Login with username and password (forgot your password?)

What the Chinese Public is saying about the NSA Leaker

Well, it depends... was the article annotated that it was changed?  Or just changed?  It's the latter that is the problem.

People who go to the gym and smell like they've bathed in cologne or perfume.

People who don't use cologne or perfume and smell like they've been to the gym.

People who use cologne or perfume and still smell like they've been to the gym.

And the funny thing is looking back at Buffy (7 seasons) and Angel (5 seasons) is that their beginnings weren't as good as the endings.  There were glimmers, for sure, but it just wasn't there.  Given that, how good would Firefly have been after a few seasons?  It was just starting to get into the main plot...

...A special hell indeed.

(had to look up browncoats...ah, firefly, why is joss wheden so prolific?!)

More like... why is he not more prolific?

Sorry that this didn't pan out.  Seems a good idea with a bad implementation.

3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so

Apparently these three paved the way for Snowden- trying to leak the exact same information, but failed.

For years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens. They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight committees and, finally, to the news media.

To the intelligence community, the trio are villains who compromised what the government classifies as some of its most secret, crucial and successful initiatives. They have been investigated as criminals and forced to give up careers, reputations and friendships built over a lifetime.

Today, they feel vindicated.

Excellent article- and it explains a lot of what his thinking was, and why he went public immediately rather than trying to handle this internally.

Nevermind

Shiny. Browncoats Unite!

Don't really have anything to add... just had to give a shout out as a Browncoat.  Now let's go be bad guys.

So... the other shoe drops.

NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants

Accused bank robber wants NSA phone records for his defense

And so it begins...

Well it had already begun ...
This is just where it starts to get really really funny!
It's a brilliant defense! Especially if in fact he is innocent! (Wouldn't he be able to get them from the telco first - then purposely ask the NSA for their copy?)

Oh... I was referring to the actual fallout from this from the public's side.  So far, there has been very little in the way of anything concrete from this.  Freedom of Information act, baby!  *This* will be quite interesting to follow...

You are inspiring me to finish my work.

Accused bank robber wants NSA phone records for his defense

And so it begins...

It's depressing to think I've been lurking around here longer than 40hz and despite having a nick one character shorter that people still get us mixed up....

I always think of yours as referring to vehicles (4WD ... even if it's not) and 40hz as referring to music (and I know it does )

I can't help but think that this is a test bed for something much larger and more insidious.

That's more like the SJ I know... let your cynicism flow!

[attach=1]

I'm writing the book in software produced by the man behind wxWidgets, Dr. Julian Smart. The application is called Jutoh.

How are you finding it?  I use Scrivener currently... and though I love it, as with all things to do with text editing, I'm always looking at others.

I think it is only a truism, i.e. if you get absolute power, you will eventually be absolutely corrupt.  Not that you can't become absolutely corrupt without absolute power.  See: politician.

Holy crap man ... Now that's a bad day!

Even worse... it gets to 4:30 and only because the guy knows me was I seen.  That IRS office is *way* understaffed.  And they're having a furlough on which day there is *no* staff.

But as you mention it was only after suffering through the entire protracted spiel that this little detail was "clarified". None of the official 6 O'clock news (hand feedings...) ever mentioned the existence of anything other than the ~mostly harmless~ metadata.

I really think that by hiding what they were really doing they shot themselves in the foot in the end.  That's what the problem with the whole thing is- if we can't trust them to tell us the truth without hours of questioning, how can we trust them not to look at the data that they've collected?

Sorry about chopping this up so much. I just wanted to share what went through my head as I read it.

You cut out the most telling line, however...

The problem isn't in that.  The problem is in the policing, i.e. who watches the watchers?  How can we know that they can't get access without a court order.  The court order isn't an encryption key- it's a standard court order.  So they *always* have access... we just have to trust them not to use it unless due process has been followed.

...

I got nothing.  I don't trust human nature that much.  And once you do have oversight to that extent, more people have access. I just don't trust the checks and balances.

And one other point...

Now all of a sudden this (allegedly) non-existent content just magically appears out of thin air.

From what I heard in the testimony (I was forced to watch it as it was the only thing on while waiting at the IRS office for a stupidly long time), this data isn't said to not exist, nor to just magically appear.  It's just not in what they can look at without a court order.

“If we didn’t collect that ahead of time, we couldn’t make these connections, so what we create is a set of data and we put it out here and then only under specific times can we query that data.”
That was National Security Agency (NSA) head Gen. Keith Alexander in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 12 admitting that phone metadata on everybody is in fact being collected in real-time.

Courtesy of NetRightDaily.com

why did they make it top secret and deny (lie) everything up til the end? 

I can answer that one- even without agreeing.  It's because someone who knows that their conversations are possibly compromised acts differently than someone who knows their conversations are surely compromised.

The thing is, looking at the intent objectively, without regard for the harm or rightness or wrongness, I think everyone can see the purpose and use behind it.  It's more the manner that it was done, and the lack of communication of intent that is arguable.. especially the fact that it was done fait accompli rather than through the normal process that such would need to be done through.

Taking a Devil's Advocate stance, in principle, I see what they're doing.  You can only get a tap at the time of the court order.  The necessary data might be gone.  What they're doing is aggregating the data.  It is indexed by minimally identifying information- not the content.

If later, they find a person of interest, they can get a warrant for the period in time to check the database and see what the content of the intercept was.

The problem isn't in that.  The problem is in the policing, i.e. who watches the watchers?  How can we know that they can't get access without a court order.  The court order isn't an encryption key- it's a standard court order.  So they *always* have access... we just have to trust them not to use it unless due process has been followed.

...

I got nothing.  I don't trust human nature that much.  And once you do have oversight to that extent, more people have access. I just don't trust the checks and balances.

Maybe instead of The Basement, we need a new section called "Head in the Sand" for isolating serious political topics that might disturb some people - and probably *should* disturb them?

You're being tongue-in-cheek, but I actually like that.  It seems that there are two types of conversations that get taken to the basement.

1) Those that are heated and in the areas of politics/religion and are definitely off-topic.
2) Those that are on-topic... but are about touchy things that do turn people off that come here.

Those first type I try to stay away from (which was one of the reasons I ignored the basement for so long).  But I do enjoy the discourse of the second type.

Basement?  Doesn't belong there.

I think that's part of where the divide comes in seeing that things sometimes *do* belong there, and what it's for.  The vast majority of DC come here for the software and to discuss issues surrounding that central vision.  Every thing else is added on.  Because of that focus, there's a wide range of people here, that coexist for the most part peacefully.  Politics and religion are unfortunately not areas of peace.  And many times, though things are on the surface seemingly related to that vision of software (and by inclusion hardware and things computer related), they are in reality political/religious issues swaddled in a technological covering.  And, let's not judge the acceptance of said issues by the vocal majority either- there are several that are by the nature of such threads excluded.  To take SJ's mention of losing 40 when we go to the basement... there are some that are lost when the mention of said topics goes off into political land.  It is for that reason that I was actually surprised when it wasn't there... because this thread isn't talking about the technology behind said issue, but rather diving head first into the politics.

Also, I'd note that I only said surprised.  Whether I agree or disagree that this needs to be front and center, that's a different story.  But it is definitely not something that if we were to sit around in a true living room with everyone on the board that would be able to be discussed among the non-homogeneous population of DC IMO.  And that's what the basement is for IMO.  Not to make something second class, nor to say something intrinsic about the topic.  But to keep the peace, and keep the boards from spiraling into what so many become.

I think a lot of it has to do with circumstance.  I'm just amazed that she was able to do it without denouncing the industry.

Whatever works best for the user I always say.

This, I can get on board with.  The OS is a tool, not a religion.

Would you stop aiming for the basement...we'll lose 40hz when it goes there.

Sorry... didn't think of that.  I'm just surprised that its not there already, so its sort of tongue in cheek.