I think the big elephant in the room is more to be found further upstream, in the area of manufacturing. Worrying about software hacks is one thing - not having the faintest absolute clue exactly *what* is inside the chip package is something else entirely. Think its an accumulator bank? Oh sorry, maybe we forgot to mention the harmonic bundles associated with wave guidance within the interstitial distances of the rapidly blinking transistors .. yeah, those can be read from space. With a satellite (or 12).

The game is over folks, or rather .. the game is on, depending on how you look at it. Until you are capable of investigating and participating, directly, in the sub-assemblies, you will always have a weak back door. Either we, ultimately, become able to assemble our own chips on the desktop, or there will always be a power class: those who can build such devices, and those who can only be ruled by them.

We need to evolve to adapt to this new threat to the species, and instead of seriously *resisting* its effects on our being, we - the true power - direct the feature to our favour. If, out of the NSA catastrophe, we gain a "New Internet" wherein *everything, everywhere* for 15 years, was available to everyone, then we'd have indeed a new era in the human species. A truly evolutionary step, made by mistake - perhaps.

You consider this article positive? Troll logic astounds me!

Slashdot is the Fox News of the open source world. If you aren't blaming Microsoft for everything from Ebola to your dog's farts, you're a paid shill.

Yep, easy peasy. Just let your credit score go to hell, then move out and live on the streets since most places require a credit check before they'll let you rent. We've already eliminated owning your own home since you can't get a mortgage, so I guess you're living in a one bedroom efficiency hotel for 300 a week.

Sounds like a good way to get yourself fixed up.

The financial collapse was a result of mistakes, not crimes.

They may not have been crimes, but do not try and say the financial collapse was a result of "mistakes".

They do not have the same equal opportunity TO SUCCEED, nobody does.

The point is to set a reasonable baseline.

They have the same equal opportunity TO TRY to succeed and not be discriminated against by the government, be treated equally under law.

No, they don't.

Your society destroyed that concept.

Bullshit. "My" society _created_ the fucking concept.

You have left-wing, progressive politics to thank for everything you cherish, from property rights through freedom of speech to the ability to vote.

The world is going neither "right" nor "left", it's going more authoritarian on an orthogonal axis.

Rubbish. We've had thirty years of tax reductions, deregulation and shrinking public services.

The world is most assuredly moving "right"wards.

We have been watching these sorts of things come out of Australia for years. The labor government was at least as bad about it with their black lists and various censorship schemes. In the article also notice that the bill has the support of both the conservative government and the labor establishment. So blaming this on the conservatives seems questionable.

New Labor have been just another conservative party for over a decade now.

As for as I can see there is no party, other than the greens, who are really against this stuff in Australia.

That is because the Greens are the only left-wing party of any size.

We have the same problem in the US.

In fact, the whole Anglosphere has the same problem. The steady march of selfish, greedy, narcissistic right-wing politics that has been taking over since Thatcher and Reagan kicked it off, has all but eliminated left-wing politics and brought with it the destru

Yes, well the devil's in the details. My definition of 'fair' is not the same as the left's. Mine is keep what you earn (or at least 90% of it or so), and allow the meritocracy to operate more naturally.

Right. So you favour increasingly concentrated wealth, the power it wields, and the inevitable corruption it breeds.

Theirs boils down to insistence on equal outcome, everywhere, even at the cost of liberty and bonafide justice.

Completely false.

The "insistence" is on equal opportunities.

The comical fantasy promulgated by the Right, however, is that everyone born into a western democracy inherently has equal opportunities. That the black child born to a drug addicted single mother has the same opportunities in life as the white child born to two high-earning professionals, because both were born in America. Undoubtedly, they will be able to trot out a couple of cherry-picked examples of such disadvantaged children who have, against all odds, escaped their demographic destiny. They might even produce some similar cherry-picked examples of rich white kids whose parents abandoned them after one too many low-level drug charges or car crashes and have sunk into desperate poverty.

But it's just ideological bullshit. Statistics, data and history show the truth. Wealth breeds increasingly more wealth and poverty more poverty, in feedback loops. The best society springs from both of those ends of the scale being curtailed to build a strong middle class. The period of human history with the greatest increase in wealth, productivity and living standards were the few decades post-WW2 - with its high taxes, strong regulations and comprehensive welfare systems - before Thatcher, Reagan and their acolytes' neoliberal cancer started destroying western democracies from within in the name of greed, selfishness, and free-market fundamentalism.

Historically, leftists (of any flavor) want to centralize power in the state under the guise of doing 'The Peoples'' bidding, and rightists prefer smaller governments and traditional values.

You sound like the people who say "historically, marriage was one man and one woman".

Ie: You're cherry-picking a very specific point in time to call "historically".

In reality, "historically" - that is to say, where the terms originated - the Right is the side of concentrated, inherited power - monarchies and serfs - and the Left is the side of democracy, individual rights, equality, freedom of speech, and the like.

Every "freedom" you cherish today, you need to thank progressive politics for.

What happened to Staples plan to put out 3d printers in it's locations?

Let's assume God does not exist. Therefore heaven does not exist. Therefore things like morals don't matter because you don't go to heaven or hell or are not judged regardless of what acts you commit.

For those who have ever wondered what a non-sequitur is, this is a prime example.

Again, how does that justify limiting the number of cabs? That's what licensing does.

No, it doesn't.

As implemented, thanks to crony capitalism and lobbying, the number of taxis is limited. However, this artificial limitation is in no way an inherent feature of an accreditation system.

No higher authority should be able to make it illegal for consenting adults to interact with one another.

Indeed. That's why laws dealing with fraud, workplace safety and food standards are just Government oppression.

It takes a special license in order to inspect your vehicle?

No.

You are required to have your vehicle inspected to hold the special license.