Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat 549
ndansmith writes "Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time." What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them.
Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Funny)
Then assigned the new kid to the detail. You know the one: shoes are a bit too shiny
Anyhow, that's what I would have done.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Most security is at best pathetic. Why? Because good security is expensive and sometimes invasive hence not acceptable by Joe Sixpack.
Example of such feel-good "security" is what's going on at airports around USA. Best illustrated in Soul Plane [imdb.com]
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Interesting)
If we hired smart security people, overall we'd be more secure.
I have my Washoe County, Nevada, work card for security guard work in my wallet. When are you going to step up to the plate and be one of those smarter security guards?
Fill the void!
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:4, Insightful)
dissolving of normal social relationships (Score:4, Insightful)
The human mind is meant to handle a tribe. We can keep track of a small group of people, knowing who can be trusted and who to be wary of.
Now we have cities with millions of people and transportation that takes us everywhere. Every day, we are faced with people we don't know.
We're struggling. Our tribal brains can't keep track of all the people we meet.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Last time I checked, RMS spoke several languages, and has visited heads of state and thousands of people in many countries across the globe. Also, he seems to be the unwaivering center of a worldwide socio-political movement to protect your freedom and mine, sometimes at the cost of looking foolish to people who don't understand what he's doing.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Issued that will have an impact maybe decades from now, Mr Stallman for sure has made history with an A+. He HAS made this world a better place. I strongly believe Mr Stallman's crusades DO make a difference, and we need more people like him, in this world to balance things out.
Freedom of speech. Identity protection. Not even mentioning his unbelievable track record as a programmer.
My own 2 cents. Sorry for grammar mistakes no english spellchecker on this box *yet
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:5, Insightful)
You remind me of a finicky hairdresser who complains bitterly about how awful Einstein's hair looks and wondering how anybody could possibly take him seriously when he hasn't even bothered to look at the latest fashion magazine.
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Those poor security people ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The Linux kernel couldn't have been developed without GNU tools, but you don't call something developed under Windows with Microsoft tools "MS-whatever" do you?
Although the GNU tools are still a healthy part of this complete Operating System, it's just rude to assume that everything that isn't part of the Linux kernel is GNU. KDE isn't GNU. The YUM package maintainer is not GNU. Most of the GUI system management tools are not GNU. Apache is not GNU. The drivers and kernel are not GNU. It's not the case that the bulk of your typical distribution is Linus' kernel wrapped around nothing but GNU software.
What does this have to do with wrapping foil around his RFID tag? Well, it's all about drawing attention to him and his organization. The things he does are not about being "right" (aluminum foil isn't necessarily going to have an effect on RFID) as they are to get exposure for GNU and the FSF.
Why does he want to amplify the signal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why does he want to amplify the signal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Subskin aluminum foil (Score:5, Funny)
So now I know what they were doing with me in that incubator. They were installing an aluminum hat under my skin. Clever. I'll cut it out, though!
It's not about stopping the signal (Score:5, Insightful)
To him, the message was more important than what it actually did.
People more immediately understood the significance of wrapping it in tin foil than anything else.
Re:Why does he want to amplify the signal? (Score:5, Informative)
As smart as those MIT students may be they failed to explain why it amplified the signal.
Simply put, the 'tin foil' or aluminum hat they constructed was a parabolic antenna with the test subjects brain as its focal point. Go back and look at those pictures in the MIT article and see for yourself.
You can in fact shield an object if you *completly* enclose said object with aluminum foil (it's conductive). However, copper foil and screen is the standard for shielding used by professionals.
The enclosure doesn't have to be air tight. But the gaps or holes in the foil need to be smaller then the wavelength your trying to attenuate. This is why RF "screen rooms" can use copper screen instead of solid copper and still be effective to up around 3 GHz.
The more you know...
Re:Why does he want to amplify the signal? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmm (Score:4, Funny)
Excuse me while I go curl into the fetal position in a corner until I resolve this dilemma.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmm (Score:3)
Isn't that true for just about any governmental body? Why single out the UN?
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
I see what they do [msn.com], and what I see is hungry people being fed.
So I guess your ideological position on starving folks is "let them eat cake"?
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)
The U.N. general from Canada motioned to intervene. The U.S. refused. From your link:
The U.N. itself cannot do anything: It's a place for the member nations to talk. If the biggest member decides that a genocide is not worth the risk of potential military casualties, then the fault for inaction is not with the U.N. for trying, but for the member nation for refusing to act.
Re:Oh Please... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or how they are trying to get the US to renovate the UN building in NYC and expecting to spend about a billion extra to do so (American Tax Dollars)
The USA is 1.3 billion dollars in arrears. [wikipedia.org] How about you start paying what you owe before whining about it?
If the UN was so great, why the hell didn't they send in troops, kick the crap out of the warlords in Zimbabwe and Somalia (no official government to speak of) and then rebuild the crumbled societies?
Yeah, that's it. An organisation whose primar
Re:Oh Please... (Score:4, Interesting)
That was in 1997. STFU until you pay your debts, deadbeat.
mentioning the child rapes
Seriously, STFU [google.com].
Most infamous of which is the gang rape of a japanese schoolgirl in the 90's, which so outraged the population that the base is being relocated.
Re:Oh Please... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll bet that there is no reason we should pay 25%. We are one of 185 countries. We are one of I believe 7 on the permanent security council. The US I doubt has 25% of world economic output either, so I can't determine any other reason other than "the US should pay". Nice logic.
I don't get the sense of entitlement people have. What's your country paying?
Re:Oh Please... (Score:3, Informative)
BTW Germany UK France and Italy together pays more then the US so EU totally pays more than than the US.
Re:Bad payers daring to complain (Score:5, Insightful)
Every other rich country pays a little bit more than its fair share to compensate for countries in civil war or deep economic crisis. Japan for instance is paying 19% of the budget for less than 10% of the global GDP, Gernany 8% of the budget for less than 5% of the global GDP and so on. So with 24% of the budget for 21.17% of the global GDP, the U.S. contribution seen as a share of its GDP is already the lowest of all developped countries: in raw dollars, the U.S. assessments of $440,000,000 is 0.0037% of its GDP when Japan for instance pays $346,000,000 i.e. 0.0092% of its GDP. So you personally are contributing almost 3 time less of your annual incomes to the U.N. than a japanese or me in Europe. What about "everyone except the US has already paid its (proportionaly larger) share"?
If the U.S. was at least paying 21.17% of the budget instead of 24%, the complaints would not be so loud. The problem is that the U.S. has not even paid half its commitments for 2004, and not even 15% of its due for 2005 (that is less than 4% of the U.N. budget). In contrast, every other major contributor has already fully paid 2004 and 2005.
If you aggregate the effective payements made on the last 12 months, the U.S. is only the 6th contributor to the U.N. budget, behind Italy (2.89% of the world GDP)!
Here are the hard and daunting data (remember you asked for it):
http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/tables/reg-bu
Why do you think U.S. officials always speak of the assessments (never the payments)?
Re:Oh Please... (Score:4, Informative)
Money owed by U.N. to U.S.: $4.7bn
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa10319
Re:Oh Please... (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, one might want to make the argument that it didn't have the leverage to prevent it because the US never joined.. But let's not have facts get in the way of a good UN bash, right?
How often did Trump go bankrupt? That makes him an expert on projection cost and project planning how?
Re:Oh Please... (Score:3, Insightful)
I hadn't read any details about the renovation project, so I checked it out. That billion "American Tax Dollars" you talked about? It's a loan [globalpolicy.org], with 5.54 per cent interest!
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)
The UN has a huge positive effect on the world. Examples: [democracyarsenal.org]
It strikes me that, of the people who are wholly negative of the UN, the vasty majority are from the USA. It's not surprising, given that the UN are criticising the USA for blocking their torture investigations [un.org] at the moment.
I don't think you'll find anybody claiming that the UN is a perfect organisation. But only trolls and ignorant people could claim that the UN is not worth supporting.
Re:Hmm (Score:3)
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Informative)
there are starving people in the US too.
Then what (Score:3, Funny)
I may be going out on a limb (Score:4, Insightful)
Chickenwire the new tinfoil! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Chickenwire the new tinfoil! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Chickenwire the new tinfoil! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Chickenwire the new tinfoil! (Score:4, Informative)
Try wrapping a mobile phone (1800 MHz = 17 cm wavelength) in aluminum foil and just leave a small hole that allows you to look at the signal strength indicator. You will be surprised.
Your argument is only valid (and then only to a certain extent) if both of the following conditions are met:
- The incident radiation is (approximately) a plane wave (i.e. the source is many wavelengths away and there are no antennas and such in the neighborhood).
- The receiver is at least a few times the wavelength away from the aperture.
Close to the aperture you will still have a significant electric field (it's called the near field). In addition, in the near field of a radiation sources you have a magnetic field component that may penetrate thin layers of aluminum. With a fully enclosing piece of aluminum foil, without any holes, you would do a better job.What are you talking about? (Score:5, Funny)
what are you talking about? Tin foil hats stop everything
Paranoia isn't cheap (Score:5, Funny)
tin, pfft (Score:5, Informative)
I used to use a anti-xray film bag for shoplifting, works a treat
Re:tin, pfft (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Credit where Credit is due. (Score:3, Informative)
Sarcasm aside... the UN could have been more polite on this issue. RMS could have been more polite on this issue. For instance, why didn't RMS protest the badge when handed it in the first place? Why did he, instead, go out and buy a roll of foil and star
Is this the first time you've seen this? (Score:5, Insightful)
How many people have had a review, that included a "wage review", at work where they are told that someone not involved in the meeting, and unaccessable to the employee, is the final decicion on their raise. This was the same thing.
So basically you are wrong. In most situations, being a jerk to the innocent guys just trying to do their job is the only way to get things changed. If your job is Henchman, expect to be treated like it.
Re:Credit where Credit is due. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you read Perens' account, you doubtless saw the UN (according to Perens, anyway) broke a promise not to use RFID cards at this year's protest--presumably in response to complaints last year to the "head of security" or some such. The options are presumably complain again, boycott the conference, or do some sort of symbolic protest. Boycotting in a hissy fit would be acting like a jack ass; complaining has proven to be useless; he chose the last option.
I'm definitely not a Stallman fan (my impression of him is summed up by joking about killing an anti-Free Software spokesmen, then needing to explain to Perens that "he wouldn't really kill anyone.") But this two-bit protest became an issue because guards felt their manhood was being challenged.
Movie Guy Comment (Score:3, Funny)
Best. Slashdot Heading. Ever.
For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, guess what? As predicted by a quick examination of human nature, they WON'T let you block your tracking devices. You will not have a choice as to when and where you will be tracked. This is just the very beginning, the closing of the gate, of our World Prison.
Tell me why again we have to have tracking devices embedded on our persons? I seem to have missed the reasoning. Terrorism?
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:4, Insightful)
Look, there are legitimate reasons to oppose *some* RFID tags. For instance, RFID tags put on clothing which are not removed at purchase. But clowning like this only serves to distract from the real issue.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Interesting)
Yell at the authority-maddened idiots who thought they could harrass Stallman, not Stallman. He made the point beautifully. It's about the POWER, not about security.
What do you think the guvmint or the cops will do when you block THEIR tracking, even symbolically? Arrest, jail, prison, inevitably.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:3, Insightful)
Complaining quietly and politely about certain kinds of issues just gets you swept under the rug and ignored.
And since when should security be 'easier'? If security is easy then you're probably doing something wrong.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Insightful)
He also educated me by showing an easy and effective way to make the point. He showed how it was possible to make them look stupid while obeying their orders.
Of course the mass media are going to call him a crackpot. Do you really expect anything else? The same mass media that called John Kerry a coward and accused him of shooting himself, the same mass media that called martin Luther king a communist, the same mass media that called the beatles communists, that same mass media that called kiss satanists for gods sake. The mass media will try to destory anybody who is popular and will try to demean anybody who is fighting for change.
The powers that be use the media to try and lable people who oppose them as communists, crackpots, terrorists, haters of america and freedom, cowards and whatever other phrase is pushing the buttons of the ignorant masses that week. If you want to make a difference you can't let the press calling you a crackpot stop you.
So what are you going to do other then calling him a crackpot that's what I want to know. You certainly seem to be content with joining the chorus of the chattering masses in calling him names rather then discussing the points he is trying to make with your parents or neighbors.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:4, Informative)
From TFA: (Emphasis mine)
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:4, Insightful)
And they wouldn't let him leave the room!
RTFA, he showed his badge whenever he had to get access to anything, he covered it up when he wasn't doing that, and they freaked.
Tell me again why you don't think there's something more to their insistance on invisible, easily tracked mandatory ID? Remind me how it will be impossible for anyone with bad intentions to get access to the traces?
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, now that I did the obligatory Matrix quote, here is why I think tracking every single individual's movements, purchases, and even thoughts is an inevitable future: the technological advances allow government bodies to have the most control over the population (look what is happenning in the most developped countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc.) The government has the will to control the population. Ironically it is the population that gives the government that power. Apparently the small number of people who are able to innovate and come up with technological progress are mostly the ones who understand how this new tech can be abused to give the government more power and to take away freedoms of the people. Unfortunately the majority of the people are not the ones responsible for the innovation, they are just 'consumers', they have no clue. But they are the majority and they are always ready to trade their freedoms for some illusion of security and/or convenience. The innovation suggests new technical possibilities, the government needs a stable system to make its only income: the taxes. Thus the government protects and maximizes its source of income: a stable regime with powerful system of controls that absolutely prohibit any dissident behaviour that leads to decreases in government income. The population in majority agrees to anything that creates illusion of security/safety/convenience etc., and basically gives up the idea that individuals should be responsible for their own behaviour and actions to themselves first. It looks more and more like an ant colony or a bee hive, doesn't it?
It looks like it is the inherit property of a system - to maximize government control and power and minimize individual freedoms in order to maximize government's income. The problem is a system based on taxes.
Thus, see my previous [slashdot.org] posts [slashdot.org].
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Go to McDonalds for lunch.
2. ask the cashier to speak with the manager.
3. Ask manager if he'll kindly nuke the rfid badge for 30 seconds - offer $5 if necessary.
4. Return to conference with smelly, but broken rfid badge, and faux indignant suprise when the goons at the gate freak.
Re:For all the "what does it matter" folks (Score:5, Informative)
He joked about killing another participant *After* being detained and released and allowed to attend another panel. Not only that, but he joked about it personally to Bruce Perens only after Bruce assured Richard of their diplomat status.
so, RTFAMC
You have to hand it to Richard (Score:5, Insightful)
Rock on Richard.
Re:You have to hand it to Richard (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought he was making a stand for what he believes in.
Their rules (Score:3, Insightful)
Having a covered up badge could be a breach of security, since not only did he cover the RFID (and not even that) but he covered the "visual part" of the badge.
Of course, being a famous personality, that wouldn't be much of an issue, but what about the "crashers" that got a wad of aluminum and simply say that they were following RMS' advice?
I admire RMS in this aspect. I wish I could do more to preserve our right to privacy. Nowadays, all I do is refuse the services of people who insist in gathering all kind of information in exchange of unrelated good/services (I just want to rent a movie, you don't need to know my yearly income of wether I have life insurance). But it's a losing battle.
It's called "Civil Disobedience" (Score:5, Insightful)
Great image for the FOSS movement (Score:3, Interesting)
I respect RMS. He's contributed a lot to the FOSS movement (but no, sorry, what I run is Linux). Several of his writings are thought-provoking. But on the other hand, we all want to see Linux become mainstream. Is this the image we want corporations to have about FOSS? One of its leaders childishly and purposefully gets in trouble with UN security for shielding his pass in aluminium foil. A movement led by immature pranksters. Is that the image we want?
Re:Great image for the FOSS movement (Score:5, Insightful)
I respect RMS because he has never waivered from his ideals, even though people running "Linux", think he's a crazy person. He doesn't let fear of perception goad him into giving over his integrity. He and the FSF are not just trying to become popular, they're trying to protect your freedom and mine.
IMO idealistic integrity is in too short supply in the world these days.
So, it's great that you like "Linux", but remember that without RMS and the FSF and their allies, your "Linux" would not exist.
Re:Great image for the FOSS movement (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux is mainstream. Mainstream does not mean number-one; mainstream means widely-used.
The ideals of FOSS are far more important than the perceptions of any corporation about it. To quote a saying: "If you are willing to become evil in order to fight evil, why are you fighting it ?"
If you are willing to give up everything that FOSS stands for in order to get it accepted as "mainstream", why do you even bother - it won't be Free or Open anymore then, so you can just use the proprietary products and save yourself the bother.
There is nothing childish or immature in demonstrating your viewpoint. No matter how much powers-that-be try to make you think so, playing by their rules and silently accepting defeat instead of using your brains to make a scene that gets everyones attention is not a sign of maturity; it is a sign of weakness and/or stupidity.
Had Stallman played by their rules and simply refused to attend, or perhaps been given a special no-RFID ID card, they would have won; there would be no article here, no fuss risen over the use of RFID. Instead, Stallman played his own game, and drew attention to this issue. Stallman used his brains, and put up an effective fight; nothing immature in that.
real reason? (Score:4, Funny)
I mean, if I was a security guy and got confronted by this [indymedia.org]this, I would be pretty nervous too!
Transparent tinfoil hats and badge holders (Score:4, Funny)
Ironic having the summit in Tunis (Score:5, Insightful)
You can read lots more stories here. [google.com] I'm pretty surprised the freedom-loving editors at slashdot didn't pick this up as a separate story, it's much more important than Stallman's RFID-tinfoil stunt.
Tinfoil (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally I would have suggested that people go to the snack room and throw it in a microwave oven, that way it makes it a pain in the ass and costs those who want to implement this crap. Money is the only thing people like this understand anyway.
Al Foil would work fine (Score:5, Informative)
Tag == 100% wrapped.
Head != 100% wrapped (one would hope)
Aluminum foil is conductive. That and complete coverage is all you need for a faraday cage.
There are like 30 posts already that act like it won't work: it will. Want to test it? Wrap your walkman in foil and try to listen to FM. Freqs are different for RFID (probably), but it doesn't matter.
Take care not to touch the ant. of the radio to the foil though, or you may actually improve reception
Hammer time? (Score:4, Interesting)
--Mike--
Re:Hammer time? (Score:4, Informative)
sooo.. let me get this straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Way to go, RMS! :P
Tin foil (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't the whole poimt if a security badge ID? (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently. He willingly unwrapped it to go through any of the visible check-points, he simply objected to the potential that people might be reading the RF ID without his knowledge and tracking him around the grounds. This, again, is a legitimate gripe, handled with Richard's usual highly-visible, guile-less and absolutely un-subtle style of non-violent protest.
I'm not quite sure I understand why RMS felt that the RFID was a violation of his privacy. It's a SECURITY BADGE. It's whole PURPOSE is to identify the wearer. If he didn't want to wear it, then he shouldn't have attended the event.
I disagree that it's a "legitimate gripe." Remember, he wasn't out on a public road somewhere, but in a "what I suspect is) a secure facility. Furthermore, if somebody really DID want to track him, they would just have somebody watch him the entire time. Believing that somebody wants to track your every motion is either a sign of paranoia or an overinflated sense of self-importance.
All of this completely disrupted the panel that was supposed to follow ours in that room, and the folks operating that panel were rightly furious...
So he makes his point and disrupts the schedule of other panels. Great--this leaves the impression that "Others be damned, I'll make my point however I damn well please." That will earn you a lot of respect. And before you point out that it was the UNU security personnel who caused the ruckus and not Stallman, re-read the account. He was VIOLATING A SECURITY MEASURE. What do you expect them to do? He's violating a security measure that they are there to enforce.
I didn't see anyone further molesting Richard, but I'd imagine he was followed around by plainclothes agents for the rest of the day. This, however, may not be unusual. Perhaps Kramer even got his own protective detail.
See above.
I could just be ignorant of RFID, or misinterpreting Stallman's point of view, but he does seem to be a bit "over the top" in terms of making his opinion known to the public at large. He's 100% entitled to his opinion, but there is a point where making one's point and the cacophony that comes with it washes over the actual issue at hand. What will be remembered more, the RFID issue or that Stallman caused a commotion at a UN event?
Re:Isn't the whole poimt if a security badge ID? (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine if your next credit card used rfid, or your passport, or your driver's license.
I'm not quite sure I understand why RMS felt that the RFID was a violation of his privacy. It's a SECURITY BADGE. It's whole PURPOSE is to identify the wearer. If he didn't want to wear it, then he shouldn't have attended the event.
RFID's purpose is not to identify the wearer; like Windows RPC, it's purpose is to be usable in a remote, rather than immediate, manner.
Imagine then bombs that
I applaud both Stallman and U.N. security (Score:5, Interesting)
It has probably brought the matter to the attention of U.N. officials who honestly didn't know or understand the problems with RFID, and regardless of their visible behavior I am sure that it educated the security people as well. I don't know whether this in itself will change policy, but I'd bet a nickel that behind the scenes there have been some discussions and briefings.
Now, the U.N. security people did as close to the right thing as you can imagine them doing. You can't expect them to make an instant technical analysis of the situation. The facts they were presented with were: a) the badges are being used for security, to make sure that only authorized people attend; b) Stallman was conspiciously doing something or other with the badges; c) they had no way of knowing whether it was any kind of security threat, but at least the possibility existed. Screwing around with a security pass is suspicious, even if you don't know what exactly to suspect, and even if in this case it was innocent.
They didn't arrest him. They didn't beat him up. They created the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience to Stallman and to the meeting.
I say Stallman was effective, on a matter that has some real society importance. And I say the security guards' response was measured and sensible.
This could be a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Instead of fighting a lossing battle to stop this technology we need to ensure that it will be available to everyone and that the information will be open to the public. Put cameras on the streets, in the police stations and in government buildings. Build cheap RFID readers that everyone can own. I don't mind being watched as long as I can watch everyone else. Imagine a world where everyone is equipped with their own personal cameras and recording devices... with so many eyes spreading their light everywhere the world might become a more peaceful and happy place.
It's Sad..... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish I could make this huge:
QUESTION AUTHORITY!
That is all RMS was doing. And when he did put the question to them we saw their reaction. It scares me, the number of people who think the UN's reaction was appropriate.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I want people ID tagged (Score:5, Insightful)
The Slashdot title is wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
I Read The Funny Article (Score:4, Insightful)
I oringally picked this up from Technocrat [tecnocrat.net], a slash site where Perens is an editor/author (I added that fact in the post but it was scrubbed by CowboyNeal). His headline was as follows:
Richard Stallman gets in trouble with UN Security for wearing a tinfoil hat.
I wanted to preserve his concept while still getting the story out to the greater Slashdot community. Perens wrote the headline knowing full well it was aluminum over his name badge. Here is how I interpert his intention, and why I did it how I did it.
1. The difference between aluminum and tin foil is irrelevant. RMS was trying to make a point, and aluminum foil was all that was available.
2. "Tinfoil" hat was was indicative of its function, not position. Or perhaps this will help: he put a tinfoil hat on his badge. Anyway, the location of the foil is not the point of RMS's action nor Perens' post.
3. It's funny. Laugh.
Re:The Hypocrisy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)
Bit Torrent and similar technologies simply give individuals more power. Yes, more power to do things that some organizations would rather they didn't do, but also more power to make their lives better as well. A trade-off, in other words, and one that (for once) is on the side of the many, rather than the few.
Valid complaints about RFID are generally not "RFID rechnology is just inherently evil", but are oriented against governments and/or criminal organizations that would use it to hurt people. Yes, there are many legitimate benefits conferred by RFID tech, but those must be balanced against the potential for people to get hurt by them. Thoughtless dissemination of RFID technology (such as the U.S. State Department was all set to do with passports) will cause a lot more damage than it is worth.
Losing privacy is wrong, (C) infringment isn't. (Score:3)
Re:The Hypocrisy (Score:3, Informative)
[...]
It's just another example of hypocrisy.
No, Alanis, it's not.
This is what it takes! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You Westerners are funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps you'll find that "true evil" can turn wusses into heroes. We sit on our fat asses, because we can.
Re:Tin/Aluminium? (Score:5, Informative)
If you wrap any RF transmitting device in tin OR aluminum foil, you are going to completely shield the device and no RF will get in or out because the foil would act as a farady cage.
This is because aluminum conducts electricity just fine, and as RF is composed of electro-magnetet waves, a solid conducting surface will act as a ground (short) and bounce the signal. If there is no way for the signal to escape, it wont.
Any electrically conductive material would have this property. You could (and it has been done many times) make a faraday cage out of aluminum just as easily as steel or tin. Aluminum of course only has about 60 percent of the electrical conductivity of copper so copper (actually silver but obviously too expensive) would be the ideal material, but for weak signals like RFID it is irrelivant and both would work fine.
Re:Tin/Aluminium? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, beeing an electrical engineer,
Okay, maybe you can explain something I've been trying to figure out for a while.
If you wrap any RF transmitting device in tin OR aluminum foil, you are going to completely shield the device and no RF will get in or out because the foil would act as a farady cage.
This doesn't fit with what I learned in college physics, yet I hear it all the time. From what I learned, a Faraday cage should prevent RF energy from entering the cage, but not from leaving it.
As
Re:Tin/Aluminium? (Score:3, Informative)
In the RF world if you have a perfect short circuit between the transmitting element and ground, or a perfect open circuit, you will have a perfect 100% reflection. Free space has a certain resistance to RF, and to avoid reflections, antennas match resistances between your system and free space (and back aga
Re:brilliant... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly what he intended. If they hadn't harassed him, then the story wouldn't be in the news, and nobody would know about it. However, he knew that this would most likely cause some kind of stink, which would generated a news story that gets people talking about the issue. Now we're all here thinking about RFD, just as RMS wanted.
RMS played the UN security like puppets on strings just the same way as terrorists play the administration and congress: they know what the knee-jerk reaction will be and they use it to their advantage.
Re:brilliant... (Score:5, Insightful)
With the small but important difference that RMS did not harm or kill anyone. Makes it easy to sympathize with him and his cause, which is not possible with terrorists.
Re:if (Al == Sn) (Score:3, Insightful)
Kind of like how some people call any tissue "Kleenex" no matter who manufactured it. Or sheetrock, for that matter.
Re:Just a question.. (Score:3, Interesting)