Crappy journalistic research.

It's "just" the chief of the Hessian section of the DPolG, not the Chief on the federal level.

And there's several police unions as well, with the DPolG only being second largest (about half as big as the GdP with a few micro unions not worth mentioning).

Don't blame the journalists, blame me. I'm the one who translated the article for Game Politics, and due to my relatively poor German skills (I've been learning German as a second language), I made a mistake. I actually caught it and emailed a correction -- I wasn't initially sure how best to translate the guy's job title -- but I don't think Dennis saw my email, and the internet merely amplified the error. Hopefully there weren't any other major mistakes... I like to think I do a better job than Google Translator, but I would never compare myself to a native speaker.

I've seen more English in Quebec than French out here in BC.

Anything related to the Federal Government is bilingual, of course, but for all intents and purposes, Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Newfoundland/most of Ontario are English-only, BC is officially English but a lot of election propaganda is sent out in Chinese too, New Brunswick and the city of Ottawa are bilingual, and I think the territories are English/Inuktitut or something. Canada is a diverse country and our official languages, on a federal and provincial level, reflect that.

I don't understand why people whine about French anyway. I never managed to become fluent and forgot most of what I learned in school, but I'm still glad I made an effort. Learning even a little bit of another language is a great way to learn more about your own language and culture by looking at someone else's.

Merely restating your point does not make it any more valid than it was the first time around.

I wonder if you could take out an "ad" with certain calculus notes buried within it...like having the Ideal Gas Equation or Hooke's Law as a tiny part of a graphic... ^_^

If you don't care for that analysis, here's another.

I find it interesting that you are complaining about the last eight years in the US, yet the article is about Europe...

I'm referencing the U.S. because I'm a resident of the U.S., and have more knowledge of the U.S. government's various malfeasances than I do of the U.K.'s.

And no one was "complaining". I was merely pointing out that the OP's claim that a government is somehow more trustworthy than a "grey hat" is patently absurd.

IMO, it shows the anti-US sentiment, apparently because of the US's more or less high position in the world, as opposed to many European countries that are trying to rival it with the EU, etc., but failing.

IMO, you're reading way too much into my remarks, Sparky.

And yet, The UK and Europe have far worse "wire-tapping" sorts of things than the US. But it's not in vogue to complain about it anywhere but in the US, it seems.

Could you please explain your point, seeing as how you have seemed to have made mine for me at this juncture?

Granted....I'm just making the suggestion based upon the available information that says a Trojan will be involved, which will almost certainly be only written in the M$ flavor...90% of market share and all...

However, as interest in Linux increases, it's only a matter of time before The Powers That Be take notice, and mucking with a repository would be a great way to snare an unsuspecting Linux user. All the more reason to support the growing Paranoid Linux movement...I don't know exactly how effective this sort of thing would be in the real world, but unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to find out.

But, of course, if your machine is behind a firewall, they'll just outlaw having firewall because it impedes their ability to investigate you for crimes.

Actually, if you live in Michigan, this has already happened.

Unless this law has been repealed since 2003 (and I've been unable to find any evidence that it has), then I and everyone I know is a felon.

because with the government there is accountablity, responsilibty, a paper trail, transparency

Indeed...one need only look at the last eight years in the U.S. for the proof of this statement.

Oh, wait...

Could you point it out?

Certainly.

how would this work?

Please see my earlier post regarding this...apparently, they plan to infect your system with a remote access Trojan.

But don't worry...it's for your own good.

Unfortunately, the article cited is maddeningly vague as to how this initiative will be implemented. A little digging turns up this Register article on the subject, which contains slightly more info.

From the Register article:

In practical terms, remote searches would involve planting law enforcement Trojans on suspects' PCs. Police in Germany are most enthusiastic about pushing this tactic, the sort of approach even Vic Mackey from The Shield might baulk at, despite its many potential drawbacks, highlighted by El Reg on numerous occasions.

For starters, infecting the PC of a target of an investigation is hit and miss. Malware is not a precision weapon, and that raises the possibility that samples of the malware might fall into the hands of cybercrooks.

Even if a target does get infected there's a good chance any security software they've installed will detect the malware. Any security vendor who agreed to turn a blind eye to state-sanctioned Trojans would risk compromising their reputation, as amply illustrated by the Magic Lantern controversy in the US a few years back.

Then there are the civil liberties implications of the approach and questions about whether evidence obtained using the tactic is admissable in court.

Despite all these problems the idea of a law enforcement Trojan continues to gain traction and could become mainstream within five years, if EU ministers get their way.

So, in short, here's just one more compelling argument for ditching Windows for Linux...

1.) Isn't this what a will is for?

2.) If you're really concerned about security, you could have the portion of the will that deals with passwords and such encrypted, and keep the encryption key in a different location or with a different agency, with instructions to each that the key is only to be used upon the event of your death.

Any system that's sufficiently complex will display behavior similar to our own. When machines eventually display incontrovertible evidence of self-awareness, rational humans will be forced to either admit that the machines do indeed have souls, or humans do not.