* Posts by John_G

6 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Nov 2011

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says Trump ban means the service has failed

John_G

Re: Screwed the pooch and knows it

Traditional news media has been controlled by a few ultra-rich individuals from the beginning. The impact of Facebook banning the Labour party would probably be far smaller than all the major Murdoch papers and Viscount Rothmere's Mail and Sunday Mail all publishing consistently anti-Labour and pro-Conservative messages; which is exactly what has happened repeatedly in the past.

It shouldn't be a controversial opinion that America, and some other western democracies, are in a dangerous place. There's no evidence to even imply that the election wasn't free and fair, but the majority of republicans support the storming of the capitol by a mob, and members are threatening their own representatives for not lying.

I share a concern about social media companies becoming gatekeepers to information, but we have to look at whether they are being used by state or private entities to manipulate public opinion and undermine the state. If social media companies not taking action would lead to an inevitable slide into fascism and the end of democratic elections (which may or may not be the case) then them acting would certainly be the lesser of two evils.

It's been a day or so and nope, we still can't wrap our head around why GitHub would fire someone for saying Nazis were storming the US Capitol

John_G

Re: Reporting bias

I completely agree with this point; with the slight caveat that if it is true that he was reprimanded for the comment shortly before being fired, yet the company hasn't said anything public about the CEO making the same claim, then the company has put the onus on itself to demonstrate it was acting fairly in this case.

Microsoft hires Pawn Stars to shaft Google

John_G

Re: !Subtle under tones

I think people get by now that a Chromebook is limited without an internet connection. So what? If I want to check my email, watch an online video, check my (google) calendar or buy something online then a top of the range PC is pretty bloody useless without an internet connection.

If a chromebook offered enough of a price advantage, performance advantage or battery/size advantage then I'd be tempted to get one over a standard laptop if I was looking for one or the other.

Four ways the Guardian could have protected Snowden – by THE NSA

John_G

Another security trick

If I was trying to keep information secret and thought it was remotely likely I was being watched then there's another trick I'd employ.

Constantly upload files (say 10MB) to a public file share, ideally at a rate of 1+ per minute. All of them would be filled with random data. Then when you want to upload something heavily encrypt it and include it in one of the files.

You'd be uploading ~1,440 files a day. The person you are sending them to would try to decrypt every file using their private key and could discard all the fake ones. Anyone snooping would have to force the encryption on every single file to know whether it was fake or not. That means they'd have to attempt to decrypt 525,600 files (the vast majority of which are random data so can't actually be decrypted) in order to see everything you sent during the year.

- - -

But the real point here shouldn't be discussing how to avoid this kind of intrusive and abusive behaviour towards journalists but that western governments are rapidly giving up the pretence of allowing any freedom to their citizens.

Assange granted asylum by Ecuador after US refused to rule out charges

John_G

If the fact your in the American military made this decision for you then I'd be amazed to find that you think at all. You might be entirely brainwashed, or too ignorant to understand, but the information shared via wikileaks has benefited the wider world community. The fact that you're happy with the idea that governments can vanish anyone who 'displeases' them says volumes about your wisdom regarding such things.

Facebook boss-lady is up the pole on the glass ceiling

John_G
Stop

Self-centric?

"I need my kids to constantly remind me of what matters most in life, and how little any career attainments actually mean."

You're own personal opinion is that career attainment means little and you wonder why someone with that viewpoint is unlikely to achieve it? Besides which, treating your own opinion of what matters most in life as being universal is impressively arrogant.

If I decide that spending 3 months a year travelling the world is what matters most in my life I'd be hard pushed to persuade people it is unfair that I didn't make CEO by 40. I decided that science meant little to me, now I can't get a Nobel prize for chemistry!? I cannot believe that society is so unfair.

Women don't get a fair chance at the moment. We need to look at why and effective ways to resolve this. However, I think it is also true that the vast majority of companies don't discriminate based on gender etc by intention. It is often the case that employees who dedicate more to work do better in careers and this is true regardless of whether they and their peers have children or not.