Posts by Twits R 4 Twats

Snowden: 'Hey, Assange, any more room on Ecuador's sofa?'

Re: Not good @ Alistair

I couldn't agree more with your view on the need of auditing...

Deciding the level of personalized vs. anonymized data, retention times, access rights and acceptable use would be the fundamental base of all data handling guideline there ever can be- IF you operate within the boundries of just ANY legal system.

The NSA is building a massive data storage facility in the desert of Utah to bunker indiscriminately collected data together with targeted data, including and especially encrypted data, indefinitely. For later analysis, when technology in general and the existing data crunching systems catch up.

This proves to me how realistic any hope for a transparent or at least somewhat regulated use of the collected data is...

Re: Not good @ Alistair and David Wilson

I am very aware that the technical capabilities of the portrait systems are largely exaggerated.

What I was referring to was my suspicion that their increasingly prominent role is to increase acceptance for such systems in the "general public".

A well documented example of such mass manipulation by media has been in place prior to WW2 in many countries.

A more recent and less sinister example: The wide acceptance of contraceptives in Middle America is a direct result of their prominent featuring in popular soap operas.

So the pattern is known and the effectiveness of entertainment media to build and influence public opinion and behavior is proven...

Or dear, now I sound like a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theory nut, do I? ;-)

Re: Not good

"So the only real debate is if he is a traitor or a patriot."

This question was one of live and death on many occasions in history, while this setup reminds me a lot of what was going on in the thirties and early forties in Germany...

What do you mean legal- WE decide how your acts are to be interpreted- and what is legal and what not!

If this type of surveillance was "O.K." by any standards it wouldn't have to be kept secret, and no charges would be necessary!

So the other important question is how lawful and righteous a government is to be called that implements a surveillance system that violates not only its peoples privacy, but that of citizens of other sovereign states as well.

A government can of course bend and twist it's own laws until their actions do not violate any such, or their constitution, as long as it keeps its people either dumb or scared enough (or both) to stand up. And it can get away with violating the rights and constitutions of other nations if it has superior (military) power and a "kiss my ass" attitude.

I think chauvinism is the term?

Growing up in a country with a well remembered history of such, and being somewhat "over sensitized" on the matter, the questions that bothers me is how far this will still go before it starts flipping towards fascism...

Just saying...

P.S: Anyone noticed how different "big brother" systems play an increasingly prominent role in US based criminal series- and their significant role in catching the bad guys and saving the world? Coincidence?

Ask yourself: Has that changed your attitude towards those systems in any way?

PRISM leaker strands hacks on booze-free flight

Re: Ye gods, now there's more than one US. We're doomed.

you, Sir, owe me a new keyboard!

... and where's the "I just P'd myself laughing" icon?

We want to put a KILL SWITCH into your PHONE, say Feds

Kill Switch?

Most phones comes with a software solution to do that, and if you don't trust your vendor find a third party application designed to do just that- regardless the SIM.

Changing the IMEI is not trivial which means you will have plenty of time to track your phone. Then again, more important in a security and privacy sense is to me the ability to wipe it remotely than getting it back... Included in all those apps as well°!

Clearly this official effort has a not even so hidden agenda. Reducing phone theft is a byproduct at best.

Tim Cook: Wearable tech's nice, but Google Glass will NEVER BE COOL

Lamest TED Talk ever

Saw a TED talk given by Sergey Brin, "Why Google Glass"

What a pile of useless crap delivered by a boring presenter... Really pulls the TED standards to a never seen low.

Arguments given for using Google Glass(es):

1) so that I don't have to look down to check my phone every 3 minutes.

If you are really that addicted that you can't leave your effin brick alone for half an hour see a shrink!

2) to be able to record every moment at any time for others to see- and for that usually missing most of it myself the first time...

3) to do "social networking" while doing things that keep my hand busy (like acrobatics). See point 1

No thanks. "Glass" might be a great tool for people who's natural abilities are restructed due to an accident or defect.

But if I ever get so deranged that i want to use them while in full health I hope thzy come with a "lobotomize" function.

Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

Easy way to get your start menu back in Win8

Create a a new task bar "toolbar" that points to the Start menu Folder.

Yes, the traditional start menu profile folders are is still there. I recommend to move the shortcuts from all personal Start menus to the Public one to have all in one place.

Almost as good as the real thing, works fine for me.

(without the right click menu and additional options, but those you get through the "Power User Menu" in the lower left corner)

Regards,

"Reactionary Sucker"

;-)

Kettle 'which looks like HITLER' brews up sturm in a teacup

I almost peed myself laughing...

I tend to agree with "jake".

Court orders Visa partner to allow donations to WikiLeaks

Ever seen one of those movies showing a modern capital-neo-fascist (world) society...

... where those with the money _make_ the law, and governments main purpose is to protect their own power?

Glad to see that another step in this direction has been prevented :-)

And congratulations WiKiLeaks!

To me you are among the REAL pillars of democracy!

Magnetic cells put biologists in a spin

Nina Kulagina etc.

I couldn't wear digital watches in my youth myself as they blanked out as soon as I got agitated or under physical stress- reproducibly. The effect was equal to what you would see when you put your watch against the magnet at the back of a big loudspeaker.

On a science fair I was measured, just for the heck of it, with a device that senses the strength and reach of magnetic fields. A magnetic field can be measured around every living thing as he demonstrated with his installation, and the scientist claimed my 'output' was in the range of 20 times what other people would show- while I was totally calm.

Later as adult I tried again and it seems that the effect was still there, albeit weaker (cheap and older watches behaved erratically but did not always blank out completely), and more modern watches were less or not at all affected. I haven't tried in years now, though.

I have a reputation however to always get the "Monday" models of every cell phone I use. They crash significantly more often that with colleagues and friends and 'die' faster...

Even today I don't wear watches or any kind of jewelery (not even a ring although I would have reason) as the metal on my skin makes me feel uncomfortable.

Also, as a child I was highly sensitive to electronic equipment. I slept in the middle of the room to be as far as possible of all electric sockets, and had all electric equipment unplugged at night. My parents installed a special device that disconnected the electric wiring in the house from the switchboard in the basement when no electric device was powered on- those with a transformer that kept sucking juice had to be physically unplugged.

If I slept too close to a socket or an "active" piece of tech I suffered heat rushes, bad sleep and nightmares, and woke up all sore and tense- again, reproducibly. When I slept at a strange place and had a especially hard time I would for sure find a wall socket covered by the bed I was lying on, and I moved the bedding on the floor.

As I grew up in the country side it was fairly easy to avoid the presence of electronic equipment. Then after moving to the city in my 20ties I had a tough time at first as it was simply impossible to avoid being close to electric equipment and installations, not only larger in numbers but also in size and "output". But the adverse effects diminished eventually, and after a two year period of slowly seizing discomfort I seem to have "adapted" or got desensitized. I don't feel any influence whatsoever from electronic installations anymore.

So if you ask me if humans can be sensitive to (electro)-magnetism and what new-agers call "electrosmog" I can assure you from personal experience: very much so. Does it cause you permanent harm? Don't think so, we are a very adaptable species.

Can we influence electronic equipment in some way? It seems so that some do if the equipment is sensitive and "vulnerable" enough.

Is it the bases for extraordinary abilities? Just "do the math"- check the physics, and especially the scale of power that at maximum _could_ be involved/"generated" and compare them to those that would be needed to affect "real world matter"- 'nuff said...

Feds unlock suspect's encrypted drive, avoid Constitution meltdown

Does not compute

"Computer, please execute this search in line with the patriot act, but don't violate the constitution."

Does-not-compute--Does-not-comp'--Bzztr-plip-krkkk.

*sparks*smoke*

Australia, US agree to space junk talks

not enter into a code of conduct that constrains antional security-related activities

Translation: "we only play by our own rules (although we don't feel necessarily bound by them)."

Whatever happened to peaceful use of space (aka earth orbit considering the time) yadda yadda...

Mexico shuts down drug gang's antennas, radios

"why the US gov expends much energy in chasing down the growing fields in Mexico and Columbia"

1) because some powers that be in reality looove the money stream (they only have to pretend they fight the "good fight")

2) blowing shit up in a country who's sovereignty is compromised is so much easier and cheaper than taking the ugly fight to their own streets

3) its a perfect war game training ground, and the US looove their war games

Anti-Kremlin websites complain of DDoS attacks

How times change?

... actually, not that much has changed!

Everything LOOKS democratic and "free" now, but the same power hungry mobsters are still ruling with the same set of dirty methods of oppression (just read the article once more, this time between the lines!).

They had to become a bit smarter and more subtle for the sake of foreign bucks, that's all.

Man sues boss for 'condemning him to eternal damnation'

Thanks Graham!!

Finally someone who puts some sense in Christian Mythology.

I am not a Nihilist, in fact I am baptized christian by choice- but I really have a hard time with fundamentalists of any color who do not care to get the facts and have no sense for of the spiritual side of things.

They rather take unreflected everything as truth that is written down and hand themselves cowardly to whatever authority claims to own that truth. If that's not 100% materialistic, lacking every spark of spirituality.

And worse, they fight everyone who choose to disagree without an inch of tolerance...

Spillover from 400lb man squeezed fellow flier into galley

Armrests...

I am not a "fitness Nazi", have a few (single digit #) kilos extra myself, and prefer women with a few kilos too much rather than 5 kilos too less. But I have little pity with people that let their overweight become a impediment, especially to others. They have no right to expect acceptance, let alone special treatment, for their lack of discipline.

You can usually see if overweight is caused by a medical condition or a "lifestyle failure" by the way someone moves about. "Genetically" or otherwise medically huge people tend (as far as my experience goes) to move quite agile and are surprisingly fit due to their best effort to deal with their condition.

The exact opposite attitude that "lifestyle-fat" people display. And there is nothing discriminative in asking those people to deal with the consequences of their choices.

An argument that always HAS to be taken serious regarding the armrests is to claim you suffer from tense neck and shoulders and need the armrest to place your elbows on else you get muscle pain, headache and might even faint. Such condition exist, even problems in the lower back can bring this as a side effect. A disc prolapse is another reason to keep them down (both!) as you will need to release the weight on your lower spine as much as you can. Been there.