Recent Posts

3351

Living Room / Re: E3 Day 3 Test driving 'Fantasia'

« Last post by 40hz on June 15, 2013, 08:13 AM »

I have mixed feelings about things like this in much the same way I have misgivings about things like music mash-ups.

From my wholly personal and arbitrary perspective, I think it provides people with a false sense of creativity, and has more in common with someone rearranging the place settings at a table, rather than cooking up a tasty meal.

I  think if it encourages and inspires someone to begin to create their own content (from their own resources, skills and ideas) it's great. But if it becomes its own thing, then it's just another variant of "air guitar" where somebody is pretending to be artistic when they're really not going much beyond being clever or entertaining.

But that's probably just me.

3352

Living Room / Bitmessage - a protocol for secure decentralized e-mail

« Last post by 40hz on June 15, 2013, 07:53 AM »

Just ran into this interesting item over at the CoinDesk website. It discusses a new method of implementing a decentralized e-mail system that encrypts and secures message content - and heavily obscures the sender/receiver addresses as well.

Sounds like a marriage made in heaven.

We’ve seen the impact that Bitcoin can have on the future of payments. But money is not the only area that the movement is influencing. Bitmessage is a protocol that implements some of the ideas of Bitcoin into communications.

Given the pressure on technology companies to cooperate with governments regarding services like email, those looking for a private way to communicate could find Bitmessage’s concept quite interesting.

We live in a time where cloud computing has become the norm for our digital services. That means that a lot of our information is actually stored in data centers scattered around the globe. This has provided us with convenience in the form of access to our data from anywhere. At the same time, however, we are losing a sense of control and security over our communications whether it is via chat, email or on social networks.

Enter Bitmessage:

Bitmessage is like Bitcoin in that it is a decentralized, peer-to-peer protocol. Unlike using an add-on component for email similar like Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), Bitmessage is a unified system that encrypts every message. The whole point of the platform is to keep your communications secure. And on top of that, it keeps secure the members of the communication: not only is the content of messages protected, but the sender and receiver of those messages is kept secret as well.

According to the official Bitmessage whitepaper, even those who use encryption standards such as PGP find it an overwhelming process. In this way, one can think about Bitmessage as a decentralized email server.

<more>

It's still too early in the game to see if this takes off. Or (more likely) if it's permitted to take off.

There's more to read at the Bitmessage wiki (https://bitmessage.org).

There's also an official whitepaper, written by Jonathan Warren, that gets into the nitty-gritty of how it works. You can download your own copy from this link.

This could get interesting...

3353

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 10:19 PM »

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin. - Hermann Hesse
---------------------------------

Almost finished rereading four books I originally read back in high school when I was on a Hermann Hesse kick:

Steppenwolf
Demian
Journey to the East
The Glass Bead Game

All excellent and (except for The Glass Bead Game) very fast reads. I still love this passage (especially the last two sentences) from the fictitious Treatise on the Steppenwolf found within the Steppenwolf story:

Now what we call "bourgeois," when regarded as an element always to be found in human life, is nothing else than the search for a balance. It is the striving after a mean between the countless extremes and opposites that arise in human conduct.

If we take any one of these coupled opposites, such as piety and profligacy, the analogy is immediately comprehensible. It is open to a man to give himself up wholly to spiritual views, to seeking after God, to the ideal of saintliness. On the other hand, he can equally give himself up entirely to the life of instinct, to the lusts of the flesh, and so direct all his efforts to the attainment of momentary pleasures. The one path leads to the saint, to the martyrdom of the spirit and surrender to God. The other path leads to the profligate, to the martyrdom of the flesh, the surrender to corruption.

Now it is between the two, in the middle of the road, that the bourgeois seeks to walk. He will never surrender himself either to lust or to asceticism. He will never be a martyr or agree to his own destruction. On the contrary, his ideal is not to give up but to maintain his own identity. He strives neither for the saintly nor its opposite. The absolute is his abhorrence. He may be ready to serve God, but not by giving up the fleshpots. He is ready to be virtuous, but likes to be easy and comfortable in this world as well. In short, his aim is to make a home for himself between two extremes in a temperate zone without violent storms and tempests; and in this he succeeds though it be at the cost of that intensity of life and feeling which an extreme life affords. A man cannot live intensely except at the cost of the self.

Now the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self (rudimentary as his may be). And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he does comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire. The bourgeois is consequently by nature a creature of weak impulses, anxious, fearful of giving himself away and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.  

3354

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 10:07 PM »

in the private sector it's pretty much impossible to put together a database as comprehensive as what the government can gather by force

-CWuestefeld (June 14, 2013, 07:52 PM)

True. But the private sector (insurance, credit reporting, medical, telcom, etc.) can freely collect personal information that it would (technically) require a court order for our government to gather - assuming government even had any legal authority to collect it to begin with.

So one insidious manifestation of our surveillance state is that the government to allows  the private sector to do the heavy lifting and routinely abuse our privacy. Which is why there's so much reluctance to provide any comprehensive privacy protections under law. The fact you don't have much privacy in the ironically named "private sector" is a goldmine for government snoops. Which is why (I believe) there never will be any meaningful privacy legislation passed on the federal level in this country.

Consider, Uncle Sam can't demand to know where you're spending your cash. And if he does you can always refuse to answer. But your credit card company and bank are very accommodating when Uncle comes calling and asking for information. And subpoenaing phone and credit records has been a routine part of police procedure for the last thirty years.

PRISM is the most egregious attempt on the part of our government to spy on its own citizens. But it's really only an additional and highly centralized version of something that's been going on with increasing intrusiveness in the USA since the start of the Cold War.

I think the main reason why PRISM finally was created was purely for efficiency. And because certain elements in our government are now firmly convinced that most Americans no longer care and have concluded they can finally get away with it.

And if they get away with it - or simply stonewall and hope the public will not be able to remain focused on the threat PRISM represents long enough - then we're all screwed.

Right now I'm waiting for a 'distraction' to be introduced.  

Maybe a major US military action in some other part of the world (like Syria)...or some crisis escalation with a major power like China. It worked for the Bush administration when our deployment into Iraq got everybody's mind off the Enron fiasco. Waving the flag is hard work. Especially when saying good-bye to loved ones who may not be coming back.

A similar 'distraction' could work the trick for this administration too. Right now my money is on Syria.

3355

Living Room / Re: 16K word sample of my sci-fi ebook, due on Amazon and B&N in October

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 09:35 PM »

@K - have you checked out this site yet? Once you've gotten it down to a final draft this might be worth considering. I just joined recently under their free option until I get a better feel for it. I can't really recommend or say how well it will ultimately work out since I'm a total noob there. But what I'm seeing looks pretty good so far.
 

3356

General Software Discussion / Re: *ALERT* Debian warns its users to remove the Debian Multimedia repository

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 09:27 PM »

Thanks for the headsup, 40hz.

-ewemoa (June 14, 2013, 09:11 PM)

You're welcome. But thanks is really due Heise Online's The H-Open site.   A daily must visit if you're at all into FOSS.
 

3357

Living Room / Re: 16K word sample of my sci-fi ebook, due on Amazon and B&N in October

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 07:44 PM »

@40hz, your name will be included under Proofreader's in "Acknowledgments" in next upload.

-kyrathaba (June 14, 2013, 07:06 PM)

Thx! But shouldn't that be 4wd and not me? AFAIK I haven't proofed anything yet. I've just enjoyed the story so far. 

3358

Living Room / Re: Where all those rules against possibly upsetting people will soon lead all of us

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 03:06 PM »

Where the hell do you find these graphics?

-Stoic Joker (June 14, 2013, 12:37 PM)

Here and there, mostly up on the web, just like everyone else.

I save them in folders by topic for use as needed.

If you like that one, you'll like this one even more:

It's big - so out of courtesy to smartphones

 

3359

Living Room / Re: Where all those rules against possibly upsetting people will soon lead all of us

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 11:53 AM »

^Oh what the heck. At least it's a good song.

Better than having to deal with these guys:


 

3360

Living Room / Re: My New Philosophy

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 11:51 AM »

"Never speak ill of another man until you've walked at least mile in his shoes. That way you'll be at least mile away - and he won't be wearing shoes." Ibid of Anon.

3361

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 11:43 AM »

what constitutes a "Proper Start"

-Stoic Joker (June 14, 2013, 11:36 AM)

In my state it means: NO rubber/NO squeal.

3362

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 11:06 AM »

Kit-Kat commercials on TV.

I don't know why they think the sound of somebody loudly chewing their product makes you want to buy it. Or that biting into a candy bar can induce an orgasm - as the expressions on the ad actor's faces (especially the women's) seem to imply.

3363

Living Room / Re: 16K word sample of my sci-fi ebook, due on Amazon and B&N in October

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 09:51 AM »

4wd has a career in movie production if he's interested in being responsible for continuity.

P.M. some of those may be attributable to differences in American English spelling conventions and current usage. Last I checked screwups screw-ups and screw ups were all considered acceptable spelling variations. At least over here.

3364

General Software Discussion / Re: *ALERT* Debian warns its users to remove the Debian Multimedia repository

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 09:06 AM »

The issue Debian has here isn't with the deb-multimedia.org repository per se. The problem is that whoever is currently the owner of debian-multimedia.org is not anyone who is known to Debian.

From Debian's announcement:

The unofficial third party repository Debian Multimedia stopped using the domain debian-multimedia.org some months ago. The domain expired and it is now registered again by someone unknown to Debian. (If we're wrong on this point, please sent us an email so we can take over the domain! )

debian-multiedia.org may still be found in many user's software source lists. So Debian is concerned since it's no longer the location of what may now be found at deb-multimedia.org.

debian-multimedia.org is now owned by somebody called Mikhail Dashkel over in Russia. Apparently they have attempted to contact him and haven't received any response. So I think it's understandable that the powers at Debian are more than a little concerned about it right now. Especially considering the questionable legality of registering a domain with Debian's name in it.

I also don't really see where Debian is much at fault. They attempted to work out the maintenance and duplication problems cropping up between the d-m-o repository and Debian's official ones.

Debian said:

It's kinda long

Dear Christian,
  as you probably are aware of, there are recurring discussions on the
package duplication between the official Debian archive and the
debian-multimedia.org ("d-m.o" from now on) that you maintain.

AFAIK, the Debian team in charge of maintaining multimedia packages
(that I'm Cc:-ing) is not happy about the duplication and has approached
you about that [1], providing some evidence of the troubles that it
causes to them and to Debian users that also happen to use d-m.o. OTOH
I'm sure you are maintaining d-m.o to provide a useful service to Debian
users, when some of the packages you distribute are not available in
Debian proper.

[1] http://lists.alioth....12-March/025498.html

Personally, I think that principle is fine, but I'm worried about the
duplication part. Not only due to the troubles that it might cause to
users, but also for the apparent waste of maintenance energies. Energies
that could be put into better use if you and the pkg-multimedia team
could find a way to collaborate, and to do so contributing to the
*official* Debian packaging of the concerned software.

I have no specific opinion on the technical claims that d-m.o causes
trouble to official Debian packages. That might be true or not. Ditto
for your allegations of conflict of interest in the maintenance of
ffmpeg or libav in Debian. But I observe that *in* Debian we do have
mechanisms to solve that kind of issues, if and when they arise. As long
as you keep on doing your work outside Debian instead of raising your
concerns within Debian, we'll have to keep on assuming that what is
being done in Debian is fine and is entitled to the official status that
come with the name "Debian".

Thinking about it, I think we should choose one of the two possible way
forward:

1) You and the pkg-multimedia team reach an agreement on
   which-packages-belong-where. One way to settle would be that for
   every package that exist in the official Debian archive, the same
   package should not exist in d-m.o, unless it has a version that does
   not interfere with the official packages in "standard" Debian
   installations. Another way would be to rename packages and sonames.

   I understand that such agreements would give a sort of "advantage" to
   the pkg-multimedia people over d-m.o, but that seems to be warranted
   by the fact that they are doing the official packaging, while you're
   not.  If, as I hope, you could start doing your packaging work
   (wherever possible) within Debian as well, things would be different
   and we could consider solving potential technical conflicts in the
   usual Debian way.

2) You stop using "debian" as part of the domain name of your
   repository, which is confusing for users (e.g. [2,3]). That would
   allow each part to keep on doing what they want in terms of
   packaging, but at least would remove any of the existings doubts
   about the official status of d-m.o.

   [2] http://bugs.debian.o...rt.cgi?bug=660924#20
   [3] http://bugs.debian.o...rt.cgi?bug=668308#47

   I can imagine that would be a painful step for you to take, given the
   well established domain name. But it seems fair to ask you to do so
   if we couldn't manage to find an agreement between you and the
   official Debian packaging initiative of software you're maintaining
   in an unofficial repository.

We could also consider various in-between solutions, such as adding
suitable prominent disclaimers on your website explaining that your
initiative is not affiliated with the Debian Project, that it might
cause technical incompatibilities with official packages, and that the
donations you're collecting are for you personally and not for the
Debian Project.

I hope we can reach an agreement on (some variants of) point (1). I'm
personally convinced d-m.o could offer a very useful service to Debian
users, for packages that are not part of the official archive. But d-m.o
really needs to do so in a way that doesn't get in the way of official
packaging activities, otherwise it will remain a perennial source of
conflicts, to the detriment of both parties.

What do you think?

Cheers.

PS we really want this discussion to be public, so please keep the
   pkg-multimedia-maintainers list Cc:-ed, as requested with my M-F-T
   header. I'll otherwise take the liberty to forward your replies to
   the list myself.

And they got back this very terse reply from the people responsible for d-m-o:

Spoiler

> Dear Christian,

Hi,

[...]

> We could also consider various in-between solutions, such as adding
> suitable prominent disclaimers on your website explaining that your
> initiative is not affiliated with the Debian Project, that it might
> cause technical incompatibilities with official packages, and that the
> donations you're collecting are for you personally and not for the
> Debian Project.

Did you read the donate page ? There is no ambiguity.

http://www.debian-multimedia.org/donate

> I hope we can reach an agreement on (some variants of) point (1). I'm
> personally convinced d-m.o could offer a very useful service to Debian
> users, for packages that are not part of the official archive. But d-m.o
> really needs to do so in a way that doesn't get in the way of official
> packaging activities, otherwise it will remain a perennial source of
> conflicts, to the detriment of both parties.
>
> What do you think?

I'll move to a new domain name (without debian), for that I need
time. Maybe 3 or 6 months should be enough, I don't know exactly.

Christian

So from my perspective, the d-m-o folks have decided to go on their merry way rather than work things out on the duplication issue. After that, the discussion starts going downhill rapidly - as discussions are wont to do in the FOSS world whenever someone thinks somebody else just flipped them off. (You can find the whole discussion thread herein case anybody's interested.)
 

3365

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 07:48 AM »

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

-Stoic Joker (June 14, 2013, 06:40 AM)

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

-wraith808 (June 14, 2013, 07:38 AM)

SJ is a network systems person like me. So he knows what's possible. But I don't think that's cynicism. I think that's just experience talking.

And FWIW I agree with him on that worry. I also think this is just the tip of the iceberg - and a harbinger of what's to come if it doesn't get stopped right now.

3366

General Software Discussion / *ALERT* Debian warns its users to remove the Debian Multimedia repository

« Last post by 40hz on June 14, 2013, 07:36 AM »

This may end up being a tempest in a teacup. But for now, Debian is very concerned about one of its unnofficial software repositories and is now warning Debian users of a potential security problem should they install software from it.

Heise Online website posted this:

Users warned to remove Debian Multimedia repository

The Debian project is warning users that the unofficial Debian Multimedia repository now has to be considered unsafe. According to the Debian maintainers, the debian-multimedia.org domain is not being used by the maintainers of the unofficial repository any more and is now registered to a party unknown to the Debian project. This means that the repository is no longer safe to use and users should remove it from their sources.list file as soon as possible.

In its announcement, the Debian project is recommending that users check their systems by running

grep debian-multimedia.org /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

which will show debian-multimedia.org in its output if the user has the untrustworthy repository enabled. Meanwhile, Debian developer Steve Kemp has asked the community to create a tool for the distribution to easily manipulate entries in the sources.list file as Debian currently does not ship such a tool. At the moment, users have to edit their repository sources with a text editor.

Using unofficial repositories always represents a security risk and this example clearly shows one of the reasons, as the project usually does not have any control over such repositories. Since the new owners of the debian-multimedia.org domain are unlikely to have access to the signing keys for the expired repository, the security risk is somewhat mitigated as long as users do not install unsigned packages. In any case, removing the repository from one's sources file as Debian recommends is the best procedure to follow.

The official Debian announcement can be read here.
 

3367

Living Room / Re: 16K word sample of my sci-fi ebook, due on Amazon and B&N in October

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 08:18 PM »

Anyone finding it enjoyable?

-kyrathaba (June 13, 2013, 05:51 PM)

I am. Very.

(Thanks for putting a redhead in it too! )

3368

Living Room / Re: Where all those rules against possibly upsetting people will soon lead all of us

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 08:02 PM »

The ultimate manifestation will be when law enforcement works the way it did in the Max Headroom series.


In the Max Headroom media network-controlled future, law enforcement is heavily based on electronic surveillance,  signal intelligence (i.e. wire and data taps), statistical probability and profiling.

If your profile matched you could be arrested and punished for committing a crime (no more trials or evidence needed in that future scenario) even if you were not the person who committed it. Because your profile had sufficient correlation to establish you were the type that "likely would" commit such a crime - or one very similar - if given sufficient time.

It's the old "judge them for who they are - not for what they do" mindset so popular with religious zealots, petty tyrants, and political opportunists throughout human history. Max Headroom just dressed it out in shiny new Info Age apparel.
 

3369

Living Room / Where all those rules against possibly upsetting people will soon lead all of us

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 12:51 PM »

From the good folks over at Propnomicon:

The Curious Case of Mr. Li
It's not the best alien gaff ever made, but I don't think it's creator deserved to go to jail.[/i]

    "Shortly after he proudly posted photographs of his alien on the internet, he was arrested by the police for five days for "fabrications" that "disturbed the public order".

    Mr Li was forced to admit that he had indeed sought to use his model, held together with chicken wire and glue, to mislead his fellow Chinese about the existence of celestial creatures."



It boggles the mind this was worthy of official attention. Gaffs, and gaff based hoaxes in particular, have a long and proud history around the world. Alien bodies are a huge part of the UFO subculture, challenged only by the Bigfoot fans in terms of the sheer number of "specimens" that pop up.

3370

Living Room / Re: My New Philosophy

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 11:22 AM »

"This too shall pass."

-pilgrim (June 13, 2013, 07:28 AM)

...taking us all with it. 

3371

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 11:19 AM »

@CU Yeah. I don't really see any way to put that genie back in the bottle. Even the police are getting to be afraid of video cameras and audio recordings. So much so that they'll routinely break the law trying to prevent people from recording them. And, many times, it's with good reason too.

But even if they shut down PRISM tomorrow (which they won't) you can never be sure something like that will ever be completely gone. Because experience teaches us it won't be.

Like in the Bourne movie when they said "We'll just wrap it up, hang it around Landry's neck, and restart someplace else."
 

3372

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 10:30 AM »

Yes, but this isn't usually regarding subversive speech,

-CWuestefeld (June 13, 2013, 09:12 AM)

I'm not talking about subversive anything. I'm talking about even joking references to hacking, weapon or military terminology. Or references to Wikileaks, Anonymous, torrents and filesharing, etc. It's getting to be like Fight Club where the first rule is: You don't talk about Fight Club.

Some of the companies I deal with are now doing keyword scanning of email. And not because they're siding with any government sponsored initiative. It's because they're worried about THEIR legal exposure if "certain words" show up or are shown originating from their network.

I've also done a presentation recently where I said that a certain approach to fixing a server issue was "more in that nature of a hack" than a real fix - and was immediately interrupted and told in no uncertain terms "We don't ever use a term like 'hack' in this company."

And while participating in a career day with high school students just a few weeks ago, I was not allowed to answer the question when a student asked: "What exactly is 'peer-to-peer' anyway?" The faculty host said that it was "not an acceptable topic for a question" and immediately took another question from the group.

So I think - at least from what I'm seeing - that more and more people are becoming progressively more paranoid about what they're saying about a lot of things.

Which never used to be the case. At least not in the America I grew up in.

And I don't think such low-key paranoia is entirely unjustified either. Especially when you consider some kid's rap lyrics wound up getting him arrested and held without bond for making a "terrorist threat."

Or did until it went before a grand jury. That charge was so ridiculous that even a grand jury had to call BS and refuse to indict since the case was such an obvious attempt at grandstanding by an opportunistic police chief.

 

3373

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 08:31 AM »

I do agree that this kind of thing can have a stifling effect, I just put it low on my list of concerns about the world -- at least in the ABSTRACT.

-mouser (June 13, 2013, 07:21 AM)

I think it's gone far beyond the abstract in many places. Even in my own peer groups I've noticed a much greater reluctance to engage in certain wordplay and widespread self-censoring of certain words or phrases precisely because there's concern about something said being taken out of context. I can't speak for everybody, but I find myself already half-consciously doing that. The real danger is I might eventually become unconsciously aware that I'm doing it at all.

In a telling scene in the movie adaptation of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a woman is talking to her boyfriend. He makes an anti-government remark and she, in a somewhat frightened voice, tells him to not say things like that because "Somebody might hear you."

At that point he stops and looks at her and shakes his head. He tells her that if that's how she truly feels, than the battle has already been lost. Because when you've become so afraid that you're no longer willing to speak you own mind out of fear that somebody else might be listening, then censorship has become both universal and absolute. And the forces of darkness have triumphed.

some more from Milan Kundera

“The moment someone keeps an eye on what we do, we involuntarily make allowances for that eye, and nothing we do is truthful. Having a public, keeping a public in mind, means living in lies…”

-------------------

“A man who loses his privacy loses everything. And a man who gives it up of his own free will is a monster.”

-------------------

“Even though the sewer pipelines reach far into our houses with their tentacles, they are carefully hidden from view and we are happily ignorant of the invisible Venice of shit underlying our bathrooms, bedrooms, dance halls, and parliaments.”

-------------------

“Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes of Central Europe are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth: The criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise. They defended that road so valiantly that they were forced to execute many people. Later it became clear that there was no paradise, that the enthusiasts were therefore murderers. ”

-------------------

“A year or two after emigrating, she happened to be in Paris on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of her country. A protest march had been scheduled, and she felt driven to take part. Fists raised high, the young Frenchmen shouted out slogans condemning Soviet imperialism. She liked the slogans, but to her surprise she found herself unable to shout along with them. She lasted only a few minutes in the parade.

When she told her French friends about it, they were amazed. “You mean you don't want to fight the occupation of your country?” She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison. But she knew she would never be able to make them understand. Embarrassed, she changed the subject. ”

-------------------

“He who gives himself up like a prisoner of war must give up his weapons as well. And deprived in advance of defense against a possible blow, he cannot help wondering when the blow will fall.”

[/size][/font]  ― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being [/quote]

3374

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SecuSend - Software for secure file sharing.

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 07:25 AM »

@SSH - quick question purely out of my own curiosity...

One of the problems with any encryption utility is how well you can trust the author to (a) have written good code, and (b) not to have put a backdoor in it. Which is two of the reasons (i.e. QC and transparency) why things like TrueCrypt have open sourced their code, and all major encryption methods have (AFAIK) published their algorithms.

As an independent developer, how do you address those concerns?

Please don't take my question as a challenge or criticism. Not being a software developer I'm interested more from a business perspective since I'm a systems person who is professionally involved with data and signal security.
 

3375

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on June 13, 2013, 07:12 AM »

...the respect and consideration that DC is known for.

-Stoic Joker (June 13, 2013, 06:52 AM)

It all comes down to the tool chosen for the task at hand.

I see genuine political discussion as nothing more than an intelligent attempt to identify and question the underlying motivations behind our public actions and behaviors. I never saw it as attempting to sway or convince since most people "believe what they believe" with scant rationale behind it.

But the two key words in the above are "genuine" and "discussion." Those afford the possibility of reaching consensus.

When simply attempting to disprove or convince, the correct tool to use is argument.

I think we can discuss without needing to argue - while still firing off an occasional zinger or two to keep it all amusing. And hopefully without somebody taking the ball and running with it.

----------------------------------

(Pardon the Captain Obvious bit - But I thought it needed said.)

-Stoic Joker (June 13, 2013, 06:52 AM)

I think it does need to be said every so often. Even around here.

Thanks for saying it SJ.