Posts by HellOnWheelz

Brit moron tried buying a car bomb on dark web, posted it to his address. Now he's screwed

Inquiring minds want to know....

"The plod waited until he tried to test the device"

Exactly how does one go about "testing" a car bomb (other than the obvious)?

Bitcoin Foundation wants US Department of Justice investigated

Re: Dear DOJ:

"So, apart from a lack of sovereign backing, how is an e-currency any different?"

--> Because the law doesn't yet recognise it as a legal form of tender?

That just means I can't pay my taxes with it and public businesses are not =required by law= to accept it.

Crypto inhabits a world of its own, the more well known offerings (BTC, ETH, LTC) are analogous to Customer loyalty stamps (Green stamps anyone?) or points. Some offerings are more analogous to stocks (ICOs that will have periodic payouts much like common stock can have dividends).

It is a product, available for sale, that users agree has value and can be exchanged for other items that have value (as an example - Overstock accepts Bitcoin) including government currency. Because the value fluctuates and one's holdings can increase in value, the US income tax system requires certain record keeping and taxes are levied.

UK.gov is hiring IT bods with skills in ... Windows Vista?!

Legacy support - it can make for a darn fine paycheck

We're still supporting .Net 2.1 framework legacy applications. And SQL 2010. And ASP classic. On IIS 8.0. Windows Server 2003. Corporate desktops are =all= Windows 7. I have to run a virtual Win 7 client on my remote Win 10 machine to even access my workspace.

Yes government contract clients. Corporate won't upgrade until MicroSoft pulls its support from a version (and then only if there is no way around it). I have a very decent paycheck. The other stuff? That's up to someone whose pay grade is higher than mine. I'm only one in this man's army.

DMCA takedown bots must respect 'fair use' of copyright – US appeals court

Why? Because we are entering election season.

It notes: "Heated political campaigns have historically led to a rash of copyright takedown abuse."

This is a problem for livestreamers on Youtube, A "hard takedown" via DMCA, even if successfully challenged, results in the inability to livestream from the affected account for 6 months. This effectively silences established streaming accounts.

Political speech is supposed to be the most protected speech in the US. However, this season the 2 major parties (DNC, RNC) have sold the exclusive rights to broadcast the presidential candidate primary debates to corporate media. These debates, previously open to all viewers and non-monetized re-broadcasters via government subsidized media (PBS, C-SPAN), are now only open to those with the wherewithal to afford $200/month cable and (even then) may be subject to blackout in some areas.

The CNN DNC debate in September also demonstrated the frightening additional dimension of intentional corporate spin. After issuing DMCA take downs of all unedited versions of the debate on Youtube - CNN edited the "official version" in a manner that allowed them to push (and control) a specific corporate narrative.

Thankfully, unedited versions existed offline and were pushed out via torrent.

This is just one example of how DCMA is currently being used to subvert the US political process.

George Orwell, anyone?