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Comment Re:I blame Phrack Magazine (Score 2) 231

I miss phrack!! 2600 is a bit of a hollow shell compared to what it was once - a quarterly mag just can't keep up with the rate that zero-days are released and patched these days. I used to write BASIC programs that would lock up machines and block out all keyboard input (including break sequences) to drive librarians batty. In high school AOL Instant Messenger was installed on several machines, and folks would forget to remove their login info. So I used to use snadboy revelation to find out usernames and passwords and raised hell that way. Coincidentally and on an entirely unrelated note, several jerky meathead guys in my class came out of the closet to their best friends - it was all quite progressive really for such a conservative school. Such strength! So brave! Much courage! Wow! It's sad how quickly the popular quarterback becomes unpopular when no one is willing to be in the shower with him.

Comment The first rule of technology (Score 2) 448

You cannot permanently defend technology with more technology, just add timesinks. If you create a killswitch, you add multiple attack vectors - either the people who control access to the killswitch themselves, the people who designed the killswitch, or the possibility of brute forcing or exploiting that killswitch.

Comment Re:Doesn't this pretty much kill 4chan? (Score 1) 134

You are 100% correct. This is yet another place where the victims (and they ARE victims), in their move to try and stop the information from spreading, completely ignored that the Streisand Effect is a very real and powerful thing. Honestly, a better approach would have been the Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian approach, "Ok, I can't get rid of this, may as well make an official distribution channel and make money off of it." But obviously, given the personal nature of the leak, they'd have to be ok with that decision and its moral implications. It's a shitty way to make lemonade out of lemons though, but lawsuits and DMCA notices will almost always backfire on the internet.

Comment Re:Sigh... (Score 1) 789

Well, to be fair he landed a spot in Yeltsin's inner circle for a reason. I have a feeling that isn't a club you just walk into, you know? I don't know what his actual position was, but I know that's where he first started getting the limelight. At that point, his ascendency really took off. But I totally agree - that KGB experience probably helped launch him forward.

Have a critic? Wow, what a shame that he passed out and suddenly woke up next to a dead prostitute. Thankfully the polaroids proving it are safely in Putin's pocket. Did I say critic? I meant number one fan.

Comment Re:Sigh... (Score 1) 789

Except you would never nuke Mexico if you were the US, especially if you were trying to protect the northern Mexican states. Wind patterns would keep a nuclear blast MOSTLY centralized, but there is still enough northbound wind to irradiate those states, and also very likely large portions of Texas, NM, and probably Mississippi. Check the wind patterns yourself here.

Comment Re:Sigh... (Score 1) 789

You know, I wish I could mod you up for that. I never once thought about the "God of War" as a living thing as you describe it, but you are totally right. Emotionally, what's actually happening is likely based on polarization (where two social groups with slightly differing views tend to become more and more extreme in those views in an effort to distance themselves from "the other") and group polarization where members of a group allow themselves to become more and more socially extreme in the name of the group.

Either way, really good point you've made, so consider this an unofficial mod +1 interesting/insightful.

Comment Re:Sigh... (Score 5, Insightful) 789

This is very much true. He's intelligent enough to work not only as a highly decorated KGB serviceman, but also to quickly climb the rungs of power in what is most certainly a very corrupt country. Don't underestimate the gamesmanship involved with either one of those achievements. That alone should give you pause before calling him irrational. He is likely very rational - and cold, and calculating, and ruthless.

Comment Re:yet if we did it (Score 1) 463

To clarify on this because some people find it confusing, basically "beyond a reasonable doubt" means 12 jurors need to be about 95% sure that you're guilty. Preponderance of evidence is akin to "more than 50% sure". That's why people can be acquitted of criminal charges, but found liable on civil charges.

Comment Re:"Accidentally" (Score 2) 455

Oh I totally agree, it IS a good thing. I'm more interested in the data management perspective. How do you take one day's footage from several thousand officers, dissect it, add metadata to associate specific police report/case numbers, correlate other videos, all without giving police direct access to those videos? How do you build a database that respects things like statutes of limitations on particular crimes? If you have a police officer using force in the video and the statute of limitations has passed, do you keep the video anyway in case there is a pattern of force with that officer? It's all design stuff. I used to work in PACS (think similar storage, but for radiology systems), so these are the questions jumping to my mind.

Comment Re:"Accidentally" (Score 1) 455

So, you're effectively arguing that we should stop using virus scanners, because eventually, SOME virus will get by the virus scanner so what's the point. Or maybe a better metaphor is that, even though seat belts save tons of lives, we shouldn't use them because they can occasionally fail to save a life.

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