Recent Posts

2751

Living Room / Re: Manning Verdict in: guilty on all counts but one

« Last post by Renegade on August 19, 2013, 02:05 AM »

Manning's 'torture' sounds like a watered down version of Marine Corp training at Camp Pendleton in the day when volunteers had enough pride and self-discipline to want to tough it out instead of drowning in self-pity.

-hhdawrs (August 19, 2013, 01:42 AM)

He was put in solitary, stripped naked, and woken up once an hour "to ensure his safety". Sleep deprivation will do very bizarre things to people. But I don't know much more than that.

Might have helped him when you consider his waffling on what gender he is.

-hhdawrs (August 19, 2013, 01:42 AM)

I don't see how that would have anything to do with a bunch of grown men stuck around other grown men wanting to strip another grown man down buck naked, then throw him in a small, confined cell where they can watch him. Seems kind of perverse to me.

The quoted sources are obviously biased.

-hhdawrs (August 19, 2013, 01:42 AM)

I think it's pretty hard to find unbiased sources. Reading through a broad cross-section of sources helps to get a better picture. e.g. Adding in Press TV and similar sources helps. AP and Reuters are pretty much clones of each other.

2752

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

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 10:28 PM »

This is rather long, so I won't post a quote, but it's a list of non-stop surveillance insanity:

http://www.washingto...ng-on-americans.html

2753

Living Room / Re: Manning Verdict in: guilty on all counts but one

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 10:23 PM »

Hi, Renegade

I wasn't aware Manning had been tortured.  Can you point me to the details?  BTW, "some of my best friends are Australians", from the years 'Razorback Railway', a great rail sim was programmed by Larry Lewis until it just got too frustrating and costly trying to work with 'Steam' et al  :

-hhdawrs (August 18, 2013, 10:01 PM)

Really? I kind of thought that it was common knowledge. Lots of stories on it in the MSM and alternative media as well:

http://www.theguardi...inhuman-treatment-un
http://rt.com/usa/br...ning-torture-un-727/

Tonnes more out there as well.

https://duckduckgo.c...dley+manning+torture

However, if you ask his captors, nothing they do is torture. They just define whatever they like as "not torture". I saw an interview with a former Navy Seal who was water boarded as part of his training, and was clear that water boarding is torture, which according to US "authorities", isn't. Go figure.

2754

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

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 08:35 PM »

Lunchtime scholars!

(via - MOAR hilarity that will make you cry!)

2755

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 06:05 PM »

Whoever made this one must know Renegade:
 (see attachment in previous post)
 

-40hz (August 18, 2013, 11:26 AM)

Hahahaha!

I saw that and considered posting it, but held off.

But, while you're bringing up the topic, here's a bit of satire I posted over at /r/whowillbuildtheroads:

Satire

http://www.reddit.co...rian_cross_the_road/

2756

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome’s insane password security strategy

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 06:00 PM »

...Yes I've been drinking. 

-Stoic Joker (August 18, 2013, 01:07 PM)

It's the only option left to deal with reality for people that have a clue.

2757

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

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 05:59 PM »

"David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act."
...This whole "free press" and "free speech" thing is just a thing of the past.

-dr_andus (August 18, 2013, 04:49 PM)

Shameful. Just goes to show that it's not just the US that is thoroughly corrupt. The US just has more freedom than most places and needs to be "dealt" with more.

2758

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

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 06:53 AM »

More hilarity - Oath Keepers is running ads in Washington District of Criminals:

http://www.usnews.co...ts-unrepentant-obama

...

A photograph of President Barack Obama is bracketed by red panels that say "Truth Is Treason" and "Big Brother Is Watching."

Last month the group posted three ads inside the Pentagon Metro stop, encouraging workers with access to classified information to "expose unconstitutional actions."

The Pentagon ads enraged some workers, including one man interviewed by WJLA-TV. "[Snowden] should be crucified," the man said.

2759

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

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 06:07 AM »

Future of graduates:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-Giampy (August 18, 2013, 04:08 AM)

BWAHAHAHAHA~!

That is so true!

I was just reading an article and it had a bunch of people whining about losing research funding and how they had useless degrees, can't get a job, etc. etc.

It got even funnier when one fellow was complaining about how now that he had no grant money (all of which comes from tax payers), he couldn't hire RAs, pay for equipment, etc. etc., and how that killed jobs and created unemployment!

I wonder if I can get grants for my gambling addiction? Like, it helps employ dealers, waitresses, bartenders, hookers, cab drivers, etc. etc. I contribute a lot to the economy! By not funding my gambling addiction, they're destroying jobs! hahahahahah~!

2760

Living Room / Re: Hacker Posts About FB Flaw to Zuckerberg's Wall (gets way worse)

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 01:44 AM »

Does Zuckerberg Like this?

: )

-TaoPhoenix (August 18, 2013, 12:59 AM)

  Dunno, but I do!

2761

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on August 18, 2013, 01:43 AM »

I just watched Brave New World again:



http://www.imdb.com/...600/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

There are a few versions of it.

http://www.imdb.com/...+new+world&s=all

The movie was quite good. I read the book so long ago that I don't remember a huge amount though - just the main talking points.

2762

Living Room / Hacker Posts About FB Flaw to Zuckerberg's Wall (gets way worse)

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 11:28 PM »

This is funny!

http://rt.com/news/f...cker-zuckerberg-621/

A Palestinian information system expert says he was forced to post a bug report on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page after the social network’s security team failed to recognize that a critical vulnerability he found allows anyone to post on someone's wall.

The vulnerability, which was reported by a man calling himself ‘Khalil,’ allows any Facebook user to post anything on the walls of other users - even when those users are not included in their list of friends. He reported the vulnerability through Facebook’s security feedback page, which offered a minimum reward of US$500 for each real security bug report.

...

After receiving the third bug report, a Facebook security engineer finally admitted the vulnerability but said that Khalil won’t be paid for reporting it because his actions violated the website’s security terms of service.

Summary:

• Buddy reports bug to security team
• Security team tells him to piss off
• Posts to Zuckerberg's wall
• Security team won't pay reward for bug that they refused to listen to

Just all around it's wonky. The part that I found the worst was the reward part. It's just really douchey.

This is exactly why security experts should instead of reporting bugs to companies, should just sell exploits to criminals. If companies won't act in good faith, why should any security experts?

2763

General Software Discussion / Chrome’s insane password security strategy

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 10:55 PM »

Judge for yourself if this link:

chrome://settings/passwords

Is what you think of when you think of password management and security.

http://blog.elliottk...rd-security-strategy

I'm not going to quote the article - visit it - it has several screenshots and whatnot, and I'm too lazy to replicate the article here.

It's a good read. Do check out some of the links at the bottom of the article as well. e.g. Wired's response is basically, "Shut up. This is normal."

2764

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 10:19 PM »

Good article over at Techdirt on "corporate seppuku":

http://www.techdirt....seppuku-pledge.shtml

Who Will Take The Privacy Seppuku Pledge?

from the after-you dept

When Techdirt wrote recently about yet another secure email provider opting to close down its service rather than acquiesce in some future US government demand to spy on its users, we noted that Cryptocloud has promised something similar for a while -- what it terms "corporate seppuku":

Check there for more and links to other stuff.

It's a good question. It basically asks you to come forward if you have any decent principles. i.e. Don't expect many companies to do so.

Crypto-cat and Cryptocloud are the only 2 to do so as of yet. I hope more get on board.

I think Patrick Henry came up with the most popularly cited precursor to "corporate seppuku":

Give me liberty, or give me death.

https://en.wikipedia...ty,_or_give_me_Death!

Longer version

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

2765

Living Room / Re: Google Goes Dark for Two Minutes. Panic Ensues.

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:27 PM »

Ads and tracking add no value at all for the user. They are actually negative value. Google's hosting of jquery or whatever is just more tracking, and nothing any site can't do itself.

-Renegade (August 17, 2013, 08:57 PM)

Yes, you can do it yourself, but by tapping into the codebase that google provides, you save yourself quite a bit of maintenance, which points to what it provides for the end user in those cases; using a shared library means that if there are any security updates, the sites that use the codebase directly from there are exposed for less time.

Not agreeing one way or the other... just pointing that out.

-wraith808 (August 17, 2013, 09:10 PM)

They certainly add value for site operators.

But for things like shared libraries stored on high-bandwidth CDNs and whatever, any benefit for the user is marginal. If a site can't load the 43 kb of jquery in addition to the images and everything else from the site, a CDN for jquery isn't going to help at all. For security, well, that's a two-edged sword. Users have less security and less privacy to start with by virtue of sites using shared libraries, so how does that balance out? My bet is that the small worry of an exploit in jquery (or whatever) is by far outweighed by the guaranteed loss of security and privacy from shared libraries.

I guess this goes back to all those fights we saw a decade or so ago about cookies and privacy. The pro-cookie side cited technical functionality while the anti-cookie side looked at the bigger picture. The big picture seems to be more important today, or perhaps it might be better to say "more obvious today".

2766

Living Room / Re: *Email privacy and security survey*

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:18 PM »

Yep. And that's where people like me fit into the picture. Without users who are at least reasonably competent how can developers get useful feedback? There's just too much trial and error on both sides which can only be solved if they meet in the middle. Lots of developers are already there waiting. The public, on the other hand, needs some herding.

-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 01:49 PM)

There's only so much that tech-savvy people can do. "Herding" needs to be done at the application level with easier setup and usage.

If secure communications were as easy to use as email, that would be half the battle won. The rest would only be marketing.

It's not just email either. To paraphrase one of my favorite (made up) Einstein quotes, we cannot solve our problems using the same thinking that created them.

Email, passwords, and even independent security authorities are obsolete. They're modeled on outdated corporate processes and technical limitations that no longer apply. Building replacements requires a completely different perspective based on current needs and technology. It's sort of like the transition from horseless carriages to cars.

-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 01:49 PM)

I like that 'quote'.

They've in part made themselves obsolete by collaborating with the enemy. It's as sad as it is pathetic.

2767

Living Room / Re: Google Goes Dark for Two Minutes. Panic Ensues.

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 08:57 PM »

Google really adds no value to any site for any user.

-Renegade (August 17, 2013, 12:19 PM)

Umm ok. That's quite a blanket (and silly) statement.

-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 06:47 PM)

Ads and tracking add no value at all for the user. They are actually negative value. Google's hosting of jquery or whatever is just more tracking, and nothing any site can't do itself.

Just WHAT value does Google add to any site for any user?

2768

Living Room / Re: Google Goes Dark for Two Minutes. Panic Ensues.

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 12:19 PM »

Big deal, right?

The problem is that so many webpages hit Google themselves (for analytics and what not), so even if you weren't trying to get to Google or Google's apps directly, there's still a very good chance that the sites you were trying to access didn't work very well.

-mwb1100 (August 17, 2013, 11:55 AM)

Probably not. I've blocked a lot of Google domains at the DNS level, and they all work just fine. Google really adds no value to any site for any user.

2769

Living Room / Re: Scandalous Intel

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 11:43 AM »

I doubt anyone would be that foolish to screw with the mobile market. It's too big, too profitable, and there's too much scrutiny in it. The desktop market is by comparison a bastard, red-headed, deformed stepchild that the industry pundits prefer to ignore. Well, you know what I mean. They pay lip service once in a while, but the desktop is mostly ignored. The mobile market profit margins are insane. Nobody will screw with that for now, or at least until mobile hardware becomes a commodity, which the industry is colluding together to prevent from happening. And yes... it is a conspiracy to milk you of as much $$$ as possible. Look into it. Don't believe me. Check for yourself.

2770

Living Room / Re: *Email privacy and security survey*

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 11:32 AM »

The other side of the problem is the solution providers. As someone has already noted, self signed security like PGP can be hard to trust but third party providers are inherently risky as well. Even if they're trustworthy, they represent single points of vulnerability which can impact everybody everywhere. A web of trust is the only solution to both problems but it needs to involve the industry players as well.

-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 11:06 AM)

And that's EXACTLY why I'm hopeful for Bitmessage to sort its problems and enter the arena of strong encryption that we can trust.

There are a couple big problems the way I see it, and they're not specific to email. The first is simplicity and useability. For ordinary people something like PGP is obviously way too complicated - not because it's actually that hard but because it has the appearance of difficulty. Honestly, though, even something relatively simple like just going to Comodo and getting a free SSL certificate is just as intimidating.

-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 11:06 AM)

This is the biggest problem right now.

While I *could* get it working for *ME*... doesn't mean jack if other people aren't on board.

The barrier is a function of difficulty, tech savviness, broad adoption, and willingness to use it. And willingness is a function of "how damn long will this take me to get it running, and who can I use it with?" Blah blah, etc. etc.

I've had a bitch of a time trying to get other people to use Jitsi with me. So far I've got 1 (one) friend to use Jitsi with me. And half the time we end up on Skype. Jitsi is great, but it ain't prime time yet.

Then there's email... hopeless. It's just total dog s4!+.

2771

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:54 AM »

OT: I would quickly need a simple translation from English to German. Is there a German guy ready to help me?

-Giampy (August 17, 2013, 08:13 AM)

I don't speak German, but I know that if you need something translated, it helps to say what it is. e.g. I would translate a software interface/docs, but I wouldn't translate a medical text, etc.

2772

Living Room / Re: *Email privacy and security survey*

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:52 AM »

Also, almost no one I write to uses it or wants to be bothered. 

-cyberdiva (August 17, 2013, 09:20 AM)

And my guess there is because it's too darn hard to get working and email is broken anyways.

2773

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:51 AM »

^^

short of extended incarceration

I like how they say that twice. "We're not going to prison for you." Very reasonable!  (Do read the rest - I've taken that out of context there.)

2774

Living Room / Re: Google Goes Dark for Two Minutes. Panic Ensues.

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 09:45 AM »

They were updating the NSA's backdoor is my call...

-wraith808 (August 17, 2013, 09:31 AM)

Hahahah!  

I suppose that I'm sort of tired of Google and whatnot. My reaction to the outage was, "meh."

2775

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on August 17, 2013, 08:08 AM »

Shades mentioned a film in another thread:

https://www.donation....msg334759#msg334759

I'd not seen "Soylent Green" before. Good flick. Reminds me of how Pepsi develops their flavours. (I don't drink anything from Pepsi - ever.)