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5951
Living Room / FBI Redirects Traffic from Blog to FBI - Scary... very scary...
« Last post by Renegade on March 20, 2012, 08:56 AM »
As if the recent barrage of utter lunacy hasn't been enough, yep... you guessed it... here's one to top them all off:

http://survivalblog....-vpn-imperative.html
via

Important Message From JWR: The FBI's Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative

It has come to my attention that from August of 2011 to November of 2011, the FBI secretly redirected the web traffic of more than 10% of SurvivalBlog's US visitors through CJIS, their sprawling data center situated on 900 acres, 10 miles from Clarksburg, West Virginia. There, the Feebees surreptitiously collected the IP addresses of my site visitors. In all, 4,906 of 35,494 selected connections ended up going to or through the FBI servers. (Note that this happened several months before we moved our primary server to Sweden.) Furthermore, we discovered that the FBI attached a long-lived cookie that allowed them to track the sites that readers subsequently visited. I suspect that the FBI has done the same to hundreds of other web sites. I find this situation totally abhorrent, and contrary to the letter of 4th Amendment as well as the intent of our Founding Fathers.


And these are the "police"? God help us...  :'(


5952
Well, this is kind of silly, but certainly funny:

Jenna McCarthy: What you don't know about marriage

http://on.ted.com/AnKu

It's 11 minutes, but well worth the watch. Very entertaining.

5953
Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?
« Last post by Renegade on March 20, 2012, 06:05 AM »
With me, each decade has it's ups and downs... thankfully more ups and downs.  But, it's been getting better and better.  So, no matter how relative things may be, my best times have always been the current times. :)

Reading along there, I'd imagined the end before I'd read it, but it went more like this:

So, no matter how relative things may be, my best times have always been the high times. :)

:P ;D

5954
Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?
« Last post by Renegade on March 20, 2012, 12:55 AM »
This sickening photo was one of the most famous taken during the war. WARNING: it's still a very upsetting image. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.)

I'm heading back to Viet Nam next week.

I visited the Viet Nam War Museum in Ho Chi Minh a couple years ago, and it's full of those kinds of horrors - many worse. I can't begin to describe just how sickening it was. It's not something that you can look at and not have something inside you break. It takes incredible effort to keep it together.

Nothing has really changed since then though. The horrors of chemical warfare then are the horrors of DU now.

We haven't had a peaceful decade. When that one comes, it will be the best.

5955
Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?
« Last post by Renegade on March 20, 2012, 12:36 AM »
Well, I don't see many options to put onto the tablet.
I meant the post in the conditional sense. The original title was "would you", so I inferred that this was purely hypothetical.
OK, what I meant was: IF it were a Samsung or (say) just a generic tablet, THEN I still don't see many options to put onto the tablet.
Britannica, Wikipedia...or?
Those are the only options I can think of - I don't know the market all that well.

So, you might find that you were stuck with (say) Britannica as your only real option - for an authoritative "knowledge base" or encyclopaedia - regardless of the tablet brand.(?)
You would also have the issue of whether the K-base was in a proprietary or "Open" format, and I'm pretty sure it would be proprietary for DRM control.

I don't know the market for encyclopaedias very well either, but 6 of 1... No matter the brand, What I want won't change.

For the DRM stuff you mention - yeah... I can't see Britannica having an open format.

I've used proprietary, closed, uncopyable, unselectable reference materials before, and... never again. They suck. They're ok if it's for bathroom reading, but that's about it.

I like being able to select, copy, paste. If I can't do that, then I'm simply not interested. Wikipedia, even with its many horribly slanted articles, is still a better option for what I want.



A lament for Wikipedia
I do kind of weep inside though for Wikipedia. There are so many articles that when I read them, I just want to vomit. I know that they're biased beyond belief to the point of being so distorted that they're wrong. Not slanted, but WRONG. This is particularly evident in virtually any article where there is any kind of political controversy. But it's no surprise - all new things in science are heresy, and heretics are only good for burning. Such is the establishment...  :-\

For me, Wikipedia is merely a jump point to get information, and not an endpoint.


5956
Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12
« Last post by Renegade on March 20, 2012, 12:01 AM »
Star Wars flashback! :D

Had me wondering how it would look like this:

Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
=========STRIKE BACK=========
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.
Strike Back. Starve the media industries to death.



5957
Living Room / Re: Mobile hotspots: your experiences. (mine included)
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 10:45 PM »
I just got back from Seoul a little while ago - it's probably enough to say that Seoul IS a Wi-Fi hotspot! :)

You only need to scan to find an open signal. There are some that require payment, but if you have Skype, it will automatically detect it and do the payment for you with your Skype-Out credits!

Here's a screenshot:

Super_Simple_cropped_Screenshot - 3_7_2012 , 2_48_01 PM_523x362.jpg

Most of the time I could just get an open, free signal.

Man... if only the rest of the world could catch up (and not be so darned paranoid about 'security').


5958
Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 10:36 PM »

General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
===========STRIKE===========
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.


(Before it's too late.)
:'(





Awesome! I love it! :D

5959
Living Room / Re: NYC Subpoenas Twitter for Arrested Demonstrator's Tweets
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 08:42 PM »
Welcome to the Police States of America.

For your protection, please remove your shoes and any metal objects from your pockets, then step into the machine to be irradiated or off to the side to be groped. If you have any thoughts in your head, please empty them now and resume use of your entertainment device. Remember, your entertainment device may not be used during take-off or landing because they crash hardened and redundant systems. If you have any questions, please resume your regiment of anti-depressants.

Thank you for leaving your thinking to those that actually care about you. You may now return to your cell...

****************

This is sort of off-topic, but... What did you think a police state would look like?

Off-topic, but related

Cop Arrests NBC Reporters, Says “Your First Amendment Right Can Be Terminated”

http://www.prisonpla...n-be-terminated.html

Two NBC journalists were handcuffed and threatened by Chicago police after attempting to report on the murder of a 6-year-old girl yesterday, NBC Chicago reports.
Another NBC journalist was also detained by police outside Mt. Sinai Hospital, where the girl had been taken following a fatal shooting during city wide violence over the weekend.
Police were called to the hospital shortly after reporters arrived on the scene. The journalists said they has already moved away from a public sidewalk and across the street at the request of the police.
One police officer was then caught on camera telling other members of the media “Your First Amendment right can be terminated if you’re creating a scene or whatever. Your First Amendment right has got limitations.
When the reporters asked for clarification on how they were creating a scene, the officer replied, “Your presence is creating a scene.”
“This is what we do for a living!” one reporter replied, before another added“You’ve got a lawsuit coming.”
“I don’t care about no damn lawsuit!” the officer fired back. “F*ck a lawsuit. Just ’cause you sue doesn’t mean you’re going to win.”



5960
Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 08:32 PM »
Well, I don't see many options to put onto the tablet.

I meant the post in the conditional sense. The original title was "would you", so I inferred that this was purely hypothetical.
5961
Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 08:27 PM »
Here's a take on the deal from the AP:

http://www.activistp...iders-to-launch.html

Internet service providers (ISPs) across the United States are set to voluntarily begin a digital surveillance operation so large that nothing can even come close in the history of espionage.
5962
Beautiful!

I wonder how long it will be before OpenDNS is designated as a terrorist organization though... :(

Like, privacy is a clear indicator! They must be in league with... <transmission cut />

5963
Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 07:07 PM »
Not sure about which decade... They've all been so radically different for me.

I remember in the late 80's or early 90's saying to some friends, "Man... we've been stoned for 3 weeks straight... can we do something else for a change?" :P ;D (Not kidding.) That time was certainly fun. Not sure that I'd want to do that again though... Been there, done that. Lost the brain cells to prove it. :P

I'm having a great time now, but it's all very, very different than the past.

5964
Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!
« Last post by Renegade on March 19, 2012, 06:44 PM »

Holy Buddha? I am really starting to hate everything about the online and computer world lately.
 


A long time ago, in an era not too far away as to escape memory, the hype was all about SaaS...

It was then that my alarm bells went off, and that a certain disgust and contempt crept into me.

It seems I'm not alone...




Bloody! Why do I keep doing this to myself?



Sigh... Because you care about people and you're not a greedy psychopath.

I know I'm not alone...



Time for a rant! (Why should Renegade have all the fun!)
 


Definitely! ;D

The more, the merrier!


5965
This is entertaining:

tsa-waste.gif

I like the "61-year old lady gropes TSA agent as protest". ;D

5966
Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum
« Last post by Renegade on March 17, 2012, 06:16 PM »
So as smart tech folks, we are trying to rise to the challenge, call us the kids of the Science Fiction Age who grew up with the warning stories, so we're trying to put a few resources in place before they complete the total locks at the end/setting of those stories.

+1

Somewhere in my parent's house there's an old, tattered copy of Fahrenheit 451, a worn in copy of Brave New World, etc. etc. They were supposed to be, like you said, "warnings", and not textbooks on how to do it.

If you think back about those warnings, you can see that today we have so much of those things in reality now. Sure, "Soma" looks a bit different in reality, but it's still Soma. The book burnings don't use fire to destroy and hide ideas, but we still have it in one form or another.

We just need more people to wake up and see it.


5967
Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12
« Last post by Renegade on March 17, 2012, 05:34 PM »
Laws that don't exist yet, don't exist. Only the law that currently exists, applies.

The RIAA, MPAA, and ISPs should not get to act like laws they wish existed actually exist, and the ones they don't like, don't exist. It doesn't work like that, or at least it shouldn't.


Oh, you're right in concept, they shouldn't get all that, but they do ...



I'm going to meander a bit, but there is a point here that I'd like to address.

Ever notice how on the news you hear about "corruption" everywhere in the world except for the West? There's a reason for that.

Corruption works differently elsewhere, and is much less sophisticated.

While you constantly hear about some official in Asia being charged with corruption, it's rare in the US because because they have oh, so many ways around it...

What you often see is corporate thug appointments to government departments, e.g. the FDA or USDA. This allows the corporations to plant their people in the bureaucracy and create the laws/regulations that they want.

Conversely, those in federal institutions that play nicely with the corporate thugs get nice cushy appointments as senior executives with big salaries and bonuses.

The corruption is indirect, but everyone gets their pound of flesh, and no charges are ever laid, because "conflict of interest" isn't a crime. :(

Well, let's pull this back to the media mafia... They don't have any such federal organizations that they can infiltrate like that, so for them, this is very frustrating.

Other sectors get to rape and pillage all they want, but the media mafia is sort of left out in the cold with no real venue to infiltrate, other than bribing politicians, which isn't really all that effective. It's better to have a "man on the inside", like the pharma and bio companies get to do.


So, once this is framed as "frustration due to a lack of possibility for strong corruption", wouldn't it make sense for the media mafia to try and "stretch" any law they can to fit their purposes? Like really... They're not being given a lot to work with here... They've got a tough job compared to some other sectors that get to rape and pillage at will.




5968
Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum
« Last post by Renegade on March 17, 2012, 01:25 AM »

Seriously, I can't remember so many threads here about privacy rights, including Google's, Facebook's, and other sites' privacy policy changes, the whole Occupy Wall Street movement, software and media piracy and MAFIAA, Wikileaks, all the ebook woes, fraud of various types, Lulsec/Anonymous...  Really, when has there been more of these kinds of topics before the last year and a half to two years? These threads are almost guaranteed to bring out the feistiest in DC'ers! It used to be more about Linux v. Windows v. MacOS, home theater recommendations, etc.



There has been so much happening in these areas that it's almost inevitable.

I have some very specific beliefs on why all of this is, but I don't think this is the place to bring them out. I prefer to keep most of those conversations in-person at the moment.



Despite some of the contention (and occasional acrimony) over these topics, I personally consider them some of the most important discussions ever conducted here. Because these are issues that go right to the root of what we consider are our personal freedoms and responsibilities.

I'm very impressed at how well these threads have gone despite the obvious and largely irreconcilable differences between some of us here at DC. I think the entire community deserves to take a bow for not allowing things to degenerate into out and out acrimony and name calling like it has in many places - including (in the USA at least) the halls of government.


+1

5969
Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12
« Last post by Renegade on March 17, 2012, 12:53 AM »
Starting from the common sense side, let's take that picture as an example. RightClick ... wait for it ... *Copy* Image. Right Click your desktop. Paste Image. Boom - a new ... uh... something has appeared.

That's not quite accurate. Here's what happens...

Make HTTP request to URL
Fetch the HTML
Fetch assets like JS, CSS, PNG, JPG, and other embedded files
Render page
Right-click, etc.

(Fetch here means download and save in a cache as a local copy.)

The files are all already saved on your computer in a cache. Going from "right-click copy" to "right-click paste" is copying data from your local computer (assuming that we're being efficient and not making extra work for ourselves), and not from the Internet or web site. Well, that is if under the hood the picture is actually copied (i.e. put on the clipboard as image data from the local cached file)... But that's where we're splitting hairs -- does what's happening under the hood matter?

The point is, the data is already on your computer. Whether you know it or not. Copying from the browser to your desktop is merely a convenience. You can dig through the cache to find the same file.


So, having the file in your cache or on the desktop... It's really only about convenience, and actually knowing how the technology works. So claiming that right-clicking to copy an image is copyright infringement is really just nonsense. The file has already been downloaded. It's done. Game over. The debate after the page renders is only one of how to conveniently view/consume the downloaded content.

You cannot sanely dictate terms at a website that would let you control how people consume the content. There are simply too many possibilities. Nobody would read past page 233,465,456,567,724,923, even if they glanced at the first page.

So, you either put up the content and let people consume it however they want, or you keep it and never distribute it.

I was in a restaurant the other day, and saw some people eating in a quite bizarre way. Like, abnormal. Everyone at the table was eating the same way. It was rather amusing to watch. But the waitress didn't chastise them for "eating the wrong way". Why would she? They can eat however they want.

The Internet and restaurants are the same way. You either serve stuff up, or you don't. But you don't get in people's faces when they're consuming.



5970
General Software Discussion / Re: material for bio/med/pharma company
« Last post by Renegade on March 16, 2012, 05:35 PM »
bio for biological, biomedical, etc!  ;D

Heheh~! I couldn't resist that one~! ;D
5971
Living Room / Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!
« Last post by Renegade on March 16, 2012, 08:39 AM »
Well, this is probably nothing new to anyone, but it's surprising to actually read an ex-Google employee say it:

http://www.dailymail...achs-style-rant.html

http://blogs.msdn.co...y-i-left-google.aspx

The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

...

Under Eric Schmidt ads were always in the background. Google was run like an innovation factory, empowering employees to be entrepreneurial through founder’s awards, peer bonuses and 20% time. Our advertising revenue gave us the headroom to think, innovate and create. Forums like App Engine, Google Labs and open source served as staging grounds for our inventions. The fact that all this was paid for by a cash machine stuffed full of advertising loot was lost on most of us. Maybe the engineers who actually worked on ads felt it, but the rest of us were convinced that Google was a technology company first and foremost; a company that hired smart people and placed a big bet on their ability to innovate.

...

The old Google made a fortune on ads because they had good content. It was like TV used to be: make the best show and you get the most ad revenue from commercials. The new Google seems more focused on the commercials themselves.

Perhaps Google is right. Perhaps the future lies in learning as much about people’s personal lives as possible. Perhaps Google is a better judge of when I should call my mom and that my life would be better if I shopped that Nordstrom sale. Perhaps if they nag me enough about all that open time on my calendar I’ll work out more often. Perhaps if they offer an ad for a divorce lawyer because I am writing an email about my 14 year old son breaking up with his girlfriend I’ll appreciate that ad enough to end my own marriage. Or perhaps I’ll figure all this stuff out on my own.

The old Google was a great place to work. The new one?

-1


And he moved to Microsoft... Can we say BURN? :P ;D


5973
General Software Discussion / Re: material for bio/med/pharma company
« Last post by Renegade on March 16, 2012, 06:41 AM »
Hello!

can you tell me your ideas, proposals, links, templates, graphics, etc for a website of a bio/med/pharma company?

thanks!

Ideas? For pharma/med? Hmmm... I'd start here for graphics.

Ok... That wasn't helpful... But you asked about pharma~! :P And I'm really, seriously holding back... Like a LOT~!

Just do a search for "web templates medical" or something like that. 

If you are using a CMS, then add that to your search. You can find lots of them out there.

If I were to do a site on health, it would rail on the gross negligence/maliciousness of the bio/medical/pharma industry.

Every wonder why people are sicker than ever and medical spending it skyrocketing? Think they're actually trying to keep you well? Ummm... Conflict of interest anyone?

For links, try these:

http://nomorefakenews.com/

http://www.naturalnews.com/

http://naturalsociety.com/

Check the right column here for TONNES (that's metric) of links to more health sites:

http://www.activistpost.com/

If you want a "bio" link, here's the world's largest biological weapons manufacturer.


5974
Living Room / Re: A change I've seen in the forum
« Last post by Renegade on March 16, 2012, 05:27 AM »
Well I have ready solution for controlling the 'off topic' messages.

Give a link 'Off topic' at bottom of each message, beside 'Report to moderator', which will notify the moderator, who will check and make the message 'yellowish' or something, so that everyone knows it from the rest. Just like inserted ads in search results.

Then ones who do not like it will skip it or give it a glance. It will also make the poster of the message to be more on the topic next time.

Regards,

Anand


Not really a great idea... Extra work for the site admin? Nope.

What *could* work is a vote up/down button with a threshold below which the post becomes hidden and you need to click it for it to become visible again, just like the spoiler tags.

That system is in place in other forums/BBs elsewhere, and it seems to work well.

But more work for the admins? Nah. The community is generally the best at policing itself.

5975
Living Room / Re: Britannica - would you buy it on (say) Kindle or Nook?
« Last post by Renegade on March 16, 2012, 01:48 AM »

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to read books on. I can read PDFs or ePUBs or whatever.
...
I am very happy with being able to read my books without worrying about whether or not they will work tomorrow.
Well then, it's "Knowledge base-on-a-generic tablet" then, with the tablet more likely to be a Samsung Galaxy if it's the best "unlocked" device to use.
The only trouble is, there aren't that many ready-made "authoritative" knowledge bases (encyclopaedias) that you can install - are there? So does that mean we would be stuck with Britannica on the Samsung Galaxy?


Absolutely not. That's the beauty. You can read a PDF or ePUB on any platform without lock-in. So whether your tablet, or smartphone, or laptop, or ultrabook, or netbook, or notebook, or desktop, or whatever... <pauses to catch breath /> ...is a Samsung or Motorola or LG or whatever, it just doesn't matter.

Divorcing the content from the device is a GOOD thing. There is no reason to link the two.

The ability to chuck your hardware and not worry about the content is a good thing. Knowing that your content will work elsewhere is some digital peace of mind.

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