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Comment Re:But is is (Score 1) 296

From page 148 of the book 'WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy' by David Leigh (Author), Luke Harding (Author)

    “ACollectionOfDiplomaticHistorySince_ 1966_ ToThe_PresentDay#”
                                                ASSANGE’S 58-CARACTER PASSWORD

Comment Re:Reverse the tables (Score 1) 209

Exactly. for me it is either Time Warner or DSL. A few blocks south or east the only option is Time Warner. A few miles in some direction there is no DSL or Cable, people have to use Dial up, Satellite, or 3G. While I do I have pretty good service, I would have much faster, better and possibly cheaper if there was competition.

Comment Re:... in lots of official mirrors (Score 1) 537

Comment Re:Selection bias. (Score 1) 277

Yes you might be right on many levels. I get quite frustrated at my job, but I really do give good customer service, even those people. Assuming they do not see the micro expressions come across my face before I gain composure and put on that fake smile.

On some levels I think some of my point stands. I worked in the higher end web/tech industry for 15 years I did not have to deal with very many every day people. I would bet 'some' people that read this site also do not deal with the "general public" all that much. I mean I knew on paper "14% of people in my county lacked basic prose literacy skills"[1], which is about 1 in every 7, but without dealing with this in person, it was just some number on paper. "25% of people in the USA's IQ are below 90"[2], while not a perfect measure of intelligence, still says something. Beyond that people in the USA seem to lack in logic related skills (math), compared to the rest of the first even second world. We are the stupidest nation dollar for dollar[3] there is. I just find it sad and frustrating. I doubt you can solve people using bad passwords without addressing some of those facts first.

But as you started I am talking about the left of the tail not the middle and you are very right on that end.

1. http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve
3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/rankorderguide.html

Comment Re:Whats next? (Score 1) 1219

Most of the people (not here on slashdot, the rednecks I meet in my state of Texas) who think he should be strung up and hung have no idea what he actually released and assume from the news reports he is a rapist. So the 80% figure includes a ton of people who do actually know the facts

That's democracy for you. Aren't you glad we live in a republic that put limits on mob rule?

My only point was the people that make up the statistic being quoted do not generally do not even the facts of the subject the pollster questioned them about, particularly in this case in my area.

I do not necessarily think it was 'an attack' on the US, even if it was, the information he released was truth, nothing more. I do not believe they can stop the 'site' at this point, if somehow they did, there is several now to take their place. I think it is a good thing.

Whether it's the truth or not doesn't really matter. Most of what is being release was said or written in strict confidence between sets of people who understood only a limited amount of people would know about it. Think about it this way, suppose the cops wiretapped your phone suspecting you were dealing drugs with known terrorists. All they get is you talking about how your partner looked fat in the outfit they wore last night, and how you think one of your best friends have a drinking problem and he's becoming an ass. Nothing terribly bad, and all true from your perspective. Now lets say that a cop knew he was going to get fired for whatever outside reason and dumped all these tapes of you talking privately to certain people in confidence along side the road on his way to an interview for a new job. Now suppose I found them and posted them all on the interweb. Does the fact that they are all true make that right? Does it make it permissive? I mean ignore the fact that the cop acted illegally, I came buy them legally, and haven't broken a law (actually I have but pretend I haven't) and posted them for everyone, including your partner and friend with the drinking problem to hear and see. Are we good now? Well, what makes the difference if we are not? You might say "well, those were your communications, not the government", but it's the government who kept recorded them and kept them, shouldn't I be able to disseminate government information even when the communications help were regarded as confidential at the time?

We are not talking about private citizens, we talking Federal employees who are being paid and acting on our behalf, that directly effects every person in this country and many more around the world. The data here wasn't unknowingly tapped, they knew records were kept and many government officials (at least higher end ones) could read it.

The scenario you create here involves private citizens whos actions, have no effect on the rest of the world, nor are they paid or acting on the public's interest, who have an expatiation of privacy, etc. These are two total separate issues.

If this same cop in your scenario found out.. I was drinking on the job, in which peoples lives were actually in danger and he 'anonymously' reported it to my work, I think it would be the morally right thing to do. If I found out the cops did that, I hope I would have enough reason in myself to understand why he did it and accept it was the right thing to do.

Nationalism is not usually a good thing. Being mad that a group exposed all the secret evils of your government is not the right response, consider asking the government why they were doing these evils in the first place.

Would you be mad at me if I posted all your confidential communications on the interweb? Seriously, I mean if you knew all your conversations were being recorded and eventually made available to anyone- anywhere, would you phrase things differently, perhaps more tactfully then you have in the past? The problem here is that it went beyond exposing just the evils of the government. It went into the territory of anything to damage them. Completely benign yet untactful communications were made public with no other reason then to degrade relationship the US holds in some form. Almost everyone would consider that an attack and if it happened in your personal life, you would stop being around people who acted like that to you. Wouldn't you? Maybe it's not all nationalism but being able to relate to it personally. I don't like people like that, I don't like Assange, I knew who he was before this, I didn't really care before this.

My response to this is more or less the same as above. We are not talking celebrity gossip magazine type stuff here. We are talking countries bombing and killing other people on behalf, paid by us. Spying and and hurting our relationships with the world. I understand the need for real national security, I do. But when the government stamps every single document no matter how trivial secret going back 50+ years, with no transparency, uses the media as an attempt to keep support for a war or two or three, lying about facts, then you have Wikileaks post the Iraq & Afgan warlogs. I am all for wikileaks here man.

Is it not more moral to ask your government 'why you do these terrible things, classify them and cover them up'? Than it is to blame the person for exposing them?

Why can't it be both? I mean seriously, in all the arguments I see in support for wikileaks, they all act like it's a binary problem of either or but not both. There were perfectly legitimate ways of dealing with this that would have resulted in completely different outcomes. Manning had many viable resources to express what he thought was injustice without ever committing a crime including notifying members of congress. What makes people distinguish news sources from Wikileaks is that a legitimate news source doesn't do around reporting that your neighbor called you an arrogant ass, unless that act leads into something news worthy like you assaulting them or something. The bulk of the diplomat cables and battlefield reports amount to little more then that. They show little to now evil by the government and are more or less people expressing rude or off collar opinions about others in high places. The battle field reports are even worse because a patter of operational strategy can be derived from them which would clearly give an enemy a better understanding of our tactics and perspective.

And even if no one can show how anyone was directly or indirectly harmed but the releases, you can show how you wouldn't keep people like that in your circle of friends. In fact, almost every workplace environment I have been in had at least one person who couldn't keep their mouth shut about things and often their blabbering bites someone in the ass who did no direct harm to anyone or anything. In my experience, we simply don't deal with them outside of direct need of work. I'm betting a lot of people have seen this and don't like it either.

Assuming it was Manning, yes he broke several laws and oaths he gave. You keep equating little private citizen things with this and they are not nearly the same thing. He saw video footage of people in helicopters killing every day citizens illegally with no regard for human life. He already saw multiple cover ups and lies from the government fed to the media. What do you expect at a certain point? This guy lived in it, dealt with it every day and saw everything. I do not know his reasons, obviously I can only make educated guesses. Yes a large part of the cables are useless and really do not need to be published, period. There are chucks of them however that should be known.

I wouldn't put my faith in any friends to be covering up things of the caliber that Wikileaks has released, nor would I ever commit them in the first place. Actually you keep talking about workplace environments, we have entire laws to protect people who do come out against these companies "whistleblower protection act" for one. No this isn't going to protect you from spreading every gossip garbage, but if the company is clearly breaking many laws and going against their stock holders, it will protect them. I might not have the balls to do it, you might be the one blindly following the company, sticking with your friends breaking the laws. Someone will though.

KXCD

Comment Re:Whats next? (Score 0) 1219

Legal != Moral

I live in the USA, born here, etc. I wish I had the balls Julian Assange does, he is a hero in my book. Most of the people (not here on slashdot, the rednecks I meet in my state of Texas) who think he should be strung up and hung have no idea what he actually released and assume from the news reports he is a rapist. So the 80% figure includes a ton of people who do actually know the facts. I would like to see the figure after you laid out the real facts to them, assuming them could understand or care about the facts. I am sure there is still people that would still disagree with what he did, particularly on the cable release. I understand and can accept those points, while I still think it was the right thing to do. I do not necessarily think it was 'an attack' on the US, even if it was, the information he released was truth, nothing more. I do not believe they can stop the 'site' at this point, if somehow they did, there is several now to take their place. I think it is a good thing.

Nationalism is not usually a good thing. Being mad that a group exposed all the secret evils of your government is not the right response, consider asking the government why they were doing these evils in the first place.

Is it not more moral to ask your government 'why you do these terrible things, classify them and cover them up'? Than it is to blame the person for exposing them?

Last time I checked no person was directly harmed by the release of the cables, war logs or videos. No I have not read them all, only the headlines etc so far. Most everything in there was just things you expect to be said behind the scenes. Honestly the cables seem to reveal more about other countries doings than our own to me.

But I tell you what, there is no way I would ever leak shit to them or participate in that what so ever. Big brother is a scary thing when you piss him off. I might even check the Post Anonymously button before I click Submit, then again I know for a fact I am already on at least one little list with them.. screw it, whats another one. Doubt that would actually make me really anonymous anyway.

Comment Re:Whats next? (Score 1) 1219

"if you refuse a breath test during a traffic stop, a judge is on site, and issues a warrant that allows police to perform a mandatory blood test."

Based on what? Your refusal to take one? That is not, any/enough probable cause to justify a warrant. I do not know all the laws, I doubt anyone does. It seems unconstitutional. Your going to pull over some other judge, high end lawyer or something and eventually one of these people will bring this to the state and if needed federal supreme court and win. Maybe I am missing something though. I am pretty sure if they also asked to search your car and the judge issued a warrant based on your refusal, it would be deemed illegal and overturned.

In my area we had local sheriffs riding around with game wardens (the people who enforce hunting laws, for you city folk), anyway they can more or less search peoples vehicles without warrants looking for people poaching (killing game illegally). The Sheriffs were using them as all access search warrants. They did it to the wrong person and the state came down hard on them.

Comment Re:Who rules America? (Score 2) 387

Turner Diaries was a reasonable book, yes very racist, but I felt it was well written.. I tried to read his other book called Hunter and could not make it past a few chapters, too much racist ramblings... As far as an On Topic post: I always wondered how much better PC gamers would score on games like these, I really cant see, at least on average, console gamers competing on anywhere near the same level.

Comment Re:I like PvP (Score 1) 80

I could see him trying to use those gestures to try to defend himself. I just do not think it is reasonable to think anyone can play nearly as good with any of these current motion capture devices compared to having a keyboard.. DPS will drop, it will fail to pick up a gesture here and there, etc. I am sure this is quite fun and has it uses though.

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