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Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by Renegade on July 02, 2014, 01:24 AM »Your next driver's license picture... 
Long image - spoiler to save space
Recent Posts
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The technology is based around a patented process which embeds tiny quantum dots into products during a 3D printing process, so that their manufacturers can detect counterfeits. The quantum dots are embedded in such a way that they create an unclonable signature of sorts. Only the manufacturers of the products which have these signatures embedded, know what they should be, making it easy for them to detect illegal copies. Such a security feature would work well within a variety of markets
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Also sorry if you don't want to chat with me any more about this.
I get that same response from a lot of people I know - although most of them seem to be self-professed "conservatives - and damn proud of it" types.
Guess the futher out on the distribution curve things get, the more they start acting and sounding the same.
Whoulda thunk?-40hz (July 01, 2014, 02:14 PM)
There's really nothing but us behaving badly towards each other. More often than not for no reason other than habit - and because "We can!"-40hz (July 01, 2014, 12:02 PM)
That said, I just learned about DuckDNS last night. Folks here may want to look into that if they need an alternative.-Deozaan (July 01, 2014, 03:35 PM)
This sucks though. Dyn recently got rid of their free dynamic DNS service too, forcing everyone to go paid or go elsewhere.
With no-ip having long been a second most popular option, that's both of the big players in the dynamic DNS arena being down simultaneously.-SeraphimLabs (July 01, 2014, 12:54 PM)
I pay for DynDNS and it's been a good enough value that I consider it worth the price.-Deozaan (July 01, 2014, 03:35 PM)
Mt. Gox, AFAIK was shut down because DHS filed for "probable cause" that Mt. Gox was transferring money illegally.-40hz (July 01, 2014, 12:26 PM)
Here's Microsoft's take:
- http://blogs.technet...ware-disruption.aspx-mwb1100 (July 01, 2014, 12:30 PM)
Playing offense against cybercriminals is what drives me and everyone here at the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit.
We’re taking No-IP to task as the owner of infrastructure frequently exploited by cybercriminals
On June 19, Microsoft filed for an ex parte temporary restraining order (TRO) from the U.S. District Court for Nevada against No-IP. On June 26, the court granted our request and made Microsoft the DNS authority for the company’s 23 free No-IP domains, allowing us to identify and route all known bad traffic to the Microsoft sinkhole and classify the identified threats.
As malware authors continue to pollute the Internet, domain owners must act responsibly by monitoring for and defending against cybercrime on their infrastructure.
We also worked with A10 Networks, leveraging Microsoft Azure, to configure a sophisticated system to manage the high volume of computer connections generated by botnets such as Bladabindi-Jenxcus.
We’re taking No-IP to task...
However, if not properly managed, a free Dynamic DNS service like No-IP can hold top-rank among abused domains.
However, if not properly managed, an operating system like Windows can hold top-rank among abused operating systems.
Our research revealed that out of all Dynamic DNS providers, No-IP domains are used 93 percent of the time...
Our research revealed that out of all operating systems, Windows operating systems are used 93 percent of the time...
The following post is from Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit.
Brown or otherwise.-40hz (July 01, 2014, 11:28 AM)
Kuwait finance firm suggests trading oil in bitcoins
Oil producing countries, particularly in the GCC, could benefit if they would use bitcoin in oil trading, instead of dollars, Markaz’ research department argues.
There have been a number of proposals in the past to trade oil and gas in another currency than the US dollar, for political as well as for monetary reasons. Some OPEC member states not particularly friendly to the US, whenever there was a crisis of some sort, have been making repeated noise about denominating their price for hydrocarbons in another than the US currency, but have never quite managed to agree on an alternative.
The most active countries today that pursue a no-dollars-for-oil policy are Iran, which encourages all trading partners to pay for oil in a currency other than the US dollar, and Russia, whose flagship company Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world, recently told oil importers from China and Japan that they should pay their bills not with greenbacks, but preferably with yen, yuan or even ruble.
But a new report (Disruptive Technology: Bitcoins, Currency Reinvented?) recently issued by Kuwait-based investment banking and asset management firm Kuwait Financial Centre, also known as Markaz, even goes a step further: Oil producing countries, particularly in the GCC, could benefit if they would use bitcoin in oil trading, Markaz’ research department argues.
This comes a bit as a surprise, since bitcoin as an unregulated and — as of now — highly volatile cryptocurrency, has no manifestation other than bits and bytes stored somewhere in the virtual space and seems not to be the most reliable means of trade for the world’s most sought-after commodity. The idea is not new, though: There has been an Internet debate about one year ago on what would happen if the Opec would adopt bitcoin as transaction currency. The outcome: Firstly, the US would certainly not sit and watch the dollar losing its petrocurrency status and would do whatever needs to be done to defend the greenback; secondly, China wouldn’t allow it as it wants the yuan to be a petrocurrency as well; thirdly, in the moment oil and gas gets priced in bitcoins, it would be exposed to the cryptocurrency’s extreme volatility with massive consequences and fiscal uncertainties for petroleum-exporting countries. Speculators had a wide and anonymous field to play.
So what did Markaz actually mean? They basically said that using bitcoins would save payment transaction costs for oil exporting countries, because sending and receiving bitcoins of any denomination is just a matter of seconds and costs next to nothing. For the clearance of oil payments through conventional banks, exporting countries currently have to wait one to three days and pay the usual banking fees.
But just for saving some transaction time and costs, would the GCC, where the oil industry currently accounts for 90% of exports and 75% of government revenue, as per Markaz’ own research, really be wise to channel these massive money flows through bitcoin clearing houses, which are, as per their nature, unregulated, work with open source codes and can get — at recent history shows — easily hacked and digitally robbed? This is open for debate.
Before any barrel will ever be paid for in bitcoins, it will be the Chinese yuan that has taken on the role as the dollar’s challenger. China already pays Russia’s and Iran’s oil in yuan and is busy setting up yuan clearing houses in major financial centres all over the world to facilitate the global money flow of its currency. This is, for now, probably a much better solution until the world knows what will rally happen to bitcoin.
I think there's more "geek marketing" lurking behind that "decision" than anything else.-40hz (July 01, 2014, 10:54 AM)
But what happens when governments do a Mt. Gox on the rest of the Bitcoin exchanges?-40hz (July 01, 2014, 06:13 AM)
Who do the exchanges call for help then? The vast and well-organized libertarian-anarcho community?-40hz (July 01, 2014, 06:13 AM)
Bitcoin doesn't continue in spite of government. It continues at the sufferance of governments, which are still examining Bitcoin for ways it can be turned to their advantage. If it proves useful, they'll co-opt it. If not (and it becomes a threat) they'll snuff it without so much as breaking a sweat.-40hz (July 01, 2014, 06:13 AM)
It continues at the sufferance of governments-40hz (July 01, 2014, 06:13 AM)
Wish it were otherwise. But as long as you're still running on their fiber, wires, airwaves, and backbone - you're their pooch.-40hz (July 01, 2014, 06:13 AM)
We want to update all our loyal customers about the service outages that many of you are experiencing today. It is not a technical issue. This morning, Microsoft served a federal court order and seized 22 of our most commonly used domains because they claimed that some of the subdomains have been abused by creators of malware.
Wellllll... now we know of at least one more company that is securely in the spook's pocket. I mean, they wouldn't ask if it weren't a concern, right?. And it wouldn't be a concern unless...
I'll let you flip on that light bulb yourself.-Edvard (June 30, 2014, 11:56 PM)
And it wouldn't be a concern unless...-Edvard (June 30, 2014, 11:56 PM)
I did understand the point. The definition of anarchy that you are using apparently includes the principle of non-agression.-IainB (July 01, 2014, 02:35 AM)
You'd probably need to architect the thing with everyone's agreement though, otherwise a lot of innocent people will probably have to die in the revolutionary process.-IainB (June 21, 2014, 11:18 PM)
Paypal Freezes ProtonMail Campaign Funds
July 1, 2014 Andy Yen News & Articles
This morning, we received an email and telephone call from PayPal notifying us that our account has been restricted pending further review. At this time, it is not possible for ProtonMail to receive or send funds through PayPal. No attempt was made by PayPal to contact us before freezing our account, and no notice was given.
2014-06-30_202409
Like many others, we have all heard the PayPal horror stories, but didn’t actually think it would happen to us on our campaign since PayPal promised, very recently, to improve their policies. Unfortunately, it seems those were hollow promises as ProtonMail is now the latest in a long string of crowdfunding campaigns to be hit with account freezes. (For examples, just look here, here, and here).
While the $275,000 ProtonMail has raised in the past 2 weeks is a large amount, it pales in comparison to many other crowdfunding campaigns that have raised sums in excess of $1,000,000 so we can’t help but wonder why ProtonMail was singled out. When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whether ProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails. We are not sure which government PayPal is referring to, but even the 4th Amendment of the US constitution guarantees:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….”
It seems PayPal is trying to come up with ANY excuse they can to prevent us from receiving funds.
2014-06-30_205105
As a result, we have disabled PayPal as a payment option on our campaign page, but it is still possible contribute with credit card and Bitcoin. Please help us get the word out there as by bringing attention to this issue, we may be able to convince PayPal to do the right thing. And if anybody from PayPal is listening, we’ve emailed and called today, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.
@Renegade: Oh, sorry. I see what you meant, now. I wonder whether just swapping one religio-political ideology and system - one of government - for another - one of general anarchy - would be likely to generate much the same result as the above revolutions?
It would be interesting to find out. You'd probably need to architect the thing with everyone's agreement though, otherwise a lot of innocent people will probably have to die in the revolutionary process.
A new kind of "new world order"?
Hmm...-IainB (June 21, 2014, 11:18 PM)
Paypal Freezes ProtonMail Campaign Funds
July 1, 2014 Andy Yen News & Articles
This morning, we received an email and telephone call from PayPal notifying us that our account has been restricted pending further review. At this time, it is not possible for ProtonMail to receive or send funds through PayPal. No attempt was made by PayPal to contact us before freezing our account, and no notice was given.
2014-06-30_202409
Like many others, we have all heard the PayPal horror stories, but didn’t actually think it would happen to us on our campaign since PayPal promised, very recently, to improve their policies. Unfortunately, it seems those were hollow promises as ProtonMail is now the latest in a long string of crowdfunding campaigns to be hit with account freezes. (For examples, just look here, here, and here).
While the $275,000 ProtonMail has raised in the past 2 weeks is a large amount, it pales in comparison to many other crowdfunding campaigns that have raised sums in excess of $1,000,000 so we can’t help but wonder why ProtonMail was singled out. When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whether ProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails. We are not sure which government PayPal is referring to, but even the 4th Amendment of the US constitution guarantees:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….”
It seems PayPal is trying to come up with ANY excuse they can to prevent us from receiving funds.
2014-06-30_205105
As a result, we have disabled PayPal as a payment option on our campaign page, but it is still possible contribute with credit card and Bitcoin. Please help us get the word out there as by bringing attention to this issue, we may be able to convince PayPal to do the right thing. And if anybody from PayPal is listening, we’ve emailed and called today, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.
Actually, I'm amazed governments weren't in on this from day one. What an ideal way to fund covert activities and black ops. Or handlebribescampaign contributions. They've turned a blind eye toward (or at the very least tolerated) numbered Swiss bank accounts, numerous Istituto per le Opere di Religione shenanigans, and offshore banks for that very reason. So much easier to transact with than blood diamonds too.
Maybe these "democratic" governments need to rethink their position on crypto-currencies. Ya think?-40hz (June 30, 2014, 08:48 AM)
How is the one you mentioned that had the bit on sugar?
http://www.ucsusa.org/-ewemoa (June 30, 2014, 03:30 AM)
(The sugar post was interesting though! I appreciated that!) This isn't about solving anything, this is all about effecting a body count to make it look like something is being done.-Stoic Joker (June 30, 2014, 06:57 AM)
Sad part is, none of this is going to bother real spammers. Not that reducing real spam was what this new law was about to begin with.-40hz (June 30, 2014, 07:15 AM)
I'm a little surprised at the reaction to this - I would have guessed that DCer's would generally be in favor of tough anti-spam laws.-mwb1100 (June 30, 2014, 12:23 AM)
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Speaking of Bitcoin... If you don't know it already, I recommend checking out PurseIO (no referral!).
It provide two services:
- A way to spend bitcoins on Amazon, with an incentive/discount
- A way for who haven't bitcoins to acquire them, using a familiar environment (Amazon!), paying with a CC, for a premium
It's basically a marketplace for Amazon whishlists, and it works perfectly.
You create a wishlist on Amazon, copy&paste the link to create an offer on PurseIO, and select the markup that will be your discount, and put the corresponding bitcoins in escrow. It takes 2 minutes.
Then if/when someone find the price & markup reasonable, they'll buy the item from Amazon for you. When you'll receive it and confirm, the bitcoins will be released.
I just tried some days ago with something small (a Chromecast), with a 16% discount, and it all went perfectly.
No need to wait for Amazon to accept bitcoins!-Mark0 (June 30, 2014, 04:49 AM)
