Recent Posts

1376

Living Room / Re: My first 408...

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2014, 02:13 PM »

Try accessing some of the US health insurance exchange websites. You'll see 408s regularly at certain times of the day.

1377

Living Room / Re: Silk Road Seized - Dread Pirate Roberts Arrested

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2014, 02:01 PM »

It will be interesting to see how the judge tries to wiggle out of that.

-Renegade (August 05, 2014, 10:36 AM)

Judges don't wriggle. They issue rulings. And when in doubt, they rule as they deem best and let the higher courts deal with any technical (Court of Appeals) or larger constitutional (SCOTUS) issues if they come up. Many times those higher courts decline to rule on (CoA) or even hear (SCOTUS) the case. More often than not, the ruling of the lower court is affirmed on appeal anyway. On those fairly rare occasions when a lower court is overruled by a higher court, it generally only results in the case being sent back to the lower court for a new trial. It's not a "get out of jail free" card. The circuit courts conduct trials. The CoA and SCOTUS don't try cases. Or dismiss them. They serve more as the US legal system's quality control department.

So barring Ulbricht's motion coming before an extremely sympathetic judge, it will most likely be dismissed with little comment. (Yes, US judges can do that.)

Despite what you see on TV shows, most US judges are extremely loathe to dismiss serious charges (especially when subsequent corroborating evidence backs up the substance of the charges made) on purely technical grounds. At least for anything other than a case where the strong chance of capital punishment is on the menu.

1378

Living Room / Re: The Internet With a Human Face

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2014, 01:38 PM »

Regulation never solves problems. It's illegal to murder & steal, yet... it happens. Why not look at ways to make privacy strong, or ways to poison data collection & make it useless? Those would probably work a lot better.

-Renegade (August 05, 2014, 12:19 PM)

The more I've been thinking about this, the more I'm convinced the solution isn't to be found on decentralization, regulation, or pretty much anything else bolted onto the Internet after the fact. It wasn't designed to work that way. And those who benefit the most from abusing it will not relinquish the advantage they hold - either willingly or unwillingly. As long as the web exists (as it is currently engineered) the problem will remain. The genie is out of its bottle. And there is no way - either through software or social engineering - that it can be put back.

So...what to do...

I personally have come to think that the only way we're going to get out from under this is if we voluntarily walk away from it. If we just stop using the web. Refuse to use it even. That means giving up a lot of free entertainment, downloads of software, books, music and movies, and petabytes of porn. It means abandoning hours of pointless chatter spent on Twitter. It means giving up the convenience (often portrayed as the necessity) of online banking and shopping. It means losing the ability to easily hook up with friends and family on Facebook.

But until people are willing to do that, the web will endure in its present incarnation. And that will pave the way for a future I'd rather not contemplate more than I already have.

So rather than try to fix something that has a fundamental flaw (or benefit depending upon how you look at it) we need to engineer a network from the ground up that is designed to be inherently secure, anonymous, and private. And once it is engineered, we will have to implement it. Most likely over the objections and active opposition (dare I say dead bodies?) of those who would prefer to keep things just the way they are.

And if such a global network can be built (questionable, although the only real way to find out for sure is to try) we'll also need to abandon the hope it will be perfect. In any system, there will always be abusers. And anonymity and complete security can be used for both good and ill. So part of the price we'll have pay for having our own communications and activities kept secure is having other's communications and activities similarly protected. Even those of people who would do us harm, and use this more secure network to accomplish it. There's no easy trade-off on this front.

In the end it all depends on what most people want. If they're willing to be bought off by convenience, free entertainment, and the easy opportunity for sexual titillation, things will remain the same. And the price tag will continue to become increasingly expensive in the social and moral sense. Because the inevitable slide into a true "surveillance society" will command the highest price tag of all from us. The surveillance state will totally redefine our legal framework, social mores, and personal attitudes - in such a deeply fundamental fashion that everything that came before becomes effectively moot. Because the basic understanding of what it means to be a 'human' living in 'human society' will have been redefined in the process as well.

After much long and careful consideration I've become fearful that the lowest common denominator will ultimately win out.

But that's me. A "KSC" if there ever was one.  

1379

Non-Windows Software / Re: Linux Foundataion's $2400 Intro to Linux course to be offered online for free

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2014, 12:49 PM »

Ooooh!

Thanks for sharing this.

I'm not sure if my schedule will let me do this seriously, but auditing is a great option!

-Renegade (August 05, 2014, 12:40 PM)

I'm auditing it. I figure I could always benefit from a refresher. And there's always the chance there's something important I might have missed at one time or another.

1380

Living Room / Re: New guy on the forums

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2014, 09:34 AM »

If we were a good Irish public house, we would have held the door and offered Mason a jar.

Welcome Mason!

1381

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox Anyone?

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 01:30 PM »

Love to encourage software programmers when possible.
Don't always feel the same dedication in Linux as with Windows based.

-dantheman (August 03, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Yeah, there's that. But that's what a dev's steady diet of "gratitude - but never any green" sometimes gets us.

1382

General Software Discussion / Re: Installing USB Mass Storage Driver - Problem

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 12:46 PM »

Try removing the drive in Device Manager. Then disconnect all your USB devices except for the mouse and keyboard, then do a restart.

Once you've restarted, plug the drive back in. If P&P spots and installs it, open Device Manager and see which version of the driver it's using. If it's the newest, you're done. Plug everything back in.

If it's the old one, remove the device again using Device Manager, disconnect the drive, and reboot. Once you're rebooted, install the new driver first - and only connect the drive when it asks you to.

If the above doesn't fix it then there's either a driver conflict or your USB ports are screwed up in the device manager. Either of those are somewhat of a pain to correct - so lets hope the first two suggestions fix things for you.

Luck!

1383

General Software Discussion / Re: Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 12:34 PM »

Bittorrent is a hype. I'm slightly angered with aversion about hypes. I never was into pop culture.

-Tuxman (August 04, 2014, 12:05 PM)

Of course it is. But again, so what?

Bleep is a "wrong approach" to dealing with the problem anyway. Hype or no hype.

Let them dream their dream. 

1384

Living Room / Re: Everyone is brokenhearted.

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 12:20 PM »

I think the cause of the malaise is much simpler.  Think back to when you were a kid skipping down the street.  You were happy for no particular reason.  In fact it was your default state of mind.  Adults smiled to see you skipping along so care free.

Then one day as you skipped along you encountered a tall man in a gray suit with gray felt hat.  He gave you such a disgusted look.  You slow down in reaction.  Then the gray man says "You are tool old to be skipping" all mean and nasty.

From that day on your life sucked.  You worried about things that never bothered you before.  Well I'm here to tell you that was no accident.  The gray man is no ordinary person.  He's a time traveler and his mission is to conduct hostile psychological operations against the middle class people of The United States.

Being from the future he could see that it was only necessary to spoil the childhoods of the middle class kids to generate the impetus for all the wars, famines, depressions, inflationary periods etc that sapped the resources of the middle class.

The only way to turn back the clock on the downfall of the middle class is to go back in time and skip down the street no matter what anyone thinks or says about it!

-MilesAhead (August 04, 2014, 08:20 AM)

Funny thing about skipping...

When I was in HS, we had to go from one school building to another for some of our classes. Since there were only 5 minutes between classes (and you got disciplined if you were late) most of us used to run.

There was a day when me and a buddy (a real character by the name of George) started out across this huge lawn between two of the buildings trying to make our Chem-II  class on the 4th floor of the hall we were heading towards, when I muttered something about "might as well skip." George looked at me for a second, linked his left arm in my right and said, "C'mon E-man - SKIP!).

We did.

Cleared the distance in record time. Not even breathing hard at the end of it. (Turns out skipping is very efficient form of locomotion for a biped.)

We had about 20 fellow classmates behind us. Their only comment was "You two were really bookin' it!"

Next day half of us skipped to Chem class.

The day after, we all did.

Then the practice of what came to be called "skip truckin'"spread to most of the other 600 or so students in the school.

Skipping became "most cool" because:

• It actually got the job done efficiently
• It looked truly stupid
• It started to drive the faculty and administration crazy. (Especially when people started bringing it indoors - which resulted in a threatened detention penalty for anyone caught skipping in the halls.)

The first two points above made it a win.

But getting a reaction from "The Man" elevated it to being "epic."



Not much more to say about skipping except:

1385

General Software Discussion / Re: Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 12:01 PM »

Oh wow, BitTorrent notices that decentralized P2P is the way to go. We eMule'rs yawn silently.

-Tuxman (August 04, 2014, 10:25 AM)

To my mind, it doesn't really matter who did anything first unless you're one of those IP types that wants to patent everything.'

Seriously, what difference does it make whether something is "new' in the absolute or relative sense? Everything is bound to be 'new' to somebody. Why is it so important to establish who supposedly "heard it first" or "did it first?"

Most people could not care less. I know because I happen to be one of them.

1386

Non-Windows Software / Re: Linux Foundataion's $2400 Intro to Linux course to be offered online for free

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 11:49 AM »

ALERT: Today is August 4th. Just a reminder to anybody who is interested that this course has just begun. The first few modules are history and background info on Linux. Because of that, you won't get caught too far behind if you start attending this week.

So get on over and register if you plan on taking it.

1387

General Software Discussion / Re: Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 08:58 AM »

Yeah, but how does the client know who to communicate your IP address to? Or do you mean we'd have to manually tell each other our IPs and manually enter them into the client?

-Deozaan (August 04, 2014, 08:24 AM)

It appears that it works like a torrent. There are trackers that know the locations of peers holding data. But they don't know what the content of the data is. And when the actual data of a message gets transferred, it's done peer-to-peer so there's no metadata passing through a central server where it can be easily intercepted. It's almost like a matchmaker arrangement. Bleep puts people in touch with each other. But it doesn't do much beyond handing an 'address' to each person. Their actual communication takes place directly between the parties themselves. Bleep, by design, knows zero about the message itself and has no hand in getting it from point A to point B. (This isn't 100% accurate btw - but it gives you an idea of how it works.)

ExtremeTech did a writeup on it here.

It's not completely secure or untraceable by any stretch.  It just makes it more difficult (in theory) to do so.

Like I said earlier - it's Whack-a-Mole.  But it's questionable just who's playing whom.

1388

Living Room / Re: Everyone is brokenhearted.

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2014, 04:58 AM »

It seems he's having a hard time looking at the bright side. There is one.

-Renegade (August 03, 2014, 08:45 PM)

Yep. Now if somebody will switch on a flashlight, maybe we can find it.

1389

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox Anyone?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 08:34 PM »

@40hz, are you still with LM (Ubuntu based distro)?

-dantheman (August 03, 2014, 07:40 PM)

            

We fly the flags of several operating systems on my ship.

Still using Mint 17 'Qiana' as my main day-to-day. Also running Arch, Debian, and CrunchBang (for Linux) along with FreeBSD - depending on what I'm doing.

I've only tried PaleMoon on Mint so far. And I like it.

1390

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 01:18 PM »

While it may sound paranoid, when you start looking in closer detail, there are clear connections.

-Renegade (August 03, 2014, 09:59 AM)

It still sounds fairly paranoid to me. These guys are nowhere near that good - and they're certainly not very subtle if that's truly the case. (That's probably not a bad thing when all factors in this scenario are taken into consideration however.)

Asking about what Brookings expects from its investment in Lawfare is a legitimate question.

Asking about consumers though... that's a bit of a stretch. What I can see there is:

A) 40hz reads Lawfare
B) 40hz reads Popehat
C) Both Lawfare & Popehat are legal blogs/web sites
D) 40hz probably enjoys reading legal blogs/web sites

And, as a bonus:

E) 40hz probably enjoys SCOTUS blog & Courthouse News (or would if he doesn't already)

D & E are reasonable assumptions, but certainly not guaranteed.

-Renegade (August 03, 2014, 09:59 AM)

Lets see how well you did:

a) 40hz very occasionally reads Lawfare. Maybe once or twice a month he gives it a skim.

b) 40hz religiously reads Popehat. Mostly because he can see a time where he might need to appeal to them for a Popehat signal.

c) Good conclusion. Obvious. But valid.

d) Not particularly. But I do like Popehat because I have a peculiar like-hate thing about Ken White. Mostly it's like insofar as it's questionably possible to like an attorney.

e) I generally prefer to read the actual SC decisions rather than try to follow the court watcher and judicial fanboy blogs when it comes to the Dangerous Nine. One thing I've learned about the Supreme Court over the years - don't ever attempt to predict or second guess how they'll rule. That way madness lies. Something I learned as a sophomore in high school thanks to an absolutely brilliant American History teacher (an practicing attorney) who had us look at US history through the lens of significan legislation and court rulings. We used to be presented with a case case, have to write an opinion over the weekend, and then read the SC's actual decision on Monday - at which point we'd discuss it. This teacher's attitude was that the United States was nothing more than a diverse group of people living under a set of written laws. And to truly understand the forces that shaped the nation, you'd needed to be aware of the role of the courts and how judical interpretation (and its evolution) directed and shaped what this country was and did over the years.

I've followed the SC ever since. And from what I can see, this instructor was right.

I'm not dividing by zero. I'm simply looking at the obvious relationships and wondering what is going on and what the motivations are.

Oh, that's easy enough.

You have a large number of well-connected and powerful people (along with a fair number of the general public) that like things pretty much the way they are who are willing to take steps necessary to preserve the current status quo and (ideally) enhance their position in it.

That's not a conspiracy per se. That's just people teaming, and ganging up, to push through their own agenda. In some cases, cheating when it's felt it's necessary. That's what people do. Always have. Always will.

But no matter what, he's rooked!

Pretty much. Which just goes to show nobody in ANY government or institution likes a tattler. No matter what they tell you. Because all institutions have dirty laundry. ANd whenever people in positions of autority in such institutions see somebody like Snowden, they can't help but think "There but for the grace of God (and a healthy dose of threatening those who would tell tales), go we."

 

1391

General Software Discussion / Re: Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 11:44 AM »

I so hope you are wrong. That's just utterly depressing.

-Renegade (August 03, 2014, 11:00 AM)

For the record, I am utterly depressed about all of this.

And I so hope that I'm wrong too!

Still, if you expect and plan for the worst - but hope for the best - you can usually drag yourself through yet another day.

And who knows? Maybe that damned horse will talk after all...

1392

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 08:26 AM »

1393

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 08:24 AM »

^Brilliant!

1394

General Software Discussion / Re: Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM »

Dunno...Tor was supposed to be untraceable. Torrents were supposed to be anonymous. Certain crypto algorithms were supposed to be uncrackable. SSL was actually supposed to be secure. Random numbers were supposed to be random....

I think I'll give it a year or so to see if some security researcher doesn't figure out a way to compromise it.

And even if somebody doesn't find a way to crack it, there's always that little issue with the hardware we all use...

I suspect that if something like Bleep really does prove to be more than a nuisance to those it's pointed at, it will only be a matter of time before chip manufacturers are required to secretly incorporate mechanisms into their firmware and silicon to deal with it - assuming they're not in there already. And since fabricating a modern CPU is beyond the capabilities of even the best funded Kickstarter or Indigogo campaign, that should give the surveillance gnomes another fifteen or twenty years worth of unchallenged omniscience to wallow in...

Here's the real problem as I see it: we are running programs on machines engineered and built by the largest "in bed with the government" corporations in the world; 90% of which are running an operating system known to be compromised; on a network controlled by the governments of the world; over wired connections and radio waves monitored by the governments of the world (and their corporate allies).

Not to discourage people for trying (because it's important that they do) but seriously - who is kidding who?

It's not the governments and the corporations that are playing Whack-a-Mole when it comes to stuff like this.

We are.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:

Again: This is not a technical problem. It is a people problem. People problems can't be fixed by simply applying some technology.

We need to stop trying to take the easy way out by hoping for a cheap technical fix. We need to sit down, address, and ultimately deal with the real problem here. That's the only way this is ever going to be resolved.

IMHO, things like Bleep mainly serve as a distraction to keep us from dealing with the real problem.

Y'know...if I were in power, I'd probably covertly be encouraging efforts like Bleep and Tor. And the more, the better. It defuses some of the geek outrage - and ties up some very smart and dedicated people (and money) who might otherwise be causing all kinds of problems for me. So let all these brainy types (most of whom will do anything to avoid dealing with an actual person) code to their heart's content. Because in this scenario, the only thing better than my opposition not having a good solution, is having them put their trust in a broken one...
 

1395

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2014, 07:27 AM »

So, which strand of the spider's web is "Lawfare"? Are we being given an accurate prediction? Is this misdirection? Or perhaps just a regular contributor speculating off-the-cuff?

-Renegade (August 02, 2014, 09:24 PM)

@Ren - You do have a predilection for dividing by zero do'n’t you? as Lewis Carrol might put it.



Once you go down that rabbit hole of self-referential accusations and 'proofs' you might as well ask which strand of "the spider's web" 40hz represents for merely posting such a link? (Since there's every chance he didn't "merely" post it.)  

FWIW, regardless of which side of the political spectrum somebody comes down on, most people don't talk about things without some sort of agenda (i.e. to get you to agree with them, believe them, do something, don't do something, like the person who's speaking, etc.).

1396

Living Room / Re: Does anybody seriously think an e-book is still the better option most times?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2014, 05:31 PM »

Not by coincidence, he had also spent about 3 years moving all his investment money away from the US (he's from New Zealand and currently lives in Denmark) because he saw the collapse coming.

-Vurbal (August 02, 2014, 08:51 AM)

JOOC - which collapse are you referring to?

-40hz (August 02, 2014, 03:52 PM)

Real Estate and Banking, I'd assume... though it was more of a bubble bursting than a wholesale collapse.

-wraith808 (August 02, 2014, 05:20 PM)

My thought too, although I wasn't sure. A genuine market collapse is such a major event that it's impossible to not feel it. Even when you're as semi-conscious as I usually am. In any financial market periodic corrections, as they're called, are not an automatic cause for panic. Unless you yourself were playing the odds and banking on the bubble.
 

1397

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2014, 04:09 PM »

Interesting article posted on Lawfare regarding Snowden and some reasoned speculation on how the Russian game strategy appears to be changing...

Is Putin Selling Out Edward Snowden?

By Benjamin Wittes
Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 5:24 PM

This is rank, arguably irresponsible, speculation. I have had no—that is to say zero—conversations with anyone who knows anything about Snowden’s status in Russia. I can thus offer no particularly good reason to believe that Vladimir Putin is getting ready to rid himself of Edward Snowden.

But would you take four bad reasons? When you put them all together, I think there’s enough there to make you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.
...

Are we heading for the endgame?

Read the full article here.

1398

Living Room / Re: Does anybody seriously think an e-book is still the better option most times?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2014, 03:52 PM »

Not by coincidence, he had also spent about 3 years moving all his investment money away from the US (he's from New Zealand and currently lives in Denmark) because he saw the collapse coming.

-Vurbal (August 02, 2014, 08:51 AM)

JOOC - which collapse are you referring to?

1399

Living Room / Re: Does anybody seriously think an e-book is still the better option most times?

« Last post by 40hz on August 01, 2014, 08:31 PM »

^ True, but not a legitimate reason for me to compromise my morals - no matter how satisfying that might feel.

-Vurbal (August 01, 2014, 05:35 PM)

The only problem with that is that there's a legion of abusers of trust and decency who are counting on the rest of us "to not be like that" or "be better than that." Truth is, their continued existence absolutely depends on it.  

But whatever works best for each of us. Morals are a very personal thing. At the end of the day you still have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror. And there's no putting a price tag on a good night's sleep.

(FWIW I myself sleep like a baby! )

1400

Living Room / Re: Does anybody seriously think an e-book is still the better option most times?

« Last post by 40hz on August 01, 2014, 05:17 PM »

I'm not saying it's reasonable, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be fair.

-Vurbal (August 01, 2014, 04:54 PM)

Since when does being reasonable enter into the formula when you're dealing with two-faced slimeball companies? Especially the ones that sre supposedly in business "For OUR children!!!" <*evil grin*>