In related news Dianne Feinstein has turned around her opinion and stated she is now 'totally opposed' to NSA surveillance of US allies.
Quite surprised at this, hopefully it is not empty rhetoric and actually goes somewhere. Very interested to see what the two leading goons of the NSA have to say for themselves in front of the House intelligence committee on Tuesday.
Peace,
Andy.
Yeah there is more software available on MacOS or Windows in this field but you are way way way overstating your case.
The GPP is absolutely not overstating the case. I love Linux and open source, but it really isn't ready for audio recording and MIDI processing, let alone the myriad of other apps and plugins required for effects processing and mastering. I would be extremely surprised if there are any serious audio professionals using Linux as a DAW.
As for the rest of us: inspiration can be difficult to find. When an idea for a song strikes your chosen platform and toolset must be ready to record perfect audio with low latency now. No configuration, no messing about. Load host, press record, start playing. Anything else is a compromise and will hamper your creativity.
OS X and and Windows allow this to happen with very little configuration. The plugins are available, both free and paid. Linux does not. It may do in the future with host like Bitwig being made available (soon
Peace,
Andy.
Will there be a command-line version und can I pipe it to
I'm guessing the answer would be no
Sox (free, open source) is what you want for that type of processing.
Peace,
Andy.
There is another option for Linux which is open source - PyDAW. Check out the project here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmodsynth/
Although I have no experience with PyDAW, it has been in development for some time and should be very stable.
Peace,
Andy.
Forget using an audio editor for song composition, what you need is a proper audio host (commonly called a DAW).
The options for Linux have been a bit lacking but that is about to change with the impending release of Bitwig. Developed for Mac / Win / Linux, it functions similar to Ableton Live, which is incredibly popular for a good reason - it's unique take on music arrangement means it is great for jamming, live performance and experimenting with ideas. Check it out here:
https://bitwig.com/en/bitwig-studio
Peace,
Andy.
One of the most telling omissions from the reasons GCHQ cite for keeping the surveillance a secret is the so called War on Terror. It's not mentioned at all.
Their biggest fear is / was the public finding out, and challenging their right to spy in the courts.
Something feels very wrong about that
Peace,
Andy.
Anything you did back then was fun because you were at a point in your life where you could enjoy it the most.
No doubt that was a factor, but we had access to Play Station and yet we always returned to the N64 games I mentioned above.
Oops, correction: Eternal Darkness was originally planned for the N64 but actually released for the Gamecube.
And I don't think anybody has forgotten Goldeneye 007 on the 64.
Yup!
N64 may not have had the numbers, but some of the games were among the most played of all time among my group of friends. We had the most fun with the N64 and that is really what counts.
Diddy Kong Racing was freakin' awesome.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of the best ever horror themed titles to hit the shelves.
Peace,
Andy.
It's far from perfect, but at least Google are trying to do something and it's better than the current status quo.
It's an admirable goal, but it comes down to trust. How does Google know, or more importantly how do we know, that someone from the NSA has not embedded themselves in the implementation team in order to weaken the encryption or insert a back door?
At this point it's kinda like introducing time-travel as a plot device to the Star Trek cannon. Once time travel is introduced, absolutely anything is possible. In terms of encryption, hence forth it will be very difficult to trust anything related to computing.
Peace,
Andy.
The anomalous behavior that sent up red flags could include staffers downloading multiple documents or accessing classified databases they do not normally use for their work, said two people familiar with the software used to monitor employee activity.
Except, apparently, one Edward Snowden. Which means for all of the paranoia, someone still got through.
What about the other Snowdens that aren't whistleblowers but real, actual spies?
This is another reason the NSA et al are foolish to dismiss Snowden as a threat, another reason why he should be embraced as a hero for shining light on a serious problem!
Peace,
Andy.
Sounds remarkably like security through obscurity to me. With the predictable outcome.
You have no right to feel secure if you only think you're secure assuming noone else examines your source code.
To what level do you take the paranoia, though?
As early as 1984 (hah!) it has been known that a compiler could be developed in such a way as to produce binaries containing a back door:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheKenThompsonHack
The next level is CPU microcode. Where does it end? One day we can fab our own CPUs from Open Source designs
Peace,
Andy.
Mr Miranda supplied the police with all his passwords (as you must under the law in the UK) so no encryption needed breaking, just unlocking.
He may have been forced to supply all of his [i]own[/i] passwords, but that does not mean he had passwords for all of the documents he was carrying!
And I should add: huge kudos to the Independent for having the balls to stand up and keep reporting in the face of what appears to be a War on Journalism.
Peace,
Andy.
Whether Greenwald gave some stuff to the Independent or Snowden did that earlier is unknown.
But my guess would be the whole episode of the UK Gov't detaining Mr. Miranda and forcing The Guarding to shred some systems seriously pissed off the British Press. Releasing UK-specific material is most likely payback. Spreading it around to other papers is most likely a signal that "threaten the Guardian with prior restraint, you better be ready to shut down every paper in the UK".
GCHQ and Whitehall fucked up royally with that and they are now going to pay for threatening a major newspaper.
Just a guess, mind you.
Rather telling is that a) the story appears in the Independent and b) article makes no reference as to the source of the allegations, other than stating that the information was found in the documents leaked by Edward Snowden:
Information about the project was contained in 50,000 GCHQ documents that Mr Snowden downloaded during 2012. Many of them came from an internal Wikipedia-style information site called GC-Wiki. Unlike the public Wikipedia, GCHQ’s wiki was generally classified Top Secret or above.
The disclosure comes as the Metropolitan Police announced it was launching a terrorism investigation into material found on the computer of David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald – who is at the centre of the Snowden controversy.
Prior to this story most UK articles appeared in the Guardian and clearly stated that Glenn Greewald provided the information. The game has changed, and I think it is going to get a whole lot uglier from here.
Peace,
Andy.
He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion
