Posts by Charles 9

Re: Explains why P2P networks are getting so popular

They also ferment resentment and disenfranchisement which can ultimately lead to rebellion and violence. Seems like a no-win situation to me.

"Not true. It was simply negligence on Intel's part or maybe even willfully inserted at the suggestion of the NSA. It's certainly possible to design an out-of-order CPU design without any security vulnerabilities or performance bottlenecks."

Really? Then name at least one, please. Remember, even RISC architectures like ARM are prone to Spectre.

Re: Hear all about it!

Then perhaps you're not thinking things through. Why hasn't it already been tried already, then?

Re: Hear all about it!

"Power only works if you can persuade people that obeying you is the lesser of two evils."

And enough single-handed power to be able to cull a sizable chunk of your population like it's Tuesday can be terrifyingly persuasive...because it implies the power to make the rules...and to hammer down anyone who dares to stick his head up.

Remember back in the day that Commodore floppy drives actually had their own CPUs and OS built into them, mostly because the data transfer rate on the serial line wasn't so great?

Re: Conceptually not bad but ...

They were still there to begin with. Wealth is based on matter, which physics dictates can never be created, merely found. Concentration of resource is merely a technique, just like exploitation. Consider aluminum in the 19th century. It was once so difficult to smelt that it was considered a precious metal like silver...then electric smelting came along and it's now a pretty common metal (not at the copper or iron level, but still common enough it's used everyday in things like rolls of foil).

PS. Even extraterrestrial wealth is finite because the universe is finite.

Re: MP3?

I don't know about that. It would have to depend on the specific process used to convert the signal into an analogue medium. Since MP3 compression is lossy and tends to be designed to better preserve melodic tones, the "noise" of even a datacassette stream is likely to be distorted too much to be played back reliably. Now, of course, if a device is able to play back a lossless audio stream like FLAC, then it's less an issue of psychoacoustic distortion and more a matter of getting the right dynamic range to correctly preserve the data in the recording.

Re: Eggs and baskets

"There's a huge quality difference between those that sign the dnssec root zones, and the huge array of disparate companies allowed to issue browser-recognised certs."

I disagree. It still relies on parties who can easily be subverted (if not subversive parties themselves--like governments). It still all depends on Trent, and there's no way to tell if Trent is really Mallory...or Gene. Like I said, you're simply moving the target. It all boils down to how much trust can you place, as the problem is otherwise intractable.

Re: Eggs and baskets

"CA's are a crappy way to validate."

If you feel that way, then you feel certificates are a crappy way to validate. DANE uses certificates, too. You just move the point of weakness, which aren't going to go away due to the First Contact Problem.

It would if the site has certificate tagging, as the MITM wouldn't know the correct certificate to use, and planting a rogue one would raise a flag. Plus you have to consider miscreants up the chain, a la Chinese Cannon and the Verizon Supercookie.

Re: > blasting microwave radiation at a watery chemical soup

Unless you're unable to use wires, thus why it's impractical for highly-mobile applications.

Re: Plenty of problems - so who funds this work and why?

Given the sunk costs of very-expensive equipment, I think they'll be turning their attention more towards synthetic hydrocarbons. The US Navy, for example, is researching ways to do this on their aircraft carriers (which have nuclear reactors onboard, plenty of seawater to exploit, lots of gas-guzzling jets to feed, and a limit to their carrying capacity which limits their tours of duty).

Re: Plenty of problems - so who funds this work and why?

"there are mainstream H2 powered cars, Buses and Trains."

Can you provide some actual examples that use actual hydrogen in a tank as opposed to, say, methane fuel cells?

Re: Hydrogen is a problem

IOW, the mere act of combustion results in nitrogen oxides simply due to the nitrogen-rich content of the atmosphere catching nitrogen gases in the process, right?

Re: Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day

Next maybe we'll see milk that tastes like milk but doesn't have so many carbohydrates (milk is a difficult drink for diabetics, lactose-intolerant, and other carb-conscious people to enjoy).

Point taken. If you maintain your own UPS units you will find the sealed batteries that back them up are typically rated in the AHs (@ 12V) because the smallest ones available today are around 5AH (and they haven't really had to produce one below 1AH for quite some time). It's one reason Americans stick to their units: they're so used to them at this point (and there are so many of them) that attempting any significant metrification is going to be less a project and more an operation.

You'll just incentivize them to find a more-liberal country to put down roots (and there WILL be; small countries have low operating expenses, after all) or, at the extreme, lobby to get the government changed, using their social power to help in the process.

Re: I've seen the movie just few days ago

Is it? I'll believe it when they're desperate to work, told they use WhatsApp for messages, and opt to starve instead...

Re: I've seen the movie just few days ago

"Shunning Facebook is easy..."

Not so easy when most of your family and/or friends communicate by Messenger, and they're damn hard to ignore (as in "drop off" and you get visits by the cops wondering if someone shot you or your house is on fire).

Re: How to destroy surveillance capitalism

Has Facebook gone the way of Zynga yet? Seems they know something, eh?

As for breaking them up, look at AT&T. It came back even stronger and now owns DirectTV. As the article notes, these new powerhouses have become like Hydras and are savvy enough to acquire some fireproofing.

Re: Everyone can do something

That's quite impossible. There's no real way to delete something once it's outside your control on the Internet, as long as there's value in it. Plus, identity theft predates the Internet (dating back to that sneaky friend in the DMV, for example--a lot of what's needed to conduct identity theft is necessarily public knowledge owned by the government).

Re: Not going to happen

"But, technically, you could easily have all of them with no profiling at all. Google would have to make its money some other way, of course, and I'd gladly pay for a subscription or something like that if it meant that masses of people around me are no longer deliberately fed whatever will cause them to make one more click, even if it's inflammatory drivel that wastes their time at best, and validates sociopathic traits at worst."

Problem is, you are decidedly in the minority, and everyone around can easily take you with them, kicking and screaming if they must. You're basically up against the human condition.

Is it the system, or simply the human condition that can and will taint any system made by man? I mean, many say this is the least worst system out there, and if that isn't satisfactory, then we as a race are in for a downward spiral.

"Even my own father quit in the 60's because he knew, and you're telling me, almost 50 years later, that you didn't?"

But then you also have people who hear that and go, "I don't give a damn! We're all gonna die anyway, and I'm pickin' my poison! Now pass me my cancer sticks!" Thing is, these, "pass me my poison" types seem far more numerous in the online sphere. Have you read this article? I mean, it's like people are willingly going, "I reject your reality and substitute my own!"

And I have family in southeast Asia. Facebook basically is the Internet down there, to the point it's part of their feature phones. Think about that; limited capabilities and they still put Facebook in there out of sheer necessity. Facebook pretty much subsidizes Internet access there; a lot of promotions include Facebook time PINs and so on. Let's just say it's the only boat, and the water's full of sharks, so I ain't swimming.

And if that's not an option due to communications requirements?

Re: One word: Darwin

"If this means bancruptcies, OK, let Darwin take its toll."

And if it means collateral damage as innocent people lose their livelihoods through no fault of their own (including potentially you), then c'est la vie?

Re: Ransomware

"Personally, I'd vote for putting ransom demands in the capital punishment bracket, paying big rewards to snitches who could offer adequate proof of their claims, kicking the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo (and not forgetting GCHQ) up their collective arses for doing sweet 2FA, and sending the boys from Hereford to deal with any perps who got sufficiently well fingered."

Instead, what we'll probably see is perps getting covered by hostile sovereignty, snitches offered threats no amount of money can salve, the big boys going sovereign themselves a la The Sprawl, and some perps having enough backing to counter any force you can throw at them, nukes included...

Re: All made possible by Bitcoins...

To which they'll just come up with another way. Money laundering does predate e-currency, after all...