Comment Re:An odd object... (Score 1) 224
China.
Comment Linux (Score 1) 742
Edubuntu is a great for kids :)
Comment Why would the Chinese issue that statement? (Score 1) 185
Which of these is most likely?
1. They earnestly wanted to share their intelligence with the rest of us: their best computer scientists and cryptographers have discovered that they can one day control the internet
2. They are merely posing a talking point, pondering openly, and they hope that other governments will share their views on the matter.
3. They've recently discovered that they'll never be able to control the internet, so they want to intimate that they can control the internet
4. They are referring to ICANN.
Anybody want to take bets?
1. They earnestly wanted to share their intelligence with the rest of us: their best computer scientists and cryptographers have discovered that they can one day control the internet
2. They are merely posing a talking point, pondering openly, and they hope that other governments will share their views on the matter.
3. They've recently discovered that they'll never be able to control the internet, so they want to intimate that they can control the internet
4. They are referring to ICANN.
Anybody want to take bets?
Comment Re:Why are Sony so horribly short-sighted (Score 1) 163
The Air Force probably bribed them to do it.
Some day all firmware will be Free! Free, i say! and then we can pull all those old nokia phones out of the trash and use them as TV remotes, and we'll get all our old iMacs working again... and Linux will run on a civilian's PS3, once again. And we could network every device in the whole world into one big happy subnet!
Comment It's a cover-up (Score 1) 120
of an Oklahoma Cyber-cult who uploaded their consciousness online. They can 'friend' people posthumously! creepy!
Comment Wow... it's just like a camera... (Score 1) 106
Isn't it nice to know that someone at Microsoft could be checking in on our kids doing gymnastics? Most of us will just be leaving it plugged in all the time in our living rooms... I feel safer already.
Comment Class Action, Baby! (Score 1) 225
Great! Now if everybody on Earth sues 'em for a dollar, we can bring 'em to their knees!
Comment It could work... (Score 1) 178
The pirate party needs a few good U.S. candidates. And money. And loads of hot women.
Next Step For US Body Scanners Could Be Trains, Metro Systems 890
Hugh Pickens writes "The Hill reports that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for US vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary. '[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,' Napolitano said in an interview with Charlie Rose. 'I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime.' Napolitano added she hoped the US could get to a place in the future where Americans would not have to be as guarded against terrorist attacks as they are and that she was actively promoting research into the psychology of how a terrorist becomes radicalized. 'The long-term [question] is, how do we get out of this having to have an ever-increasing security apparatus because of terrorists and a terrorist attack?' says Napolitano. 'I think having a better understanding of what causes someone to become a terrorist will be helpful.'"
Submission + - Common-sense tinfoil hat practices
An anonymous reader writes: There is no question that in the connected world, the idea of privacy is fading. Combine that with seemingly strong totalitarian tendencies from governments, and even the perfectly rational can start to wonder what's the difference between paranoia and common sense. Can you name some "tinfoil hat" practices that make sense even for the totally sane? Or at least ones that are at worst harmless? Some examples: Pick some stores/restaurants/etc. at which you only ever pay cash so there is no record of your being there. Use SSL at every possibly opportunity. Demagnetize your drivers' license (it doesn't obscure anything, but what make it easy on "the man?"). Encrypt your hard drive. Look away when passing cameras (including ATMs). What else?
Comment Royal Rife (Score 1) 58
Royal Raymond Rife had a better microscope in the 30's. He took pictures and film... he still had to stain, but he was able to view living bacteria.
- http://www.rife.de/what_has_become_of_the_rife_microscope.html
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-661201775015095955#
Suppressed technology or conspiracy theory? You decide.
Submission + - Zeus Botnet Gets an Upgrade (securityweek.com)
wiredmikey writes: The latest evolution of the Zeus Trojan – Zeus 2.1 – now boasts features that help it avoid analysis and hostile takeover from law enforcement, researchers, or competing cybercriminal organizations. With Zeus 2.1, cybercriminal software engineers have stepped things up and added some new features to combat botnet theft and making malware analysis much more challenging....
A Single Re-Tweet Lands Chinese Woman in Labor Camp 273
lee1 writes "A woman in China has been sentenced to a year of 're-education' in a labor camp for the crime of 'disrupting social order' after retweeting a joke on Twitter (which is entirely banned in China, but popular nonetheless). Cheng Jianping had repeated a Twitter comment suggesting that nationalist protesters smash Japan's pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, adding the words 'Charge, angry youth.' At the time, China and Japan were feuding over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and groups of young Chinese had been demonstrating against Japan, smashing Japanese products; the tweet amounted to gentle chiding of the protesters. Ms. Cheng may also have been targeted because she is a human rights activist: she had signed petitions calling for the release of China's jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. She has been detained in the past for several other 'crimes,' including criticizing China's Communist Party."
Comment Re:Different opinions? Or different contributors? (Score 2, Interesting) 222
I always thought "Tyranny of the majority" was a poor and insidiously elitist framing of the issue. "Tyranny of the uninformed" is better... so how can we as a society ensure that the decisions are made by fully informed people in a transparent manner?
As self-proclaimed "nerds" (i.e. some of the best informed people on the planet), should we really defer that decision (or other decisions) to someone else?
Red Flayer, I'd like to thank you for quoting the "metagovernment.org" url, because otherwise i might never have heard of it.
