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Recent Posts

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3101
Living Room / NSA Can't Search Emails Of Agency Employees
« Last post by Renegade on July 23, 2013, 08:28 PM »
MOAR from the "you-can't-make-this-up" department:

http://www.huffingto...8.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? The agency says it doesn't have the technology.

"There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately," NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week.

The system is "a little antiquated and archaic," she added.

I filed a request last week for emails between NSA employees and employees of the National Geographic Channel over a specific time period. The TV station had aired a friendly documentary on the NSA and I want to better understand the agency's public-relations efforts.

Antiquated?

Archaic?

Seriously?

Not sure about you, but this just seems a bit "convenient" to me.
3102
If you love babies, you might like/hate this. :P

http://newsthump.com...olutely-killing-him/

“And the words coming out of her mouth.  My word. If I hadn’t seen the background check with my own eyes I’d be pretty sure she’d dated a sailor.”

“Have I what? No, I haven’t looked ‘downstairs’ and I have no intention of doing so. It’s going to be out of action for a while I’d imagine.”

More at the link. :P
3103
Don't click if you can't take a joke. :P

French Army Knife
968863_10151767248324297_1352382250_n.jpg

3104
Dammit xtabber! I didn't want to spend any more money than I have to and I'm a complete sucker for O'Reilly 50% off sales... sigh... Thanks for emptying my wallet! :P :D
3105
Defund NSA Surveillance: A critical vote is happening tomorrow, July 24th, on the Defense Appropriations Bill in the House of Representatives. The bill gives taxpayer money to fund defense programs, including NSA surveillance.

Defund the NSA (misnamed, but oh well), and a link to HR-2397.

Why stop there? :P

^Ok...and now that it's out of the closet

Ok, ok... I'll go back to my closet in the Basement... :P :D
3106
Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 09:34 PM »
...They've been made a restricted import in Australia due to the mentally deficient pointing them at aircraft approaching Sydney International. ...
Really? Had they been shown to be mentally deficient?    :tellme:
Are these people also allowed to vote and drive cars?

It's actually worse than 4wd has described.

A couple weeks ago I had to get some photocopies certified as originals, which meant a trip to the local police station to have that done. Browsing around the counter, I saw a laminated sheet of "prohibited/illegal weapons". And yep - you guessed it... laser pointers are "weapons".  :huh:

I suppose the millions of hollowed out carcasses of crashed airplanes serve as testament to the dangers of laser pointers. :P
3107
Living Room / Re: Computers Outlawed in Florida
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 09:11 PM »
Real online anonymity is pretty much a thing of the past although 'stealthing' or 'cloaking' your presence is still a possibility. About the closest I think you could come to "cloaking' your internet use would be to hack into some poorly secured broadband router (there are still many of them) via wifi and browse around using somebody else's IP address.

But you'd also need to spoof your MAC address and any other identifiable machine/OS information - and make sure no traces of anything actually hit your hard drive during your online session before you could feel even semi-cloaked. That means booting a verified "stealth" Linux OS from a USB key or disk - ideally on a used PC without a hard drive - which you bought from a complete stranger or built from used parts - which you paid cash for.

AFAIK, your MAC address isn't broadcast through a browser, but is identifiable by the router. If using a trusted VPN and TOR, finding that router is nigh unto impossible. But still... remotely possible.

But a wireless USB device could serve to replace the MAC address there, and is far cheaper to replace (or easier to conceal) than a full laptop.

Is that about right?
3108
Living Room / Re: Extracting Audio from Pictures
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 08:46 PM »
Nifty! Reminds me of those super-thin 1-sided vinyl records that you used to get in books or magazines. Anyone remember those? :)
3109
Living Room / Re: DonationCoder Recipe Sharing Thread
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 08:43 PM »
@tinman - Hahahaha! Information overload!

Which one(s) have you tried, or which one(s) would you recommend? Especially for my first attempt?
3110
Now time was when this sort of behavior would be considered a form of state sponsored terror. But "terrorism" is what other nations, and political groups, and police and military forces do - not us.

What we do is "shock and awe." Because we say that's what it is we do.

Anybody got a problem with that?

Yes. ;)

There's a difference between places like North Korea and the US.

In North Korea, the totalitarian state is so utterly and openly oppressive that nobody dare speak out or step out of line.

In the US, people are mostly brainwashed into not speaking or stepping out of line, and they stay in line willingly as their capacity to question has been removed, thanks to a wonderfully effective propaganda machine. However, it is still possible to do so with a much lower risk than in North Korea.

AN UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTION

I rather doubt that there are many people here that regularly donate to support the KKK, Stormfront, al-Qaeda, or other similarly sinister organisations. That's probably because supporting evil is evil.

What does that then say when people support wars of aggression (and all the other nastiness) done in their names?

An older reference, but still very relevant:

https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Not_in_Our_Name

Full text of the Not in Our Name Pledge of Resistance

We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government, in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples
or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will
and Not in our name

We pledge resistance
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real




The more people that withdraw their support for the criminal systems that we now have, the sooner we won't have these criminal systems. The biggest problem is not "out there", the biggest problem is in our minds. If everyone simply walked away from it, it would cease to exist.
3112
Living Room / Re: Build your own 3-D printer!
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 07:22 AM »
 I remember buying a cheap DMP for about $500 way back after the prices came down. :P  So, yeah - round about that range or so.
3113
Living Room / Re: Build your own 3-D printer!
« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2013, 03:21 AM »
Wonder how log it will take prices to drop to inkjet proportions?
-Carol Haynes (July 22, 2013, 03:17 AM)

Crossing my fingers for that one. I'd love to get one.
3114
Developer's Corner / Re: Anyone on Mac Mountain Lion (Urgent)?
« Last post by Renegade on July 21, 2013, 09:57 PM »
I'm not sure what you're talking about. The OS upgrade? I've got my mac on 10.8 now. Upgrading was, well, I managed to get it done. It only took like 3 days or so.
3115
I think it really depends on the audience.  More techy people like those at DC are going to want features and a breakdown- while those that are more removed from the computers to I just want to use it won't.

I don't mean to say "don't list features", but rather instead of *focusing* on features, focus on the benefits and how it will make life easier for people.

A lot of sites have those box-styled feature pages where they have a graphic for each feature with a name and perhaps 1 sentence. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're really useless. However, the basic idea is good. They generally describe the benefit in the description.

Excellent examples of just how piss poor most are can be found in server software. They list all kind of things, but don't bother to mention what OS or web server they work with. Lack of detail and lots of fluff.

But fluff works for a lot of people. And it's great as a starting point. It's not great for those who want/need more information when that's all there is.

That block format is easily improved by adding detailed descriptions that can be expanded or that link to a dedicated page.
3116
Jerk! That was the receiving end. You were blocking other people from coming in! ;)

for future reference, this is what the sending unit looks like (see attachment in previous post)

BWAHAHA~! :D

But if we must have toilet humour, might as well find out who the butt of the joke is... :P


3118
There are a lot of people who seem to think that putting off disclosing their price sheet until the last possible moment is a sharp sales strategy. It isn't. It's just annoying.

+1

My rule of thumb is that if there's no price on it, I can't afford it. Then I move one.

3119
SO, is that an advocation for anarchy?


Yes. I'm out of the closet on that. :P


Even when there *is* no system, the people will still gravitate towards the stronger dominating the weaker.  It will just be more chaotic.  It's unfortunately human nature.  So at least with a codified rule of law, its less so.

I think you have a flawed perception of what anarchism is. Here is a very short list of a few people to look into that can help clarify things:

Larken Rose
Stefan Molyneux
Doug Casey
Jeff Berwick
Noam Chomsky

Lots more out there.

Just look at your daily life and how for the vast majority of things you do not require some nanny to guide/force you do get things done without going postal. THAT is human nature - we are inherently peaceful and cooperative. Hobbes was an asshole. :P

Blaming the system strikes me as being almost nihilistic.

Not in the least bit. People tend to have a very skewed perception of anarchism/voluntaryism, and it isn't what most people think.

For the simplest view of it, just look into the non-aggression principle.

Because if all/any systems are problematic then it really doesn't leave any room for improvement.

Not at all. The assumption there that you've made but not articulated is that the system must be artificial or intentional. It is perfectly well possible to have spontaneous order that isn't directed by corrupt and criminal politicians.

Some hierarchical order of responsibility is necessary if the "page" that everyone is to be on is to be kept track of. However...

Why must there be an accounting system? Why keep track of everything? Why must everything be "controlled"?

We don't need hierarchies of criminality to steal from us or kidnap and imprison peaceful people for doing nothing wrong.

However...

The "government" is nothing but a group of people running the show.  That group of people have turned out to be the elite "in crowd".  They are mostly people that have been groomed for their positions all their lives, like the Bush's, like father, like son....

It also strikes me that a large part of said "grooming" process consists of a deeply ingrained sense of entitlement, a disconnected and rarefied sense of reality, and a reflexive need to gravitate towards big picture thinking. You see the individual is irrelevant by design in big picture logic ... and the realities of the damage caused to real individual people by a bad decision are carefully obscured.

Numerous atrocities have been committed in the name of "the greater good".

Charity that is obtained through force and coercion is nothing more than violence and fraud.

Here's the real big picture: We are slaves through our belief in a criminal system where fraud, theft, kidnapping, torture, murder, and mass murder are all justified one way or another.


These people are so distance from the realities of the life of the common that they can't help but screw up. A military example would be the difference between taking off in a plane, flying over a town, dropping a few bombs, and gong home again...and having to spend days on foot getting to a target, and then killing them face to face. Government, gets to be distances an even further degree, by merely needing to sign something that puts the wheels in motion, and then going on with their day.

BINGO!

Government is nothing more than than fraud, theft, kidnapping, torture, and mass murder by proxy. Today when you "support the troops", you are supporting mass murder by proxy. Tax is just theft by proxy.

It's no wonder these people constantly screw-up ... I could almost pity them if they weren't destroying our lives in the process.

If you can get on Jitsi, I have a reference that you might find interesting. I can't post it in public though.
3120
Gamer couple cuddling. :P

995698_348929028570683_374668981_n.jpg
3121
Back to robbing people with a multi-meme~! :P

993775_326381957492590_1059950025_n.jpg
3123
A friend of mine had his Windows laptop die and ended up left with only his Mac laptop. He's been complaining about missing SSC for a while now, so you're not alone. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd like to pass them on for my friend.
3125
Renegade: What about income tax in Monopoly?

That just shows that it's not *that* old. ;)

Well, to spoil the joke, the income tax dates to 1913, and Monopoly dates to the Great Depression.

And that would make this year the centennial of the income theft! :D :P

564610_555331284511604_1973845527_n.jpg

Yeah, it's pretty much like that. :P

577916_280774152053371_754521505_n.jpg

:P

"Oh, Renegade! You're just being silly!"

Silly is my middle name! :P

532895_561560153888717_1785448603_n.jpg

However, I can get even zanier with minimal effort! :D

Perhaps too zaney for some :P

941762_462249607196435_1217242314_n.jpg

:P

This one is particularly funny, but it helps to know who the two people there are:

931233_575181755859890_1217857292_n.jpg



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