Another perennial topic that seems to come up whenever I am speaking to someone who is a consumer of technology. If they are one of the people that I actually bore with some of the details about what I do, it isn’t uncommon for me to talk about their individual concerns about internet security and [...]
Category Archives: Politics
Politics in system security
December 19, 2007 – 8:20 am
I’m surprised that some of these behaviors that I mentioned a year ago haven’t changed.
Yesterday many Apple users were installing a system security update. Depending on what article you read, this was either a really huge deal involving “monsters” and giant failures or a snoozefest of local vulnerabilities and not much of an issue at [...]
Media Defender antics
September 18, 2007 – 5:09 pm
TorrentFreak seems to have the most involved and comprehensive tale of what they contain.This is a great example of people who do some things well getting caught doing things that are not their strengths.If you are going to establish an organization that will become a target for, arguably, some of the worlds most skilled and experienced technophiles, you should plan accordingly.That they were ever outed at all is a failure, but things like this (quoted from digg article) show how if you are untrained, ignorant, or sloppy, it can bring down an entire enterprise:The genius employee of MD subscribed to a torrent site using the gmail account he had setup as an email archive as the username and used the same password for the torrent site as he did for the gmail account…. Price and availability must be correct or it will be circumvented by someone with time on their hands that will make money created by those that can not, or will not, purchase what you are selling in the way you choose to sell it.This is the gist of all of the DRM, piracy, and putting-the-gene-back-in-the-bottle problem.
Unreal estate
August 10, 2007 – 4:20 am
You (the loan originator) have been paid and are not responsible for it anymore.I started reading about this more closely after seeing some petty whining from real estate agents on Yelp about Redfin…. I wish them the best of luck in their efforts as it is a true David vs Goliath challenge considering the profitability of the industry, the lobbying power of the MLS-running real estate companies, and how vehemently they protect their market.It reminds me a lot about how the established telecommunications companies freaked out over VOIP providers and how they wanted to maintain their artificial profit margin after several generations of technology increased efficiency from the 10 cents per minute levels of yesteryear to the 1 to 2 cent levels previous to the arrival of VOIP.Since trunking systems were already in place, the adoption of VOIP into corporate systems was as simple as getting the bandwidth and quality of service right for the voice data.Perhaps something along the same lines will evolve with MLS.
Crime over. World at peace.
August 10, 2007 – 12:04 am
According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the makers of the gaming consoles, game developers, and others in the industry have incurred billions of dollars in losses worldwide due to sales lost to those selling counterfeit and pirated video games.Counterfeiting and piracy is estimated to cost the U.S. economy between $200 billion and $250 billion annually and results in the loss of up to 750,000 jobs according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.From the August 1st press release on the ICE website.A response, characteristic of the hacker mentality outlined many places and occasionally in published works such as “A Hacker Manifesto” (McKenzie Wark)and possibly”The Hacker Ethic” (Pekka Himanen, Linus Torvalds)was presented in response to the raids:Much like the media slant against hackers in general the act of modding is criminalized in the US. I look at modding as an act of expression and something someone does to expand their own knowledge and use of a system…. Of course XBMC can only be used on a modified Xbox and while it would be possible to build and run such an application on a normal PC the novelty is in the utilization of cheap hardware (the Xbox costs less than $100 these days) and in many cases it’s not only hardware you already own but hardware that already fits properly within a TV room environment making it quite ideal, if it weren’t for the fact that it is illegal to use the free XBMC software with the Xbox hardware you own under the DMCA.said Twistedsymphony It is well known that the statistics put forward by groups such as the RIAA, MPAA, ESA, and BSA (to name a few) are on shaky factual ground.
privacy conspiracy!
July 12, 2007 – 12:41 pm
If you dont like it, you can opt out on your accounts privacy page.multiple vague links due to association is a stretch for any logical person.that being said, I’m sure that intelligence agencies look at all social networking sites. That’s been published as fact in many trade mags for years.Mostly the funniest thing about this is the notion that your data isn’t being collected when you do things like:- use an instant messenger.- send email.- view websites. any website.- use a telephone- etcI have a facebook page because, due to my highly familiar status with privacy, I have acknowledged that I have none anymore unless it is encrypted with military-grade encryption like OTRPGP/GNUPGTORand other such things.So why not make use of the social aspects of it instead of being a paranoid hidden in my basement. Not using facebook will do very little to safeguard your privacy.
Black white and the company store of the new century
April 24, 2006 – 11:33 am
Hacktivism and corporate culture seem to be more at odds than ever.
