Posts by jimdandy 61 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Mar 2016
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical...
It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
-Thomas Jefferson
Now if only the nation he helped create would wake up and smell the Jeffersonian. It can't really smell that bad after 219 years, can it?
Brexit. The 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
People believe what they want to believe, and anything on Facial Book or Twit Err much less the ancient rags of newspapers won't change that. Neither will polemics from the pulpit or education from local authorities. Most people don't think, they "feel". And those who do think (aka research, study, and the use of cognition to determine a reasonable argument for one side or the other) are still subject to the local and personal affects that are a part of their personal, familial and tribal world views.
"Fake news" doesn't exist. Information exists, and whether or not it is fake is in the eye/mind of the beholder. Race touts hand out free info on who to pick. The barber will freely opine on the current crisis, because part of his job is to entertain as he trims the customer.
TV news is doing the same thing as the barber, but they have an added agenda - commercial sponsors, owners, and who knows what else. It's up to every individual to determine what "truth" is relevant and important to them.
The West's patriarchal society has always depended on a thin film of belief, a certain assurance that there are some people "above us" who through birth, experience or education will put together a framework of governance and provenance that will carry us through the ups and downs of our economies, wars, and other minor irritations. A casual study of elections in the U.S. at every level will show that a majority of sitting "representatives" are re-elected regardless of their ability, attention to their constituent's interests, or criminal activities.
Guess what? The framework is fractured if not broken. Blame the Interweb, blame the Commies, blame anyone you want but it ain't going away until the sheep wake up. Money (the true measure of power outside of nuclear weapons) is the controlling interest in the modern world. And the People don't have enough money (aggregated and controlled in their own interest) to affect the outcome.
Until a majority of living human beings in all countries have the time, interest and energy to take a hand in the day-to-day operation of their governments we are going to continue to be fucked.
One might even say that if the Peeps don't rise up in indignation, then they have effectively voted for the status quo. When they do rise up all pissed off and angry, there's no telling what they will do.
See Brexit and the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
A big hammer would have done the job on those doors without so much fuss.
And as far as "electrocution" goes, an average human body can deal with a few milliamps of relatively low voltage without death occurring. Jack the voltage up enough and you'll get the "skin" effect where the current will not pass through the blood vessels and nerves, but across the skin/surface as it will then have less resistance than the internal body parts. Doesn't mean you won't get horrific burns, but at 35kv I've known a few workers who only needed a few weeks and some plastic surgery to return to work. They usually chose a slightly different assignment. And of course, some others didn't do so well.
If the current exceeds 200-300 milliamps (across the body and through the heart), most people will die quickly due to cardiac arrest. At higher amperage, most of the ones whose internals are cooked don't last very long afterwards.
I'd go back to using the big hammer.
If the bad guys didn't have free access to millions of open IOT and home routers, this would just be a minor annoyance. Fix the problem at the root and all the complex BS solutions discussed would just be that:
Boole Shite.
Doesn't mean that better managed DNS services wouldn't help. Doesn't mean that robust defenses and even offenses isn't a good idea. But building the castle walls higher when the effing barbarians are at the gate seems like too little, and to effing late.
Uh,yeah...unless y'all have lost your minds, this is nothing new. The West's foremost defender of all things, well westernmost is busy dealing with low quality and simple digital control systems. Whether they be locked down by access controls, or floating on the local admin system by nuts & bolts of the local control, things that go bump in the night (or Brrrr-up, on the system) are still out there.
Things are only as good as the people believe they are. Right up until the Shite hits the Phan.
It doesn't take a movie to find the problem. It only takes a sincere and dedicated asshole.
Got your temp power and flashlight handy?
Cash. Really? Has anyone researched the issue of counterfeit cash causing major losses to it's users? Given the improvement of printer quality and theft of US cloth-based money I understand that this issue is not dead. However, if the mainstream news outlets and online newsies such as The Register are concerned, it's all about the data scraping from credit/debit cards.
Explain how my cash purchases put me at the same risk as credit card use.
Gee, I think I smell lawsuits in the air. What happens when my buddy's well-trained falcon attempts to protect his owner/family from the aerial invader? Laugh if you want, but drones crossing private property lines and invading peoples personal privacy are going to be a problem in the USA regardless of the FAA/DOT rush to make Their Owners happy.
I foresee a significant interest in home-made EMP generators (Oceans Eleven anyone?) and the fallout thereof. AKA pissed-off neighbors whose Air Conditioning went out in the middle of 100F temps in the summer, for some strange reason.
Go fly a kite.
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