a few of us had a sort of long discussion about this in the past. I'm not sure if it was on this site or another one but I think it was here. :/ This was probably about five years ago, however. My memory is not that good. Ah well, 'tis an idea if you want it. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it - it might be viable. Meh, it's worth looking into and expanding on it, I suppose.
As a trivial aside: What makes you think that people are taking advantage of people who do the jobs that you named? I have a housekeeper who works maybe 20 hours a week (sometimes a bit more) and gets paid a salary no matter how many hours she works or doesn't work. I had to force a raise on her because I realized I'd not given her one in a long time.
As a guess (and statistically I stand a good chance of being correct), she makes more money per hour than you do with her salary alone. When you add the benefits (like a car, gas card, and a variety of other things gifted to her) it's a near certainty that she makes more than you do on an hourly basis. If I use the US median income - she's statistically likely to make more than you do, both per hour and in total, even without enumerating the benefits.
Given that you're here and, I presume, in the tech industry - she may not make as much as you do overall or by the hour. Statistically, it's likely that she does as an overall average but your presence here indicates that you may make more than average. More importantly, she works maybe 20 hours a week and is here, with me, on an all-expenses paid quasi-vacation along with her husband. They both have been here since before the holidays - three Slashdotters met them over the New Years Eve celebrations.
How the fuck am I taking advantage of this person? She works half the time and exceeds the average income in her area - by a good margin. (The exact number isn't terribly important, suffice to say - I'm not a cheap prick.)
Seriously, WTF? Taking advantage of them? Do you know what good domestic help makes in some areas? This doesn't mean abuses don't happen but that that's a big fucking fat-ass brush you're painting with. Seriously?
Also, your heritage tax is laughable. That's another topic for another day. No, you don't get my shit when I die. That's why you form a limited liability corporation or a trust. Good luck taking away the assets of a business when a member of that business dies. Nobody pays that shit and there's fuck all you can do about it. I seriously hope you posted that while you were drunk.
I pay a nice old lady a very handsome wage for some rather minimal work and I'm taking advantage of her... Really? She'd be bored, unemployed, and puttering around in her kitchen all day otherwise.
She's "as pleased as punch" to work for me and she and her husband weren't a whole lot more than subsistence farmers before I moved to Maine. Hell, when we get back to Maine, I'll be buying their property (at a more than fair price) and they can live there until they pass away. I've already got it set up so that the couple that have also been living there and helping out will be able to remain there - in perpetuity, while keeping all profits, for the low cost of just maintaining the farm and the lady from that couple will be my new housekeeper.
On top of that, she knows she can retire at any time and that she'll still keep getting paid because, ya know, not everyone has the moral values that you'd have if you were in their shoes. You're projecting what you'd do if you were in that situation - oddly enough, not everyone is an asshole. (I am an asshole, just not to people I like or people that I want to be liked by -- and it's not a good idea to piss off the person who's cooking you a few meals a week.) Her replacement will get the same level of treatment and her husband will get the same level of treatment that this one gets.
In other words, I've got lots of land that needs tending, trees needing to be cut, logs that need to be felled to go off to the yard a few times a year, things that need to be fixed up, farm products that I want, a garden I need tended, and plenty of things to keep them busy even though, really, they could live just fine off her salary alone.
And no, I'm not an exception to the rule. No, I am not extraordinary. No, it's not oh so much worse everywhere else. How do I know? I get out of the fucking basement, talk to people, and know people from a
Hmm... What makes you think that such doesn't exist in the "free" world? I still regularly exchange data via sneakernet. I'm not even home and I'm exchanging data via sneakernet. I have not just one but several friends who have both access to storage on my network (via the net) but also have access to another physical structure on my property.
Once a month, or more frequently if needed, they'll go grab drives and physically transport them. Not only that, they grab my drives - I'm currently using my home network to send this message and am connected to a whole network (with attached storage) back home. Backups automatically get pushed to several locations and physical separations are made for disparate location assurance planning.
Seeing as they're already going there, if I find something interesting then I'll save it to just a little thumb drive that is sitting in a desktop computer's port and send them an email suggesting that they grab it and put a new one in. They know where the key is and they know the alarm codes so I obviously trust them. It works out pretty well and I don't end up making the site for some project pay for more bandwidth than is necessary if they're large files. Sometimes it's just something I created, wrote up, or whatnot.
Sneakernet isn't dead just because you don't use it. I certainly am not a member of the only group of people who do this. I've read about USB dead-drops and things of that nature. They're also built in to some buildings in some cities - you just meander up, plug in a cord, and leave or grab files. I've never encountered one, I have no need for such, but I've read about them. I'm sure Google will help you out if you're interested.
I don't actually have anything that I am hiding but it's actually easier and it makes for a good, disparate, off-site backup plan. I've got a dozen 6 TB external drives and we just keep rotating them. They have their own drives and they even have space on my hardware to do backups over the 'net. It's the best of both worlds and it works so well that I don't even have to be physically anywhere near my house in Maine for it to work. I've been doing this for years and had other ways of doing similar things before this. Hell, I still buy and hand out files on optical media if it's meant to be permanent. However, I prefer to just use USB keys - they're much simpler.
Hell, I am so certain that I'm not unique in these regards that I'm quite willing to bet that others of us use sneakernet still. Shit, I guarantee it - some of the ideas that we use are ideas given to me by people from this site. It's not like I thought this up on my own. Quite a few of us are passing around thumb drives, optical disks, external drives, or even just hard drives ripped from the case 'cause we don't even bother putting the case cover back on.
Nah, I can't think of a downside. It is not ideal but it's better than nothing. I've been to Cuba twice and might actually go again in the near future. When I was there last, I was a bit more comfortable and even met some of the folks that I'd met the first time. I'm mostly fluent in Spanish but it's a little different in Cuba and the dialect isn't something I'm entirely familiar with - there are a few localizations that I'm unfamiliar with, for example.
At any rate, that - the being mostly able to communicate, or make a good effort to do so, seems to be a good way to really get to have people treat you as more than a tourist. Before leaving the last time, I asked what sort of things they might like me to bring if I came back - things that might not land me in a Cuban prison, for example. One of the things they asked for was USB keys but not like I was thinking. They didn't seem to want the large ones - like 32 GB or anything. They'd rather have 32 of the 1 GB drives than one large one.
I've not yet been back. They're dirt cheap now and things are a little different now. I understand that I can fly straight there and I'm already down here in Florida. The last time, I flew over from Mexico and I flew from Canada the first time. Should I go back, I'll bring a whole stack of 'em as I'm quite positive they're still using the process, even though it has been a while. The last time I went, I was told that I'd have 'net access in my hotel - I was sorely disappointed and I had no net access with my cell phone.
I was also told that I shouldn't try to bring a whole lot in with me. They'd overlook a small number of them but probably not a whole lot of them. I'm guessing that it's a bit more slack now and I imagine they'd just take them from me now. The missus has never been so it'd be an interesting trip to go back, though I still need to get her a passport. I can order a whole huge lot of 'em from Amazon or something - I can probably find some company to sell me case of 'em at near wholesale prices if I really want.
Also, I did not read the article. I'm assuming that this is what they're referencing. When I was there it was technically illegal (or so I understand) but fairly well known and in the open. They had books, movies, and music on them - they rented them out for a fairly small fee and updated them on a regular basis and just kept them in rotation. (At least I think the fee was pretty small?) So, if this is not what they're referencing now you know why. I did not read the article. The summary says "portable drives" but they were just little thumb drives when I was there.
As an aside: I'd wiped my computer and only had a fairly basic install that I brought in with me during my last visit. So, I had nothing to share really else I'd have offered to help them out. I did have a few movies on DVD with me and I might have mistakenly left those in the hotel room when I left. Oops! I sure am forgetful. It's a really nice country to visit. The people are pretty decent and friendly. They know where they live and that they're in what people consider to be a repressive regime but, for the most part, they seem to just accept it because it kinda works.
They're not locked down like North Korea or anything and some of them speak English well enough. However, it has been my experience that you get a lot better interaction if you at least try to speak the language - even if they speak your language. Learn enough to order a beer, get to the bathroom, exchange greetings, and whatnot. "Mi neccito una cervasa por favor y gracias." (No, I speak it well enough - no, I can't spell it worth a damn so that's probably wrong.) Then to ask where the bathroom is: "La cantidad para la nina, por favor?" It's customary to throw some change on the counter when asking that last question. (I'm assuming the spelling is right. You might really, really not want to follow that last bit of advice.)
Well, did they damage the vault in the process of breaking in? Not that has one iota of bearing on the case at hand (necessarily) but they could be found liable in a civil court. It'd be a bit interesting if they didn't have enough to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the person had committed the offense but were able to prove that the defendant had, more likely than not, committed the offense and thus be liable for civil damages. Something akin to the OJ event.
But, and this is related, if they'd broken into the vault and the bank had needed to close or lost business because of that action then they might be liable. That, kinda sorta, is related but it's really a horrible analogy on their part. So, if the bank could show harm (closing, loss of business, needing to replace the security system) even though no physical harm might have been done - they may, in fact, be able to demonstrate that they have standing. Harm doesn't always need to be something physically tangible - see cases of libel for examples where tangible evidence of harm doesn't always need to be presented. There are also things like mental anguish affirmative findings, so - it seems that it needn't always be tangible.
In fact, that's kind of why I am surprised that these cases keep turning out this way. Then again, from what I've read, nobody has presented it quite like that. I touched on that in a prior post - in this thread, and it doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult to argue that they have standing, that there was harm (even if it is minor), and that they deserve to have an opportunity to put their case in front of a jury.
This doesn't mean that I think a victim should be awarded huge sums of money or anything like that. I just think it'd be good to get it in front of a jury and, hopefully, set a precedent. If the victim had to make even one phone call that they'd not normally make - there is harm. It's trivial, minimal, and not worth a whole lot but it is still harm. Setting precedent may make companies that wish to retain data think twice about it or, if they must, protect it better.
To try to put this back into the analogy, just the bank needing to run an ad campaign, put a sign in the window, spend more time reassuring clients, or things of that nature - they're actually harm. Probably not worth a significant amount but they're still harm. As such, they should be allowed to put their case in front of a jury of their peers.
I was doxxed about eight years ago (before it had a name, really). I've kept the 'do not issue credit' flag enabled at the reporting bureaus ever since. It's pretty good protection but a pain in the ass if I did want credit for something - and I do actually have a few credit cards for the benefits they give me but it's a hassle to get the information, make the calls, specify the lender, and enable them to run a check. Usually, I just use a debit card on a separate account and push money into that separate account as needed.
However, I'd my mail sent down to me over the holidays and inside was a fairly nondescript envelope (the standard tear open at the perforations type) that informed me that my data was, indeed, part of the OPM hack. (Thanks to another Slashdotter who was kind enough to clue me in on what to look for, it was eventually found though it looked like one of those fake things that tells you that you might win a car - sans fake key in the envelope.) Now, my credit is locked down and all so credit monitoring is of absolutely no benefit to me and I've no other way to ensure my information isn't being misused somewhere else.
Give me a couple of hours and I can figure out GIMP well enough to make a birth certificate and SSN. How the hell do I know that I'm not out somewhere getting speeding tickets in areas I've never even visited? In many areas they don't even do credit checks to hook up utilities. There are still lending agencies who will ignore the credit ratings/do not issue flags and give you a credit card - it might be prepaid at first but they'll go ahead and increase it after a while.
That doesn't even remotely cover some of the worst things a creative person could think of now that they've got all that information compiled. I am less than impressed. I'm also fairly helpless and have little/no recourse. For all I know, I'm smuggling drugs across the border into AZ right now or poteen out of Canada! Worse, I could be in Vermont and getting ready for sap season and planning on smuggling VT maple syrup into Canada to mix in with the local syrup as part of the VT Maple Syrup Cartel! You can go to prison for that sort of stuff!
Do you have any idea what they do to people who tamper with maple syrup in Canada? They'd probably make me root for the Edmonton Oilers and go curling! Worse, I don't even speak French and I prefer Maine's maple syrup! I'd be caught up in the web of deceit known as the Golden Syrup Triangle and not even have managed to get any pancakes out of the deal. They might even force me to use that "pancake syrup" that comes in a bottle shaped like an old woman. No, I don't think I could live like that - and all because OPM failed to keep my data secure or, you know, delete it because they didn't need it some 15 years later.
I don't even really like hockey.
Hmm... Has anyone tried asserting that the loss of personally identifiable data (or even financial data) are, in fact, enough to be harmful in and of themselves? Add to that the loss of financial information - even if no direct financial harm has come, is both stressful and a loss of privacy as well as requiring one to take action - and, it seems to me, there's a good, viable, justification for standing.
The demonstrable harm would be, in those case, the concern, the loss of data, and the need to take action as well as remain vigilant. They are actual, viable, impacts and are certainly not absolved away by saying that there is no standing. Yet, strangely, in all the cases that I've looked at - nobody seems to have really argued this. Those are truly demonstrable harm. If they had to change one password, cancel one credit card, or even worry in the slightest then they have been harmed.
I'd also like to think the credit issuers would have cause. Even better, it's a civil matter so the burden of proof is much lower (things like jurisprudence and preponderance of evidence) so I'd think that harm could be shown and a finding for the plaintiff fairly easy to come by. Yet, strangely, I have read a few (not this particular case) and nobody has seemed to argue this. Even just the slightest of action, just one extra step, just one worry - is harm...
Two things...
I'm not normally sue-happy and think many civil cases end up being just plain silly but this matter has been going on for a while and there haven't been many meaningful repercussions handed down. Setting precedent might be nice - I'm not suggesting that the defendants should owe hundreds of millions of dollars because someone had to lock their credit down.
I am not, by any means, a lawyer but I have spent some time in court, read a bunch of findings, briefings, etc, and try to spend some time just going to the courts and observing them because I feel that such is my duty. The courts are our easiest to access branch of the government if we want to make changes. I observe the courts, as I feel it is my duty, and if I find a problem then I use my freedom of speech/press to make others aware of this problem (perhaps like this post) and firmly believe that this is a part of the social contract that we citizens have failed to uphold.
As Wootery says below my post - is this how it *should* be? As near as I can tell, there was harm. It may be minimal harm but that's for a jury to decide. They should have standing and they should be allowed their day in court. I think this can be appealed (the finding of no demonstrable harm) and a higher court might decide they have demonstrated harm and thus have standing and chuck it back down for them to actually put it in front of a jury.
Someone has to set precedent so that when really bad things do happen there is recourse for the victims. I have a notice that says my data was, indeed, in the OPM hack. I have a lawyer on retainer. I should have him look into it - it might be kind of fun, I could even present it myself with, of course, council to assist. Unfortunately, I've a very busy year coming up. Still... Someone's gotta try making a reasonable argument to the judges and, from what I've seen, they're not really giving the judge reason to believe there's harm. I'd argue that differently or, more accurately, ask a lawyer and see if it's a viable option to argue it differently.
Thoughts? There are a couple of lawdogs here. raymoris perhaps?
LOL Pretty much. I saw the first three (only now they're not the first three) and made it through most of the first one of the new ones (which would be the fourth one but is now the new first one - I think) and then made it part way into the second one before giving up. I've never seen the end of the first one nor the last 3/4 of the second one (which are fourth and fifth respectively).
I just couldn't get into them. Then again, I was kind of old when the first few came out so they've never been a huge attraction to me. I like some science in my science fiction and I don't think Star Wars qualifies as science fiction. Yes, I'm aware that such beliefs make me the spawn of Satan. I accept the label. I don't hate them but they're just not that important to me and I really just couldn't get into the prequels even though I bought the set on either DVD or Blu-Ray. (No, I have no idea which ones I bought.)
I mostly only watch documentaries or read books - if I'm not reading something online. I've never really been into television much - we didn't have it on much when I was growing up. Sometime in the mid or late 1980s they changed the format and there started being so many commercials that I simply stopped viewing entirely. I don't have anything against it - I have cable in the house here where I am until spring. (I did not know this and I have no idea how long I've been paying for this.)
I'm not one of the folks that hates TV. I just don't watch it enough to worry about it. I don't even have OTA hooked up and I took the satellite dish down years ago back home - I'd only had it turned on for a year or so and it wasn't getting used. I've gone from being a "freak" to a "hipster" to a "cord-cutter" and now I'm the "new normal." All because I don't really watch television.
In some regards, the 'net has been awesome for me. I've vast stores of documentaries at Hulu+ and Netflix. I've countless documentaries at YouTube. I'm not bashful, I'll even go pirate some if I am interested and can't find it available legally. I do, on occasion, watch regular movies but not that often. It probably sounds odd to some but I'm really entertained with documentaries. I don't watch them as a scholarly pursuit, just as passive entertainment.
Also, I'd not really call Coal House a documentary? It's a bit of a re-enactment or it might get classified as a reality television show except there aren't any real games and nobody is getting kicked out or any of those things. It's a bit like a historical recreation but less technical. I really think you might enjoy it and the Farms series that are in that same playlist. I'd guess you'd find both the Edwardian Farm and Wartime Farm to be of interest but they're all *very* good. Quite surprisingly so as that's just not my cup of tea normally.
Ah well, I've babbled long enough. ;-) Give the Coal House a try. I think you'll really like it. I still find it a bit odd that I do but it's surprisingly good.
I'll be sure to keep a look-out. I'm not usually overly fond of the "what if" things but he had some good thinking and there's the other program which was the Brits and their hotel with the POWs - a series as I recall. I'll do my best to dig it out but it's going to mean a bit of a sitting to dig through my history at YouTube. See, I leave myself logged in, and yes I know they track me, so that they can keep track of what I watched. I don't mind it too much because I'm able to completely block their scripting and cookies at other sites - I have found the history functionality to be handy.
As an aside: I wish it would allow a 'search my viewing history' function. That would make things so much easier and I'd be able to pull the name of at least one of those documentaries up for you pretty quickly.
I'm a fairly good judge of character, normally, so I think I have something that you might enjoy.
Click on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/playli...
Now, there are several very nice things in there. Two of which I just discovered yesterday, the others I'm familiar with and have watched them all, at least once, already. Two of them are very interesting - surprisingly so.
That link takes you to some guy's playlist. It has a strange name but that's immaterial. There's a few in there that you might like - there's an Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm, Wartime Farm, Manor Farm (I think), and some others - those are all well and good and you might really enjoy them. However, there are two hidden gems in there.
One is called Coal House and then there's a second one in the series (short episodes) called Coal House at War. I'm not yet done with the second series, having just discovered it a short while ago, and this is *not* my typical viewing. I prefer "drier" documentaries with hard facts, hard science, detailed histories, etc... Yet, this is strangely interesting and I was able to draw a few parallels that sort of made me think of other things. I don't want to suggest how you interpret it so I'll skip that but it's interesting - far more interesting than I'd have expected.
I was familiar with the Farm series and had really enjoyed those. That was actually how I ended up bumping into the Coal House series. They're a bit dated, 2007 and 2008 respectively, but still nicely done. The first Coal House starts at 58 in the playlist and the second one is immediately after. I may be wrong and you may not enjoy it. However, it seems like something that might be of mild interest to you - based on previous comments.
Hmm... You might be right. I was actually pondering it after I typed and sent it. It *might* be possible to not do it entirely in Perl, of course. Basically bootstrap something that's a decent interpreter (CGI perhaps - common gateway interface perhaps?) where, a more accurate statement would be, that the shell is in Perl so the userland is generated by Perl.
Keep in mind, this is absolutely something that shouldn't ever be attempted - but I'd install it in a VM if someone tried it. Why? Well, it's not like I've anything more interesting to do than that. It'd be quite interesting, I should think. However, I should think a userland generated in Perl might be possible though there's going to need to be something under it - unless someone's figured out how to compile it. I can't say that I've ever seen compiled Perl but I should also add that I never really looked and am not a guru.
Thanks! I'll take that to heart. I am, technically, a programmer. However, I did so (usually in C though I did some BASIC and QBASIC and Perl, PHP, JavaScript) out of necessity. I'm actually mostly a maths geek who was into modeling traffic years and years ago but I've long since sold my company and retired. So, I learned to program because I had to but eventually hired competent people who actually knew what they were doing. Eventually, we had a project where we converted the code base to C++ and I am, for the most part, unfamiliar with the language.
I've not really coded much of anything since - I've been pretty lazy. Sure, some PHP and maybe a bit of Perl and hacking someone's JavaScript to do what I wanted. Nothing major, nothing of any importance. Technically, there's still some of my Perl out there, running very insecurely and being horribly abused to this very day. (Not of my own but a "safelist" script that I authored for a friend who was into selling things to the MLM folk and not really into MLM himself.)
My goal is... Well... I don't have an actual project that needs doing. I don't have a damned thing that I want to program - maybe a few to tweak a little but nothing to write so much. I figure I'll learn some code and toss in some patches after I get more fluent in the languages. I'm not a zealot but I do prefer to just give anything that I write away. I don't need money but I don't want my brain to turn to mush. I was 50 when I retired, I'm 58 now, and I can honestly say that I seriously can sense my brain being less active/functional. I do not like that feeling which is why I'll be working on Python first, over the winter, and C++ second.
I may actually throw some Java into the mix. From what I've seen, it's really mostly people who don't seem to use it well that don't like it. I don't know as I'm qualified to say that, however. It's just an observation and having read *a lot* of comments and various blog posts, etc... There seems to be quite an ecosystem for Java and, from the outside looking in, it's a bit daunting as it's seemingly easy to go down the wrong road and have to backtrack. I don't want to get locked into a framework only to find out that I'd have been more able to understand the actual functionality by using a different framework or even having taken the time to author it myself.
I'm not so very articulate so, well, hopefully that makes sense.
Hmm... I wonder if we can bootstrap something and make a Perl OS. Completely uncommented, of course.
The strange thing is, I'm not really a good programmer or anything - in fact, I diligently read comments here and do research as I prepare to dip my feet back into it as I try to stop my brain from turning into oatmeal. I read his post twice, looked up, saw the moderation, and was happy - because I was awfully confused. Then, I scrolled down... I think he was serious?
At any rate, if you all are to be believed, the Java (not to be mistaken for JavaScript) is wonderful, fast, slow, garbage, the cause for all the good in the world, and for all the evil. About the only consensus that I've noticed (which I'm inclined to agree with) is that Java applets (again, not to be confused with JavaScript) were an abomination and the few that are still in use are just because the management (not the programmers) are idiots.
That said, trying to figure out which languages to start back up with by listening to you guys is rather futile. Combined, you hate and love just about every language out there - and some of you love to hate some and others hate to love some. You're not exactly helpful with this one. As I already know a bit of C, PHP, Perl, and can figure out some JavaScript - I've decided on Python and C++. I'm quite positive that some folks will happily think I've chosen poorly and others will think it wise. In my defense, at least it's not Java.
You have a strange definition of lost. We tore apart the military, got their citizens to hang Saddam, and still have their oil. We enriched a whole ton of American businesses and advanced our Brown People Killing Technology. I'd say we won! Then again, I also like to argue that we won Vietnam and that people are just looking at it wrong. I might not be a good judge. I am, however, pragmatic.
Two of my favorite artists did an album together. It was so horrible that I've only listened to it twice. It truly has absolutely no redeeming qualities - none. Dylan and the Dead. They might want to toss that up on the playlist. It is absolutely horrific and shouldn't ever have been released. I love 'em all but they are absolutely horrific when combined.