Mozilla has just given the world governments very own honeypot a great boost in capacity. Why would that make them an enemy?

Ho-lee fuck. When will people ever stop with the goddamned "if you have nothing to hide" bullshit. Don't be ridiculous in the name of the "children" or "harassment", it's still just as disingenuous.

What a crock of shit.

Step 1. Create social media account under my enemy's name and bully people.
Step 2. Enemy takes the blame since they can't give up passwords to prove otherwise.
Step 3. Profit!

Actually figured out step 2 this time. That's real progress!

"Don't know it, sorry."

or

"Fuck You."

Unfortunately, the authority worship preached to our children in the public schools ensures neither of the correct answers will probably be given. The children of people smart enough to have taught their children this (doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.) don't have their children in the public institutionalization facilities, anyway.

...as much as the next guy. But honestly, are there still nerds in 2015 who don't understand how the Android model works? Think of Android as "Linux". Each manufacturer has their own distro of Android, and then there's the "reference" distro, made by Google, that is on Nexus devices called "Stock Android". All the distros are based on the "Stock Android" distro, and the manufacturers customize and add on from there.

So, blaming Google for a flaw in a previous version of Android is like blaming "Linux" for a security flaw in a previous version of Ubuntu. See how much sense that makes? All Ubuntu has to do is use a more recent kernel/library/whatever that doesn't contain the flaw and release an update or new version. The same thing goes for Android, all the handset manufacturers have to do is release an update that contains the fix, and their problems are solved. A current build of "Stock Android" already contains the fix, your manufacturer's outdated distro, however, doesn't.

There are plenty of things we can legitimately blame on Google, but blaming the flaws of handset manufacturers and cellular carriers on Google doesn't help anything. Put pressure on your carriers and manufacturers to stop dragging their feet and support their products beyond the next fiscal quarter or two!

I'm sure the government will glean a plethora of useful data after spending countless hours sifting through viagra ads, pandora spam, notifications that the t-mobile bill is now ready to view, and other such highly sensitive information one would trust to a Gmail account.

While I agree with you on a philosophical level, keep in mind that North Korean authorities probably aren't (in comparison) as understanding and level-headed as those in Germany, or (gasp) even the United States!

As a youngster growing up in the 1980's, countless dozens of hours were spent both in my own basement and the basement of my childhood (well, still) best friend's parents house listening to vinyl, cassettes, and analog FM radio. I later became a smalltime audiophile, I don't buy Monster Cable or equipment that costs more than 4 figures, but I still enjoy a good audio listening experience.

About 5 years ago, my friend's parents finally retired and I was around to help them move out west. While the old Pioneer receiver we used to jam out on had long since died or been retired to the local landfill, the off-name floor speakers were still there. I believe one had the same old lamp sitting on it that it always did, and the other one was just sitting there in the corner. They told me to put them out to the street.

Of course, they went in the trunk of my car, where I promptly took them home and stored them in my garage. This summer, as the garage had now collected enough surplus computer and electronic equipment to need it's twice a decade cleaning, I found the old "Utah" speakers and decided to hook them up to my receiver and see if they were dead or alive. I flicked on the local "oldies" station (meaning 70's and 80's music now) and I was immediately transported back in time. Radio still sounded today like it sounded back in 1986. The speakers provided all the "warmth" and "fullness" that people are always chasing after.

This may sound like a no-brainer, but speakers determine what you hear. Those speakers are now a permanent fixture out in my garage/man-cave. No, they don't sound like any of the big-name equipment I run in the home theater. But they are immersive with only 2 channels in a way a 9.2 surround system can never match. And when I sit outside on the weekend, enjoying a few beers and some (sometimes herb-fueled) tinkering with Linux boxes and electronics, to me at least, it's like going backwards to a time when things were still exciting, the guy on the radio was someone everyone knew, and you had the whole world in the palm of your hand.

I do apologize for waxing nostalgic on a public forum, and I do love my new technology, but damnit sometimes it's nice to just sit back and enjoy something simple that you love. I can understand the value to youngsters of sitting around listening to a piece of tangible vinyl that you can hold in your hand, look at the album art, read the lyrics (all without a LAN connection or Wi-Fi AP being involved) rather than some logical arrangement of bits on a chip or spinning platter. So yes, of course, put your money into speakers (or vinyl, or whatever makes you happy)! I recommend garage sales, swap meets, and flea markets!

As opposed to your divine entity of government. Both (government and corporations) are just as equally fucked. Why do people not realize that the words "free market/business" and "government" can be fully interchanged in tirades like this and still be true. See below:

Oh, horse shit.

You're delusional. The (useful/open/representative) government doesn't exist. It doesn't solve problems. It doesn't achieve optimal outcomes.

It's a fucking abstraction describing long-term outcomes under a perfect hypothetical model based on crap assumptions, not some divine entity.

In practice, the only thing government is doing is picking your pocket and giving you the finger.

It isn't some magical entity. It doesn't make good choices. It doesn't care what happens to you. It doesn't actually care if you have perfect information. It doesn't really exist.

The government is the collective actions of the power elite over an extended period of time -- and collectively the government is rigged, and people are gaming the system. The government won't fix that.

The premise that the government achieves perfect outcomes over the long haul assumes the system isn't corrupt, and that the players aren't actively undermining it.

But humans are corrupt, and always will be. Which means in practice the "government" devolves into cartels and other things by which to stop the citizens from being free.

It doesn't exist. Has never existed. Cannot exist. And if by accident it (useful/open/representative government) briefly existed, it would be undermined immediately by the humans.

You hit the nail on the head. Human nature is the problem, and I, for one, don't want that extinguished (unlike many "progressives" who would love nothing more than exactly that to happen) just so we can declare taxicabs 100% safe, or whatever other delusion the free market Republican morons/government worshipping Democratic idiots think their system can be responsible for.

Stop worrying about this my team vs. your team minutia and live your life.

I don't always browse at -1, but when I do, I love being rewarded with a post like the GP.

How is this modded +5 or insightful? It's neither. Why are we still comparing locks and doors in meatspace to virtual servers and ports and IP addresses on a globally-interconnected network of computing nodes and electronic resources? They are nowhere near the same thing. When you advertise and/or broadcast a service on a given port and on a given IP-address, you can rest assured that unless it is properly secured, anyone and everyone will access it and utilize the resources it provides.

In most cases, there are perfectly ethical and legal reasons to access someone else's resources. For example, Google searches, YouTube, IRC, FTP. Is it unethical to download files from an open, unsecured FTP server? Of course it isn't. Is it unethical to watch someone's private camera in their home that they left with no or default credentials? Probably yes, but you'll never know for sure because the default behavior of the network is that if something's wide open, it's there for everyone to use.

When I started college in the 90's, there was a directory on some network drive that was mapped by default for all students. It was called "Network Trash Folder", and had some obscene amount of storage available on it. You better believe it was used for almost a year as a warez-and-mp3 repository for people in the know. Was it unethical to use that resource, that was obviously not officially-sanctioned to be globally available to all users, as a personal storage space? What if some cool/disgruntled/outgoing admin actually made a publicly available storage space knowing people would find it and use it for whatever they wanted? How would anyone know what the intent really was for that resource to be there?

Long story short, it's up to the administrator of a given resource to secure it, lest it be used in ways he or she did not intend. It's not as simple an analogy as "Well, B&E is illegal duh!" Because we aren't dealing with physical resources. If you don't want people watching your cameras, don't put them on publicly routeable ports/addresses or at the very minimum, change the default credentials so people can't access your resources. If you leave everything wide open (or default), expect people to use it. I realize most people don't know this, and this is why they should either learn or pay the consequences. And before I get the "don't blame the victim" song and dance, it's not victim blaming when someone doesn't know enough about how something works to use it safely or securely. If you stupid enough to run your car's engine without oil and it seizes, you're to blame, you're not a victim...if you leave your iPad and laptop and wallet full of cash laying on the seat of your unlocked car downtown and someone rips you off, you're not a victim (unless you count of your own stupidity).

Not really. What I'm saying is don't make spending commitments that you do not have a source of revenue to back it up with. Government is great at spending money that they don't have when they know all they need to do is steal some more from the public at a later date and everything will work out for them in the end.

I am absolutely shocked. How about they cut their goddamn spending and subsist on the taxes they are already collecting before instituting a ridiculous "per-GB" internet tax. FFS, does the idea of spending less money ever even cross a government's mind? Now, before I get branded some evil right-winger racist luddite tinfoil hat wearing neanderthal, I don't disagree with taxes that perform a function.

If the government is providing a service or function, such as roads, technological infrastructure, schools, etc. I fully agree with taxes to support them. But taxing arbitrary goods/services provided by third parties just because you want to keep living high on the hog? That, to me, is a sickening example of why spending needs to be scrutinized and real fiscal responsibility needs to be in place in government. It's just too easy to keep spending when it's everyone else's money.

This is what scares me the most about Ebola. It's that the government is telling me that there's nothing to worry about and that everything is going to be just fine. I know that when they say I should run for my life and be scared shitless of something that it isn't a real threat. I assume the opposite rhetoric means that it really is a threat and I should probably be scared shitless hiding out somewhere until it all blows over.

So, it should work in a way where the authorities can do whatever they want to prove someone guilty of a crime? Do you realize what would happen in a country such as the United States where for-profit private prisons exist, should your little childish scenario come into play? The punishment for "illegal search" would be a day's paid vacation for the police and a $25 fine, whereas if they uncovered some minor malfeasance by a citizen, it'd be a minimum of 3 years hard labor in a prison factory.

This is somehow better for you?