Posts by scm2njs

"Even a dummy like me with no interest in learning the Morse codes knows the SOS code."

True, ... --- ...

But do you know the Morse for "Do not approach. We have drifted into a mine field"

TBH, I'd say one of the positives about teaching people Morse and to use the sextant would be showing them then when the tech fails they can still survive and function. More and more, and speaking as someone born at the junction between millennial and Generation X, people are becoming completely dependent on technology for everything... the Google effect. Take a smartphone away from a teenager these (ok and maybe me as well) and they go into immediate withdrawal. For that person knowing they can still update the local twitter equivalent via the signal light might just keep them sane.

"@USSYOU Power down LOL (Crying face) <STOP>, Send help <STOP>, Mind the Mines <stop> HASHTAG NAVYRULES"

Re: No guilt at all

I have little guilt for using a host file based adblock however, I understand the plight of these sites. There business models are being turned upside down. In reality when the fight with Adblockers is over we're going to either be left with significantly fewer sources of free content or the current status quo will continue with more and more sites limiting access when they detect adblockers.

In reality, I do feel bad about freeloading however, I don't block add because they annoy me (they do but not enough to put those sites I enjoy at risk) but I do use them because they are often insecure and break rules on tracking way too often without consequence.

In regards to "Antron Argaiv " comment:

"Maybe if they showed ads that didn't blink, use up half my processor, and, crucially, offer me something I was actually interested in,"

I'd rather the adds didn't know me well enough to target specific ads at me!

I'd more than happily agree to have ads, even some popups, if the ad stream in questions were controlled, vetted and as some have put punished for breaches.

That said to give this power to a single completely biased entity like adblock is a dangerous precedent. the only sustainable approach would be to have an advertising body that would grant licences to multiple advertisers with all adblocking software whitelisting these licenced bodies. These licences could then be pulled for malware or other such breaches of acceptable advertising standards. However, if that were to happen we'd have to pay for adblocking software or hope that the big browsers were to incorporate the software.

Re: Not even wrong...

It comes down to phycology; a car accident is just that an accident but it’s also a random act no follow through no direction. When it comes to terrorism the game changes; it’s a violent attack on the hearts and minds of ordinary people. In this ways it also different from wars even when those wars take place in urban areas the civilian population are usually collateral damage or at worse they are not the target the soldiers or fighters are.

This is why Terrorism is such an emotive subject because its not random its not "Sorry we didn't mean to, you were just in the way and I wanted to get that guy over there" its specific, its targeted and it goes after soft targets. Night clubs, café's, hotels and schools are where we live physiologically we associate them with safety & fun. Attacking them has a huge impact on the people there and the general populace because suddenly the places where we'd go to relax are death traps. This then hits the service industry which has knock on effects all the way up the economic house of cards.

Is terrorism a big threat probably not but a single terrorist attack has a much bigger impact that all the car accidents you could point to. In reality a lot of plots are foiled through poor planning or slip ups along the way but regardless of what the individual governments say about encryption it's out there and if you enforce draconian laws to compromise it the only people that are likely to be impact are law-abiding citizens because the bad guys will just use a different product or will implement their own application to do it for them.